Aristotle's Essentialism and its Enemies

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Philosophy - Practical (Ethics, Aesthetics, Culture, Nature, Right, ...), grade: 2,0, University of California, Berkeley (Department of Philosophy), course: Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, language: English, abstract: The "Posterior Analytics," the oldest text on the philosophy of science known today, displays Aristotle's ideas of systematic acquisition of scientific knowledge and its proper demonstration. On the basis of the Posterior Analytics, and by means of two examples, this essay wants to sketch the critique on essentialism and universals in the mid20th century.The focus is on Karl Raimund Popper's account given in "The Open Society and its Enemies"(1945), namely book II chapter 11, and on Williard Van Orman Quine's essay "On What There Is" (1948).