Aristotle, On Interpretation

Aristotle’s On Interpretation, presented here in the classic English translation of Thomas Taylor, is one of the foundational texts studied in the Classical Liberal Arts Academy’s Classical Reasoning I course. In this short but profound treatise, Aristotle examines the nature of words, propositions, affirmation and negation, and the way truth and falsity arise in speech and thought. Taylor’s translation preserves the precision and philosophical gravity of the original Greek, making it especially suited to a classical course that seeks not merely to introduce logical terminology, but to form the student’s mind according to Aristotle’s own method. Read in continuity with the Categories and as a preparation for the Prior Analytics, On Interpretation trains students to understand how language signifies reality and how rational discourse becomes the instrument of truth.