Laura M. Castelli

The Clarendon Aristotle Series is designed for both students and professionals. It provides accurate translations of selected Aristotelian texts, accompanied by incisive commentaries that focus on philosophical problems and issues. The volumes in the series have been widely welcomed and favourably reviewed. Important new titles are being added to the series, and a number of well-established volumes are being reissued with revisions and/or supplementary material. Laura M. Castelli presents a new translation and comprehensive commentary of the tenth book (Iota) of Aristotle's Metaphysics, which provides Aristotle's most systematic account of what it is for something to be one, what it is for something to be a unit of measurement, what contraries are, and what the function of contraries is in shaping the structure of reality into genera and species. There are some objective difficulties in making sense of Iota as a part of the Metaphysics and as a piece of Aristotelian philosophy. Castelli's Introduction tackles such general difficulties, while the commentary provides a detailed analysis of the arguments, of the more specific issues and of the philosophical points emerging from Aristotle's text. The English translation, based on Ross' critical edition, is meant as a tool for readers with or without knowledge of ancient Greek.

Book Iota

Aristotle: Metaphysics

Richard Sorabji

Michael Griffin

"Aristotle's Topics is a handbook for dialectic, or philosophical debate between a questioner and a respondent. In book 3, Aristotle develops strategies for arguing about comparative claims, in which properties are said to belong to subjects to a greater, lesser, or equal degree. Aristotle uses a single illustration, the property of choiceworthiness. For instance, should we prefer justice in our friends, or in our adversaries? In this commentary on Topics 3, here translated for the first time into English, Alexander of Aphrodisias argues for Aristotelian views in logic and ethics, and engages in debates with other philosophical schools, notably the Stoics. The commentary provides new evidence for Alexander's theory of the logic of comparison, which is notoriously difficult to fit in the framework of the general theory of deduction (syllogistic) of the Prior Analytics. In addition, Alexander's sensitive discussion of Aristotle's arguments about what is more, less, or equally choiceworthy provides a relatively neglected source for Aristotelian ethics in later antiquity. Finally, Alexander helpfully explains and analyzes Aristotle's often compressed arguments. This volume will be valuable reading for students of Aristotle and later ancient thought, and represents an important stage in the development of Aristotelian logic, ethics, and rhetoric"--

Laura M. Castelli

About

Books

Join the club