Anthony Preus - The Myth of Aristotle's Development and the Betrayal of Metaphysics - Journal of the History of Philosophy 40:4 Journal of the History of Philosophy 40.4 536-537 Book Review The Myth of Aristotle's Development and the Betrayal of Metaphysics Walter E. Wehrle. The Myth of Aristotle's Development and the Betrayal of Metaphysics. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. Pp. xiii + 279. Cloth, $75.00. Walter Wehrle was a clever scholar who struggled all his life with a (...) crippling illness that led to his death at the age of forty-nine. His widow, with the help of a friend and colleague, David Schum, saw this posthumous book into print. Wehrle focuses on one argument line used by some of those who have theories of Aristotle's development:.. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:The Female in Aristotle’s Biology: Reason or RationalizationTony PreusRobert Mayhew. The Female in Aristotle’s Biology: Reason or Rationalization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Pp. xi +136. Cloth, $28.00.Aristotle's views on the ethical, social, and political roles of women have repeatedly drawn the attention of scholars. Often, the central focus of the discussion is Politics I.13, 1260 a13, where Aristotle says that although women have a deliberative faculty, (...) it is akuron, "without authority." A charitable (from our point of view) interpretation of that word would have him mean that women are capable of ethical and political decision-making, but fourth-century BCE Athenian social arrangements prevent their exercising that capacity outside the home. However, many readers of Aristotle suppose that he means to indicate a natural difference between men and women, some mental or moral inferiority of women. A few passages in the Politics support that interpretation (e.g., Pol. I.2, 1254 b13, 12.1259 a40), but those do not provide a "scientific" or "biological" grounding of female inferiority. That sort of thing one would expect to find in the biological works. Mayhew's monograph is an exposition of the errors and exaggerations of some of those writers, from the usually careful Martha Nussbaum to the usually unreliable Luce Iragaray.The least cautious critics of Aristotle's views on women typically fasten on his views on sexual generation; as Mayhew shows (ch. 3), such critics either claim that Aristotle believed that women contribute only a place for generation to occur, or that women contribute totally passive matter. Mayhew is able to demonstrate, rather easily, that either claim depends on total ignorance or total misunderstanding of the actual contents of the Generation of Animals. In Aristotle's opinion, the female provides proximate matter for the offspring, something that is almost able to develop into a new individual and needing only the impetus and form provided by the male contribution. Having started with the "form/matter" distinction, it is pretty obvious that the female provides the matter (a bird egg is all of the matter that goes to make the chick), and the male is necessary for reproduction to [End Page 109] occur, so it must be a source of movement (at least) and some element of form (since the offspring partially resembles its male parent) that comes from that source. (For older discussions of this issue, see my Science and Philosophy in Aristotle's Biological Works [Hildesheim, 1975], ch. 2, and J. Morsink, "Was Aristotle's Biology Sexist?" J. Hist. Biol.12 [1979]:83-112, neither noted by Mayhew). But what would be the ethical or political implications of that distinction? Aristotle says that it is "better" to provide form, but there's no straightforward way to conclude from that difference that a woman's deliberative faculty is less authoritative than a man's, any more than there is any straightforward way to argue from the fact that a woman might spend some time pregnant that a permanent pay differential is justified. And Aristotle does not try to make that sort of argument, as a matter of fact.Mayhew deals with most of the other arguments that some have derived from the biological works to support their view that Aristotle's "science" is the foundation of his (supposed) sexism. For example, he points out that although Aristotle does call "kings" the bees that we call "queens," he also calls the analogue among wasps the "mothers" or "wombs"; Mayhew says that Aristotle seems to have thought that the king/queen bee was hermaphroditic and parthenogenetic. Mayhew also has an original and interesting chapter on Aristotle's comparisons between women and eunuchs; although he notes that Aristotle was friendly with at least one eunuch, Hermeias, the uncle of Aristotle's young wife, he leaves out Aristotle's poetic praise of Hermeias (see R. Renehan, in Greek, Roman, and Byz. Stud.23 [1982]: 251-74). Suppose women were "eunuchoid" according to Aristotle, it couldn't mean that they were consequently intellectually inferior, since at least one eunuch was, in Aristotle's opinion, intellectually superior.Mayhew also discusses, adequately enough, the issues of brain... (shrink)

The ancient Greeks were not only the founders of western philosophy, but the actual term "philosophy" is Greek in origin, most likely dating back to the late sixth century BC. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Euclid, and Thales are but a few of the better-known philosophers of ancient Greece. During the amazingly fertile period running from roughly the middle of the first millennium BC to the middle of the first millennium AD, the world saw the rise of science, numerous schools of (...) thought, and—many believe—the birth of modern civilization. The Historical Dictionary of Ancient Greek Philosophy presents the history of Greek philosophy and the philosophers who made it famous. This is accomplished through a chronology, an introduction, a glossary, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on important philosophers, concepts, issues, and events. (shrink)

This second edition covers the history of Greek philosophy through a chronology, an introductory essay, a glossary, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1500 cross-referenced entries on important philosophers, concepts, issues, and events.

It is often said that to understand Plato we must understand his times. Many readers who might accept without question this saying of historical criticism may still wonder why we should think it necessary to begin our enquiry as far back as Homer and beyond. In the case of Plato there is an even greater need to pursue the argument back to the very beginnings of the historical period in which he lived and worked. It is quite impossible to understand (...) the genesis of Plato's ideas without understanding the profound change that Greek society underwent in the post-Homeric period that preceded him. This change in social structure created a mercantile, progressive Greek society, one which laid the foundations for all the subsequent history of Europe and the West. The Genesis of Plato's Thoughtis particularly highly regarded because it departs vigorously from the traditional abstract, static view of Plato's thought. Winspear's volume on Plato's thought traces, in a realistic fashion, the deep-reaching social and economic roots of Plato's concept of the state and society. Winspear believes that nowhere can the social roots of philosophy be more sharply seen and more firmly apprehended than when one is dealing with the origins of Western philosophy among the Greeks. His book contains the body of information which any reader should have if they wish to approach Plato as a historical figure. To make the book useful to a wide circle of readers, brief biographical identifications for the various important figures of Greek life are introduced in the text. (shrink)

Aristotle famously claims that the essence of citizenship is participation in “administration of justice, and in offices” (Pol 3.1.1275a22-23, cf. 1275b19-21). Socrates was (not very enthusiastically) a citizen of Athens in Aristotle’s paradigmatic sense; but historical studies have shown that Socrates’ contemporaries took the essence of citizenship to be “sharing in the honors” of the polis by honoring the gods, participating in worship, and benefiting the community. The results of his trial show that he was not universally regarded as an (...) excellent citizen by his contemporaries, as they understood citizenship in Athens, though later generations apparently revised their opinion. Doubtless Plato and Xenophon took Socrates to be an exemplary citizen, though their texts do not explicitly say so, since in their accounts of Socrates, citizenship per se is not often their focus. The character of Socrates, as described by Plato and Xenophon, has had an important influence on the historical development of the idea of citizenship. My major goal here is to show how the character of Socrates both exemplifies and challenges parameters described by recent theoreticians. (shrink)

This essay is an attempt to bring together two contrasting approaches to Aristotle’s theory of the soul—the explication of what Aristotle says about the psychē and its functions and activities, on the one hand, and on the other, the analysis of Aristotle’s contributions to the history of ideas about mental illness, its causes and remedies. The first approach has been primarily philosophical, while most of those who have written about Aristotle’s contributions to the history of madness have been medical or (...) psychiatric professionals. (shrink)

Block's hypothesis concerning the order of Aristotle's psychological writings can be defended against a criticism which arises from Lulofs' interpretation of Insomn. 2, 459b24-460a33. Such a defence results in the discovery of possible purely physiological senses of words heretofore thought essentially psychological.

The purpose of this article is to present arguments which indicate that PA 2. 16. 659b13–19 may not be authentic.

The purpose of this article is to present arguments which indicate that PA 2. 16. 659b13–19 may not be authentic.

After briefly putting Porphyry’s On Abstinence from Animal Food into its historical context, I present two biological theories which appear in this treatise: the first may be called “providential ecology,” the theory that the natural world operates very well without the intervention of man, that God or Nature takes care of biological balance most effectively without human intervention; the second may be called “the rationality of animals,” the theory that there is no radical distinction between human reason and the rationality (...) displayed by animals. Both theories may be placed into the general philosophical position elaborated by the earlier Neoplatonists conceming man’s place in nature, the character of embodied souls, and the interrelationships between being, God, and λόγοϛ; I have not, however, set myself this larger task. (shrink)

Indexed by names, concepts, and classical passages cited. Also in paper (not seen) $16.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

An anthology devoted to the intellectual developments that led up to the philosophy of Plato.

https://doi.org/10.14195/2183-4105_18_10.

https://doi.org/10.14195/2183-4105_18_10.

Against the thesis that permanently unconscious persons cannot be harmed, and thus are not owed moral deference, it is argued that even the dead can be harmed and are owed moral respect, so a fortiori those dubiously or not quite dead deserve some moral deference. Keywords: former person, right, euthanasia, comatose, personhood CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this?