Aristotle Re-Interpreted: New Findings on Seven Hundred Years of the Ancient Commentators (Ancient Commentators on Aristotle)

This volume presents collected essays – some brand new, some republished, and others newly translated – on the ancient commentators on Aristotle and showcases the leading research of the last three decades. Through the work and scholarship inspired by Richard Sorabji in his series of translations of the commentators started in the 1980s, these ancient texts have become a key field within ancient philosophy. Building on the strength of the series, which has been hailed as ‘a scholarly marvel’, ‘a truly breath-taking achievement’ and ‘one of the great scholarly achievements of our time’ and on the widely praised edited volume brought out in 1990 (Aristotle Transformed) this new book brings together critical new scholarship that is a must-read for any scholar in the field. With a wide range of contributors from across the globe, the articles look at the commentators themselves, discussing problems of analysis and interpretation that have arisen through close study of the texts. Richard Sorabji introduces the volume and himself contributes two new papers. A key recent area of research has been into the Arabic, Latin and Hebrew versions of texts, and several important essays look in depth at these. With all text translated and transliterated, the volume is accessible to readers without specialist knowledge of Greek or other languages, and should reach a wide audience across the disciplines of Philosophy, Classics and the study of ancient texts. Cover page Halftitle page General Editors Title page Copyright page Contents Acknowledgements List of Contributors Introduction: Seven Hundred Years of Commentary and the Sixth Century Diffusion to other Cultures The Advance in Knowledge Andronicus: In Athens First Century BCE Boethus of Sidon in Athens First Century BCE Commentators on Aristotle in the First Two Centuries after Boethus Alexander of Aphrodisias in Athens (flourished c . 205 CE) Themistius ( fl. late 340s – 384/5 CE) in Constantinople Porphyry of Tyre (232/3 – 309 CE) in Rome and Sicily Iamblichus (about 245 – before 325 CE) in Apamaea Syrianus (died 437) in Athens Proclus (412? – 485 CE) in Athens Ammonius of Alexandria (445? – 517/526) and his School Priscian of Lydia and the Move from Athens (531 CE) Damascius up to the Move from Athens (died aft er 538) Simplicius (c . 480 – c . 560) aft er the Move from Athens Philoponus (c . 490 – 570s) in Alexandria, His Development Philoponus in the Arabic Tradition Stephanus (c . 530 – towards end of sixth century) in Alexandria Eustratius and Michael of Ephesus, the Twelfth Century Revival 1 The Texts of Plato and Aristotle in the First Century BCE: Andronicus’ Canon Text-Based Philosophy Plato’s Text The Fate of Aristotle’s Books Andronicus and the Aristotelian Corpus The Impact of Andronicus’ Canon Conclusion 2 Boethus’ Aristotelian Ontology I. Boethus’ Criterion of Substantiality II. Alexander of Aphrodisias against Boethus on Substance III. Boethus Again on the Non Substantiality of the Form Boethus’ having vs. Stoic sayable Conclusion 3 The Inadvertent Conception and Late Birth of the Free-Will Problem and the Role of Alexander I. Various Problems of Freedom and Determinism II. The State of the Debate in Alexander III. The One-Sided Potestative Conception of That Which Depends on Us IV. The Two-Sided, Potestative eph’hêmin: Aristotle V. Early Commentaries on the Nicomachean Ethics VI. Middle-Platonists on Contingency and That Which Depends on Us VII. The Philosophical Relevance of the Link between the Nicomachean Ethics and the De Interpretatione VIII. Alcinous and Ammonius IX. From the Middle-Platonists to Alexander of Aphrodisias X. Th e Element of Choice in the Accounts of What Depends on Us XI. The Term exousia in the Accounts of What Depends on Us XII. The Volatility of the Concept of Freedom to Do Otherwise XIII. Results 4 Alexander of Aphrodisias on Particulars and the Stoic Criterion of Identity 1. Some Preliminaries: Dexippus on the Peculiarly Qualified (idiôs poion) 2. Alexander’s Criticism of the Eternal Return 3. Three Disconnected Claims in Alexander: Matteras Non-Being, Free-Will, and Astral Singularities 4. Avicenna and Leibniz 5 Themistius and the Problem of Spontaneous Generation 6 Spontaneous Generation and its Metaphysicsin Themistius’ Paraphrase of Aristotle’s Metaphysics 12 1. Themistius’ Reconstruction of Aristotle’s Critique of the Platonic Ideas 2. From Ideas to Logoivia Spontaneous Generation: Themistius’ Reply to Aristotle’s Critique 3. An Open Question: What Happened to Plato’s Ideas? 7 The Neoplatonic Commentators on ‘Spontaneous’ Generation Conclusion 8 A Rediscovered Categories Commentary: Porphyry(?) with Fragments of Boethus Anonymi in Aristotelis Categorias Commentarium Commentary Section A: The Transitivity Principle (1,1–6,8) Section B: The Fourfold Division (7,8–9,30) Section C: Genus, Species, and Differentia (9,30–14,30) 9 The Purpose of Porphyry’s Rational Animals: A Dialectical Attack on the Stoics in On Abstinence from Animal Food Part 1: The Consensus Interpretation Part 2: Theories of Justice The Stoic Theory of Justice Porphyry’s Theory of Justice Justice: Conclusions Part 3: Theories of Rationality Porphyry’s Evidence The Stoic Theory of Rationality Porphyry’s Theory of Rationality Porphyry’s Evidence Revisited Rationality: Conclusions Conclusion 10 Universals Transformed in the Commentators on Aristotle Are Plato’s Ideas Universals? Are Plato’s Ideas what we define, or is that something else? Universals Downgraded: Aristotle, Boethus, Stoics Alexander: Multigrade Universals and a Few Causal Roles Porphyry: Universals Multigrade, not Conceptsonly and not Ideas Ammonius: Multigrade Genera, the Highest being Non-Universal logoi in the Mind of Aristotle’s Supposed Creator God Philoponus’ Commentaries on Aristotle: Ammonius’ Multigrade Universals, but with Concepts given Extra Roles Philoponus’ Theology: Universals Transformed into Concepts Only Eustratius Universals Transformed 11 Iamblichus’ Noera Theôria of Aristotle’s Categories 12 Proclus’ Defence of the Timaeus against Aristotle: A Reconstruction of a Lost Polemical Treatise 1. Aristotle: First Reader and Critic of the Timaeus 2. Proclus’ Defence of the Timaeus against Aristotle 3. Philoponus using Proclus against Aristotle 4. Simplicius and Proclus in Defence of Plato’s Geometrical Doctrine of the Elements Conclusion 13 Smoothing over the Differences: Proclus and Ammonius on Plato’s Cratylus and Aristotle’s De Interpretatione I. Introduction II. Plato and Aristotle on Names III. Proclus and Ammonius on Names IV. Concluding Remark: Two Ways of Reading 14 Dating of Philoponus’ Commentaries on Aristotle and of his Divergence from hisTeacher Ammonius Two Major Hypotheses on the Dating Some Initial Qualifications on Evidence from Titles Proposals on Dating: Does 517 date Philoponus’ whole Physics Commentary, or only Book 4.10–14? Is Philoponus’ Commentary on Physics 8.1 still earlier than 517? Philoponus’ Commentary on Physics 4.1–10: Composed Last? Philoponus’ Commentary on Physics Books 1–3 Philoponus’ Commentary on Aristotle’s Categories Philoponus’ other Commentaries on Aristotle: On De Anima On De Generatione et Corruptione On Prior Analytics On Posterior Analytics On Meteorology On Porphyry’s Introduction (Isagôgê) A Possible Order of Commentaries and Rate of Divergence from Ammonius 15 John Philoponus’ Commentary on the Third Book of Aristotle’s De Anima, Wrongly Attributed to Stephanus I. Ammonius’ (Oral) Commentary on the De Anima II. Philoponus’ epistaseis on Ammonius’ Commentary on the De Anima III. Philoponus’ Commentary on theThird Book of the De Anima 16 Mixture in Philoponus: An Encounter with a Third Kind of Potentiality Aristotle Philoponus Alexander of Aphrodisias: A Source of Inspiration? A Neoplatonic Alternative to Philoponus: Proclus and Simplicius Conclusion 17 Gnôstikôs and/or hulikôs: Philoponus’ Account of the Material Aspects of Sense-Perception 18 The Last Philosophers of Late Antiquity in the Arabic Tradition The Commentators in Arabic Logic as an Instrument of Philosophy Physics or Theology? Arguments for and against the World’s Eternity Conclusion 19 Alexander of Aphrodisias versus John Philoponusin Arabic: A Case of Mistaken Identity 20 New Arabic Fragments of Philoponus and their Reinterpretation: Does the World Lack a Beginning in Time or Take no Time to Begin? I Two New Passages of the Contra Proclum II Contra Proclum 6 in Arabic III The Origins of the Islamic Theory of Instantaneous Initiation ( hudūth ) Conclusion 21 Simplicius’ Corollary on Place: Method of Philosophising and Doctrines 22 A Philosophical Portrait of Stephanus the Philosopher Introduction Ecumenical Teacher Identity His Teacher Religion and Philosophy Attitude to Suicide Date Philosophical Commentaries Logic: Prolegomena Philosophiae Logic: Porphyry’s Isagôgê Logic: Categories Logic: De Interpretatione Logic: Analytics and Sophistical Refutations De Caelo Influence Conclusions 23 Who Were the Real Authors of the Metaphysics Commentary Ascribed to Alexander and Ps.-Alexander? 1. A Recensio of Alexander of Aphrodisias’ Commentary on the Metaphysics? 2. Adaptation and Reactualisation: A Persistent Attitude? Disparaging Scholium no. 1 Disparaging Scholium no. 2 3. Modern Editing and Textual Criticism: A Simplistic Approach? The Ancient Commentators on AristotleTranslations Bibliography Index Locorum Index