Peitho. Examina Antiqua, nr 1(3), 2012
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Item Le denominazioni della Metafisica e della sua scienza nella filosofia tardoantica(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2012) Napoli, ValerioIn late antiquity, in the context of the jagged tradition of Neo-Platonism, Aristotle’s Metaphysics and the specific science that is traced out in it are indicated with the current denominations of meta ta physika and theologikē pragmateia, which are seen as consistent with one another and closely interconnected. In this connection, the Metaphysics, in the wake of previous philosophical readings, is considered as a treatise on “theological science” — the most elevated among the sciences — and the denomination meta ta physika is seen in a specifically theological sense. According to a widespread Neo-Platonic reading, the science thematized in the Metaphysics is “metaphysics” in that it is theological science, an epistemic discourse on divine realities, which, within the ordo rerum, transcend the physical ones, and, therefore, according to the ordo cognoscendi, must be studied after the latter.Item Aristotle’s Method of Understanding the First Principles of Natural Things in the Physics I.1(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2012) Mouzala, Melinga G.This paper presents Aristotle’s method of understanding the first principles of natural things in the Physics I.1 and analyzes the three stages of which this method consists. In the Physics I.1, Aristotle suggests that the natural proper route which one has to follow in order to find out the first principles of natural things is to proceed from what is clearer and more knowable to us to what is more knowable and clear by nature. In the Physics I.1, the terms καθόλου (universal) and καθ΄ ἕκαστα (particular) are not used in their usual meaning (e.g., the meaning which the same terms have in the Posterior Analytics I. 2). This paper examines the Physics I.1 in comparison with the Posterior Analytics II. 19 in order to elucidate the meaning of καθόλου in the first chapter of Aristotle’s Physics. Furthermore, it reaches the conclusion that the structure of the natural world to which we belong determines the structure and the form of our knowledge. On the one hand, natural things are composite and, on the other hand, perception is involved in the initial grasping of natural things as composites. Thus, since perceptual knowledge is more accessible to us than any other kind of knowledge it is natural to reach knowledge of simple things, i.e., of the principles, starting our inquiry with the composites.Item L’ Art rhétorique d’Aristote, une oeuvre pour notre temps?(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2012) Motte, AndréHaving discussed some political and philosophical stakes of the Greeks’ invention of the rhetorical art, the present research aims to show the great originality of Aristotle’s treatise in comparison to his precursors. Subsequently, the article illustrates the amazing scientific relevance of Aristotle’s work for the French‑speaking world in the past half a century. Finally, the paper poses the question whether its underlying concepts can nowadays be of any significance from a practical point of view.Item Aristoteles über die Psyche als Prinzip und Ursache des Lebens(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2012) Meyer, Martin F.Biology is the most extensive field in the Corpus Aristotelicum. In his fundamental work De anima, Aristotle tries to fix the borders of this life science. The term ψυχή has a twofold explanatory status. On the one hand, ψυχή is understood as a principle of all living beings. On the other hand, it is understood as a cause of the fact that all living beings are alive. The paper is divided into three sections. (1) The first part shows why Aristotle discusses these issues in a work entitled Περὶ ψυχῆς. Since Pythagoras and Heraclitus, ψυχή was understood as a life principle: Pythagoras believed that men, animals and plants share the same nature: they are all ἔμψυχα and they are homogenous qua ψυχή. (2) The second part of this article deals with Aristotle’s definition of the soul in DA II: ψυχή is the principle of all living things. This establishes (i) the external criteria to divide living and non-living beings and (ii) the internal criteria to divide living beings. (3) The third part of this paper is concerned with the methodological consequences of this definition: the life functions (δυνάμεις τῆς ψυχῆς) are the central explanandum in Aristotle’s biology. De anima II defines such various life-functions as nourishment, sense-perception and locomotion. These capacities contour the main fields of the philosopher’s biological investigation. For Aristotle, the faculty of reproduction is a subtype of nourishment. Reproduction is the most important and most natural function of all living beings. Genetics is, therefore, the most important field in Aristotle’s biology.Item The Archer and Aristotle’s Doctrine(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2012) Koehn, GlenIt is sometimes claimed that Aristotle’s doctrine of the Mean is false or unhelpful: moral virtues are not typically flanked by two opposing vices as he claimed. However, an explicit restatement of Aristotle’s view in terms of sufficiency for an objective reveals that the Mean is more widely applicable than has sometimes been alleged. Understood as a special case of sufficiency, it is essential to many judgments of right and wrong. I consider some objections by Rosalind Hursthouse to Aristotle’s theory and argue that they are based on a misunderstanding. However, there is indeed a tension in Aristotle’s view of goodness, hinted at in his claim that the good is “said in many ways”.Item Tra Ramo, Alessandro di Afrodisia e Averroè. Il commento di Francesco Vimercato (ca. 1512–ca. 1580) al libro XII della Metafisica di Aristotele(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2011) Facca, DaniloWhat kind of causality does the Aristotelian Prime Mover exert on the heaven? Who “loves” the Prime Mover? Renaissance peripatetic philosopher, Francesco Vimercato, a “royal” teacher of “Greek and Latin philosophy” in Paris during the forties and the fifties of the 16th century tried to resolve these traditional puzzles that resulted from the exegesis of the Metaphysics XII, 6–7. His solution appears to be innovative, if compared to the ancient and the medieval ones. It seems partially to prefigure the last two decades’ interpretations of Aristotelian “theology”.Item Z recepcji Retoryki Arystotelesa w Bizancjum(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2012) Cichocka, HelenaThe paper deals with the reception of Aristotle’s definition of rhetoric (Rhet. I 1355b26–27) in several Byzantine commentators of Hermogenes’ and Aphthonius’ treatises. A justification of critical interpretation of this definition is to be found in the commentaries of Troilus and Athanasius (4th/5th century) as well as Sopatros (6th century) and Doxapatres (11th century), Maximus Planudes (13th/14th century) and several anonymous commentators. The Byzantine tradition has found Aristotle’s definition of rhetoric to be all too theoretical and insufficiently connected to practical activity, which Byzantium identified with political life.Item La vita politica e la vita contemplativa nella concezione aristotelica della felicità(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2012) Candiotto, LauraThrough the concepts of ἔργον and βίος, the article describes the two happiest forms of life, i.e., the theoretical and the political one, asking whether happiness is founded on the conjunction of the two. Focusing on the connection between philosophy, education and politics the paper emphasizes the role of contemplation as πράξις and the importance of philosopher for the city.Item Niebywała konfabulacja(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2012) Wesoły, MarianItem ΑΝΑΛΥΣΙΣ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΑ ΣΧΗΜΑΤΑ. Restoring Aristotle’s Lost Diagrams of the Syllogistic Figures(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2012) Wesoły, MarianThe article examines the relevance of Aristotle’s analysis that concerns the syllogistic figures. On the assumption that Aristotle’s analytics was inspired by the method of geometric analysis, we show how Aristotle used the three terms (letters), when he formulated the three syllogistic figures. So far it has not been appropriately recognized that the three terms — the major, the middle and the minor one — were viewed by Aristotle syntactically and predicatively in the form of diagrams. Many scholars have misunderstood Aristotle in that in the second and third figure the middle term is outside and that in the second figure the major term is next to the middle one, whereas in the third figure it is further from it. By means of diagrams, we have elucidated how this perfectly accords with Aristotle's planar and graphic arrangement. In the light of these diagrams, one can appropriately capture the definition of syllogism as a predicative set of terms. Irrespective of the tricky question concerning the abbreviations that Aristotle himself used with reference to these types of predication, the reconstructed figures allow us better to comprehend the reductions of syllogism to the first figure. We assume that the figures of syllogism are analogous to the figures of categorical predication, i.e., they are specific syntactic and semantic models. Aristotle demanded certain logical and methodological competence within analytics, which reflects his great commitment and contribution to the field.Item Una nuova edizione democritea(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2012) Ruiu, GuglielmoItem Une nouvelle approche de l’ésthétique d’Aristote(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2012) Protopapas-Marneli, MariaItem Ahistoryczna wizja Platona i przedsokratyków?(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2012) Pacewicz, ArturItem Zaginione pismo Arystotelesa O filozofii(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2012) Pacewicz, ArturThis article offers a Polish translation of Aristotle’s treatise, On Philosophy, of which only certain fragments and testimonies have been preserved. The translation is supplied with an introduction presenting the history of various interpretations and reconstructions of Aristotle’s work.Item Michel d’Ephèse, commentateur d’Aristote et auteur(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2012) Arabatzis, GeorgesThe article examines the state of research on Michael of Ephesus as a probable author of the Commentaries on Metaphysics E–N, mainly the works of Leonardo Tarán and Concetta Luna. In spite of their opposed views (Tarán rejects Michael’s authorship of the commentaries, while Luna supports it), they both agree on the mediocrity of the Byzantine author. The article questions the criteria for this negative appraisal and offers some material for reconsidering Michael of Ephesus’ idea of philosophical culture.