Editorial note — Chapter V · ANALYTICA PRIORA I.
Reading edition
88 The expressions of Aristotle here are remarkable, Analyt. Prior. I. xliv. p. 50, a. 39-b. 3: πολλοὶ δὲ καὶ ἕτεροι περαίνονται ἐξ ὑποθέσεως, οὓς ἐπισκέψασθαι δεῖ καὶ διασημῆναι καθαρῶς. τίνες μὲν οὖν αἱ διαφοραὶ τούτων, καὶ ποσαχῶς γίνεται τὸ ἐξ ὑποθέσεως, ὕστερον ἐροῦμεν· νῦν δὲ τοσοῦντον ἡμῖν ἔστω φανερόν, ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἀναλύειν εἰς τὰ σχήματα τοὺς τοιούτους συλλογισμούς. καὶ δι’ ἣν αἰτίαν, εἰρήκαμεν.
Syllogisms from Hypothesis were many and various, and Aristotle intended to treat them in a future treatise; but all that concerns the present treatise, in his opinion, is, to show that none of them can be reduced to the three Figures. Among the Syllogisms from Hypothesis, two varieties recognized by Aristotle (besides οἰ διὰ τοῦ ἀδυνάτου) were οἱ κατὰ μετάληψιν and οἱ κατὰ ποιότητα. The same proposition which Aristotle entitles κατὰ μετάληψιν, was afterwards designated by the Stoics κατὰ πρόσληψιν (Alexander ap. Schol. p. 178, b. 6-24).
It seems that Aristotle never realized this intended future treatise on Hypothetical Syllogisms; at least Alexander did not know it. The subject was handled more at large by Theophrastus and Eudêmus after Aristotle (Schol. p. 184, b. 45. Br.; Boethius, De Syllog. Hypothetico, pp. 606-607); and was still farther expanded by Chrysippus and the Stoics.
Compare Prantl, Geschichte der Logik, I. pp. 295, 377, seq. He treats the Hypothetical Syllogism as having no logical value, and commends Aristotle for declining to develop or formulate it; while Ritter (Gesch. Phil. iii. p. 93), and, to a certain extent, Ueberweg (System der Logik, sect. 121, p. 326), consider this to be a defect in Aristotle.