Boethius: On Aristotle on Interpretation 4-6

160 Pages·2011·0.98 MB·English

by  Aristotle.

BOETHIUS
On Aristotle
On Interpretation 4-6
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BOETHIUS
On Aristotle
On Interpretation 4-6
Translated by Andrew Smith
LONDON • NEW DELHI • NEW YORK • SYDNEY
Bloomsbury Academic
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First published in 2011
Paperback edition fi rst published 2014
© 2011 by Andrew Smith
Andrew Smith has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be
identifi ed as Author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
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the author.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN HB: 978-0-7156-3919-1
PB: 978-1-4725-5790-2
ePDF: 978-1-4725-0165-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Acknowledgements
The present translations have been made possible by generous
and imaginative funding from the following sources: the National
Endowment for the Humanities, Division of Research
Programs, an independent federal agency of the USA; the
Leverhulme Trust; the British Academy; the Jowett Copyright
Trustees; the Royal Society (UK); Centro Internazionale A. Beltrame
di Storia dello Spazio e del Tempo (Padua); Mario
Mignucci; Liverpool University; the Leventis Foundation; the
Arts and Humanities Research Council; Gresham College; the
Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Trust; the Henry Brown Trust; Mr
and Mrs N. Egon; the Netherlands Organisation for Scientifi c
Research (NWO/GW); the Ashdown Trust; Dr Victoria Solomonides,
the Cultural Attaché of the Greek Embassy in London.
The editor wishes to thank David Blank and Carlos Steel for
their comments, Ian Crystal for preparing the volume for press,
and Deborah Blake at Duckworth, who has been the publisher
responsible for every volume since the fi rst.
Typeset by Ray Davis
Printed and bound in Great Britain
Contents
Conventions vii
Textual Emendations viii
Introduction 1
Translator’s Note 11
Translation 13
Book 4 15
Book 5 60
Book 6 100
Notes 141
Select Bibliography 145
English-Latin Glossary 147
Latin-English Index 148
Index of Names 150
Subject Index 151
v
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Conventions
[ ] Square brackets indicate additions to the translation to complete
the sense.
< > Angle brackets indicate additions to the Latin text.
Citations from Aristotle are in italics.
Propositions, phrases or words referred to explictly are put in in-
verted commas.
Italics are also used for Latin words and titles of books.
Bold type is occasionally employed for emphasis.
The references to Aristotle’s text by chapter and page/line are added
to aid the reader and do not indicate that Boethius divided his work
in this way.
All lemmata are those provided by Boethius himself. Divergences
from the lemmata in the continuous translation and the first edition
of the commentary are noted as are any divergences from the re-
ceived text of Aristotle.
vii
Textual Emendations
231,16 I have restored the MS reading illa(cid:125) subiecta.
320,29 I have changed the MSS correction finitum‘finite’
back to the uncorrected indefinitum ‘indefinite’.
396,6-7 I have followed S2 in deleting the words non enim
propositionis.
424,21 Adding negationeswith F2.
viii
Introduction
Richard Sorabji
Boethius’ second and larger commentary on Aristotle’s On Interpre-
tation was written in Latin in the early sixth century AD in the style
of Greek commentaries on Aristotle. Both commentaries were part of
his project to bring to the Latin-speaking world knowledge of Plato
and Aristotle. His project was for comprehensive translation of them
and for adaptation of the Greek commentaries on them. The project
was cruelly interrupted by his execution at the age of about 45
between 524 and 526 AD, leaving the Latin world under-informed
about Greek Philosophy for 700 years, although his commentary on
Aristotle’s On Interpretation remained the standard introduction
throughout the Latin Middle Ages.
Aristotle’sOn Interpretation
In the first six chapters of his On Interpretation Aristotle defines
name, verb, sentence, statement, affirmation and negation. This has
standardly been seen as a progression beyond the subject of his
Categories, which distinguishes single terms. For On Interpretation
already studies the complexity of a statement, and it can be seen as
pointing forward to the treatment in his Analytics of syllogistic
arguments, which combine three statements, two of them premisses
and one a conclusion. But C.W.A. Whitaker has argued that what
turns out to interest Aristotle from Chapter 7 onwards is contradic-
tory or contrary pairs of statements, and that these contradictory or
contrary pairs relate rather to the practice of dialectical refutation
discussed in Aristotle’s other logical works, the Topics and Sophistici
Elenchi.1
In Chapters 8 to 10, Aristotle examines exceptions to the rule that
in contradictory or contrary pairs one statement will be false and the
other true. Chapter 11 addresses some puzzles about complex asser-
tions, Chapters 12 to 13 consider pairs of statements involving
possibility and necessity, while the last chapter, 14, discusses beliefs
that are contrary.
1