Abstract

This is a collection of articles written by Kenny on the Aristotelian tradition mostly during the 1990s. Three of them bear on moral philosophy, four on the philosophy of mind, and the last three on twentieth-century developments. Given the recent renewed breadth of research in the history of Aristotelianism and its impact, Kenny’s introductory essay on “The Aristotelian Tradition”, is obviously of the highest interest. Kenny’s point is simple. It is wrong to follow A. N. Whitehead’s hint that the European tradition in philosophy consists “of a series of footnotes to Plato.” It is true that Aristotle indeed owed an enormous debt to Plato, and he showed the latter’s influence in almost everything he wrote. But it is also true, says Kenny, that in philosophy Aristotle’s “scope was broader and his judgment sounder than that of his master,” so that “it would be absurd to see him only as the first and greatest of history’s footnotes”. The stress on the opposition between Plato and Aristotle began during the Renaissance. The truth, is, however, that modern historians have proved to be less perceptive than the very many commentators in late antiquity who saw their duty to construct a harmonious concord between the two greatest philosophers of the ancient world. For instance, Byzantine scholars used to express their views in favor of Plato in the form of commentaries on Aristotle. This was because, says Kenny, “Aristotle took a large part of his philosophical agenda from Plato, and his teaching was often more a modification than a refutation of Platonic doctrines”.