Method and Metaphysics: Essays in Ancient Philosophy I

634 Pages·2011·3.774 MB·English

by  Jonathan Barnes, Maddalena Bonelli (editor)

METHOD AND METAPHYSICS
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Method and
Metaphysics
Essays in Ancient Philosophy I
JONATHAN BARNES
editedby
Maddalena Bonelli
CLARENDON PRESS_OXFORD
3
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Preface ix
1. Ancientphilosophers 1
2. Thehistoryofphilosophy 17
3. Philosophywithinquotationmarks? 23
4. Anglophoneattitudes 43
5. Brentano’sAristotle 70
6. Heideggerinthecave 77
7. ‘TherewasanoldpersonfromTyre’ 100
8. ThePresocraticsincontext 125
9. Argumentinancientphilosophy 143
10. Philosophyanddialectic 164
11. Aristotleandthemethodsofethics 174
12. Metacommentary 195
13. AnintroductiontoAspasius 212
14. ParmenidesandtheEleaticOne 262
15. ReasonandnecessityinLeucippus 288
16. Plato’scyclicalargument 303
17. Deathandthephilosopher 323
18. Aristotelianarithmetic 334
19. Theprincipleofplenitude 364
20. ‘Aristotle’sopinionconcerningdestinyandwhatisuptous’ 371
21. ‘Beliefisuptous’ 394
22. Thesameagain:theStoicsandeternalrecurrence 412
vi Contents
23. Bitsandpieces 429
24. Partialwholes 484
25. ‘DreiSonnensahich...’:Syrianusandastronomy 510
26. Immaterialcauses 540
Bibliography 561
IndexofPassages 581
GeneralIndex 606
Acknowledgements
The papers of which the chapters in this volume are revised and sometimes
translated versions first appeared in the following places. The editor and
the author are grateful to those publishing houses who generously gave
permission to use material which is in their copyright.
1. ‘Ancient philosophers’: G. Clark and T. Rajak (eds), Philosophy and
Power in the Graeco-Roman World (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2002),
pp.293–306.
2. ‘Thehistoryofphilosophy’:TheJournalofPhilosophy104,2007,540–
545.
3. ‘Philosophywithinquotationmarks?’:M.Canto-SperberandP.Pelle-
grin (eds), Le style et la pens´ee – recueil de textes en hommage a` Jacques
Brunschwig(Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 2002), pp.522–547.
4. ‘Anglophone attitudes’: Part I—Revue philosophique de Louvain 75,
1977,204–218; PartII—Critique 399/400, 1980,705–718.
5. ‘Brentano’s Aristotle’: Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 49,
1988,162–167.
6. ‘Heidegger in the Cave’: Revue de m´etaphysique et de morale 95, 1990,
173–195.
7. ‘There was an old person from Tyre’: Rhizai 5, 2008,127–151.
8. ‘The Presocratics in context’: Phronesis 33, 1988, 327–344.
9. ‘Argument in ancient philosophy’: D.N. Sedley (ed), The Cambridge
Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy (Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 2003), pp.20–41.
10. ‘Philosophy and dialectic’: M.A. Sinaceur (ed), Penser avec Aristote
(E´dition Ere`s, Toulouse, 1991), pp.107–116.
11. ‘Aristotleandthemethodsofethics’:Revueinternationaledephilosophie
133/134, 1980, 490–511.
12. ‘Metacommentary’: Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 10, 1992,
267–281.
viii Acknowledgements
13. ‘An introduction to Aspasius’: A. Alberti and R.W. Sharples (eds),
Aspasius: the earliest extant commentary on Aristotle’s Ethics, Peripatoi
17 (Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 1999), pp.1–50.
14. ‘ParmenidesandtheEleaticOne’:Archivfu¨rGeschichtederPhilosophie
61, 1979,1–21.
15. ‘ReasonandnecessityinLeucippus’:L.Benakis(ed),Proceedingsofthe
1st InternationalCongress ofDemocritus (Xanthi, 1984),pp.141–158.
16. ‘Plato’s cyclical argument’: Canadian Journal of Philosophy 8, 1978,
397–419.
17. ‘Death and the philosopher’: Dialectica 54, 2000, 314–320.
18. ‘Aristotelian arithmetic’: Revue de philosophie ancienne 1, 1985,
97–133.
19. ‘The principle of plenitude’: Journal of Hellenic Studies 97, 1977,
183–186.
20. ‘Aristotle’s opinion concerning destiny and what is up to us’:
J. Cottingham and P.M. Hacker (eds), Mind, Method, and Morality
(Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2010), pp.26–45.
21. ‘Belief is up to us’: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 106, 2006,
21–38.
22. ‘The same again: the Stoics and eternal recurrence’: J. Brunschwig
(ed), Les sto¨ıciens et leur logique (Vrin, Paris, 1978), pp.3–20.
23. ‘Bits and pieces’: J. Barnes and M. Mignucci (eds), Matter and
Metaphysics (Bibliopolis, Naples, 1988), pp.224–294.
24. ‘Partial wholes’: Social Philosophy and Policy 8, 1990, 1–23.
25. ‘‘‘DreiSonnensah’ich...’’:Syrianusandastronomy’:A.Longo(ed),
Syrianus etla m´etaphysique del’Antiquit´etardive (Bibliopolis,Naples,
2009), pp.59–92.
26. ‘Immaterial causes’: Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 1, 1983,
169–192.
Preface
Thisvolume and itscompanions togethercontain most of the papers I have
published onancient philosophy over the last forty odd years. Short reviews
of books have, almost all, been excluded; so have articles for encyclopaedias
andthelike;andalsooneortwoitemswhichrepeatoranticipatewhatIhave
written elsewhere.
The pieces are organized thematically rather than chronologically. Often
enough, the thematic character of an article is plural, and its attribution to
one volume rather than another is more or less arbitrary. Similarly with the
arrangementofthepieceswithineachvolume.Noneofthevolumesformsa
unity or constitutes a book. Nonetheless, the things seem to me to hang
together in an informal sort of fashion; and in any event no other organiza-
tion I could dream up would have been any more useful or pleasing.
The essays which were originally published in French (and in one case in
Italian) are here done into English. The translations are free.
All the papers have been touched up. Misprints and other itching errors
havebeencorrected(wheretheyhavebeennoticed).Someinfelicitiesofstyle
have been removed. Conventions of reference, both to the ancient texts and
to the modern literature, have been harmonized. In addition, passages from
the ancient authors, which were originally cited sometimes in Greek (or in
Latin)andsometimesinEnglish,arenowusuallyquotedbothinadeadand
inalivinglanguage–thelivingplacedinthetextandtheanciententombed
in a footnote.
Several of the papers have been revised, one or two of them substantially:
newmaterialhasbeenincorporated;newreferences,bothtotheancientand
to the modern literature, have been pasted in; propositions and arguments
havebeenaddedandsubtracted,andexpandedorcontractedortransmuted.
Therevisionshavebeendonemoreorlessathaphazard.Inparticular,Ihave
made no systematical attempt to notice the literature which has come out
since the essays were first printed.
The original page-numbers are indicated within square brackets. The
footnotes are numbered as they were in the first publication, new notes
being signalled by an asterisk. (The sequence of numbers and signs some-
times has an eccentric look; but I have nothing against eccentricity.)