Averroes’ Middle Commentaries on Aristotle’s "Categories" and "De Interpretatione"

215 Pages·1983·5.15 MB·English

by  Charles Butterworth

AVERROES'
MIDDLE COMMENTARIES
ON ARISTOTLE'S
CATEGORIES AND
DE INTERPRETATIONE

AVERROES'
MIDDLE COMMENTARIES
ON ARISTOTLE'S
CATEGORIES AND
DE INTERPRETATIONE
TRANSLATED, WITH NOTES
AND INTRODUCTIONS, BY
Charles E. Butterworth
Princeton University Press
Copyright © 1983 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
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FOR GABRIELLA
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CONTENTS
PREFACE IX
AVERROES' MIDDLE COMMENTARY ON
ARISTOTLE'S CATEGORIES 1
INTRODUCTION 3
THE ORDER OF THE ARGUMENT 19
THE TEXT 25
AVERROES' MIDDLE COMMENTARY ON
ARISTOTLE'S DE INTERPRETATIONS 89
INTRODUCTION 91
THE ORDER OF THE ARGUMENT 119
THE TEXT 125
INDEX 189

PREFACE
These are the first in a series of English translations of the
Arabic text of Averroes' middle commentaries on Aris­
totle's logical works. Subsequent volumes will present Eng­
lish translations of Averroes' middle commentaries on Ar­
istotle's Prior Analytics, Posterior Analytics, Topics, On Sophistical
Refutations, Rhetoric, and Poetics. These, like the other trans­
lations in this series, are based on the new critical editions
of Averroes' Arabic text which are being prepared and
published in Cairo under the auspices of the American
Research Center in Egypt. As with these other translations,
the goal here has been to present the English reader with
an understandable and coherent version of Averroes' text,
a version that remains faithful to the thought of the original
Arabic while retaining the character of standard English
expression.
Averroes' commentaries on Aristotle can make a claim to
the attention of learned people on at least two counts. The
first derives from their own intrinsic merit as philosophic
treatises and will be explored at greater length in the in­
troductions to each of the translations. The other has to
do with their significance as works representative of a dis­
tinct tradition of Aristotelian scholarship and is related to
the curious manner in which Aristotle's writings eventually
made their way to Western European centers of learning.
Though not without some relevance to this whole issue,
there is no reason to recount at length here the fascinating
and controversial tale of how a set of Aristotle's writings
was passed on from Theophrastus to Neleus, preserved
intact by the latter's heirs for an extraordinarily long period
of time, then transmitted to Apellikon, seized by Sylla when
he took Athens, sent to Rome to be entrusted to Tyrannion,