This thesis focusses on the notion of analysis (&vàXuatç) in Stoic
logic, that is to say on the procedure which the Stoic logicians
followed in order to reduce all valid arguments to five basic
patterns. By reconsidering the uses of its Aristotelian homonym and by
examining the evidence on the classification of Stoic arguments, I
distinguish two methods of Stoic analysis and I discuss their rules:
(i) the analysis of non-simple indemonstrables, which constitutes a
process of breaking up an argument by means of general logical
principles (8 prlpcxta) ; and (ii) the analysis of
arguments, which replaces demonstration (&toösttç) and is effected by
employing standard well-determined rules (Oata). The ancient sources
provide us with concrete examples illustrating the first type of
analysis; however, there is no single text that reports the exact
procedure of analysing arguments. Modern scholars have
reconstructed in different ways this type of Stoic analysis; I deal
with all of them separately and show that the proposed reconstructions
are insightful but historically implausible. Based on the textual
materiel concerning the notion of analysis not only in its Stoic
context but also in some other of its uses, and especially in
mathematical practice, I suggest an alternative reconstruction of the
Stoic method of reducing valid arguments to the basic indemonstrables
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