Intelligence - getting the truth

Socrates was concerned with argument and with reomoving "untruth". He felt that if you removed all "untruth" through critical attack, then you must be left with the "truth".

Aristotle put everything together as an operating system. There are categories and definitions that were set up by experience and clarified by argument. When you came across something, you "judged" in which box that something belonged. If the matter was complex then you sought to "analyze" it down into smaller parts that were easier to recognize. The assumption is that every complex thing is made up of standard parts, just as music is a combination of the basic notes. It works very well indeed. It is practical, effective and simple. It provides the certainty we need (except we need to know the interactions among those standard smaller parts).

But what if the boxes are old-fashioned? What if the judgement is biased? The system still works very well but the results can be dangerous.