The Study of Being in Plato and Aristotle

• Authors: Aidan R. Nathan

Abstracts

EN

Usage of the Greek verb ‘to be’ is generally divided into three broad categories - the predicative use, the existential and the veridical-and these usages often inform the way we understand Being in ancient philosophy. This article challenges this approach by arguing that Being is not the product of linguistic reflection in Parmenides, Plato and Aristotle; rather, these thinkers treat Being as the ontological and epistemological primary. Though this may overlap with the linguistic senses, it is not the same thing. The article is divided into three sections: the first one raises several basic issues with the predicative interpretation of Being, the second argues that Being is unified and singular in a significant sense and the third brings out the special pre-immanence of Being.

Keywords

EN

the verb einai; predication; existence; forms; Parmenides’ Being

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Peitho. Examina Antiqua
• Year: 2023
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 29-43

Dates

published

2023

Contributors

author

Aidan R. Nathan

• The University of Sydney

• https://orcid.org/0000000330667626

References

• Ackrill, J. L., 1963, Aristotle’s Categories and De Interpretatione: Translated with Notes, Oxford.
• Angioni, L., 2021, “Aristotle’s Solution for Parmenides’ Inconclusive Argument in Physics I.3”, Peitho: Examina Antiqua 12, pp. 41–67.
• Brown, L., 1986, “Being in the Sophist: A Syntactical Enquiry”, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 4, pp. 99–170.
• Brown, L., 2008, “The Sophist on Statements, Predication and Falsehood”, in: G. Fine (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Plato, Oxford, pp. 437–462.
• Burger, R., 1978, “Socratic Irony and the Platonic Art of Writing: The Self-Condemnation of the Written Word in Plato’s Phaedrus”, Southwestern Journal of Philosophy 9.3, pp. 113–126.
• Charlton, W., 1992, Aristotle: Physics Books I and II: Translated with Introduction, Commentary, Note on Recent Work, and Revised Bibliography, Oxford.
• Cornford, F. M., 1935, Plato’s Theory of Knowledge: The Theaetetus and the Sophist of Plato: Translated with a Running Commentary, London.
• Crivelli, P., 2012, Plato’s Account of Falsehood: A Study of the Sophist, Cambridge.
• Curd, P., 1998, The Legacy of Parmenides: Eleatic Monism and Later Presocratic Thought, Princeton.
• Curd, P., 2015, “Thinking, Supposing, and Physis in Parmenides”, Études platoniciennes 12, pp. 1–16.
• Von Fritz, K., 1943, “νοῦς and νοεῖν in the Homeric Poems”, Classical Philology 38, pp. 79–93.
• Von Fritz, K., 1945, “νοῦς, νοεῖν, and Their Derivatives in Pre-Socratic Philosophy (Excluding Anaxagoras): Part I. From the Beginnings to Parmenides”, Classical Philology 40, pp. 223–242.
• Fronterotta, F., 2007, “Some Remarks on noein in Parmenides”, in: S. Stern-Gillet, K. Corrigan (eds.), Reading Ancient Texts: Volume I: Presocratics and Plato, Leiden.
• Fronterotta, F., 2011, “Some Remarks on the Senses of Being in the Sophist”, in: A. Havl.ček, F. Karf.k (eds.), Plato’s Sophist: Proceedings of the Seventh Symposium Platonicum Pragense, Prague, pp. 35–62.
• Frede, M., 1992, “Plato’s Sophist on False Statements”, in: R. Kraut (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Plato, Cambridge, pp. 397–424.
• Graham, D. W., 2006, Explaining the Cosmos: The Ionian Tradition of Scientific Philosophy, Princeton.
• Gerson, L. P., 2006, “The ‘Holy Solemnity’ of Forms and the Platonic Interpretation of Sophist”, Ancient Philosophy 26, pp. 291–304.
• Heinaman, R., 1983, “Being in the Sophist”, Archiv für Gesichte der Philosophie 65, pp. 1–17.
• Kahn, C. H., 2009, Essays on Being, Cambridge.
• Kahn, C. H., 2009a, “The Greek Verb ‘To Be’”, in: Kahn 2009, pp. 16–40 [= 1966, Foundations of Language 2, pp. 245–65].
• Kahn, C. H., 2009b, “A Return to the Theory of the Verb Be”, in: Kahn 2009, pp. 109–42 [= 2004, Ancient Philosophy 24, pp. 381–405].
• Kahn, C. H., 2009c, “The Thesis of Parmenides”, in: Kahn 2009, pp. 143–66 [= 1969, The Review of Metaphysics 22, pp. 700–24].
• Kirk, G. S., Raven, J. E., Schofield M., 1983, The Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection of Texts, Cambridge.
• Koyré, A., 1957, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe, Baltimore.
• Kung, J., 1986, “Aristotle on ‘Being Is Said in Many Ways’”, History of Philosophy Quarterly 3, pp. 3–18.
• Lear, J., 1988, Aristotle: The Desire to Understand, Cambridge.
• Martin, S. B., 2016, Parmenides’ Vision: A Study of Parmenides’ Poem, Lanham.
• Matthen, M., 1983, “Greek Ontology and the ‘Is’ of Truth”, Phronesis 28, pp. 113–135.
• Malcolm, J., 1967, “Plato’s Analysis of τὸ ὄν and τὸ μὴ ὄν in the Sophist”, Phronesis 12, pp. 130–146.
• McKirahan, R., 2008, “Signs and Arguments in Parmenides B8”, in: P. Curd, D. W. Graham (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy, Oxford, pp. 189–221.
• Moss, J., 2019, “Is Plato’s Epistemology about Knowledge?”, in: S. Hetherington, N. D. Smith (eds.)., What the Ancients Offer to Contemporary Epistemology, New York, pp. 68–85.
• Mourelatos, A. P. D., 1979, “Some Alternatives in Interpreting Parmenides”, The Monist 62, pp. 3–14.
• O’Brien, D., 2000, “Parmenides and Plato on What is Not”, in: M. Kardauan, J. Spruyt (eds.), The Winged Chariot, Leiden, pp. 19–104.
• O’Brien, D., 2013, “A form that ‘is’ of what ‘is not’: Existential einai in Plato’s Sophist”, in: G. Boys-Stones, D. El Murr, C. Gill (eds.), The Platonic Art of Philosophy, Cambridge, pp. 221–248.
• Owen, G. E. L., 1960, “Eleatic Questions”, Classical Quarterly 10, pp. 84–102.
• Owen, G. E. L., 1971, “Plato on Not-being”, in: G. Vlastos (ed.), Plato: A Collection of Critical Essays, Vol. 1: Metaphysics and Epistemology, Basingstoke, pp. 223–267.
• Owens, J., 1978, The Doctrine of Being in the Aristotelian Metaphysics: A Study in the Greek Background of Mediaeval Thought, Toronto.
• Politis, V., 2004, Routledge Philosophy Guide Book to Aristotle and the Metaphysics, London.
• Prior, W. J., 1980, “Plato’s Analysis of Being and Not-being in the Sophist”, Southern Journal of Philosophy 18, pp. 199–211.
• Reeve, C. D. C. (transl.), 2016, Aristotle, Metaphysics, Indianapolis.
• Reeve, C. D. C., 2000, Substantial Knowledge: Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Indianapolis.
• Witt, C., 1989, Substance and Essence in Aristotle: An Interpretation of Metaphysics VII–IX, Ithaca.
• Vlastos, G., 1965–1966, “A Metaphysical Paradox”, Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 39, pp. 5–19.

Identifiers

DOI

10.14746/PEA.2023.1.2

Biblioteka Nauki

28408725