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tions and of artificial products? Every predicate applicable to every thing would needs have an eternal Ideal-Pattern in the intelligible realm. And, again, how are we to conceive of that "participation" which Plato could never explain or, at least, could explain only obscurely by metaphor and myth? If the Ideas are outside things, how can they help us to know things? If there must be posited an intelligible man to explain why Callias is one of many similar men, by what reason must you reject a third man in order to explain how Callias and the intelligible Idea of man are the same, and so on? True, Plato seems to have been acquainted with these problems (Parmenides) and therefore sought refuge in the Pythagorean theory of Ideal-Numbers. But what kind of causality can they exercise? And, how can Ideas; among themselves heterogeneous, be assimilated to numbers, among themselves homogeneous, since they pertain to the genus of quantity? To Aristotle the doctrine of Platonic Ideas seemed to be but a beautiful poetic dream. He would draw up a radically different explanation.As Socrates foresaw, exact definitions must be sought; but the means of acquiring them must be, in addition to common sense and the common discussions, the examinations of the opinions of his learned predecessors, the collection of observations and the making of experiments. These, however, are but a mere preparation for science. Science must proceed deductively, by the inferring of properties from the essence. In general, Aristotle follows this procedure:
1. He determines accurately the subject-matter of the investigation, and its problematic.
2. He describes historically the diverse solutions proposed to the problem under consideration.
3. He inserts reasons for doubting the previous solutions.
4. He indicates his own solution with appropriate evidence and reasoning.
5. He refutes the other solutions proposed. (On occa-

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Publication Information: Book Title: Aristotle Dictionary. Contributors: Thomas P. Kiernan - editor. Publisher: Philosophical Library. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1962. Page Number: 12.
    
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