The first principles and knowledge in Aristotle

Aristotle tries to present both necessary and sufficient conditions that make epistêmê possible in order to justify it. Therefore, he first enters into a research on how exactly definition and demonstration will be. While making the distinction between definition and demonstration, Aristotle primarily refers to the definition being specific to what it is and he also refers to the universality of what it is. Aristotle aims to definitely reveal knowledge with the relationality of demonstration, definition and axioms, including the middle term. In the relationship of knowledge with demonstration, he primarily focuses on genus, middle term and kath'auto and investigates how principles can be known for the certainty of knowledge. Aristotle mentions that the truth of the first premises is obvious and is self-evident, does not require proof so that they are the primary premises of the propositions that follow them. The aim of this study is to explore how Aristotle obtained knowledge through the concept of the first principle. Thus the thesis focuses on the relationship between the first premises, first principles, the genus and the middle term. In this context, it tries to reveal what demonstration and definition mean for Aristotle through the connection between knowing and nous.