Renford Bambrough on
Distinctions & Connections in Philosophy

Philosophy consists in drawing the kinds of distinctions between concepts that Aristotle draws in this passage, and in marking the kinds of connections between concepts that Aristotle marks in this passage. Good philosophy consists in exhibiting connections and distinctions which have hitherto lain hidden; in drawing distinctions without obscuring connections, and marking connections without obscuring distinctions; in exhibiting distinctions and marking connections between important and central (and therefore usually, but by no means always, very general) rather than between trivial and peripheral (and therefore usually, but not always, very specific) concepts. [pp. 162-3]

SOURCE: Bambrough, Renford. "Aristotle on Justice: A Paradigm of Philosophy," in New Essays on Plato and Aristotle, edited by Renford Bambrough (New York: Humanities Press, 1965), pp. 159-174.