Abstract
Although there are recent studies on the problem of unity and on the continuous taken separately, none of them focuses on the relationship between continuity and unity in Aristotle. Based on the analysis of relevant passages from the Metaphysics and the De anima, I show how the Aristotelian notion of continuity (holding together), which is essential to his account of change, also plays a major role in distinguishing different degrees of unity among composite substances (including artifacts). Continuity also helps to describe and articulate the unity exercised by the efficient causality of the form and the soul.
References
Aristoteles. 1997. Metaphysics, A Revised Text with Introduction and Commentary by W. D. Ross, 2 Vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Search in Google Scholar
Aristotle. 1995. The Complete Works of Aristotle, edited by Jonathan Barnes, 2 vols. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Beere, J. 2009. Doing and Being: An Interpretation of Aristotle’s Metaphysics Theta. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199206704.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Corish, D. 1969. “The Continuum.” Review of Metaphysics 23:523–46.Search in Google Scholar
Furth, M. 1988. Substance, Form, and Psyche: An Aristotelian Metaphysics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511552557Search in Google Scholar
Gill, M. L. 1989. Aristotle on Substance: The Paradox of Unity. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Katayama, E. G. 2008. “Substantial Unity and Living Things in Aristotle.” APEIRON 41:99–127.10.1515/APEIRON.2008.41.3.99Search in Google Scholar
Kim, H. -K. 2008. “Metaphysics H 6 and the Problem of Unity.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 46:25–42.10.1353/hph.2008.1834Search in Google Scholar
Kosman, A. 2013. The Activity of Being: An Essay on Aristotle’s Ontology. Cambridge: Hardvard University Press.10.4159/harvard.9780674075023Search in Google Scholar
Lewis, F. A. 1995. “Aristotle on the Unity of Substance.” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 76:222–65.10.1111/j.1468-0114.1995.tb00150.xSearch in Google Scholar
Matthews, G. B. 1999. “De Anima 2. 2–4 and the Meaning of Life.” In Essays on Aristotle De Anima, edited by M. C. Nussbaum and A. O. Rorty, 185–93. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/019823600X.003.0012Search in Google Scholar
Mirus, C. V. 2001. “Homonymy and the Matter of a Living Body.” Ancient Philosophy 21:357–73.10.5840/ancientphil200121243Search in Google Scholar
Mirus, C. V. 2004. “The Metaphysical Roots of Aristotle’s Teleology.” Review of Metaphysics 57:699–724.Search in Google Scholar
Shields, C. 2008. “Substance and Life in Aristotle.” APEIRON 41:129–51.10.1515/APEIRON.2008.41.3.129Search in Google Scholar
Waschkies, H. J. 1991. “Mathematical Continuum and Continuity of Movement.” In La Physique d’aristote et les conditions d’une science de la natur, edited by F. De Gandt and P. Souffrin, 151–79. Paris: Vrin.Search in Google Scholar
White, M. J. 1992. The Continuous and the Discrete: Ancient Physical Theories From a Contemporary Perspective. New York: Clarendon Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198239529.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
© 2017 Walter de Gruyter Inc., Boston/Berlin
