Two Greek Aristotelian Commentators on the Intellect

Two Greek Aristotelian Commentators on the Intellect PDF

Author: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies

Publisher: PIMS

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 9780888442833

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No Aristotelian doctrine had a greater influence on medieval philosophy and theology than that of the agent, or active, intellect. This influence, however, was mediated by a long tradition of exegesis in which the Greek commentaries of later antiquity played a dominant role. The two commentaries presented here were known to have been influential in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The first is a short treatise called the "De intellectu", attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias; the second a paraphrase of Aristotle's "De anima" (3.4-8) by Themistius, which also includes a major interpretation of "De anima" (3.5), the chapte on the active intellect.

Aristotle Transformed

Aristotle Transformed PDF

Author: Richard Sorabji

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2016-06-30

Total Pages: 649

ISBN-13: 1472589084

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This book brings together twenty articles giving a comprehensive view of the work of the Aristotelian commentators. First published in 1990, the collection is now brought up to date with a new introduction by Richard Sorabji. New generations of scholars will benefit from this reissuing of classic essays, including seminal works by major scholars, and the volume gives a comprehensive background to the work of the project on the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle, which has published over 100 volumes of translations since 1987 and has disseminated these crucial texts to scholars worldwide. The importance of the commentators is partly that they represent the thought and classroom teaching of the Aristotelian and Neoplatonist schools and partly that they provide a panorama of a thousand years of ancient Greek philosophy, revealing many original quotations from lost works. Even more significant is the profound influence – uncovered in some of the chapters of this book – that they exert on later philosophy, Islamic and Western. Not only did they preserve anti-Aristotelian material which helped inspire Medieval and Renaissance science, but they present Aristotle in a form that made him acceptable to the Christian church. It is not Aristotle, but Aristotle transformed and embedded in the philosophy of the commentators that so often lies behind the views of later thinkers.

The Ancient Commentators on Plato and Aristotle

The Ancient Commentators on Plato and Aristotle PDF

Author: Miira Tuominen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-09-17

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1317492587

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In late antiquity the works of Plato and Aristotle were subject to intense study, which eventually led to the development of a new literary form, the philosophical commentary. Until recently these commentaries were understood chiefly as sources of information for the masters - Plato and Aristotle - they commented upon. However, in recent years, it has become increasingly acknowledged that the commentators themselves - Aspasius, Alexander, Themistius, Porphyry, Proclus, Philoponus, Simplicius and others - even though they worked in the Platonist - Aristotelian framework, contributed to this tradition in original, innovative and significant ways such that their commentaries are philosophically important sources in their own right. This book provides the first systematic introduction to the 'philosophy' of the commentators: their way of doing philosophy and the kind of philosophical problems they found interesting.Although there was no philosophy of the commentators in the sense of a definite set of doctrines, Tuominen shows how the commentary format was nevertheless a vehicle for original philosophical theorizing and argues convincingly that the commentators should take their place alongside other philosophers of antiquity in the history of western philosophy.

Aquinas on Human Self-Knowledge

Aquinas on Human Self-Knowledge PDF

Author: Therese Scarpelli Cory

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 1107042925

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A study of Aquinas's theory of self-knowledge, situated within the mid-thirteenth-century debate and his own maturing thought on human nature.

Alexander of Aphrodisias: Quaestiones 2.16-3.15

Alexander of Aphrodisias: Quaestiones 2.16-3.15 PDF

Author: R.W. Sharples

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2014-04-10

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1780934602

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This volume completes the translation in this series of Quaestiones attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias, the leading ancient commentator on Aristotle. The Quaestiones are concerned with physics and metaphysics, psychology and divine providence. They exemplify the process whereby Aristotle's thought came to be organised into 'Aristotelianism' and show how interpretations were influenced by doctrines of Hellenistic philosophy. Some, translated into Arabic and thence into Latin, played a part in the transmission of ancient Greek philosophy to the medieval world. Those interested in Aristotle's psychological views will find this half of Quaestiones particularly valuable. Ten of the problems discussed explicitly involve issues raised in On the Soul, including the unity of apperception and the transition from first to second actuality in the act of contemplation. A further dozen concern problems in physical theory, including infinity, necessity and potentiality. Quaestio 2.21 concerns divine providence and helps supplement our knowledge of Alexander's position based on surviving Arabic fragments of his On Providence.

Simplicius: Corollaries on Place and Time

Simplicius: Corollaries on Place and Time PDF

Author: J.O. Urmson

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2014-04-10

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 1780934289

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Is there such a thing as three-dimensional space? Is space inert or dynamic? Is the division of time into past, present and future real? Does the whole of time exist all at once? Does it progress smoothly or by discontinuous leaps? Simplicius surveys ideas about place and time from the preceding thousand years of Greek Philosophy and reveals the extraordinary ingenuity of the late Neoplatonist theories, which he regards as marking a substantial advance on all previous ideas.

Alexander of Aphrodisias: Quaestiones 1.1-2.15

Alexander of Aphrodisias: Quaestiones 1.1-2.15 PDF

Author: R.W. Sharples

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2014-04-10

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 1780934572

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The Quaestiones attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias, the leading ancient commentator on Aristotle, are concerned with physics and metaphysics, psychology and divine providence. They exemplify the process by which Aristotle's thought came to be organised into 'Aristotelianism', and show how interpretations were influenced by the doctrines of Hellenistic philosophy. Some of them, translated into Arabic and thence into Latin, played a part in the transmission of ancient Greek philosophy to the medieval world; and they are still of use today in the interpretation of Aristotle's views on such matters as the problem of universals and the relation between form and matter. The Quaestiones have been studied more and more in recent years; but the present volume and its successor offer the first translation of the whole collection into English or any other modern language.

The Self

The Self PDF

Author: Patricia Kitcher

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 0190087269

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"No philosophical dictum is better known than Descartes's assertion about the intimate relation between thinking and existing. What remains unknown is how we are to understand the 'I' who thinks and exists. This book is about the ways that the concept of an 'I' or a 'self' has been developed and deployed at different times in the history of Western Philosophy. It also offers a striking contrast case, the 'interconnected' self, who appears in some expressions of African Philosophy. Appealing to philosophy to illuminate the concept of a 'self' may seem unnecessary. Anyone who can read this book is a self, so why can we not just tailor a concept to fit what we already know about ourselves? This objection has considerable force and provides a constraint on efforts to fashion a self-concept. Although there is a sense of 'self-knowledge' in which it is said to require a lifetime of serious effort to achieve (and which is the topic of another volume in this series), what is at issue here is simply knowing that one is a self"--

Alexander of Aphrodisias and his Doctrine of the Soul

Alexander of Aphrodisias and his Doctrine of the Soul PDF

Author: Eckhard Keßler

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2011-06-22

Total Pages: 108

ISBN-13: 9004210199

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Following Alexander of Aphrodisias through the Aristotelian tradition from the second to the sixteenth century, this book discovers an almost forgotten leading figure in the fervently disputed development of psychology and natural philosophy in early modern times.