Basic Concepts of Aristotelian Philosophy

294 Pages·2009·1.83 MB·English

by  Martin Heidegger

Basic Concepts of Aristotelian Philosophy
Studies in Continental Thought
John Sallis, editor
consulting editors
Robert Bernasconi William L. McBride
Rudolph Bernet J. N. Mohanty
John D. Caputo Mary Rawlinson
David Carr Tom Rockmore
Edward S. Casey Calvin O. Schrag
Hubert Dreyfus † Reiner Schürmann
Don Ihde Charles E. Scott
David Farrell Krell Thomas Sheehan
Lenore Langsdorf Robert Sokolowski
Alphonso Lingis Bruce W. Wilshire
David Wood
Martin Heidegger
Basic Concepts of Aristotelian Philosophy
Translated by
Robert D. Metcalf and Mark B. Tanzer
Indiana University Press
Bloomington & Indianapolis
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Published in German as Martin Heidegger, Gesamtausgabe,
volume 18: Grundbegriffe der aristotelischen Philosophie,
edited by Mark Michalski
© 2002 by Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main
© 2009 by Indiana University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Heidegger, Martin, 1889–1976.
[Grundbegriffe der aristotelischen Philosophie. English]
Basic concepts of Aristotelian philosophy / Martin Heidegger ;
translated by Robert D. Metcalf and Mark B. Tanzer.
p. cm. — (Studies in Continental thought)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-253-35349-8 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Philosophy. 2.
Aristotle. I. Title.
B3279.H48G76313 2009
185—dc22
2008055677
1 2 3 4 5 14 13 12 11 10 09
CONTENTS
I. The Text of the Lecture on the Basis of Student Writings
INTRODUCTION
The Philological Purpose of the Lecture and Its Presuppositions
§1. The Philological Purpose of the Lecture: Consideration of Some Basic
Concepts of Aristotelian Philosophy in Their Conceptuality 3
§2. The Presuppositions of the Philological Purpose: Demarcation of the
Manner in Which Philosophy Is Treated 4
FIRST PART
Preliminary Understanding as to the Indigenous
Character of Conceptuality by Way of an
Explication of Being-There as Being-in-the-World:
An Orientation toward Aristotelian Basic Concepts
CHAPTER 1
Consideration of Definition as the Place of the Explicability of the Concept
and the Return to the Ground of Definition
§3.  The Determination of the Concept through the Doctrine of Definition 
in Kant’s Logic 9
§4. The Aspects of the Conceptuality of Aristotle’s Basic Concepts and the
Question Concerning Their Indigenous Character 11
§5.  Return to the Ground of Definition 13
a) The Predicables
b) The Aristotelian Determination of ὁρισμός as λόγος ουσίας
§6.  Preliminary Clarification of λόγος 15
§7.  Οὐσία as the Basic Concept of Aristotelian Philosophy 17
a) The Various Types of Conceptual Ambiguity and the Coming to
Be of Terms
b) The Customary Meaning of Οὐσία
c) The Terminological Meaning of Οὐσία
α. Οὐσία as Beings
β. Οὐσία as Being: Being-Characters (Metaphysics, Δ8).
vi Contents
γ. Οὐσία as Being-There: Being-Characters as Characters of
the There
§8.  Ὁρισμός as Determinate Mode of Being-in-the-World: The Task of 
Fully Understanding the Basic Concepts in Their Conceptuality in
Being-There as Being-in-the-World 26
CHAPTER 2
The Aristotelian Definition of the Being-There of the Human Being as ζωή
πρακτική in the Sense of a ψυχῆς ἐνέργεια
§9.  The Being-There of Human Beings as ψυχή: Speaking-Being (λόγον 
ἔχειν) and Being-with-One-Another (κοινωνία) (Politics A 2, Rhetoric 
A 6 and 11). 32
a) The Determination of Human Beings as ζῷον λόγον ἔχον: The
Task of Setting λόγος Apart from φωνή
b) The λόγος of Human Beings and the φωνή of Animals as Peculiar
Modes of Being-in-the-World and of Being-with-One-Another
α. Orientation toward Phenomena That Lie at the Basis of the
Separating of λόγος from φωνή
β. The Encounter-Characters of the World of Animals: ἡδύ
and λυπηρόν: Φωνή as Indicating, Enticing, Warning
γ. The Encounter-Characters of the World of Humans Beings:
συμφέρον, βλαβερὸν, and ἀγαθόν. Λόγος as Self-Expression
with Others about What Is Conducive to the End of Concern
c) The One (Das Man) as the How of the Everydayness of Being-
with-One-Another: The Equiprimordiality of Being-with-One-
Another and Speaking-Being
§10. The  Being-There  of  Human  Beings  as  ἐνέργεια:  The  ἀγαθόν 
(Nicomachean Ethics A 1–4). 46
a) The Explicitness of the ἀγαθόν
α. The Explicitness of the ἀγαθόν as Such in τέχνη
β. The Explicitness of the ἀνθρώπινον ἀγαθόν in the
πολιτική
b) The Basic Determinations of the ἀγαθόν
α. Manifoldness and Guiding Connectedness of the τέλη and
Necessity of a τέλος δι᾽ αὑτό
β. The βίοι as τέλη δι᾽ αὑτά: The Criteria for the τέλος δι᾽
αὑτό: οἰκεῖον, δυσαφαίρετον, τέλειον, and αὔταρκεςν
§11. The τέλειον (Metaphysics Δ16) 55
a) Translation of the Chapter
b) Arrangement of the Chapter
α. The First Two Points of Arrangement. The Method of
Carrying-Over
β. Presentation of the Context of the Treatment of τέλειον
γ. Revised Arrangement of the Chapter
c) The τέλειον as Limit in the Sense of the Genuine There of a
Being
Contents vii
§12. Continuing the Consideration of the ἀγαθόν  (Nicomachean Ethics, A
5–6) 63
a) Continuing the Discussion of Basic Determinations of the ἀγαθόν:
The ἀνθρώπινον ἀγαθόν as the ἁπλῶς τέλειον
b) The ψυχῆς ἐνέργειαι κατ’ ἀρετήν as the Being-Possibility of Human
Beings Which Is Sufficient for the Sense of ἀνθρώπινον ἀγαθόν
CHAPTER 3
The Interpretation of the Being-There of Human Beings with regard to the
Basic Possibility of Speaking-with-One-Another Guided by Rhetoric
§13. Speaking-Being as Ability-to-Hear and as Possibility of Falling: The
Double-Sense of Ἄλογον (Nicomachean Ethics A13; De Anima B4). 71
§14. The Basic Determination of Rhetoric and λόγος Itself as πίστις (Rhetoric
Α1–3) 78
a) The Basic Definition of Rhetoric as the Possibility of Seeing
What at Each Moment Speaks for a Matter
b) The Three πίστεις ἔντεχνοι: ἦθος, πάθος, and λόγος Itself
c) Λόγος Itself as πίστις
α. The Three Forms of Hearer and the Three Types of λόγος
to Be Determined from Them: Deliberative Discourse
(συμβουλευτικός), Judicial Discourse (δικανικός), and
Eulogy (ἐπιδεικτικός)
β. Rhetorical Speaking with παράδειγμα and ἐνθύμημα
as Paralleling Dialectical Speaking with ἐπαγωγή and
συλλογισμός
§15. Δόξα (Nicomachean Ethics, Ζ10 and Γ4) 93
a) Demarcation of δόξα in Contrast with Seeking (ζήτησις),
Knowing (ἐπιστήμη), and Presenting-Itself (φαντασία)
b) Making-Present of the Context for the Treatment of δόξα
c) Repetition and Continuation of the Demarcation of δόξα: δόξα
and Being-Resolved (προαίρεσις)
d) The Character of δόξα as the Orientedness of Average Being-
with-One-Another-in-the-World
e) Δόξα as the Basis of Theoretical Negotiating
α. Pre-given (πρότασις) and Project (πρόβλημα) as From-
Which and About-Which of Theoretical Negotiating (Topics
Α4 and Α10–11)
β. Inability-to-Get-Through (ἀπορία) as the Topic of
Theoretical Negotiating (Metaphysics Β1)
§16. ἦθος and πάθος as πίστεις (Rhetoric Β1, Nicomachean Ethics Β4) 109
a) Theoretical and Practical Negotiating
b) ἦθος as πίστις
c) πάθος as πίστις
§17. Ἕξις (Metaphysics Δ23 and 20, Nicomachean Ethics Β 1–5) 116
a) ἔχειν and ἕξις
b) Presentation of the Context of the Treatment of ἕξις
viii Contents
c) ἕξις and ἀρετή
α. The γένεσις of ἀρετή
β. Ἀρετή as μεσότης
γ. The Orientation of ἀρετή toward the Moment (καιρός)
§18. Πάθος. Its General Meanings and Its Role in Human Being-There 
(Metaphysics Δ21, De Anima Α1) 129
a) Ἕξις as Clue to the Conception of the Being-Structure of πάθος
b) The Four General Meanings of πάθος
c) Πάθος as the Being-Taken of Human Being-There in Its Full
Bodily Being-in-the-World
d) The Double-Type of Consideration of πάθος according to εἶδος
and ὕλη, and the Question Concerning the Task of the φυσικός
§19. The φυσικός and His Manner of Treating ψυχή (De Part. An. Α 1) 140
a) The Two Types of ἕξις θεωρίας: Concrete Knowledge (ἐπιστήμη)
and Assurance of the Manner of Treatment (παιδεία)
b) The Decisive παιδεία for Investigating the φύσει γινόμενα: The
οὗ ἕνεκα as λόγος in the Primary Respect
c) The Determination of Independent λόγος in Relation to φύσει
γινόμενα
α. The ἔργα τέχνης and the λόγος of τέχνη
β. The Being-Characters of the φύσει γινόμενα
γ. Criticism of the Type of Consideration of the Ancient
Physiologists
d) The Dual Proof of the Restricted Scope of the φυσικός
α. Indirect Proof
β. Proof from the Character of Being-Moved Itself
e) The Definiteness of the History of the Study of Nature by Way
of Truth Itself
§20. Πάθος as ἡδονή and λύπη (Nicomachean Ethics, Κ1–5) 162
§21. Φόβος (Rhetoric Β 5) 167
a) Schematic Outline of the Characterization of Fear
b) The Topic, the First Definition, and the First Determinations
c) The Threatening (φοβερά) and the Encounter-Characters That
Announce (σημεῖα) It
d) Human Beings Themselves insofar as They Are Frightening
(φοβεροί)
e) The Genuineness of the Frightening (φοβερόν)
f) Disposition in Being Afraid
g) Fear as πίστις: Courage as the Possibility of Being-Composed in
Relation to It: The πάθη as Ground of λόγος
§22. Supplements to the Explication of Being-There as Being-in-the-World 176
a) The ἕξις of ἀληθεύειν (Nicomachean Ethics Δ12–13)
b) The World as World of Nature
Contents ix
SECOND PART
Retrieving Interpretation of Aristotelian Basic Concepts
on the Basis of the Understanding of the Indigenous
Character of Conceptuality
CHAPTER 1
The Being-There of Human Beings as the Indigenous Character of
Conceptuality
§23. Showing of the Possibility of Conceptuality in Being-There according
to Concretely Giving Basic Experience, Guiding Claim, and Prevailing
Intelligibility 183
§24. The Double Sense of the Possibility of Conceptuality in Being-There 185
a) The Possibility of Conceptuality in the Negative Sense of That in
Relation to Which Conceptuality Is Cultivated
α. The Interpretedness of Being-There in Fore-Having, Fore-
Sight, and Fore-Grasp
β. Λόγος as the Possibility of Error and Dissimulation
b) The Possibility of Conceptuality in the Positive Sense of the
Possibility of That for Which Conceptuality Is Cultivated: Νοῦς
as διανοεῖσθαι.
CHAPTER 2
Interpretation of the Cultivation of the Concept of κίνησις
as a Radical Grasping of the Interpretedness of Being-There
§25. The Aristotelian Physics as ἀρχή-Research: Orientation toward the 
First Two Books 192
§26. Movement as ἐντελέχεια τοῦ δυνάμει ὄντος (Physics, Γ1) 195
a) Outline of the Chapter
b) The Role of Fear in ἀρχή-Research
c) The Topic and What Is Co-Given with It
d) The Modes of Being from Which Movement Is to Be
Apprehended
α. ἐντελέχεια and ἐνέργεια
β. στέρησις
γ. δύναμις
δ. Being in the Sense of the Categories
e. Movement as the Being of Beings of the World Itself: Critique
of the Platonic Discourse on the ἀγαθὸν καθόλου (Nicomachean
Ethics Α 4).
f) The διχῶς of the Categories
g) The First Definition of Movement and Its Illustration
§27. Movement as ἀόριστον (Physics Γ2) 213
a) Outline of the Chapter