κατασκευάζει δὲ τοῦτο ἐκ τοῦ μάλλον

Greek Learning Greek
1

κατασκευάζει δὲ τοῦτο ἐκ τοῦ μάλλον
he constructs a positive argument. I cannot find what ἐκ τοῦ μάλλον means.

2

Hi, I’m not sure what you are trying to do here but I’d really recommend again that you read the organon before trying to read a commentary on works of the organon: otherwise you will miss a lot of the nuance of what is being talked about. It would be like trying to read a commentary on the NT without having read the NT.

In case helpful, at first glance and without any context your expression above looks like a concept from the Topics, arguing in favour of a predication based on the topic of ‘more and less’ which is available in certain of the categories (for this read the Categories: e.g. not available in substance but available in quality or quantity). e.g. if more P is predicated of more S, then P is predicated of S, or similar.

Cheers, Chad

3

Chad knows more about this sort of thing than I do, but mention of the εκ του μαλλον (και ηττον) argument is frequent in works that deploy Aristotelian terms of logical-rhetorical analysis, which came into Latin too (Cicero, Quintilian , …). There’s a handy and influential list of topoi at Ar.Rhet.2.23: … (4) ἄλλος εκ του μαλλον και ηττον “e.g. If not even the gods know everything, people hardly will” (σχολῇ οἵ γε ἄνθρωποι).

4

i think that based on the context this would mean argument ‘from the better known.’