1. The Scientific (έπιστηµονικον) part--the "virtue," faculty, or "habit of principles." He also designates it as the "place of principles," and further defines it as the power "which apprehends those existences whose principles can not be otherwise than they are"--that is, self-evident, immutable, and necessary truths [709]--the intuitive reason.
2. The Reasoning (λογιστικόν) part--the power by which we draw conclusions from premises, and "contemplate contingent matter" [710]--the discursive reason.
The correlatives noetic and dianoetic, says Hamilton, would afford the best philosophic designation of these two faculties; the knowledge attained by the former is an "intuitive principle"--a truth at first hand; that obtained by the latter is a "demonstrative proposition"--a truth at second hand.
The preceding notices of the psychology of Aristotle will aid us materially in interpreting his remarks "Upon the Method and Habits necessary to the ascertainment of Principles." [711]
[Footnote 708: ][ (return) ]: "De Anima," bk. iii. ch. v.
[Footnote 709: ][ (return) ] "Ethics," bk. vi. ch. i.
[Footnote 711: ][ (return) ] "Post. Analytic," bk. ii, ch. xix., the concluding chapter of the Organon.
"That it is impossible to have scientific knowledge through demonstration without a knowledge of first immediate principles, has been elucidated before." This being established, he proceeds to explain how that "knowledge of first, immediate principles" is developed in the mind.
1. The knowledge of first principles is attained by the intuition of sense--the immediate perception of external objects, as the exciting or occasional cause of their development in the mind.