History of Philosophy Commons^™

Dust To Dust: Aristotle's Account Of Generation And Desctruction, Mary Louise Gill

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

I believe Aristotle could endorse God’s statement to Adam as reflecting his own theory of generation and destruction. Complex bodies, such as living organisms, are generated out of earth, and to earth they will ultimately return. In this paper I will argue that Aristotle defends a cyclical model of generation and destruction which starts and ends with some simple stuff. I will call the model the ''construction model." The construction model underlies many of Aristotle’s claims about substantial generation and destruction, but he presents the main theory in Metaphysics H.5, a text that is curiously neglected in recent discussions of …

Ethical Method In Aristotle: Setting Out The Phainomena, Daniel T. Devereux

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

My chief objective here is the task of setting out and clarifying the data that we need to consider in giving an account of Aristotle's method in ethics. These data are more complex than is usually supposed. I argue that it may be quite misleading to speak of the method of endoxa as the dialectical method, and that it is a mistake to think that there are close parallels between this method and the concept of dialectic discussed in the Topics.

Sagp Newsletter 1987/8.2 (November), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Announcement of the meetings of the Society with the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association and with the American Philological Association for December 1987.

Ends And Intrinsic Goods In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Richard Kraut

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

(The attached paper is in fact a longish abstract. Here is a SHORT abstract)

This paper considers some connections between NE I and NE X.7-8. I argue that the two are consistent, and that Aristotle proposes two dominant ends, one for the philosophical life, another for the political life.

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 …

The Aporias Of De Anima Γ 4, 429b22-430a9., John Driscoll

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Aristotle introduces the assumption that mind is, as described by Anaxagoras, 'without mixture,' later restating it in his own terms as the view that mind is simple and ἀπαθές and without anything in common with anything else. This leads to two aporias: how, Aristotle asks, will thinking be possible under the assumptions stated, and how can mind itself be an object of thought? He then states two theses of his own: while mind is its objects potentially it is nothing in actuality until thinking occurs, and in the case of things without matter what thinks is the same as what …

Epicurus On Pleasure And Happiness, Julia Annas

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

I concentrate on Epicurus' attempt to show that pleasure is complete, not just one aim we have for its own sake but ultimately the only non-instrumental aim we have. Epicurus tells us that we will be happy, have the best overall life, by having pleasure as our final aim, and that we shall achieve this by living according to the virtues, by becoming a certain kind of person.

Sagp Newsletter 1986/7.4 (March), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Announcement of the meeting of the Society with the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association, May 1 1987.

Sagp Newsletter 1986/7.3 (February), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Announcement of the meeting of the Society with the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, March 1987.