Abstract

This paper is an application of a more general formula of transformation which seems to sharpen the issues and explain the opposed reactions involved in treating Aristotle as a contemporary philosopher. In my discussion, I intend to show that Aristotle can be read as a Pythagorean scientist if we concentrate on his applications of mathematics; that he must be read as an anti-Platonic intuitionist if we concentrate on his account of the nature and foundations of mathematics; that the way in which he conceives his theory and practice to be related exactly reverses our contemporary idea of what constitutes explanation and what constitutes pre-demonstrative inquiry.