Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Prior Analytics: 1.8-13 (with 1.17, 36b35-37a31)

Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Prior Analytics: 1.8-13 (with 1.17, 36b35-37a31)
Author: Victor Caston
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 197
Release: 2014-04-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1780938802

The commentary of Alexander of Aphrodisias on Aristotle's Prior Analytics 1.8-22 is the main ancient commentary, by the 'greatest' commentator, on the chapters of the Prior Analytics in which Aristotle invented modal logic - the logic of propositions about what is necessary or contingent (possible). In this volume, which covers chapters 1.8-13, Alexander of Aphrodisias reaches the chapter in which Aristotle discusses the notion of contingency. Also included in this volume is Alexander's commentary on that part of Prior Analytics 1.17 which explains the conversion of contingent propositions (the rest of 1.17 is included in the second volume of Mueller's translation). Aristotle also invented the syllogism, a style of argument involving two premises and a conclusion. Modal propositions can be deployed in syllogism, and in the chapters included in this volume Aristotle discusses syllogisms consisting of two necessary propositions as well as the more controversial ones containing one necessary and one non-modal premiss. The discussion of syllogisms containing contingent propositions is reserved for Volume 2. In each volume, Ian Mueller provides a comprehensive explanation of Alexander's commentary on modal logic as a whole.

On Aristotle's Prior Analytics: 1.8-13 (with 1.17, 36b35-37a31)

On Aristotle's Prior Analytics: 1.8-13 (with 1.17, 36b35-37a31)
Author: Alexander (of Aphrodisias.)
Publisher:
Total Pages: 208
Release: 1999
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN:

In the second half of book 1 of the "Prior Analytics," Aristotle reflects on the application of the formalized logic he has developed in the first half, focusing particularly on the non-modal or assertoric syllogistic developed in the first seven chapters. These reflections lead Alexander of Aphrodisias, the great late second-century AD exponent of Aristotelianism, to explain and sometimes argue against subsequent developments of Aristotle's logic and alternatives and objections to it, ideas associated mainly with his colleague Theophrastus and with the Stoics. The other main topic of this part of the "Prior Analytics" is the specification of a method for discovering true premises needed to prove a given proposition. Aristotle's presentation is sometimes difficult to follow, and Alexander's discussion is extremely helpful to the uninitiated reader. In his commentary on the final chapter translated in this volume, Alexander provides an insightful account of Aristotle's criticism of Plato's method of division.

On Reduplication

On Reduplication
Author: Allan Bäck
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 578
Release: 1996
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9789004105393

"On Reduplication" is a study of the logical properties of reduplicative propositions, that is, of propositions having qualifications, like 'Christ "qua" God is a creature' and 'being "qua" being is the subject of metaphysics'. The focus is on what ways qualifications change the truth value and the inference patterns of simple, categorical propositions. The central class of reduplications is that in which the qualifications are introduced by a qua connective like '"qua"', 'insofar as', 'under the concept of', or 'in virtue of the fact that'. Reduplicative propositions occur frequently and importantly in both traditional and contemporary philosophical works, but there has been little modern analysis of them. This study presents, compares and analyzes the different theories of reduplication that have arisen in Western philosophy. Texts are presented and explicated, and their significance is weighed relative to modern logical theory. Throughout this study, some important applications of theories of reduplication are noted, such as Leibniz's qualification of the principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles, Ockham's reduction of abstract entities, and Aquinas's view on the Incarnation.

On the Soul and the Resurrection

On the Soul and the Resurrection
Author: Gregory of Nyssa
Publisher: Ravenio Books
Total Pages: 99
Release: 2015-02-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

Saint Gregory of Nyssa (335 – 395), wrote this classic upon the death of his brother, Saint Basil the Great.

The Political Writings

The Political Writings
Author: Alfarabi
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2016-05-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1501700316

Alfarabi was among the first to explore the tensions between the philosophy of classical Greece and that of Islam, as well as of religion generally. His writings, extraordinary in their breadth and deep learning, have had a profound impact on Islamic and Jewish philosophy.This volume presents four of Alfarabi's most important texts, making his political thought available to classicists, medievalists, and scholars of religion and Byzantine and Middle Eastern studies. In a clear prose translation by Charles E. Butterworth, these treatises provide a valuable introduction to the teachings of Alfarabi and to the development of Islamic political philosophy. All of these texts are based on new Arabic editions. Two of the texts—Book of Religion and Harmonization of the Two Opinions of the Two Sages: Plato the Divine and Aristotle—appear in English for the first time. The translations of the other two works—Selected Aphorisms and chapter five of the Enumeration of the Sciences—differ markedly from those previously known to English-language readers.Butterworth situates each essay in its historical, literary, and philosophical context. His notes help the reader follow Alfarabi's text and identify persons, places, and events. English-Arabic and Arabic-English glossaries of terms further assist the reader.

Al-Fārābī and Aristotelian Syllogistics

Al-Fārābī and Aristotelian Syllogistics
Author: Joep Lameer
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 382
Release: 1994
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9789004098848

This pioneer study of Aristotle's theory of deduction in early medieval Islam provides invaluable first-hand information on both the classical and the Islamic dimensions of an important chapter in the history of medieval Islamic philosophy.

From Stoicism to Platonism

From Stoicism to Platonism
Author: Troels Engberg-Pedersen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 411
Release: 2017-02-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107166195

This book explores the process during 100 BCE-100 CE by which dualistic Platonism became the reigning school in philosophy.

Avicenna's Al-Shifā'

Avicenna's Al-Shifā'
Author: Sari Nusseibeh
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2018-04-09
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1351050427

This book deals with the philosophy of Ibn Sina - Avicenna as he was known in the Latin West- a Persian Muslim who lived in the eleventh century, considered one of the most important figures in the history of philosophy. Although much has been written about Avicenna, and especially about his major philosophical work, Al-Shifa, this book presents the rationalist Avicenna in an entirely new light, showing him to have presented a theory where our claims of knowledge about the world are in effect just that, claims, and must therefore be underwritten by our faith in God. His project enlists arguments in psychology as well as in language and logic. In a sense, the ceiling he puts on the reach of reason can be compared with later rationalists in the Western tradition, from Descartes to Kant –though, unlike Descartes, he does not deem it necessary to reconstruct his theory of knowledge via a proof of the existence of God. Indeed, Avicenna’s theory presents the concept of God as being necessarily presupposed by our theory of knowledge, and God as the Necessary Being who is presupposed by an existing world where nothing of itself is what it is by an intrinsic nature, and must therefore be as it is due to an external cause. The detailed and original analysis of Avicenna’s work here is presented as what he considered to be his own, or ‘oriental’ philosophy. Presenting an innovative interpretation of Avicenna’s thought, this book will appeal to scholars working on classical Islamic philosophy, kalām and the History of Logic.