An Erotetic Framework and Domain Specific Norms: Aristotle on Inquiry

Abstract:  In this talk I explore a network of concepts I’ve been using to help clarify Aristotle’s conception of inquiry.  For help on this topic, scholars typically turn to the second book of the Posterior Analytics, which begins by characterizing four different objects of inquiry ‘equal in number to things we know’ (ἴσα τὸν ἀριθμὸν ὅσαπερ ἐπιστάμεθα, 89b23-4). That discussion operates, however, on a rarefied plane of abstraction, and I’ve come to think of it as providing what I call an erotetic framework—a “logic of questions and answers”, as it were—for any inquiry aiming at achieving scientific knowledge.  Every such inquiry must operate within the general guidelines provided by this framework, which is in turn shaped by the detailed characterization of scientific knowledge provided in APo. I.  However, I argue that this is the wrong place to turn if one wants to understand Aristotle’s views about the norms of inductive inquiry that must guide research in distinct domains.  These norms, Aristotle holds, are domain-specific—they are local, not global. In this paper I will elaborate on the concepts of ‘erotetic framework’ and ‘domain specific norms of inquiry’, and hopefully display the fruitfulness of this machinery for understanding the relationship between the Analytics and Aristotle’s various scientific enterprises.

Coffee, tea, and snacks will be provided.