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Aristotle's Analytic Tools, Mary Mulhern

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Aristotle developed analytic tools to deal with conceptual difficulties that were important in his time. Some of these tools are his explicit analysis of homonymy, his eightfold classification of subjects and predicates and its elaboration into the predicaments and predicables, his syntactical analysis of ordinary language sentences, and his construction of a formal language for deductive and demonstrative syllogistic. Some of these conceptual difficulties are traceable to theories of Ideas, in which definitory predicates were not distinguished from non-definitory ones, as for instance in Hypothesis V of the Parmenides, where it is argued that the (non-existent) one is not equal …

Saying, Meaning And Signifying: Aristotle's Λέγεται Πολλαχῶς, Jurgis (George) Brakas

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The purpose of this essay is to identify the precise meaning of λέγεται as it appears in constructions such as those considered, as well as the meaning of those constructions themselves. My thesis is that λέγεται means “is uttered signifying something.” If we take this to be correct for the moment, then a construction as τἀγαθόν ἰσαχώς λέγεται τῶ ὄντι, γάρ εν πάσαις ταῖς κατηγορίαις λέγεται means “ ‘the good’ is uttered signifying as many things as ‘being’ is, for it is uttered signifying something in all the categories”-- for example: god in the category of substance, the virtues in …

Macdonald On Aristotle On The Good, Jurgis Brakas

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

There is a passage in the Nicomachean Ethics (NE) that holds out the promise of giving us a profound insight into Aristotle’s view of the good. The problem is that the passage, A.6: 1096a23-29, has proved remarkably resistant to satisfactory interpretation, defying the efforts of scholars over the last eight decades. It argues, contra Plato, that the good cannot be one thing and, according to Irwin’s translation, reads as follows:

Further, good is spoken of in as many ways as being is spoken of. For it is spoken of in [the category of] what-it-is, as god and mind; in quality, …

The Plotinian Reduction Of Aristotle's Categories, Christos C. Evangeliou

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

I propose to consider the Plotinian reduction of Aristotle’s categories, especially as presented in the problematic VI. 3. 3. The following questions will be discussed: Which of the Aristotelian categories did Plotinus consider dispensable and for what specific reasons? Are there any non-Aristotelian categories in the Plotinian set and, if so, where do they come from and how do they function? By what method, if any, did Plotinus determine the number of his set of categories and why just five? Finally, why is it that Plotinus is the last, in a long series of Platonists, to sharply criticize Aristotle’s doctrine …

Is Αγαθον A Pros Hen Equivocal In Aristotle's Ethics?, Lawrence Jost

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Is agathon a pros hen equivocal? EN does not unambiguously endorse this idea, and it is difficult to defend. EE remains silent on the question.