Editing Prior Analytics (section)

{{Short description|Work of Aristotle pertaining to logic}}
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[[File:Firenze, porfirio, isagoge, e miscellanea di aristotele, 1290 ca. 01, pluteo 11 sin 1. f. 138r.jpg|thumb|300px|Aristotle ''Prior Analytics'' in Latin, 1290 circa, [[Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana]], Florence]]
The '''''Prior Analytics''''' ({{langx|grc|Ἀναλυτικὰ Πρότερα}}; {{langx|la|Analytica Priora}}) is a work by [[Aristotle]] on [[deductive reasoning|reasoning]], known as [[syllogistic]], composed around 350 BCE.<ref>[http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/prior.html Aristotle's ''Prior Analytic''s Classical archive, Massachusetts Institute of Technology]</ref> Being one of the six extant Aristotelian writings on logic and scientific method, it is part of what later [[Peripatetics]] called the ''[[Organon]]''. 

The term ''analytics'' comes from the Greek words ''analytos'' (ἀναλυτός, 'solvable') and ''analyo'' (ἀναλύω, 'to solve', literally 'to loose'). However, in Aristotle's corpus, there are distinguishable differences in the meaning of ἀναλύω and its cognates. There is also the possibility that Aristotle may have borrowed his use of the word "analysis" from his teacher [[Plato]]. On the other hand, the meaning that best fits the ''Analytics'' is one derived from the study of Geometry and this meaning is very close to what Aristotle calls ''[[episteme]]'' (επιστήμη), knowing the reasoned facts. Therefore, Analysis is the process of finding the reasoned facts.<ref>{{cite book |author=Patrick Hugh Byrne |title=Analysis and Science in Aristotle |page=3 |quote=... while "decompose" - the most prevalent connotation of "analyze" in the modern period&nbsp;— is among Aristotle's meanings, it is neither the sole meaning nor the principal meaning nor the meaning which best characterizes the work, Analytics. |year=1997 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=0-7914-3321-8}}</ref>

In the ''Analytics'' then, ''Prior Analytics'' is the first theoretical part dealing with the science of deduction and the ''[[Posterior Analytics]]'' is the second demonstratively practical part. ''Prior Analytics'' gives an account of deductions in general narrowed down to three basic [[syllogism]]s while ''Posterior Analytics'' deals with demonstration.<ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Robin |title=Aristotle: Prior Analytics |pages=XIII-XVI |year=1989 |publisher=Hackett Publishing Co. |isbn=0-87220-064-7 |quote=... This leads him to what I would regard as the most original and brilliant insight in the entire work.}}</ref>