ABSTRACT
Aristotle proposes a more practical study of the skillful combination of terms in statements to produce necessary conclusions. The debates for which Aristotle’s logic was a handbook were not between a few leisured aristocrats disinterestedly contemplating eternal truths, but between men intent on winning and preserving power, privilege, and wealth. The formalism and symbolism that Aristotle introduced had a very practical value. The theoretical discovery of the difference between truth and validity that Aristotle’s symbolism makes possible reflects the actual situation in which the dialectician found himself. The dialectic exchanges for which Aristotle wrote his handbook are not between a Platonic master with access to transcendent Form and a student guided to its revelation. There are differences between Aristotle’s use of division and Plato’s. The purpose of Platonic division was ascent, the revelation of a supreme Form of the Good to which logic was only an approach.
