Fundamentos ontológicos da demonstração científica em Aristóteles

Abstract

The objective of this research is to respond to the problem regarding the relationship between the scientific method and ontological-metaphysical assumptions in Aristotle. Scientific demonstration is the deductive procedure in which the conclusion contains a phenomenon causally explained by the middle term of the syllogism. If the middle term does not correspond to the necessary cause, but to an effect coextensive with the cause, so that the cause can be inferred from the effect indistinctly, the simply valid and true syllogistic inference will not be able to demonstrate. To distinguish cause and caused, one must presuppose the doctrine of predicables, which not only draw the scheme the possibilities of combination between the terms of a proposition, but also establishes when a predicate can be the cause of another, being the first cause what is predicated of the subject per se as its essence. Thus, scientific discourse is structurally dependent on the theory of predication, which, in turn, is articulated based on metaphysical-ontological assumptions regarding the perseity, necessity and universality of the essence of each thing.