Aristotle's Theory of Substance: The Categories and Metaphysics Zeta (Oxford Aristotle Studies)

497 Pages·2000·3.75 MB·English

by  Michael V. Wedin

Aristotle's Theory of Substance
Oxford Aristotle Studies
General Editors
Julia Annas and Lindsay Judson
Aristotle's Theory of Substance
The Categories and Metaphysics Zeta
Michael V.Wedin
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To my mother
Clara Christina Ruff Wedin
and
to the memory of my father
Vernon Elsworth Wedin
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Preface
Morethan a quarterofa centuryago I first encountered bookZetaofAristotle'sMetaphysics. LikeColeridge's wedding
guest, I was stopped in my tracks. Page after page of intricate argument sat waiting to be unraveled and in the
unravelingseemed toliethepromiseofenlightenment.Iwas hooked, and notleastofallbythechallengeofmatching
its message with that of the Categories. But the delights of decipherment yielded to deepening puzzlement and then to
the suspicion that Zeta's message was in fact a secret, or at least a message that was insensitive to the schedule of a
mere dissertation writer. So I changed course for the simpler pleasures of book Gamma. This was followed by work
on Aristotle's semantics and logic and, later, by considerable attention to his psychology and philosophy of mind.
Then, about a decade ago, I found myself back in the clutches of the central books of the Metaphysics.
Severalthingsareresponsibleforsuchunabashedrecidivism.First,IhadnotstoppedthinkingaboutZeta.Indeed,the
mainthesisofthisessay,thatthetheoriesoftheCategoriesandMetaphysicsZareinacertainwaycompatible,emergedin
the course of preparing undergraduate Aristotle lectures. Plus, with Alan Code at Berkeley, John Driscoll in San
Francisco, and my colleague John Malcolm at Davis, there was no lack of discussion on topics friendly to Zeta.
Second, thistime around there was help. SinceI had quitthefield,other hands had takenup thecause, and withgreat
effectiveness. Code, Michael Frede, Mary Louise Gill, Frank Lewis, and many others had produced informed and
penetrating accounts of Zeta and its parts. It seemed, after all, that sense might be made of the book. Third, Gill
invited me to review Frede and Patzig's two-volume commentary on MetaphysicsZ and this led, in turn, to a series of
Wednesday meetings with Malcolm that lasted for more than two years. By this time I was fully ensnared. Like any
good academic, I responded by giving seminars on the topic.
Itislargelyintheseseminarsthatthedetailsofmyinterpretationhavetakenshape.SoImustregister mygratitudeand
sympathyto those who attended the sessions—gratitude for their refusal to accept the first versionof anythingI said
and sympathy for their having to endure a second, and sometimes third, version. Although some individual
acknowledgments will be found among the notes, I no longer recall the
viii PREFACE
source of a number of points I have used. So it is especially important that my indebtedness to all participants in the
Aristotle seminars be a matter of public record.
Manycolleaguesandfriendshavewillinglylenthelpandthebookisbetterforit.Butnoneisowedmoregratitudethan
John Malcolm. In addition to the pleasure and profit of our weekly meetings, he provided written comments on the
entire manuscript and throughout the project was an unfailing source of support. To Frank Lewis I am doubly
indebted, for the wealth of insights contained in his own work and for the generosity of his response to mine. His
acuteanddetailedcommentsonindividualchaptersandhispertinentobservationsontheprojectas awholesavedme
from numerous errors and forced me to reorient the argument at more than one juncture. Thanks are due also to
HenryMendellfora detailedprint-outonproblemsinChapterIIandtoMaryLouiseGillandRobBoltonforwritten
comments on Chapter VIII. I have also learned much just from conversation with these friends, as well as from
discussions with David Charles, JohnCooper,JohnDriscoll, Herb Granger, and Julius Moravcsik, to name but a few.
Peter Momtchiloff of Oxford University Press instantiated all the virtues of an editor and none of the vices, and
retained a paradigm pair of reviewers for themanuscript. I am especiallygrateful for thecareful, detailed,and incisive
nature of the comments provided by Lindsay Judson, as well as for a like set of comments from a third reader.
There is in addition a trio of players to be mentioned: Michael Frede, Alan Code, and Myles Burnyeat. My
indebtedness to Frede's published work will be evident from even a cursory glance at the book. Less obvious, but no
less important, are the lessons learned over many years of coffee and conversation. Likewise over the years I have
gained much from Code's pioneering writings on Zeta and perhaps even more from his rich store of thoughts on
Aristotle, sometimes delivered in the form of a single, telling remark that altered my thinking. Over the past decade,
my ideas on Aristotle have been tempered, and my arguments sharpened, by exposure to Burnyeat's dialectical skills.
This, plus counsel of more general scope, has markedly improved the book. I am further indebted to Burnyeat for
generously allowing me to comment on his unpublished map of Metaphysics Z.
ExceptingAristotle, thephilosophicalheroofthebookisan abstractentity. Idonotmeantheconceptofform or the
concept of substance or even the Categories or MetaphysicsZ itself, but rather a definite body of literature produced by
scholars over the past two decades or so. Specifically, I have in mind work guided by the conviction that ‘what
MetaphysicsZ means’ can bedeterminedonly afterpainstakingdissectionofthetextand, especially, bythepreceptthat
the route to Zeta's
PREFACE ix
‘meaning’runsthroughitsarguments.Thereisnohighroadhere. Whatonefinds, rather,isanabundanceofpowerful
and sophisticated analyses that are as exemplary in their sensitivity to detail as in their ability to illuminate Aristotle's
project in philosophically interesting ways. Without this body of literature, the present book simply would not exist.
WhenI returned to thefield as somethingof an amateur,making sense of MetaphysicsZ required thatI make sense of
whatprofessionalzetologistsweresaying.Hence,itseemedtomeirresponsibletopublishabookthatdidnotcometo
grips with the chief exhibits from this scholarship. I have, therefore, devoted considerable attention to contenders.
Even so, it has proven impossible to address all important work. I am keenly aware of the omissions and of the fact
that they are significant omissions. This is a regrettable circumstance, but by any measure the book's size has already
exceeded the mean.
Parts of thebook have already entered the publicdomain. Chapter I was presented to the Department of Philosophy
at the University of California, Berkeley, in the winter of 1997. Part of Chapter VIII debuted in 1992 at the
USC–Rutgers Aristotle conference in Los Angeles. An improved rendition followed at the Oriel College De Anima
conference in 1993, and a finished version was featured at a Pacific Division APA symposium in 1997. Chapter I has
appeared in the Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 79 (1997). Chapter II can be found, in slightly different form, in
Phronesis38 (1993), and part of ChapterV has appeared in ChristofRapp, ed., Aristoteles: Metaphysik,DieSubstanzbücher
(Z,H,Θ),(Berlin:AkademieVerlag,1996).Finally,anearlier versionofthesecondhalfofChapterVIIIwaspublished
inthePacific PhilosophicalQuarterly76 (1995)andhasbeenreprintedinF.A. LewisandR.Bolton,eds., Form,Matter,and
Mixture in Aristotle(Oxford: Blackwell,1996). These materials appear herewith thekind permissionoftheir respective
publishers.
Actual writing of the book was aided by twoallocations of that most valuableof professional commodities, academic
leave. A sabbatical in 1991–2 produced versions of the first three chapters and in 1995–6 a University of California
President'sResearchFellowshipintheHumanities, and a facultyresearch leavefrom Davis, gaveme more thana year
ofunhurriedtimethatwas criticaltocompletionofthemanuscript. TheCommitteeonResearchat Davisfunded two
years of research assistance and final preparation of the manuscript was generously supported by the Dean of Social
Sciences and the Vice-Chancellor for Research.I am extremely grateful for this support, and for the able work of my
research assistant, David Freelove, who put it to such good use.
Finally, I am pleased to dedicate this book to one of the 1933 Iron