Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Topics 2

Description

Aristotle’s Topics is a handbook for dialectic, which can be understood as a philosophical debate between a questioner and a respondent. In book 2, Aristotle mainly develops strategies for making deductions about ‘accidents’, which are properties that might or might not belong to a subject (for instance, Socrates has five fingers, but might have had six), and about properties that simply belong to a subject without further specification. In the present commentary, here translated into English for the first time, Alexander develops a careful study of Aristotle’s text. He preserves objections and replies from other philosophers whose work is now lost, such as the Stoics. He also offers an invaluable picture of the tradition of Aristotelian logic down to his time, including innovative attempts to unify Aristotle’s guidance for dialectic with his general theory of deductive argument (the syllogism), found in the Analytics. The work will be of interest not only for its perspective on ancient logic, rhetoric, and debate, but also for its continuing influence on argument in the Middle Ages and later. Cover page Halftitle page General Editors Title page Copyright page Acknowledgements Contents Conventions Abbreviations Introduction Alexander, Aristotle’s Topics and Peripatetic Logic 1. Preliminary remarks 2. The general view: The Topics, the Organon, and Peripatetic logic 3. General theory and practice: Some examples 4. Topoi as arkhai and stoikheia of deductive arguments 5. Note on the translation 6. Note on the Greek text Acknowledgements Notes List of Departures from Wallies’ Text Alexander of Aphrodisias On Aristotle Topics 2 Translation Alexander of Aphrodisias’s commentary on the second book of Aristotle’s topical investigation Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Notes Bibliography English–Greek Glossary Greek–English Index Index of Passages Subject Index