COMPLETE WORKS OF ARISTOTLE: TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY (FIFTH PHASE)

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Publications

Aristotle on Dialectic and First Principles

Publication . Mesquita, António Pedro

Over time, several authors have argued that, for Aristotle, dialectic is a method of discovery or establishment of the principles of science in general. In this article, I will present four arguments against this view and propose a deflationary view of the role of dialectic in this regard. According to this view, such a role consists only in the defence of common princi- ples against potential eristic attacks.

2017Journal article

Open access

La koinonía en Platón

Publication . Mesquita, António Pedro

This paper aims to defend the unitarian position of Plato’s thought through an analysis of the Sophist in its relation with other middle and late dialogues. Contrary to those who consider that koinonia is an exclusive philo- sophical motif of the late period and represents a break with the dialogues of the intermediate period, the text seeks to defend how koinonia in the Sophist is not a rupture but a development and a consummation of Platonic positions sustained since the middle dialogues.

2018Journal article

Open access

Relations in Aristotle

Publication . Mesquita, António Pedro

2017Book part

Open access

Aristotle on Predication

Publication . Mesquita, António Pedro

Predication is a complex entity in Aristotelian thought. The aim of the present essay is to account for this complexity, making explicit the diverse forms it assumes. To this end, we turn to a crucial chapter of the Posterior Analytics (1 22), where, in the most com- plete and developed manner within the corpus, Aristotle proceeds to systematize this topic. From the analysis, it will become apparent that predication can assume, generically, five forms: 1) the predication of essence (τὸ αὐτῷ εἶναι κατηγορεῖσθαι), that is of the genus and the specific difference; 2) essential predication (τό ἐν τῷ τί ἐστι κατηγορεῖσθαι), that is either of the genus or of the differences (or their genera); 3) the predication of accidents per se and 4) simple accidents (ὡς συμβεβηκότα κατηγορεῖσθαι); 5) accidental predication (κατὰ συμβεβηκὸς κατηγορεῖσθαι). However, only types 2–4 are forms of strict predication (ἁπλῶς). In effect, the “pre- dication” of essence is not a genuine predication, but a formula for identity, constituting, technically, the statement of the essence of the subject (or its definition). On the other hand, accidental “predication” can only be conceived of as such equivocally, since it results from a linguistic accident through which the ontological subject of the attribution suffers a displacement to the syntactic position of the predicate, which is not, by nature, its own. In neither case does the attribution bring about any legitimate predication. The study concludes with a discussion of Aristotle’s thesis according to which no subs- tance can be a predicate, which is implied by its notion of accidental predication, a thesis which has been – and in our opinion wrongly so – challenged in modern times.

2017Book part

Open access

Doutrinas não-escritas

Publication . Mesquita, António Pedro

No conjunto de controvérsias que dividiram a exegese platónica dos últimos cinquenta a cem anos, como a chamada ‘questão socrática’, o problema da unidade ou evolução do pensamento platónico ou o da cronologia dos diálogos, aquela que ainda hoje se afigura como mais fracturante é seguramente a das ‘doutrinas não-escritas’. O motivo principal da pertinácia historicamente demonstrada por esta controvérsia deve-se ao facto de existir no interior dos comentadores de Platão uma corrente, minoritária, mas influente – a chamada ‘escola de Tübingen’ ou ‘de Tübingen-Milão’, onde se destacam Hans-Joachim Krämer, Konrad Gaiser e, mais recentemente, Thomas Szlezak e Giovani Reale –, para quem a verdadeira filosofia platónica corresponde à das suas ‘doutrinas não-escritas’, por oposição àquelas escritas nas suas obras publicadas, os diálogos. No presente texto, gostaria de contribuir para uma reavaliação desta controvérsia e, em especial da posição nela assumida pela escola de Tübingen, na perspectiva de determinar qual o valor que deve ser respectivamente atribuído aos diálogos platónicos e às reconstituições modernas das alegadas doutrinas não-escritas de Platão como modo de acesso privilegiado à filosofia do Mestre Ateniense.

2018Book part

Open access