Introduction: Paths of Inquiry

INTRODUCTION: PATHS OF INQUIRY

[T]here came to be established a form of philosophy that, though it had two designations, was one and concordant, that of the Academics and the Peripatetics, who, though agreeing regarding things, differed in name . . . [A]nd those with Aristotle were called the Peripatetics, because they used to debate while walking in the Lyceum, while the others, since they carried on Plato’s custom of getting together and holding conversation in the Academy, which is another gymnasium, got their designa- tion from the name of the place. But both drew a great deal from Plato’s abundance. . . . Indeed, at first this was one philosophy with two names, as I said, for there was no difference between the Peripatetics and the old Academy of that time. Aristotle, as it seems to me, brought to it a certain copiousness of intellect, but both shared the same source and likewise distinguished things into desirable and repellent. Cicero, Academica I.iv.17

When Aristotle came back to Athens in Gryllus or On Rhetoric (polemically engag- 335/334, he was about 50, widely known, and ing the art of rhetoric as systematized by highly regarded. Yet, it seems likely that his Gorgias and Isocrates), Eudemus or On fame rested then on texts that are now for the the Soul (in antiquity, and even by later most part lost. With this return to the place neo-Platonists, held to be the equal of Plato’s where, still a teenager, he had come to study Phaedo), Protrepticus (extensively cited by with Plato, begins the most fecund period of Iamblichus of Apamea), On Ideas (ideally sit- his life. The majority of the works composing uated in the context of the debates on Plato’s the Aristotelian corpus as we know it probably thought, within Plato’s Academy itself), On date back to the years 335/334–323, when, the Good (engaging Plato’s teaching on having founded his own school in Athens (the principles and reconfiguring the question of Peripatos), Aristotle devoted himself to sys- the ideas), and On Philosophy (anticipating tematic teaching and concomitant writing. various aspects of Aristotle’s later treatises Aristotle had written copiously in the on first philosophy, from his characteristic past when he studied at Plato’s Academy philosophy of history and critical analy- (367/366–348/347 ca): writings such as sis of past and present discussions, to the

www.bloomsbury.com/the-bloomsbury-companion-to-aristotle-9781441108739 © Claudia Baracchi and Contributors (2014) The Bloomsbury Companion to Aristotle London: Bloomsbury INTRODUCTION: PATHS OF INQUIRY interrogation of principles in their multiplic- Yet, what for about two millennia has ity and unity) enjoyed wide circulation and been transmitted as the corpus aristoteli- remarkable appreciation. With the necessary cum includes almost exclusively writings caution, due to the lack of a reliable chro- from Aristotle’s years at the Peripatetic nology, other texts are frequently attributed school. This body of work, closely associ- to the period following Aristotle’s departure ated with the teaching activity, though not from the Academy and from Athens—when necessarily reducible to the status of lecture he traveled to Asia Minor, visiting Hermias notes, has survived in the systematization of Atarneus (347–345/344), and then to by Andronicus of Rhodes (first-century bc). Mytilene (345/344–343/342), subsequently This proved to be a momentous crystalliza- to become the teacher of Alexander, son of tion indeed, securing the transit of the corpus the Macedonian king Philip II (343/342– across centuries in an unvaried order and 340). Suffice it to mention, here, the treatise still providing the blueprint for Immanuel On the Cosmos (almost unanimously held Bekker’s edition (Berlin, 1831–70). With the to be spurious, yet most influential through- arrival of Aristotle’s original manuscripts in out the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and Rome3 and the edition by Andronicus, the available in numerous Latin translations)1 as esoteric texts pertaining to the Peripatetic well as On Kingship and Alexander or On courses, that is, Aristotle’s opera as we know Colonies, which may be ascribed to the years it, became more broadly available than ever at the Macedonian court. before. In the wake of this fateful event, a Prior to Aristotle’s return to Athens and new perception of Aristotle began to take the founding of the Peripatos, then, numer- shape and, simultaneously, the exoteric writ- ous published texts had made him a con- ings earlier enjoying vast circulation began to spicuous figure, prominently discussed in sink into oblivion. Clearly the esoteric texts, in philosophical circles and in the public space their difficulty and depth, imposed themselves alike. The exoteric writings were admired as at once as Aristotle’s outstanding contribution, well for their polished diction and artful com- eclipsing the public writings by virtue of their position, so much so that in later antiquity sheer stature. The material loss of the exoteric Aristotle was still remembered for the trans- texts is probably, at least to some extent, the porting force of his eloquence, celebrated counterpart of this cultural/epochal shift. as a “golden stream” (Cicero, Academica But a brief consideration is in order, con- II.xxxviii.119) of distinctive suavitas (Quin- cerning the nature of Andronicus’ catalogue tilian, Institutionum Oratoriarum X.i.83). and the implications of its ordering—even Indeed, we also have evidence of Aristotle’s aside from the various collations and tex- practice in lyric composition, most notably tual interventions attributed to him. There two poems dedicated to Hermias, the friend is almost universal concordance on the arbi- from the times of the Academia—an epigram trary and anachronistic character of this on his death and a commemorative song. operation.4 It has been said that Andronicus Perhaps tellingly, the latter begins with an forced Aristotle into a Hellenistic philo- invocation of virtue, said to require much sophical framework and, above all, that the labor (ἀρετὰ πολύμοχθε), and ends with the systematic stringency driving Andronicus’ evocation of Zeus the preserver of strangers, project was quite foreign to Aristotle’s own and the gift of steadfast friendship.2 way of proceeding. Now, it may in fact be

www.bloomsbury.com/the-bloomsbury-companion-to-aristotle-9781441108739 © Claudia Baracchi and Contributors (2014) The Bloomsbury Companion to Aristotle London: Bloomsbury INTRODUCTION: PATHS OF INQUIRY dubious that Andronicus was the eleventh edition, harbored in a millenary tradition scholarch of the Peripatos and, consequently, and reaching us via Bekker—is this at all it may be ill-advised simply to presume that systematic, in the sense of a closed and his editorial decisions might faithfully reflect self-enclosed doctrinal construct? In other the organization of studies at the Peripatetic words, are the preoccupations regarding the school. Furthermore, if Andronicus was con- extraneousness of the ancient editorial deci- vinced that one should read the Aristotelian sions perceptive enough and to the point? It texts starting from the logical treatises, he seems to me that the contrary is rather the had his first critic in his student, Boethus of case. Let us consider, albeit very succinctly, Sidon, who thought instead that one should the progression fixed by Andronicus, from access the corpus through the Physics. the focus on logical/“instrumental” discur- And yet. Yet, however cautiously, it may per- sivity, to the discourses on physical matters, haps be fruitful to consider the matter in a less to the psycho-biological discussions, to the prejudiced fashion. Perhaps, indeed, the matter question of principles and origins, to the is not this straightforward. In the first place, study of human, ethical and political issues, systematicity may be said in many ways. As has and finally to discursivity, again, but in light consistently been acknowledged, certainly we of beauty, creativity, and the disclosiveness do find in Aristotle a systematic vocation—if thereof. Reading, thinking with, or encoun- by this we mean the constant effort at drawing tering Aristotle will have involved this tran- connections and magnifying webs of relations, sition: from logos to phusis to praxis. at seizing the organic articulation of problems that only appear extraneous to each other, *** and at pursuing the interpenetration of ques- Thus, one must start with the logical trea- tions of unity and multiplicity, singularity and tises. Or perhaps not quite: Aristotle does the whole, finitude and immensity. Aristotle’s not speak of “logic” (this will be a Stoic thinking is distinctively architectonic and innovation), but addresses the manifold phe- always driven to situate the individual holis- nomenon of legein, of logos—how speak- tically. Every student or scholar of Aristotle ing is possible and how it articulates itself may grant this. Thus, when scholars consider in predication/attribution (Categories); how Andronicus’ initiative problematic, saying it speaking pertains to that which is and is not, would force Aristotle’s texts into a system- let alone that which may be and is not yet atic unity alien to it, they must have in mind (On Interpretation); how logos as sullogis- another sense of the word “system”: system mos can be demonstrative, show an unas- in the modern, or even late-modern, Hegelian sailable truth, through what figures and sense. This would indeed be genuinely alien modes (Prior Analytics); how demonstra- to Aristotle. Systematizing Aristotle’s work tion is possible, that is, how premises and in this manner would mean turning the open definitions (the starting points) are obtained systematicity that envisions interconnections (Posterior Analytics); how argumentation as into the self-enclosed system that claims to dialectical exchange can be artfully sustained have resolved multiplicity into totality—with (Topics, Sophistical Refutations). The gather- no residue. ing of these discourses, opening the course of But is this what Andronicus’ ordering studies according to Andronicus, constitutes does? Is the trajectory envisioned in his the Organon: quite literally, the tool, the

www.bloomsbury.com/the-bloomsbury-companion-to-aristotle-9781441108739 © Claudia Baracchi and Contributors (2014) The Bloomsbury Companion to Aristotle London: Bloomsbury INTRODUCTION: PATHS OF INQUIRY instrument propaedeutic to any kind of dis- Aristotelian program proceeds to consider cussion and inquiry. how the world as such is encountered. The Aristotle does not speak of logic but of analy- Physics and, more broadly, the various trea- sis, of analytics, analutike-: at stake is taking tises on cosmology and becoming concern apart, examining by laying out a complex precisely the world encountered in its dynamic subject matter in its elemental components. unfolding and constant transformation: phu- Strictly speaking, analysis is not a science,5 sis. The beings of nature are those beings but rather the illumination of the presupposi- having the principle of motion and rest in tions always already implicit in every scientific themselves (Physics 192b13–14), each mov- endeavor, in fact, in every gesture of logos: ing according to its own nature and belonging methodological awareness, one can say, is the in nature as the comprehensive field of motil- capacity for proceeding along a path (hodos) ity—far from inert matter mechanistically of inquiry while cultivating the conscious- explainable. It is clear that the question of life ness of the structural conditions involved imposes itself precisely in this connection. The (Metaphysics 1005b3). It also prepares one to psycho-biological treatises are a necessary and distinguish between different ways of proceed- intrinsic development of issues confronted in ing, assessing the most appropriate in each the study of physics. The cosmos itself, phusis case: it is in virtue of this kind of study that as a whole, is approached in the perspective of one knows that demonstrations must come to pervasive aliveness (though with different out- an end at some point, and is therefore prepared comes, say, in De Philosophia, Metaphysics to abstain from asking for a demonstration of XII, and De Caelo), in light of the sentience everything (1006a2–11). Again, by virtue of and vibrancy characteristic of living organ- this preliminary education, one knows when it isms. From this macroscopic level all the way is fitting to ask for demonstrations and when to the most minute living beings (from cos- the situation calls for other approaches—in- mology to biology, via De Anima), the psy- demonstrability being the common trait both chological questions are questions variously of first principles (Posterior Analytics) and addressing the phenomenon of the animal, the of becoming in its instability and fluctuation animate, and animation. (Nicomachean Ethics 1094b11–27). The trajectory of Andronicus’ Aristotle Not a science in any proper sense, but leads only at this point to “first philosophy.” rather the methodological consciousness That Aristotle did not have, let alone think, that can make the practice of inquiry (sci- the word “metaphysics” has been amply dis- entific and otherwise) perspicuous to itself, cussed with diverse results, and I shall leave the analysis of logos (logic, if you will) des- it aside here. For, in the first place, prior to ignates nothing formal, let alone abstract. taking a position on whether or not Aristotle It is always rooted in worldly involvements “had” a metaphysics, it would be relevant and practices at once preceding and envel- to think through this problem in light of the oping it. Thus rooted, it allows one to seize fact that conceptual categories are not ahis- more lucidly how the paths of inquiry are torical, transhistorical entities, translatable sustained, articulated, and drawn across and transposable from one epoch to another, the world’s open expanse. across time and space, while remaining con- Starting from such considerations on stant and intact. Indeed, Aristotle was among how the world is traversed, Andronicus’ the thinkers most acutely aware of such

www.bloomsbury.com/the-bloomsbury-companion-to-aristotle-9781441108739 © Claudia Baracchi and Contributors (2014) The Bloomsbury Companion to Aristotle London: Bloomsbury INTRODUCTION: PATHS OF INQUIRY difficulties pertaining to the philosophy of is the examination of first principles as they history, the genealogy of concepts, the finitude operatively display themselves in the world and mortality of cultures (Metaphysics I and and inform human practices—while, in turn, II could hardly be more peremptory in this human practices critically shape the ways in respect, as is Metaphysics XII.8). Secondly, which issues such as first principles emerge however, in the present context the ques- as problems and are interrogated. The archi- tion of “metaphysics” in Aristotle seems less tectonic discipline of ethics/politics, and the than compelling—for, even if Aristotle should exercises of dialectical confrontation and have thought the being simply separate and poetic articulation embedded therein, deter- unmoved, the point is how this thought would mine the way in which principles come to be woven into the fabric of his comprehensive appear at all. They make it clear that political reflection, where and at what juncture of the stipulations will never have been secondary, encompassing movement of his thinking this derivative issues. They likewise illuminate the moment would be situated. work of investigation as never simply sepa- The discussions surrounding “first philo- rable from the contribution of creativity and sophy” follow, according to Andronicus, the decisions involved in creative construc- those on physical, physiological, and psycho- tion. Creativity itself emerges as a mode of logical matters. It is only through the study exploration and disclosure no less than sci- of such issues that one comes to the questions entific inquiry. The treatises of this last seg- of first philosophy. Only by attending to the ment present the self-conscious insight of physical may one come to the possibility of the inquirer increasingly aware of the condi- interrogating the physical in such a way as tions and delimitations of her own pursuits. to transcend it, or as if transcending it—or, Far from paralyzing, the fact that all human again, in such a way as to begin to envision endeavors, including theoretical investigation the principles belonging to all the beings of (NE 1094a1), are thus framed, lucidly situ- phusis, principles so common and archaic ates the human in the awareness of its own that they no longer bear any resemblance to finitude and, at the same time, in the openness anything determinate. The principle of deter- to that which transcends and exceeds it—that mination and determinacy in and of itself has which cannot be reduced to the human and no determinate outline. Whether or not the its mortality, yet appears only through it. physical can actually be left behind, this is another matter, and a problematic one—as *** the discussion in Metaphysics IV paradig- In the wake of this drastically abbreviated matically shows, aiming as it does to speak overview of the Aristotelian trajectory accord- of “being qua being” and the axiomatics of ing to Andronicus, two brief remarks are in noncontradiction, yet at the same time neces- order—one systematic and the other histori- sarily maintaining an argumentation consist- cal in nature, both essentially philosophical. ently ethico-practical in tenor. First, it seems hardly the case that the order After the discussion on first philosophy, envisioned by the ancient editor would Aristotle’s trajectory culminates with the amount to a closed system, in the sense of a ethico-political treatises and comes to a close static, lifeless systematization having extin- with the Rhetoric and Poetics, showing that guished all residual questions. If what was the ultimate concern of the Greek philosopher exposed above is at all sustainable, far from

www.bloomsbury.com/the-bloomsbury-companion-to-aristotle-9781441108739 © Claudia Baracchi and Contributors (2014) The Bloomsbury Companion to Aristotle London: Bloomsbury INTRODUCTION: PATHS OF INQUIRY having brought questions to rest and obtained volume, as will become clear below, is organ- conclusive and inclusive mastery over them, ized according to Andronicus’ decision. In col- the course of studies outlined leads us to an lective volumes aiming to present the arc of open-ended culmination. In this culmination Aristotle’s work in its entirety, it is not unusual we may enjoy at once the possibility of a con- to come across remarkable ways of ordering— templative grasp of the whole and the persist- remarkable precisely to the extent that they go ence of limiting and obscuring conditions, without saying. The most remarkable among conditions which are ineliminable because them is the choice to have Logic followed by they are constitutive of us. We are made of Metaphysics, and only subsequently Physics this: constitutively open to that which we and the other disciplines. This sequence dis- are not. Thus, rather than leading to the plays the unquestioned, unwarranted privi- totalizing assertions of a fully accomplished, leging of formal-theoretical knowledge over all-embracing rational system, this course of against modes of investigation that, in one study fosters a certain awareness. It allows and the same gesture, are understood as us (individually and collectively, alone and “applied” or derivative. This posture, domi- together), perhaps, fleetingly to glimpse the nant in the Anglo-American tradition but by conditionality of our contemplation, its inter- no means its exclusive prerogative, rests on mittent nature, its never being complete but not-so-self-evident assumptions regarding the always stretching out (the orexis at the thresh- hierarchical dualism of reason and experi- old of Metaphysics I) to completeness and per- ence. Whether or not one formally commits to fection. This is a sober reminder of the open a dualistic position (and today many do not), structure that the human is: open, incomplete, a certain protectiveness of reason’s unaffected and finding precisely in such openness and and nonaffective exercise undeniably abides incompletion its distinctive trait. untarnished—a defense of freedom, separa- Thus, the open systematicity the editor tion, and autonomy (from life, ultimately). brought to bear on the Aristotelian corpus While this posture is prevalent after Descartes emerges as altogether foreign to the modern and Kant, the axiomatic projection of it onto system of rationalistic/idealistic inspiration. ancient philosophy and the dissimulation of It emerges as an altogether unusual path of perhaps unbridgeable discontinuities seem inquiry that leaves the problematic dimension worthy of being interrogated. of thinking unresolved. The philosophical As for the second remark, let it sim- significance of this trajectory, neither modern ply be said that one should wonder at the nor familiar, will be seized and deliberately characterization of Andronicus’ edition as thought through in the Judeo-Arabic context, Hellenistic and therefore anachronistic and in which the meditation on first philosophy un-Aristotelian. The development recalled always finds its fulfillment in the capacity for above, opening with analytical propaedeutics ethico-political regeneration—as in Avicenna’s and leading from physics to first philosophy, paradigmatic Science of Divine Things, from to ethics/politics, seems rather inscribed in the Book of Healing (Kitab al-Shifa), which in Greek philosophy from Plato’s and Aristotle’s the end comes to rest in the return to human time, and to constitute, as it were, the deep (political, ethical, religious) institutions. syntax of the Platonic/Aristotelian medita- Because of the philosophically compelling tion. Does Plato not draw precisely this trajec- reasons of this systematization, the present tory in the erotic ascent narrated by Diotima

www.bloomsbury.com/the-bloomsbury-companion-to-aristotle-9781441108739 © Claudia Baracchi and Contributors (2014) The Bloomsbury Companion to Aristotle London: Bloomsbury INTRODUCTION: PATHS OF INQUIRY in the Symposium? From beautiful bodies, to the best of the animals, this too would make the psychological beauty manifest in worldly no difference; for there are also other things undertakings, to the beauty of knowledge, to much more divine in [their] nature than the the wondrous contemplation of beauty itself human being, like the most visible things (if at all possible), to the possibility of giving (phanero-tata) of which the cosmos is com- birth to true excellence in this life together posed” (1141a35–b1). Far from being an (210a–212a), the way up maintains its con- extraneous superimposition, the indication of tact with the point of departure, and always a metaphysics proceeding out of physics and returns, and blossoms like a seed planted in flowering into ethical formation seems to lie this terrain here. We endlessly encounter in at the heart of Aristotle’s thinking. Plato this circulation between below and *** above, upwards and backwards—one of its celebrated figures being that of the cave, which A volume conceived as a Companion in the not only entails the liberation of the prisoner adventure of reading Aristotle addresses an but also necessitates the coming back. But we audience already initiated to ancient Greek can likewise think of the course of education philosophical discourse. The central task of in Republic VII, from mathematics, to geom- such a volume, thus, is accompanying the etry, to astronomy, to harmonics, in order reader (the advanced student, the discerning finally to confront the most arduous task— reader, even the scholar) from various degrees taking care of things here. The path leads one of familiarity with the themes and lineaments all the way across the sky, and back to the of ancient philosophy, into a deeper intimacy polis, where the enterprise comes to comple- with the author at issue. Along this trajec- tion, with dialectic assisting in the assessments tory, the reader needs elucidation of complex and reckonings of which humans, individually discussions as well as an exposure to the and as a community, are capable. problematic issues in scholarly interpreta- And do we not find traces of the same tion. The collection presented here includes journey in Aristotle—even in unlikely circum- studies with a historical/philological focus as stances, such as, for example, the elaboration well as discussions rooted in recent/contem- of sophia (Nicomachean Ethics VI)? Sophia, porary debates that show the fecundity and the highest intellectual accomplishment, the lasting energy of Aristotle’s thought. capacity for the contemplation of the whole, From the start, my inclination has been is here disclosed as that which encourages a to gather a multiplicity of heterogeneous lucid ethical stance, the acknowledgment of voices and to retain their irreducibility. I the finitude and situatedness of human beings. conceived of a volume presenting perspec- It is precisely in virtue of this insightful reach- tives somewhat unusual in the context of ing beyond exclusively human affairs, looking Anglo-American debates in this field, with- upwards, that the question may be broached, out, however, bringing the various contribu- concerning the proper place of humans in the tions into a uniform view, let alone imposing kosmos. Similarly, in a kind of nonanthropo- stringent directives, whether stylistic or doc- centric turn, the insight of sophia may inti- trinal. I wished to set side by side diverse mate that humans are perhaps not “the best philosophical orientations, interpretive sen- of beings in the universe” (1141a22): “And sibilities, and paths of research that, if not if one were to say that the human being is incompatible, may be in tension with each

www.bloomsbury.com/the-bloomsbury-companion-to-aristotle-9781441108739 © Claudia Baracchi and Contributors (2014) The Bloomsbury Companion to Aristotle London: Bloomsbury INTRODUCTION: PATHS OF INQUIRY other, because I am convinced of the richness, situates Aristotle between the claims of an resonance, and fruitfulness of such juxtapo- ancient proto-phenomenological posture and sitions without a conclusive synthesis. Such those of rhetoric. The former would demand a polyphony may guide the reader without that one attend to phenomena and let logos condescension, variously making forays into emerge from them, so that saying what one the Aristotelian corpus, while refraining from sees may be granted in its truth by such an minimizing difficulties, from closing gaps, or intimacy with the seen—a nascent striving from resolving what instead might profitably for adequation of word to being that, accord- be articulated as an abiding problem. Indeed, ing to Cassin, would lay down the conditions assisting in the exercise of reading involves, for modern and later dualisms. The latter along with the task of clarification, formulat- would prompt one to attend to the crea- ing que stions as such and suggesting further tive gestures of logos, which originally light lines of inquiry. up the world in its visibility, thus literally Most of the essays were specially commis- allowing one to see. In what ends up being sioned for the occasion, and I was delighted yet another confrontation between philoso- at the enthusiasm this project elicited from phy and sophistry, the Organon is examined those I contacted, whether friends or col- along with the Rhetoric and Poetics, showing leagues I never met before, regarded as the continuity between the alpha and omega authorities in the field or at the early stages of the corpus (whose circularity is, thus, illu- of academic recognition. However, this minated), in the sustained effort to explore project also provided an occasion for pre- the implications of speaking. senting in translation works unavailable in With a phenomenological (rather than English, although written by highly respected sophistical/rhetorical) emphasis, Russell authors. As anticipated, the contributions Winslow focuses on the attainment of defi- are organized following Andronicus’ order- nitions (the origin and condition of all ing. The sequence begins, therefore, with two demonstrative endeavor) from the dialectical readings of Aristotle’s meditation on the phe- assessment of received discourses molding nomenon of human logos. prior experience. In the essay “Aristotelian Definition: On the Discovery of Archai,” Winslow seizes in Aristotle what could be called a dialectical naturalism—the journey LOGOS from what is according to us toward what is in itself, an ongoing task of attunement Prior even to the institution of logic as we declining any claims to revelation and pre- know it, at stake in this section is the phe- tenses of objectivism. nomenon of utterance in its possibility and nascent manifestations, and hence the connections between word and phenomenon—indeed, between naming, discursivity, PHUSIS structure of argumentation, and ontology. In “Saying What One Sees, Letting See What Pursuing the question regarding the nature and One Says: Aristotle’s Rhetoric and the procedure of Aristotle’s discourses on phusis, Rhetoric of the Sophists,” Barbara Cassin in “Aristotle on Sensible Objects: Natural

Things and Body” Helen Lang comprehen- with logos. Gathering and dividing, the oper- sively examines Aristotle’s “science of natural ation of logos is shown at the heart of the things” from Physics to De Caelo, from On now—the unity into which prior and pos- Generation and Corruption to texts in the terior are brought together (while still abid- Parva Naturalia, situating these discussions ing as two), the divided union that is never in the context of the ancient and archaic doc- simple, never simply resolved, in fact always trines, in particular those of the atomists, and opening into that which it is not. The analysis concentrating on the relation of form and of time reveals logos (articulation, configura- matter. She then proceeds to call into question tion, number) at work in phusis as well as the well-known trope depicting Aristotle as an psuche- and, at the same time, undergoing in empiricist. Such a characterization of Aristotle its articulation the tremor of a subject tend- clearly reflects an attempt to come to terms ing to dissolve into the predicate. The logic with his consistent appeal to pheno mena and of time reveals the time of logic, that is, the indefatigable striving to adhere to things as implications of time at the heart of logic. they are. Yet, Lang maintains, insofar as the empirical account is held to be posterior and secondary vis-à-vis the account of essence (i.e. insofar as one dwells on the dualism of experi- PSUCHEˉ ence and formal knowledge, or appearing and being), an altogether central trait of Aristotle’s Aristotle’s discourses on the psuche- are way of inquiry is missed—namely, the intima- approached with particular attention to the tion that it is in experiencing natural phenom- themes of intellect and imagination, but also ena that one comes to essences. In the end, the from the point of view of the basic phenom- descriptive/phenomenological approach mag- enon of animal psychism—aliveness in the nifying the role of experience confirms the broadest sense. Focusing on the problems sur- enduring meaningfulness of Aristotle’s phys- rounding Aristotle’s treatment of the intellect ics and shows it as a possible resource for a (nous), Erick Raphael Jiménez’s essay, “Mind critique of the ethos of abstraction distinctive in Body in Aristotle,” allows the issue of per- of the modern/contemporary sciences. ception, whether imaginal or intellectual, to Through the interpretation of Aristotle’s emerge in its complexity. After recalling the discourse on time, Rémi Brague further delves interpretive orientations favoring a view into the relation between natural/psychologi- of the intellect in its separation from body, cal phenomena and essential (indeed, logical) Jiménez lays out what he calls an aesthetic structures, highlighting both the inherently interpretation delineating the ways in which logical/discursive articulation of motion/time the intellect is indeed not separate, and how and the unsettling of logical, grammatical, its embodiment (and, hence, sensibility and and syntactic order signaled most notably imagination) may configure the reception/ in the dispersion of the subject. In the con- formation of intelligibles. cluding sections of his seminal work “On Eric Sanday turns to the thematization of Aristotle’s Formula Ὅ ΠΟΤΕ ὌΝ: Physics the living organism in De Anima, in order IV.11, 14,” Brague illuminates the dynamic to consider the relation between psyche and unity of the “now,” and thereby the emerging soma and, even more pointedly, the capac- structure of time, in their essential connection ity for discernment emerging in the dynamic

www.bloomsbury.com/the-bloomsbury-companion-to-aristotle-9781441108739 © Claudia Baracchi and Contributors (2014) The Bloomsbury Companion to Aristotle London: Bloomsbury INTRODUCTION: PATHS OF INQUIRY interaction of the living organism with its the trajectory of the text known as the environment, an interpenetration and con- Metaphysics—a remarkable study in its stant exchange that are constitutive of the extensiveness and ambition systematically animal as such. In his essay “Phantasia in to account for the unitary architecture of the De Anima” imagination is shown as decisive text without downplaying or disguising the with respect to animal motility and essential unresolved moments of aporia. Vigo con- to the discriminating power, thus revealing a fronts the “science of first principles” in the constructive dimension inherent in the move- genetic perspective of Metaphysics I, empha- ments of perception. sizing the terminological as well as thematic Marcia Sá Cavalcante Schuback’s con- proliferation characterizing this discipline, its tribution, “The Hermeneutic Slumber: novelty and originality as well as its “natu- Aristotle’s Reflections on Sleep,” principally ralness” and archaic roots. On this ground, addresses three treatises from the Parva and through the assessment of diverse and Naturalia, On Sleep and Wakefulness, On often contrasting scholarly stances, he spans Dreams, and On Divination in Sleep, in a the discourses on “being qua being” in its twofold discussion. On the one hand she “many-wayness,” on predication and the outlines Aristotle’s analyses of modes of question of truth, on the connections between consciousness, whether wakeful or dor- the language of being, that of “substance” mant. On the other hand she seizes the issue (ousia), and that of divinity. The concluding of sleep in its methodological reverberations open-ended remarks, concerning whether the and allows it to inflect and frame the entire unmoved mover (i.e. the ultimate principle) discussion. In this light, the author calls is one or many, leaves us with problems alto- for a hermeneutical approach receiving the gether not marginal. corpus of ancient texts as a sleeping body, Spyridon Rangos’ contribution, “First rather than confronting the past as if it were Philosophy, Truth, and the History of Being a corpse. Not surprisingly, the Aristotelian in Aristotle’s Metaphysics,” focuses on the discourses on psychism, indeed, the overall historicity of the ontological discourse, that meditation on aliveness and the interpen- is, on the temporality at the heart of think- etration of consciousness and unconscious- ing (even and most notably the thinking at ness, emerge in their unexhausted richness, stake in first philosophy) as well as the inau- belonging in conversations with modern/ gural philosophy of history outlined in this contemporary voices, from Freud to Husserl context. The science of being has come to and beyond. be shaped and finally to take place as such in virtue of a complex, stratified genealogy: problems have been handed down, received, or lost, along with diverse intertwined dis- PHILOSOPHIA PROˉ TEˉ cussions, cultural exchanges, and inflections. Moreover, and even more crucially, Rangos The engagements with the treatises com- sets into relief Aristotle’s concern (particu- prehensively addressing phusis and the ani- larly keen in this turn to the first and ulti- mation pervading it are followed by essays mate principles/causes) with the altogether on Aristotle’s philosophia pro-te-. “First human conditions allowing for the “attain- Philosophy,” by Alejandro Vigo, exposes ment of truth.” Here of course Metaphysics

II is of primary importance, with its insist- contemplation and architecture. Martha C. ence on knowledge in its choral/genealogical Nussbaum, in “Aristotle on Human Nature enterprise, the relative blindness of humans and the Foundations of Ethics,” with an and the inevitably perspectival character of “Addendum,” takes up this fundamental task their contemplation, and the material, lin- in a fecund debate with Bernard Williams. guistic, cultural conditions necessary for lis- Drawing upon the ethical treatises as well as tening to a lecture and participating in such the Politics, but also situating Aristotle in his a collective meditation. Things in their truth confrontation with Plato and in the context and origin do not make themselves manifest of ancient and archaic poetry, Nussbaum simply and immediately. Thus, in following vividly outlines the basic experience of being the trajectory leading from the exploration human, the human between beasts and gods, of the surroundings and their pervasive ani- the human questions of identity, mortality, mation (phusis, psuche-) to the attempt to endurance, desire, and community. Crucial in contemplate their causes, the question comes her overall reading of Aristotle is the empha- to impose itself, regarding what at first sis on the communal (political) ground of the remained unthematized and implicit, that individual, and hence the questioning of the is, regarding the being who sustains such self/other distinction, with all its implications a trajectory of exploration and study. This in contemporary debates in interrelated disci- is the question of the human being, the being plines, from philosophy to political thought, that traces paths of wonder, attraction, and to economics. Equally decisive is her ques- inquiry. It is, at once, an ethico-political questioning of the distinction between “natural tion, for it regards the upbringing, context, fact” and “ethical value,” especially with ref- awareness, and care making such a being erence to the issue of grounding, and thus the possible, making the human blossom into refusal to give practical reflection a marginal, itself, in fact, making the human as such. limited relevance. In the “Addendum” to her essay, Nussbaum further develops the lines of a broad-ranging contemporary debate suggestively revolving around the relation Eˉ THOS between ethics and biology, yet again casting light on the vitality of Aristotle’s discourse. With ethics, thus, the inquiry turns back Pavlos Kontos continues the examination upon itself and attempts to seize its own of Aristotelian ethics in his contribution “The unspoken conditions. This means delving Visibility of Goodness,” where he emphasizes into the nature of the human phenome- excellence in its phenomenal evidence, as an non—of this being belonging in nature but altogether worldly event irreducible to psy- not fully (mechanically) determined by it, chological interiority (if there is such a thing). belonging in life but having to choose how This contribution guides us to a close analy- to live, since different ways of life appear sis of the forms of ethical excellence and the likewise available. Delving into the nature experience of friendship. of the human, thus, proves to be an esp- Arianna Fermani lays out a sustained phe- ecially delicate endeavor, for ethics is the nomenological exposition of evil in the essay site at once of human self-reflection and of “To Kakon Pollacho-s Legetai: The Plurivocity human self-construction, that is, at once of of the Notion of Evil in Aristotelian Ethics.”

Here she confronts key issues ranging from acknowledged as constitutive of the human, the voluntary or involuntary character of implicated in the very dawning of the action (and hence the themes of ignorance, human as such, let alone essential to human negligence, and responsibility) to the fine self-articulation and self-understanding distinction between vice and the structure of (spectatorship as the exercise of contem- continence/incontinence, from the analysis of plation of the human condition). Far from contingent circumstances and effectiveness in anachronistically consigned to the narrow action to the integrity or disintegration of the field of aesthetics or the specialty of art psychosomatic organism. appreciation (not to mention the logic of entertainment), the Poetics highlights the centrality of the artistic/creative phenomenon in its ethico-political and anthropo- POLIS logical valence. After all, on Aristotle’s terms, the human animal is distinctively imitative In “Education: The Ethico-Political Energeia,” and capable of laughter no less than politi- Michael Weinman underscores the unity of eth- cal. Nikolopoulou’s essay manages to evoke ics and politics, the ways in which it is within a long history of discussions, transmissions, the framework of the polis (the aggregation of assimilations, and distortions of this text many revolving around the axis of a common while, at the same time, striving to capture orientation and aspiration, that is, of a common the source of its incisive simplicity, simul- good) that ethics becomes an issue to begin taneously disarming and infinitely compel- with, and that its architectonic work unfolds. ling. Her insightful suggestion, here, points The ethico-political reflection is seen in its in the direction of nature—of a capacity to character of first philosophy, to the extent that abide in an intimacy with nature that grants it provides at once an analysis and an articula- the experience of excess as well as the possi- tion of conditions. In addition to this, however, bility of bringing excess into an outline. The ethics/politics emerges in its first-philosophical quest for measure and rhythm appears to be function because of its essential bond with similarly vital in the task of artful living and education, which Weinman provocatively elu- in poetic/dramatic composition. Once again, cidates in terms of a certain naturalness and we note in this sequence of studies a gesture even independence from context. toward nature. This is probably one of the urgent questions haunting this day, and an open challenge to the contemporary a priori of abstraction that, whether in art or in the many POIEˉ SIS guises of intellectualism, seems to have lost its ground and, by the same token, the capac- Kalliopi Nikolopoulou concludes this part ity to speak meaningfully to the trained and of the present volume, with the essay “Toward the untrained—indeed, to speak at all. the Sublime Calculus of Aristotle’s Poetics.” The theme of poie-sis, making, is addressed *** in its exquisitely poetic sense here. At the In addition to the study of the different same time, poetry, in its sense and truth, is regions of Aristotelian inquiry, the volume situated at the heart of the human venture, includes contributions addressing aspects of

www.bloomsbury.com/the-bloomsbury-companion-to-aristotle-9781441108739 © Claudia Baracchi and Contributors (2014) The Bloomsbury Companion to Aristotle London: Bloomsbury INTRODUCTION: PATHS OF INQUIRY the preservation and elaboration of Aristotle’s While many thinkers of the communitar- thought, whether in modern Europe and ian persuasion seem to think so, the answer North America or outside the lineage of involves a careful rethinking of the terms and Western philosophy (if it is one). The essays presuppositions of the debate between com- gathered in this second part, far from provid- munitarians and liberals (which is especially ing exhaustive treatments of such matters, only lively in the United States). Aristotle’s logos present a few possible forays into these fields. appears indeed to be at odds both with the Moreover, they amplify the attention, already abstract universalistic rationality disallowed noted in the preceding contributions, given by the communitarians and with the com- to Aristotle’s enduring presence in a variety munitarian one-sided emphasis on “insu- of debates. Thus, in “Aristotle on the Natural lar, monological, and mutually exclusive Dwelling of Intellect” Idit Dobbs-Weinstein identities.” In its nuanced appeal to nature, develops a materialistic reading of De Anima exceeding the bounds of universalism and (a “physics of psuche-”) in connection with relativism alike, Aristotle’s thinking appears the Nicomachean Ethics, an approach that irreducible to either side of the American she situates in the Judeo-Perso-Arabic line- contention. Again, we cannot avoid noticing age, reclaiming in Aristotle what the tradi- an insuppressible naturalism ever surfacing tion of “Christo-Platonism” has made nearly in a number of interpretive outlooks (from illegible. Dobbs-Weinstein’s emphasis on embodiment, In turn, Christopher Long follows the the physics of the soul, and ethics as cloth- reading of Aristotle (again, with a focus ing the body of desire, to Long’s suggestive on De Anima) in the wake of Frederick appeals to motility and evocations of think- Woodbridge (and George Santayana). His ing belonging in life, to Aubenque’s remarks essay “The Peripatetic Method: Walking on Aristotle’s alterity with respect to the cat- with Woodbridge, Thinking with Aristotle” egories of certain debates). Naturalism keeps connects Woodbridge to the European schol- presenting itself in different guises, nondog- arly tradition leading to W. Jaeger’s devel- matically, as other than a naturalizing move. opmental view of Aristotelian thought, and It returns as a gesture pointing to problems emphasizes Aristotle’s way of thinking in its that yet call for attunement—problems diffi- temporality and dynamic implication in life. cult and not fully intelligible. In “What Remains of Aristotle’s Metaphysics Today?” Enrico Berti considers the intellectual *** legacy of Aristotle’s Metaphysics and enumer- This collection of essays is clearly not ates the Aristotelian axioms and conceptual exhaustive. In the traversal of Aristotle’s cor- categories even now constellating discourses pus it touches on a few pivotal themes, form- in contemporary philosophy, whether in the ing possible thematic constellations. It goes Anglo-American or European traditions. without saying that this only calls for further Inexhaustible and yet to be thought through, investigations and developments to come. Aristotle's thinking of being in light of differ- For this reason, in addition to the articles, ence and mobility is shown to abide, if not per- the present volume contains a distinctive ennial, at the very least still our contemporary. array of instruments for research—assisting Finally, Pierre Aubenque confronts the ques- in the work of deepening and contextu- tion “Would Aristotle Be a Communitarian?” alization. The Glossary lists a range of key

Aristotelian terms/concepts, with translit- NOTES eration, Latin concordance when relevant, discussion of semantic range, textual refer- 1 Note, however, the exception of Giovanni ences, and cross references. A Chronology Reale, 1995, arguing for the authenticity of the treatise. of Recent Research synoptically delineates 2 See Ford, 2011. the fundamental works, developments, and 3 The peripatetic adventures of Aristotle’s manu- field reconfigurations in modern and con- scripts, from Theophrastus’ library to their temporary scholarship. The Bibliography resurfacing in Rome, were reconstructed on the lists standard editions of the Aristotelian ground of ancient sources, however fragile such accounts may be. See Diogenes Laertius, Lives texts and key English translations, along V.ii.52 and Strabo, Geographica XIII.i.54. See with key commentaries from antiquity and also Bidez, 1943. the middle ages, as well as studies (mostly in 4 See paradigmatically Düring, 1957. But see also English) from the last century. Finally, a sec- Wehrli, 1959; Lynch, 1972; and Moraux, 1951. 5 tion entitled Resources indicates reference To my knowledge, the only occurrence of the phrase “analytical science” is in Rhetoric texts in Greek and in translation available 1359b10, in a passing remark without further online, and a selection of academic journals, elaboration. professional organizations, and societies crucially devoted to the study of Aristotle’s thought. The diversity of perspectives intersecting REFERENCES here introduces characteristic Aristotelian questions without settling them, thus con- Bidez, Joseph, Un singulier naufrage veying their depth and openness. Equally littéraire dans l’antiquité : À la recherche significant, the presentation/analysis of the des épaves de l’Aristote perdu, Bruxelles: Aristotelian texts is cast within the context Office de publicité, 1943. of living, ongoing debates, thus intimating Bignone, Ettore, L’Aristotele perduto e la that the study of the ancient Greek thinker is formazione filosofica di Epicuro, 2 vols, no in vitro experiment. The matter is always Firenze: La Nuova Italia, 1936. there, embedded, inflected, and received in Düring, Ingemar, “Notes on the History of this or that way, never as such. The alleged the Transmission of Aristotle’s Writings,” objectivity/neutrality of basic, introduc- Göteborg Högskolas Arsskrift, 56 (1950), tory readings emerges as a myth—or even 35–70. as a most self-dissimulating superstition. —, Aristotle in the Ancient Biographical The multiplicity of approaches and inter- Tradition, Stockholm: Almqvist & pretive stances, both in the contemporary Wiksell, 1957. framework and throughout the history Ford, Andrew, Aristotle as Poet: The Song of philosophy (which is not one), reminds for Hermias and Its Content, Oxford: us that Aristotle “is said in many ways,” Oxford University Press, 2011. λέγεται πολλαχῶς. This, too, is the task of Gerson, Lloyd P., Aristotle and Other a companion. Platonists, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Claudia Baracchi Press, 2005.

Lynch, John Patrick, Aristotle’s School. A Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Study of a Greek Educational Institution, 1968. Berkeley: University of California Press, Reale, Giovanni (ed.), Il trattato Sul 1972. Cosmo per Alessandro attribuito ad Moraux, Paul, Les listes anciennes des Aristotele, Milano: Vita e Pensiero, ouvrages d’Aristote, Louvain: Éditions 1995. Universitaires, 1951. Wehrli, Fritz, “Rückblick der Peripatos Moraux, Paul (ed.), Aristoteles in der in vorchristlicher Zeit,” Die Schule des neueren Forschung, Darmstadt: Aristoteles, 10, Basel: Schwabe, 1959.

www.bloomsbury.com/the-bloomsbury-companion-to-aristotle-9781441108739 © Claudia Baracchi and Contributors (2014) The Bloomsbury Companion to Aristotle London: Bloomsbury