Aristotle's Theory of the Unity of Science

by Wilson, Malcolm

• ISBN13: 9780802047960
• ISBN10: 0802047963
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-07-01
• Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr

Summary

Aristotle was the first philosopher to provide a theory of autonomous scientific disciplines and the systematic connections between those disciplines. This book presents the first comprehensive treatment of these systematic connections: analogy, focality, and cumulation. Wilson appeals to these systematic connections in order to reconcile Aristotle's narrow theory of the subject-genus (described in the Posterior Analytics in terms of essential definitional connections among terms) with the more expansive conception found in Aristotle's scientific practice. These connections, all variations on the notion of abstraction, allow for the more expansive subject-genus, and in turn are based on concepts fundamental to the Posterior Analytics. Wilson thus treats the connections in their relation to Aristotle's theory of science and shows how they arise from his doctrine of abstraction. The effect of the argument is to place the connections, which are traditionally viewed as marginal, at the centre of Aristotle's theory of science. The scholarly work of the last decade has argued that the Posterior Analytics is essential for an understanding of Aristotle's scientific practice. Wilson's book, while grounded in this research, extends its discoveries to the problems of the conditions for the unity of scientific disciplines.

Author Biography

MALCOLM WILSON is an assistant professor in the Classics Department at the University of Oregon.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Abbreviations	ix
Introduction	3	(11)
Genus, Abstraction, and Commensurability	14	(39)
Demarcating the Genus	15	(14)
Abstraction	29	(24)
Speed of Change	39	(2)
Value	41	(6)
Animal Locomotion	47	(6)
Analogy in Aristotle's Biology	53	(36)
Problems with Analogy	53	(24)
Fixity of Analogy	60	(7)
Difficult Cases	67	(2)
Analogues and the More and Less	69	(1)
Analogues and Position	69	(3)
Analogy of Function	72	(2)
Genus as Matter	74	(3)
A Solution	77	(6)
A Challenging Case	83	(3)
Analogy and Abstraction	86	(3)
Analogy and Demonstration	89	(27)
Analogy in APo: Passages and Discussion	91	(8)
Analogy in the Biology	99	(10)
Analogy and the Scala Naturae	109	(7)
The Structure of Focality	116	(18)
Focality and Per Se Predication	122	(7)
The Limits of Focality in the Biological Works	129	(5)
Metaphysical Focality	134	(41)
The Genus of Being	136	(8)
Categorial Focality in Metaphysics Z	144	(14)
Demonstration in the Science of Being	158	(7)
The Wider Focal Science of Being	165	(10)
Mixed Uses of Analogy and Focality	175	(32)
Matter and Potentiality	177	(17)
The Good	194	(13)
Cumulation	207	(36)
Souls	208	(16)
The Analogical Account	210	(4)
The Cumulative Account	214	(10)
Friendship	224	(11)
Eudemian Ethics and the Problems of Focal Friendship	225	(6)
The Nicomachean Version	231	(4)
The Place of Theology in the Science of Being	235	(4)
Conclusion: Analogy, Focality, and Cumulation	239	(4)
Bibliography	243	(12)
Index Locorum	255	(10)
General Index	265