Source edition
Aristotle. Aristotelis Opera, Volume 1. Bekker, Immanuel, editor. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1837.
Source data
A Digital Corpus for Graeco-Arabic Studies · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This work systemizes the methodology for detecting and resolving "sophistical refutations"—arguments that appear valid but are actually fallacious. In the first half, the author classifies thirteen types of fallacies, distinguishing between those dependent on language, such as ambiguity, and those independent of language, such as begging the question, while analyzing the five goals pursued by sophists. The second half shifts the focus to the respondent's perspective, providing specific defensive techniques and logical solutions to counter these deceptive arguments with concrete examples of sophisms. In the final chapter, the author concludes by emphasizing that this inquiry into dialectic and fallacy was the very first systematic attempt constructed entirely from scratch without prior established theories.