AN INTRODUCTION TO ARISTOTLE’S METAPHYSICS OF TIME Historical research into the mythological and astronomical conceptions that preceded Aristotle’s philosophy 3 4 AN INTRODUCTION TO ARISTOTLE’S METAPHYSICS OF TIME Historical research into the mythological and astronomical conceptions that preceded Aristotle’s philosophy BY Régis LAURENT Translated by Trista Selous VILLEGAGNONS-PLAISANCE EDITIONS 16 bis rue d’Odessa 75014 PARIS www.editions-villegagnons.com 5 6 Forthcoming from Éditions villegagnons-plaisance: METAPHYSICS: - Régis LAURENT: Aristotle’s Metaphysics of Time - II - VILLEGAGNONS-PLAISANCE EDITIONS, 2015 ISBN: 978-2-9533846-11 7 8 To Frédéric… Acknowledgements: Francine Letouzé 9 10 CONTENTS PROLOGUE ....................................................................................... 15 I TIME IN ARISTOTLE’S PROTREPTICUS. INTRODUCTION AND QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION ........................................... 19 A. FROM ETERNITY TO TEMPORALITY: ON INITIATION.................. 27 B. FROM TEMPORALITY TO ETERNITY: WISDOM OVER THE LONG TERM ............................................................................................... 41 II. TIME IN GREEK TRAGIC POETRY AND IN HOMER’S EPIC POETRY. UNFINDABLE CIRCULAR TIME .......................... 49 A. ON FATE, OR TRAGIC POETRY AS A TECHNIQUE FOR VEILING TIME. ............................................................................................... 53 B. ON THE HERO, OR EPIC POETRY AS A TECHNIQUE FOR UNVEILING TIME. ............................................................................................... 63 III. TIME IN HESIOD’S MYTHOLGY AND PYTHAGOREAN THEOPHANY. THE SACRED SOURCES OF CIRCULAR TIME IN CLASSICAL GREECE. ....................................................................... 77 A. ON THE MYTH OF CRONOS OR THE STRUCTURING OF UNIVERSAL TIME IN “AGES OF THE WORLD”. ...................................................... 79 B. ON THE PYTHAGOREAN MYSTERIES, OR THE STRUCTURING OF HUMAN TIME IN PHASES OF LIFE INDEPENDENT OF BODILY UNITY . 102 IV. FROM PLATONIC MYTHIC TIME TO IONIAN SCIENTIFIC TIME. THE ROOTS OF ARISTOTLE’S PHILOSOPHY OF TIME .......................................................................................... 117 A. ON PLATONIC IDEOLOGY, OR MYTHIC TIME AS AN ATTEMPT TO VEIL INITIATORY TIME. .................................................................. 121 B. ON IONIAN ASTRONOMY, OR THE COMING OF CONCEPTUAL TIME, OPENING THE WORLD TO FUTURE TIME. ......................................... 150 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................ 207 INDEX ............................................................................................ 229 11 12 To seek the truth would be to pursue flying game Proverb of unknown origin cited in: Aristotle, Metaphysics, , 5, 1009b 40 13 HISTORICAL RESEARCH INTO PRE-ARISTOTELIAN TIME PROLOGUE This book is the first chapter of my doctoral thesis in philosophy, written between September 2001 and October 2008. I am presenting this part only, as the thesis developed in the other two parts posed problems both to the scholars who were its first readers and to me. When I finished writing it a dichotomy became apparent, the origins and potential effects of which proved very hard to identify. I also remain unconvinced of its heuristic value and faithfulness to Aristotle’s thought. This thesis proposes that it is possible to distinguish the existence of time from its being in qualitative terms, but not to separate them quantitatively. So I have subjected my argument to further examination, involving a review of all the sources, to verify the detail of the reasoning behind this theoretical position, point by point. The present work refers only to the Greek sources. The mediaeval sources will be considered in the second part, alongside textual analyses of the Aristotelian corpus. This first book presents what seems to constitute the conditioning affecting Aristotle’s resolution of the question of time. The so-called historico-sociological method we shall develop is borrowed from the French philosopher Pierre-Maxime Schuhl3 and our exegete for Aristotle’s texts will be another 1930s scholar, Werner Jaeger. I have returned to this method via my training in linguistics.4 The work of Ferdinand de Saussure is 3 This methodology is set out in his doctoral thesis, published as Essai sur la formation de la pensée grecque. Introduction historique à une étude de la philosophie de Platon. PUF, 1934, pp. 7-12. 4 The first version of Werner Jaeger’s book, which is a continuation of his doctoral thesis of 1912, was written in German in 1923 with the title Aristoteles. Grundlegung einer Geschichte seiner Entwicklung. The English version was published in 1948. The French translation I used is by Olivier Sedeyn. It is based on both these texts and was published by Éditions de L’Eclat in 1997. 15 AN INTRODUCTION TO ARISTOTLE’S METAPHYSICS OF TIME profoundly incompatible with the historico-comparative method that was adopted by Jaeger and is still used in the universities. Here, therefore, we shall adopt a denotative approach influenced by sociology, rather than a connotative approach, before reversing this relationship in metaphysics. So we shall have little to say here about Aristotle and still less about metaphysics. However, the selection of Greek sources should indicate the theoretical positions that will later be rejected. If substance can be defined by all that it is not, Aristotle’s position on time can also be established by all that his model rejects in the course of its conceptualisation. We embarked on the present work with only a summary knowledge of Greek time before Aristotle’s period and it seemed impossible to discuss this notion in the Aristotelian corpus without having first undertaken some research. It would have been impossible to undertake such a reconstruction without the remarkable work of Catherine Darbo-Peschanski of the CNRS. Her book Construction du temps dans le monde grec ancien5 provided the foundations upon which, stone by stone, we have sought to construct a historical landscape portraying the notion of time before Aristotle. Hence the subtitle of the present book: Historical research into the mythological and astronomical conceptions that preceded Aristotle’s philosophy. Next, we should note that the information gathered has not been organised along historical lines. The aim here was not to write a historical study. Indeed such an undertaking would have required an initial concept of time, when the western concept of time used by historians stems largely from Aristotle’s model. So we should have found ourselves caught in a circular argument in which the time we were seeking was inscribed in a time that was already implicitly defined. The elements collected have thus been tested against concepts that are unveiled without historical presuppositions. Our successive investigations will examine the distinction between linear and circular time, question the notion of interval and consider that of télos, to ensure the terrain is properly prepared for the metaphysical discussions that will follow. The references to non-Greek philosophies in this study are intended as aids to understanding. This is the sole justification for our compendious discussion of Friedrich Nietzsche, Georg Wilhelm 5 Catherine Darbo-Peschanski (ed.), Constructions du temps dans le monde grec ancien, CNRS, 2000. 16 HISTORICAL RESEARCH INTO PRE-ARISTOTELIAN TIME Friedrich Hegel, Martin Heidegger and Giambattista Vico. The fact that some people are already familiar with the thought of these philosophers means it can be used as a springboard for a more rapid understanding of the theses advanced here. Furthermore, a demonstration without conviction is almost certainly of use only to its author.6 As for the relationship between Aristotle’s thought and that of Plato, it is to be hoped that the present work will reveal as clearly as possible the distinction between ideology and true conceptual thought. Let us be clear: there is no support in this quarter for the widely accepted thesis of an obvious kinship between the two systems of thought. The link will be broken by a return to Pythagoreanism. The suggestion that Plato was a great representative of Pythagoreanism is all too readily made when, as we shall see, Aristotle seems to have had far greater mastery of Pythagorean thought. Having not initially been aware of the importance of Pythagoreanism for a discussion of Aristotle’s philosophy, the reader may feel we are spending too much time on it. It should be emphasised, however, that the elements identified in this discussion will subsequently determine the relationship between Plato’s thought and that of Aristotle. It will also be noted that the place given here to Hesiod as a theologian is not compatible with the view usually advanced by the history of philosophy. To this we would respond by observing that this approach to Hesiod should not be understood in terms of a linear historical model; it is justified only in the light of the particular issue of the nature of time. Lastly, the reader may well be surprised by the discussion of “Phoenician” sources in describing the Ionian vision of the world. We considered abandoning this contentious aspect of our work on several occasions, but once again it will be justified by our understanding of Pythagoreanism. Our study of Greek time before Aristotle will be introduced by a commentary on one of his first books, the Protrepticus.7