Icon, Likeness, Likely Story, Likelihood, Probability

[Jon Awbrey]

Icon, Likeness, Likely Story, Likelihood, Probability • 1
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2026/05/17/icon-likeness-likely-story-likelihood-probability-1-a/

Here's a likely locus classicus for “icon” in its logical sense —

❝A probability (εικος) is not the same as a sign (σηµειον).
The former is a generally accepted premiss; for that which
people know to happen or not to happen, or to be or not to be,
usually in a particular way, is a probability:

❝For example, that the envious are malevolent or
that those who are loved are affectionate.

❝A sign, however, means a demonstrative premiss which is necessary
or generally accepted. That which coexists with something else,
or before or after whose happening something else has happened,
is a sign of that something’s having happened or being.❞

(Aristotle, Prior Analytics, 2.27.70a3–10).

Reference —

Aristotle, “Prior Analytics”, Hugh Tredennick (trans.), pp. 181–531
in Aristotle, Volume 1, Loeb Classical Library, William Heinemann,
London, UK, 1938.

Resource —

Theme One Program • User Guide • Appendix A
• https://www.academia.edu/5211369/Theme_One_Program_User_Guide

Regards,

Jon

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