(DOWNLOAD) "On the Several Senses of 'Form' in Aristotle (Report)" by APIERON # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: On the Several Senses of 'Form' in Aristotle (Report)
- Author : APIERON
- Release Date : January 01, 2008
- Genre: Religion & Spirituality,Books,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 209 KB
Description
Aristotle, it is well known, seems to make conflicting statements about the nature of form. (1) The most striking such conflict concerns form's priority. In the Categories, Aristotle says that [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] is secondary substance (Cat 2a16), while concrete particulars like Socrates and a horse are primary substances. In the Metaphysics, on the other hand, Aristotle says that [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] is prior to composite substances such as Socrates and a horse (Metaph 1029a32). In the Metaphysics, therefore, forms, not concrete particulars, it would seem, are primary substances. Of course, Aristotle's apparently conflicting statements are only genuinely conflicting if he means the same thing by 'form' in each statement. So, what does Aristotle mean by 'form'? As it turns out, this is a rather difficult question to answer. Because of the centrality of form in Aristotle's philosophy, and because it is a technical notion, one might think that determining what a form is would be a relatively straightforward task. For surely, one might think, Aristotle would not repeatedly use a technical notion without defining it. So, determining what a form is should only require an inspection of Aristotle's definition. In keeping with this optimistic line of thought, one might turn to Aristotle's definition of form in his lexicon of terms. In Metaphysics V, 5, Aristotle says: