Substantial Knowledge : Aristotle's Metaphysics

by Reeve, C. D. C.

• ISBN13: 9780872205147
• ISBN10: 0872205142
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-11-01
• Publisher: Hackett Pub Co Inc

Summary

In this groundbreaking work, C D C Reeve uses a fundamental problem -- the Primacy Dilemma -- to explore Aristotle's metaphysics, epistemology, dialectic, philosophy of mind, and theology in a new way. At a time when Aristotle is most often studied piecemeal, Reeve attempts to see him both in detail and as a whole, so that it is from detailed analysis of hundreds of particular passages, drawn from dozens of Aristotelian treatises, and translated in full that his overall picture of Aristotle emerges. Primarily a book for philosophers and advanced students with an interest in the fundamental problems with which Aristotle is grappling, the book's clear, non-technical and engaging style will appeal to any reader eager to explore Aristotle's difficult but extraordinarily rewarding thought.

Author Biography

C. D. C. Reeve is Professor of Philosophy and the Humanities at Reed College.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xiii
Abbreviations of Aristotle's Works	xvii
Platonism	1	(17)
Separation	1	(9)
Platonic Forms	10	(3)
Problems with Platonic Forms	13	(5)
Scientific Knowledge	18	(25)
Aristotelian Sciences	18	(3)
Dialectic and First Principles	21	(6)
Natural Sciences	27	(8)
Natural and Theoretical Sciences	35	(3)
Exact and Inexact Sciences	38	(5)
Essence	43	(46)
Natural Beings	43	(2)
How Natural Beings Come-to-Be	45	(3)
How Human Beings Come-to-Be	48	(7)
The Inheritance of Understanding	55	(5)
Artifactual Essences	60	(3)
Mathematical Essences	63	(3)
Penmattered Natural Essences and Inexact Sciences	66	(4)
The Definition of an Essence	70	(10)
The Parts of an Essence	80	(3)
The Formal Element of an Essence	83	(5)
Other Essences	88	(1)
Being as Substance	89	(26)
Intrinsic Being	89	(3)
Coincidental Being	92	(2)
Categories of Intrinsic Being	94	(2)
Non-Substantial Intrinsic Beings	96	(2)
Substantial Intrinsic Beings	98	(2)
The Structure of Intrinsic Being	100	(5)
The Task of Categories	105	(7)
Primary Substancec	112	(3)
Perceptible Substance	115	(19)
Perceptible Substance and Change	115	(8)
Primary Substancem	123	(2)
Form	125	(5)
Suniversals	130	(2)
Winners and Losers	132	(2)
Substance as Form	134	(15)
Potentiality and Actuality	134	(6)
Activities and Their Ends	140	(7)
Activity as Primary Substancem?	147	(2)
Intelligible Substance	149	(41)
Sight as a Model for Understanding	149	(11)
Passive Understanding	160	(7)
Productive Understanding	167	(7)
Self-Understanding	174	(8)
Human Beings as Their Self-Understandings	182	(6)
Self-Understanding as Primary Substancem?	188	(2)
Divine Substance	190	(50)
God as Unmoved Mover	190	(19)
God and the Heavens	209	(10)
God's Essence	219	(11)
God and ``the Nature of the Whole''	230	(7)
God as Primary Substancem?	237	(3)
The Science of Being Qua Being	240	(51)
Primary Science and Its Problems	240	(7)
Special and Universal Sciences	247	(11)
Theoretical Philosophies and First Principles	258	(2)
Primary Philosophy and Non-Contradiction	260	(11)
Non-Contradiction Demonstrated	271	(2)
Primary Philosophy as Primary Science?	273	(4)
Theology as Primary Science?	277	(5)
The Primacy Dilemma Solved	282	(5)
Post Dilemma Metaphysics	287	(4)
Aristotelianism	291	(12)
The Primacy Dilemma Revisited	291	(2)
Aristotelianism or Platonism?	293	(5)
Aristotle Without God?	298	(2)
Aristotle's Conception of Philosophy	300	(3)
References	303	(7)
Index Locorum	310	(9)
General Index	319