Professor Lennox will be discussing four closely related aims of scientific investigation as viewed by Aristotle: discovering whether the subject being investigated exists, achieving ever more fundamental knowledge of what the subject of investigation is discovering what attributes a subject has, qua that subject, and identifying the cause of that subject's having its attributes. Against the background of this theory of investigation, the nature of explanation and definition will be explored, as will be the place and status of definitions within science––and the roles of induction and deduction in science. 

While the lecture does not presuppose familiarity with Aristotle's philosophy, for those who wish to do some advance preparation, the following is a short list of especially relevant tests. (The chapters in italics are slightly more central than the others.)

Posterior Analytics 1.2, 5, 31, 33
Posterior Analytics II.1, 2, 10, 11, 16, 19
Parts of Animals I.1, 5
Metaphysics I.1
Physics I.1
Physics II.2, 3