aristotles metaphysics beta symposium aristotelicum jul 2009

[...]... not unrelated to what we read in Metaphysics B: aporia is the equality of contrary arguments (he aporia isotes enantion logismon).17 It seems then that the regulated practice of aporia would have taken shape at some time between the late dialogues of Plato and some texts of the Aristotelian corpus which most probably belong to Aristotles Academic period One will 14 Metaphysics ` 2, 983a11 21 15 See... methodical practice of aporia; cf 217a and especially 250e 12 M Frede stressed this point in the comprehensive account that he presented to open the discussion during the last meeting of the Lille Symposium 13 Metaphysics ` 2, 928b17 20 introduction 5 with the tricks of the marvel workers, for those who have not yet understood the explanation; or they wonder at the changes in the suns course or at the... presented as a contra diction, the tension is maximal It is perforce necessary to choose p or not p, 24 Metaphysics 1, 995b3 4 25 There is no intermediary between contradictories, while there is one between contraries; it is then clear that a contradition and contraries are not the same thing (Metaphysics ẫ 4, 1055b1 3; see the similar distinction at 10, 1018a20 31; Categories 10, 11b38 12a25) 26... already functioning here the theoretical device that will be at work in Books and .52 Order of the aporiai, structure of the Metaphysics To conclude, it remains for us to address the two questions of the internal order of Book and of its relation to the other books of the Metaphysics In effect, since the aporiai concern wisdom, if they range signicantly over the the relevant eld of inquiry, and if... been presented in Book in the somewhat articial form of an aporetic knot found, this time freely discussed and resolved, in the rest of the Metaphysics? And (a stronger version of the same hypothesis) do they constitute on their own the programme for Aristotelian metaphysics as a whole and, therefore, also for the treatise? The relatively unsystematic character of the exposition of the aporiai in Book... systematic vision of the diaporetic method that opens chapter 1 tends to suggest, do not actually contain The reader of the Metaphysics cannot but be glad of this Translated by John Palmer 62 ẫ 2, 1053b10 24 63 è 2, 1076a38 b 1 This page intentionally left blank 1 Aporia Zero (Metaphysics 1, 995a24995b4)* ANDRE LAKS The rst chapter of Book consists of two parts, the rst of which ( 1a) contains a... escape from this difculty does not resemble the diaporetic procedure of the sort Aristotle will practise; it is described as a plane (136d e, 135e), a sort of purposeful wandering 17 Topics VI 6, 145b1 2 Aristotles criticism concerns the nonconformity of this formulation to the rules governing denition: aporia is not an attribute of the reasonings themselves, the opposition of which is only the cause of... that are going to follow, 993a24 27), if one does not reduce it to a simple linchpin designed to connect two distinct treatises (on this point, see further Laks, below p 29) It is to be noted that in the Metaphysics the examination of aporiai follows the doxographical exposition, whereas in the De Anima it precedes it something which perhaps signals that they ought to be simultaneous, as the De Anima suggests... 5; see further Crubellier, below p 47) 8 michel crubellier and andre laks The form of the aporiai of Book If, then, the existence of a well regulated practice of aporia is clearly attested outside Metaphysics , we possess no general methodological account of it, so that the best document (in fact, practically the only one) on which we can rely in giving such an account is precisely Book itself... sometimes even to real exceptions (1) The two competing theses are called contraries (enantioi logoi) in the denition of the Topics and in the passage of the De Caelo, and rivals (amphis betountes) in Metaphysics 1.24 But in the actual presentation of each aporia, they appear almost always as contradictories The most frequent formulations are: Is it the case that p, or not? and Is it the case that .