亚里士多德归纳逻辑思想探赜

A New Exploration on Inductive Logic of Aristotle

亚里士多德的归纳理论一直饱受争议。在其存世的著作中他并没有详尽而系统地描述归纳法。虽说亚里士多德的归纳逻辑并不像其三段论逻辑那样完善,但是他对归纳逻辑的早期探索也有一些深邃的思想,为后来的哲学和科学的发展注入了强劲的能量。首先,亚里士多德认为归纳是我们获得普遍前提知识的唯一途径。其次,在亚里士多德看来,归纳不只是推理,同时也可以是科学认识论。古希腊时代还没有近代的实验科学,没有建立系统化的学科知识体系,只能借助归纳,或是从足够多的具体事例中概括出普遍命题,或是证明三段论推理自明前提的合理性。亚里士多德的归纳逻辑作为一种科学认识论在其中起到了至关重要的作用。

Aristotle＇s theory of induction has been surrounded by controversy. His surviving works are not detailed and systematic description of induction. Although Aristotle＇s Inductive Logic isn＇t asperfect as his syllogistic logic, his early exploration of inductive logic also has some profound thoughts,and hugely fueled later philosophy and science. First of all, Aristotle believed that induction is the only way that we can use to obtain universal knowledge. Secondly,from Aristotle＇s perspective,induction is not merely about reasoning,but also relevant with scientific epistemology. In Ancient Greece,there is no modern experimental science. Consequently,a systematic knowledge system is not built. Only by induction can we summarize general proposition from enough concrete examples,or justify the rationality of obvious premises of syllogism. We have to say that inductive logic of Aristotle as an epistemology of science plays a vital role in the development of science and philosophy.