FOCAL DEPENDENCE, LOGICAL PRIORITY AND THE UNITY OF ARISTOTLE’S METAPHYSICS
Palabras clave:
Metaphysics (unity of), logical priority, focal meaningResumen
A long-standing problem in Aristotelian scholarship concerns the question of how to reconcile Aristotle’s twofold description of metaphysics as ontology (the universal science of being qua being) and theology (the science of the changeless and separate substance). An important attempt to answer this question (advanced first by G. Patzig) consists in saying that the changeless
and separate substance is focally prior to (or the focal meaning of) substance and therefore to being in general (since substance is focally prior to being in general). This article aims to refute this kind of approach to the problem of the unity of Aristotle’s metaphysics by arguing that (i) relations of focal meaning entail the logical (definitional) priority of the prior items over the dependent items standing in such relations; (ii) the changeless and separate substance is not logically prior to the other types of substances distinguished by Aristotle; and, therefore, (iii) the changeless and separate substance is not focally prior to (the focal meaning of) substance.
Referencias
I. Primary sources:
I. A. Aristotle:
“Aristotle’s De Anima (Books II and III)”. D. W. Hamlyn (trans.). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968 [=DA].
“Aristotle. Eudemian Ethics”. B. Inwood, R. Woolf (trans. & eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013 [=EE].
“Aristotle. On the Heavens”. W. K. C. Guthrie (trans.). Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1939 [=De Cael].
“Aristotelis Categoriae et Liber de Interpretatione”. L. Minio-Paluello (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974.
“Aristotle’s Metaphysics”. D. Ross (ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924.
“Aristotle’s Physics Books I and II”. W. Charlton (trans.). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992 [=Phys].
“Categories”. J. L. Ackrill (trans.). In: The Complete Works of Aristotle (Vol. 1). J. Barnes (ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995 [= Cat].
“Metaphysics”. D. Ross (trans.). In: The Complete Works of Aristotle (Vol. 2). J. Barnes (ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995 [=Met].
“Parts of Animals”. W. Ogle (trans.). In: The Complete Works of Aristotle (Vol. 1). J. Barnes (ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995 [=PA].
“Posterior Analytics”. J. Barnes (trans.). In: The Complete Works of Aristotle (Vol. 1). J. Barnes (ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995 [=Apo].
“Topics”. W. A. Pickard-Cambridge (trans.). In: The Complete Works of Aristotle (Vol. 1). J. Barnes (ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995 [=Top].
I.B. Other quoted primary sources:
ALBERTUS MAGNUS. “Metaphysica”. B. Geyer (ed.). Colonia: Monasterium Wesfalorum, 1960.
DUNS SCOTUS. “Quaestiones super Libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis”. R. Andrews, G. Etzkorn, G. Gal et al. (eds.). New York: Franciscan Institute Publications, 1997 [=Quaest Met Ar].
SUÁREZ, F. “Disputationes Metaphysicae”. S. Rábade, S. Caballero, A. Puigcerver (eds.). Madrid: Gredos, 1960 [=Disp Met].
THOMAS AQUINAS. “In Metaphysicam Aristotelis Commentaria”. M.-R. Cathala (ed.). Taurini: Marietti, 1926. [= In Met Ar Comm].
II. Secondary Literature:
ADEMOLLO, F. “Plato’s conception of forms: some remarks”. In: R. Chiaradonna and G. Galluzzo (eds.) 2013, pp. 41-86.
ANAGNOSTOPOULOS, G. (ed.). “A Companion to Aristotle”. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
BARNES, J., SCHOFIELD, M., SORABJI, R. (eds.). “Articles on Aristotle. 3. Metaphysics”. London: Duckworth, 1979.
BERTI, E. “Multiplicity and unity of being in Aristotle”. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, New Series – v. CI, 2001, pp. 185-207.
______. “Logical and ontological priority among the genera of substance in Aristotle”. In: J. Mausfeld and L. M. de Rijk (eds.) 1975, pp. 55-69.
BONITZ, H. “Index Aristotelicus” (with addenda et corrigenda by O. Gigon), Berlin, 1870.
CHIARADONNA, R., GALLUZZO, G. (eds.). “Universals in Ancient Philosophy”. Pisa: Scuola Normale Superiore, 2013.
CLEARY, J. “Aristotle on the many senses of priority”. Southern Illinois University Press, 1988.
DUARTE, S. “Aristotle’s theology and its relation to the science of Being qua Being”. Apeiron 40/3, 2007, pp. 267-318.
FEREJOHN, M. “Aristotle on focal meaning and the unity of science”. Phronesis, 25/2, 1980, pp. 117-128.
FRASER, K. “Demonstrative science and the science of being qua being”. Oxford studies in ancient philosophy, 22, 2002, pp. 43-82.
FREDE, M. “Introduction”. In: M. Frede, D. Charles (eds.), 2000, pp. 1-52.
______. (2000a): “Metaphysics Λ 1”. In: M. Frede, D. Charles (eds.), 2000, pp. 53-80.
______. (1987): “The unity of general and special metaphysics: Aristotle’s conception of metaphysics”. In: FREDE, M. (ed.). Essays in ancient philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987. pp. 81-95.
FREDE, M., CHARLES, D. (eds.). “Aristotle’s ‘Metaphysics’ Lambda. Symposium Aristotelicum”. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
LUDWIG, W. “Aristotle’s conception of the science of being”. The new scholasticism, 4, 1989, pp. 379-404.
MANSFELD, J., DE RIJK, L. M. (eds.). “Kephalaion: Studies in Greek philosophy and its continuation offered to Prof. C. J. de Vogel”. Anseen: Van Gorcum, 1975.
MCDANIEL, K. “Ways of Being”. In: CHALMERS, D., MANLEY, D., WASSERMAN, R. (eds.). Metametaphysics: New Essays in the Foundations of Ontology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
______. “Degrees of Being”. Philosophers’ Imprint, Vol. 13, Nr. 19, 2013, pp. 1-18.
MERLAN, P. “On the terms ‘Metaphysics’ and ‘Being qua Being”. Monist 52, 1968, pp. 174-194.
OWEN, G. E. L. “Logic and Metaphysics in some earlier works of Aristotle”. In: J. Barnes, M. Schofield, R. Sorabji (eds.), 1979, pp. 14-32.
PATZIG, G. “Theology and Ontology in Aristotle’s Metaphysics”. In: J. Barnes, M. Schofield, R. Sorabji (eds.), 1979, pp. 33-49.
______. “Theologie und Ontologie in der Metaphysik des Aristoteles”. Kant-Studien, 52, 1960, pp. 185-205.
PERAMATZIS, M. “Priority in Aristotle’s Metaphysics”. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
REALE, G. “The concept of first philosophy and the unity of the Metaphysics of Aristotle”. New York: State University of New York, 1979.
SEDLEY, D. “Plato and the One-over-Many Principle”. In: R. Chiaradonna, G. Galluzzo (eds.) 2013, pp. 113-138.
SHIELDS, Ch. “Being qua being”. In: Ch. Shields (ed.) 2012, pp. 344-371.
______. (ed.). “The Oxford handbook of Aristotle”. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
VIGO, A. “Aristóteles: una introducción”. Santiago: Instituto de Estudios de la Sociedad, 2007.
______. “Estudios Aristotélicos”. Pamplona: Eunsa, 2006.
WEDIN, M. V. “The science and axioms of being”. In: G. Anagnostopoulos (ed.), 2009, pp. 125-143.
