The Pythagorean Table of Opposites, Symbolic Classification, and Aristotle

Bibliographic Data

ID4516014
AuthorsOwen Goldin (0000-0001-8712-6578, Marquette University, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume28
Issue2
Pages171-193
Publication date2015-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience in Context (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0269-8897 • E-ISSN: 1474-0664
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0269889715000046
PMID25996852
OpenAlexW2426257130
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited22

ArgumentAtMetaphysicsA 5 986a22-b2, Aristotle refers to a Pythagorean table, with two columns of paired opposites. I argue that 1) although Burkert and Zhmud have argued otherwise, there is sufficient textual evidence to indicate that the table, or one much like it, is indeed of Pythagorean origin; 2) research in structural anthropology indicates that the tables are a formalization of arrays of "symbolic classification" which express a pre-scientific world view with social and ethical implications, according to which the presence of a principle on one column of the table will carry with it another principle within the same column; 3) a close analysis of Aristotle's arguments shows that he thought that the table expresses real causal relationships; and 4) Aristotle faults the table of opposites with positing its principles as having universal application and with not distinguishing between those principles that are causally prior and those that are posterior. Aristotle's account of scientific explanation and his own explanations that he developed in accordance with this account are in part the result of his critical encounter with this prescientific Pythagorean table

Data mining · Epistemology · Metaphysics · Pythagorean theorem · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Computer Science · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · Mathematics · Philosophy