As demonstrações por causalidade formal e material em Alberto Magno

Abstract

Alberto Magno, in his commentary on the Second Analytical, states that in Mathematics there are two kinds of demonstrations, by formal causality and to put material causality. The demonstration by formal causality is a demonstration whose average term of proof is the definition of the mathematical object considered, but the demonstration by material causality is a demonstration made from another element (which is the diagram considered in the proof), as it proves something about the triangle from the circle, or vice versa, that is, the average term refers to a certain visual aspect of the diagram (a certain element, object as point, line, angle, plane or solid with which visualization is necessary to come to the conclusion) considered. We will woo this comment to the commentaries of St. Thomas Aquinas and Robert Kilwardby, for we have a better understanding of Albert Magno's position and also for we have some additional considerations.