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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
To Hou Heneka And Continuous Change, Christopher Mirus
To Hou Heneka And Continuous Change, Christopher Mirus
The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter
Beginning with Aristotle’s statement in Physics II.2 that motion must be continuous to be for the sake of an end, I argue that properly understood, continuity is actually a sufficient condition for the goal- directedness of any motion in Aristotle’s teleology. I establish this conclusion first for the simple motions discussed in Physics V-VI, and then for complex changes such as the generation and development of a living thing. In both steps of the argument, the notion of καθ’ αυτό agency serves as a key link between continuity and goal-directedness. The understanding of Aristotle’s teleology that emerges from the consideration …
A Quarrel Between The Ancients And The Moderns: Aristotle's Realism And Modern Skepticism, Michael Bowler
A Quarrel Between The Ancients And The Moderns: Aristotle's Realism And Modern Skepticism, Michael Bowler
The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter
For Aristotle, the object as perceived and the subject as perceiving can only be understood with respect to the activity of perception itself and the unity it brings about between the perceived object and perceiving subject. This is a complex unity that requires further analysis and refinement. This unity is the ground of Aristotle’s “realism” with regard to perception. However, if this unity is dissolved into an external, synthetic connection between two dissimilar things only one of which we have access to, then it is at best problematic and perhaps impossible for us to discover anything about the other. This …