Minxing Huang

In this article, I challenge the prevalent view that the Meno represents a transitional work in which Plato begins to introduce a new method of investigation, the method of hypothesis, as an alternative way of investigation. I analyze and compare several cases where Socrates facilitates an individual’s investigation into a particular subject, which includes Socrates and Meno’s discussion on the nature of virtue, their discussion on the definition of shape, the slave demonstration, showing that these cases share a very similar structure in terms of how Socrates guides the participants to reach a conclusion or understanding of the matter under investigation. I argue that the method of hypothesis is essentially the formal description of the method of elenchus. This is demonstrated through an examination of how Socrates helps Meno progress in defining virtue using the method of elenchus, a process that exhibits a structure akin to the method of hypothesis.

This paper offers an interpretation of the method of investigation in Plato earlier dialogues through a careful analysis of the method of elenchus in Euthyphro. I argue that elenchus is a method of securing propositional definitions by identifying predicative middle terms that provide a probative explanation for given propositions. In Euthyphro, Socrates leads Euthyphro towards uncovering the coextensive properties of piety as being loved by all the gods and being beneficial to human beings. These coextensive middle terms point us toward a positive conclusion that the essence of piety is justice.

Aristotle’s Prior Analytics is probably the earliest existing systematic philosophical writing on a syllogistic system and theory of logic. In this work, Aristotle introduces the categorical syllogistic, consisting of three figures and fourteen valid moods. This paper proposes that Aristotle distinguishes a general notion of syllogisms from a more technical notion of syllogisms. Syllogisms that belong to the categorical syllogistic fall under Aristotle’s technical notion of syllogisms that must satisfy two conditions: (1) a conclusion follows necessarily from the premises, and (2) the premises derive a conclusion that necessarily follows from them in regard to attributing the major extreme to the minor.