Aristotelian Abductions: A Reply to Flórez

Abstract

This paper discusses Flórez’s idea that an inference having the form of Peirce’s abduction is to be found in chapter 13 of the first book of the Posterior Analytics, where Aristotle expounds the distinction between “syllogism of the that” and “syllogism of the why.” It is shown that this idea is mistaken because all of Aristotle’s examples in APo. I.13 are deductively valid first-figure syllogisms (either of the why or of the that), while abduction is a deductively invalid second-figure syllogism.