Topics

Along with Plato and Socrates, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) is one of the triumvirate of philosophers responsible for the establishment of Western philosophy as it exists today. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were among the first to refine philosophical thought, developing the idea of using logica and reason. These teachings and practices formed the foundation for philosophy and psychology as fields of study. In Topics, part of Aristotle's six-work Organon, Aristotle discusses the art of dialectic, or the discovery of arguments in which propositions are based on common beliefs. Aristotle's "topics" were places where these beliefs could be discovered.