Table Of ContentAristotle on Definition
Philosophia Antiqua
A Series of Studies on Ancient Philosophy
PreviousEditors
J.H. Waszink†
W.J. Verdenius†
J.C.M. Van Winden
Editedby
K.A. Algra
F.A.J. De Haas
J. Mansfeld
C.J. Rowe
D.T. Runia
Ch. Wildberg
VOLUME109
Aristotle on Definition
By
Marguerite Deslauriers
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2007
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ISSN: 0079-1687
ISBN:9789004156692
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In memoriam
Jean-Jacques Deslauriers
Ste. Marguerite, 1914 – Montréal, 1998
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements .................................................... ix
Introduction............................................................ 1
ChapterOne:AristotleonDivision .................................. 11
Platooncollectionanddivision.................................... 15
Aristotleoncollectionanddivision ................................ 18
Whatistheobjectofdefinitionbydivision?....................... 33
Problems ............................................................ 39
ChapterTwo:TheFourTypesofDefinition......................... 43
Twoobjectsofdefinition ........................................... 48
Whatisittohave somethingelseasanaition?..................... 55
Simpleobjectsandimmediatedefinitions ......................... 66
Conclusion .......................................................... 79
ChapterThree:DefinitionsandAitia................................. 81
Aitia andthestructure ofsyllogisticandimmediate definitions... 85
Whyandhowdefinitionswithaitia arenecessary.................102
Conclusion ..........................................................111
ChapterFour:DefinitionanditsObjectintheMetaphysics..........113
Theproblemofcompoundsandcoupleditems...................117
Theunityofthedefinableformandofthedefinition ............129
Matterinthedefinableform.......................................138
Definitionsanddefinableessencesasuniversals...................157
Conclusion ..........................................................176
viii contents
ChapterFive:StatingtheEssenceintheTopics ......................179
QuestionsfromtheMetaphysics andthePosteriorAnalytics..........179
CantheTopics concernmetaphysicsorscience? ..................182
TheTopics anddefinition...........................................187
StatingtheessenceintheTopics....................................189
HowtheTopics answersthequestions..............................206
Twoproblems.......................................................208
Conclusion.............................................................211
Bibliography ...........................................................213
IndexLocorum ........................................................219
GeneralIndex .........................................................225
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am very grateful to John Rist and Father Joseph Owens, for their
help in the early stages of work on this book. Vianney Décarie, Mary
J. Norton and David Fate Norton offered me models of scholarship
as well as friendship. For instructive philosophical conversations I wish
to thank Calvin Normore, Brad Inwood, Lloyd Gerson, Eric Lewis,
Stephen Menn, Mary Louise Gill, and Jim Hankinson. I learned a lot
fromaseminarofferedatKing’s College,UniversityofLondonbyTad
Brennan and Mary Margaret McCabe in 1993, and from the students
in a seminar I offered in 1997 at McGill University. Rebekah Johnston
read a draft of the book, and offered astute comments that helped
me in revising it. An earlier version of Chapter One was published in
Ancient Philosophy in 1991; an earlier version of Chapter Two appeared
in Apeiron in 1990. I am grateful to the editors and the referees of
those journals for their advice. I wish to thank the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada for a grant that allowed me
tocompletethe book,and McGillUniversityforasabbatical leave that
provided the time. Julien Villeneuve and Florentien Verhage assisted in
the preparation of the manuscript, for which I thank them both. I am
most grateful to Eric Lewis for his cooking, which helped to keep body
andsoultogetherwhileIthoughtaboutAristotle’slogic.
Paris
October,2006
Description:This work examines Aristotles discussions of definition in his logical works and the Metaphysics , and argues for the importance of definitions of simple substances, drawing the connection between definitions as first principles of demonstration and as statements of essence.
