Aristotle: A Collection of Critical Essays PDF
Preview Aristotle: A Collection of Critical Essays
Papermacs are sold subject to the condition that they shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which they are published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. MODERN STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY ARISTOTLE Modern Studies in Philosophy is a series of anthologies presenting contemporary interpretations and evalua tions of the works of major philosophers. The editors have selected articles designed to show the systematic structure of the thought of these philosophers, and to reveal the relevance of their views to the problems of current interest. These volumes are intended to be contributions to contemporary debates as well as to the history of philosophy; they not only trace the origins of many problems important to modern phi losophy, but also introduce major philosophers as in terlocutors in current discussions. MODERN STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY ARISTOTLE A Collection of Critical Essays J. EDITED BY M. E. MORAV CSIK PALGRAVE MACMILLAN © J. M. E. Moravcsik 1967 First published in the United States of America 1967 First published in Great Britain 1968 Published by MACMILLAN AND CO LTD Little Essex Street London w C 2 and also at Bombay Calcutta and };Iadras Macmillan South Africa (Publishers) Pry Ltd Johannesburg The Macmillan Company d Australia Pry Ltd Melbourne ISBN 978-0-333-00436-4 ISBN 978-1-349-15267-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-15267-4 CONTENTS Introduction 1 I. LOGIC Aristotle and the Sea Battle, G. E. M. ANSCOMBE 15 Aristotle's Different Possibilities, K. J AAKKO J. HINTIKKA 34 On Aristotle's Square of Opposition, M. THOMPSON 51 II. CATEGORIES Categories in Aristotle and in Kant, 75 JOHN COOK WILSON Aristotle's Categories, Chapters I-V: Translation and Notes, J. L. ACKRILL 90 Aristotle's Theory of Categories, J. M. E. MORAVCSIK 125 III. METAPHYSICS Essence and Accident, IRVING M. COPI 149 Tithenai ta Phainomena, G. E. L. OWEN 167 Matter and Predication in Aristotle, JOSEPH OWENS 191 Problems in Metaphysics Z, Chapter 13, 215 M. J. WOODS IV. ETHICS The Meaning of Agathon in the Ethics of Aristotle, H. A. PRICHARD 241 Agathon and Eudaimonia in the Ethics of Aristotle, J. L. AUSTIN 261 The Final Good in Aristotle's Ethics, w. F. R. HARDIE 297 Aristotle on Pleasure, J. o. URMSON 323 Notes on Contributors 334 Selected Bibliography 335 ARISTOTLE INTRODUCTION What is it for us to understand Aristotle?l In order to grasp the difficulties involved in answering such a seemingly simple question, it is necessary to consider, briefly, some of the features of the history of philosophy and some of the characteristics of Aristotle's philoso phy. Even if this necessarily sketchy introductory dis cussion fails to yield answers satisfactory to everyone, it should at least help to make clear why this volume is the way it is, and how it is viewed by its editor. The'mere existence of recent and contemporary com mentaries on Aristotle might seem to call for an ex planation if not an apology. At first glance at least, it might seem that after more than two thousand years Plato and Aristotle should be as well explained as they are ever likely to be, and that historians of philosophy should be turning their attention to the interpretation of less well known figures. And yet the facts' are that there is exciting work being done on Aristotle today, that in the view of numerous philosophers and his torians of philosophy much of the interpretation done in the past, even when of excellent quality, is not wholly satisfactory for our understanding, and that lThe views expressed in this introduction about the nature of the history of philosophy and about Aristotle are those of the editor and are not to be imputed to the contributors to this volume. The editor wishes to express his gratitude to Professor \Villiam Dray for a helpful discussion of some of these matters. 2 J. M. E. Moravcsik future generations are likely to view with dissatisfac tion much of the work done today, while doing good and interesting historical work themselves. Under these circumstances the question arises: Why do men feel the need to rewrite the history of philosophy over and over again? One should attempt to answer this ques tion, even if it turns out to be merely a special case of the tantalizing general question: Why must history be rewritten over and over again? In the case of philoso phy, this question is sharpened by the fact that the repeated attempts at reconstructing the past are rarely occasioned by the appearance of drastically new em pirical evidence. Once an ancient temple or palace is unearthed, it is there for all to see; subsequent excava tions seek new targets. The interpreters of ancient philosophy, however, do not behave this way. Faced with a bewildering variety of materials, one might be tempted to conclude that each school of phi losophy feels the need to rewrite the history of the profession in its own image. Perhaps with each so called "revolution" in philosophy-of which we have recently had such an uncomfortably large number that one is strongly inclined to doubt the genuineness of some-new emphases are given to different aspects of the thinking of the past. Such a line of thought leads to two popular conclusions, which this introduction is intended to combat. One of these is the claim that there is little if any objectivity in histories of philos ophy written by philosophers. The other is the view that in order to gain unprejudiced, real insight into the philosophies of classical writers the best thing to do is to turn to the writings of those historians who have little or no systematic interest in current philos ophy or at least hold no controversial positions upon this subject. One way of showing these conclusions to be non sequiturs is to demonstrate that the peculiarly peren-
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