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Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy pp 1236–1241Cite as

Syllogism, Theories of

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Abstract

Aristotle’s theory of the syllogism is one of the most influential theories ever developed. The theory of the syllogism for assertoric sentences was a remarkable achievement by Aristotle and it was virtually complete already from the beginning. Medieval logicians could generally not add much to it. Small changes were made and it was systematized in different ways. It was not until John Buridan in the mid-fourteenth century reworked logic in general and placed the theory in a context of a wider logic of consequences that the picture of syllogistics also changed. The theory of the modal syllogism was at a completely different stage of completion in the Prior Analytics, and in the hands of the medievals it went through a remarkable development.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Henrik Lagerlund

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  1. Henrik Lagerlund
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  1. Department of Philosophy, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Henrik Lagerlund

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Lagerlund, H. (2011). Syllogism, Theories of. In: Lagerlund, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9729-4_479

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9729-4_479

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-9728-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-9729-4

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