Senates Book

Enjoyed this book quite a bit more than Prior Analytics. Aristotle here builds upon the formal logic explained in Prior Analytics to explore how knowledge can be obtained, which types of knowledge are superior to others, and the validity of various explanations for how scientific knowledge is obtained. A fascinating consideration of how we know anything and what can be truly known.

I also found both some fairly entertaining examples of flawed scientific knowledge of the time and some new knowledge that is accurate but previously unknown to me, like the explanation of thunder being the extinguishing of fire in the clouds, or the explanation of the coagulation of sap at the leaf’s stem being the reason it dies and falls off as the weather cools, respectively. (should I be embarrassed for not knowing this of deciduous plants? It feels like something an elementary school teacher must have explained at some point in my life, but since went unconsidered by me.)

Overall a worthwhile read and a much easier and faster read than Prior Analytics. Though, if you have not read Prior Analytics, you will likely find this book to be very challenging.