ABSTRACT
The first part of the Posterior Analytics II, 11 is mainly concerned with the relationship between the two main aspects of Aristotelian science, namely, aetiology and demonstration. To avoid the well-known difficulty this chapter seems to have with the final cause, we should distinguish two cases. In the case of material and moving causes, the middle term of the scientific syllogism is at the same time the cause under consideration of the conclusion. In the syllogism about war as a consequence of a previous attack ("Whoever is first to attack has to face war", “The Athenians were first to attack”, “The Athenians had to face war”), “being first to attack” is the middle term and the moving cause of the conclusion. This is not the case for the final cause because “walking after dinner” is not the final cause of health, even if we walk after dinner for the sake of being healthy. The second problem this paper deals with is the status of the formal cause: the formal cause does appear in its own right but in combination with the other three causes. The causal middle term (as Pacius calls it) is also a formal cause.
