Aristotle in Dialogue with Plato: Revisiting the Puzzle in Aristotle’s De Anima III.2 (425b12–25)

Voula Tsouna

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Chapter 7 Aristotle in Dialogue with Plato

Revisiting the Puzzle in Aristotle’s De Anima III.2 (425b12–25)

In: New Essays on the Platonic Tradition

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Voula Tsouna

Voula Tsouna
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 133–161

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004751149_008

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Abstract

Aristotle’s main task in De anima III.2 is to address the question how we have second-order perception, namely how we perceive that we are perceiving. The opening argument is formulated in a dialectical manner and constitutes an object of debate regarding both its details and the rôle that it plays in Aristotle’s account of perceptual awareness. Notably, it is commonly believed that Aristotle merely sets up alternative approaches to certain puzzles about second-order perception without committing himself to a specific position, and also that, in so far as the argument involves relatives, he builds it out of nowhere. Aristotle, Bertrand Russell claimed, was the first philosopher to understand something about relatives and relations, contrary to Plato who understood nothing at all. While the latter idea has been overturned by recent work on the subject, Aristotle’s unacknowledged debts to Plato and his school remain underestimated and understudied. The present paper aims to redress the situation is a small and local way, by revisiting a hypothesis first expressed by Paul Shorey in 1901 and, a few years later, by Robert Hicks in 1907, namely that the problem introduced at De anima III.2 (425b18–19) has its origin in the so-called Argument from Relatives in Plato’s Charmides (167c8–169c2). Historically, I hope to show that this hypothesis is likely to be correct, and that Aristotle considered carefully the questions raised by Socrates in the Charmides regarding perceptual relativity and second-order perception. Philosophically, I contend that the two passages under discussion are worthy of parallel study, even on the assumption that there is no historical connection between them. For their comparative discussion throws significant light on the nature of relatives, in particular reflexive relatives, as well as on the logical and semantic relations holding between second-order perceptual relatives and their respective objects.

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New Essays on the Platonic Tradition

In Honour of Paul Kalligas

Series: Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic Tradition, Volume: 35

Cover New Essays on the Platonic Tradition

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004751149

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 26 Feb 2026

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Chapter 7 Aristotle in Dialogue with Plato

Revisiting the Puzzle in Aristotle’s De Anima III.2 (425b12–25)

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New Essays on the Platonic Tradition

In Honour of Paul Kalligas

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