However, regardless of the fact that Aristotle accepted that universal knowledge could be attained via gradual transition from particular knowledge to universal knowledge, Hägerström concludes that Aristotle simultaneously sets induction in opposition to strictly formal deduction.246The difference between induction and deduction is that while inductive reasoning uses particulars (facts, observation and so on) as its point of departure, deductive reasoning uses a universal (a definition, an axiom, a general law, a concept and so on) as its point of departure.247 But, however paradoxical it may appear to be, it is important to remember that while Aristotle maintains that induction eventually leads to scientific, conceptual knowledge, he still states that it does so gradually rather than directly, by first establishing and creating a universal idea of a set of particulars, which in turn allows the establishment of universal knowledge.248 In Aristotle’s epistemology, empirical knowledge is consequently not identical with conceptual knowledge. Regardless of Aristotle’s attempts to solve the epistemological aporiai, his theory of knowledge still shows a gap between knowledge of particulars, and its attendant phenomenon knowledge of universals (scientific knowledge). It is Aristotle’s definition of empirical knowledge (which only tells us about facts and existence, but not of causes) and his definition of conceptual knowledge (as the type of knowledge telling us why and what things are and thus providing us with philosophical knowledge, that is knowledge of causes) that causes problems - for how does knowledge change quality and transcend from the historical to the philosophical?249 Aristotle’s definitions and solutions, however, are non-informative, which entails that his definition of knowledge becomes circular, as it holds that knowledge of the particular is known through the universal, which in turn is known a ca l l f o r s c i e n t i f i c p u r i t y 115 246 Hägerström, Aristoteles, p. 58. 247 Aristotle, TheWorks of Aristotle,Topica I. 1 (100a 25-31, 100b 17-21) and Topica I. 12 (105a 10-19). 248 Hägerström, Aristoteles, pp. 58-60. 249 Ibid.
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