This collection of essays highlights Ancient, Byzantine and Medieval developments in the discussion of scientific method and argument in the comment(arie)s on Aristotleâs Posterior Analytics and related methodological passages in the Aristotelian corpus. Despite the importance of these discussions, the larger part of the commentary tradition on the Posterior Analytics still remains uncharted. The contributors to this volume identify and explore three important strands of interpretation, viz. (1) the reception of Aristotleâs logic of inquiry and theory of concept formation in Posterior Analytics II 19; (2) the influence of the Posterior Analytics on the evaluation of metaphysics as a science; and (3) the reception of Aristotleâs theory of demonstration, definition, and causation in Posterior Analytics book II.
Frans A.J. de Haas, Ph.D. (Leiden 1995) is Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at Leiden University. He has published extensively on the ancient commentary tradition, on Aristotle and on Neoplatonism, including John Philoponus' New Definition of Prime Matter (Brill, 1997).
Mariska Leunissen, Ph.D. (Leiden 2007) is Assistant Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. She has published several articles on Aristotle's teleology and theory of demonstration, and is the author of Explanation and Teleology in Aristotle's Science of Nature (CUP, 2010).
Marije Martijn, Ph.D (Leiden 2008) is Lecturer Ancient and Patristic Philosophy at VU University Amsterdam. She has published a number of articles on Neoplatonic philosophy of nature, epistemology and aesthetics, and a monograph, Proclus on Nature (Brill, 2010).
Contributors: Pia Antolic-Piper, Maddalena Bonelli, Owen Goldin, Christoph Helmig, Katerina Ierodiakonou, Inna Kupreeva, Angela Longo, Mariska Leunissen, Richard Sorabji, and Miira Tuominen.
Part I CONCEPT FORMATION IN POSTERIOR ANALYTICS II 19
1. The Ancient Commentators on Concept Formation
Richard Sorabji
2. Proclusâ Criticism of AristotleâsTheory of Abstraction and Concept Formation in Analytica Posteriora II 19
Christoph Helmig
3. Eustratiusâ Comments on Posterior Analytics II 19
Katerina Ierodiakonou
4. Roger Bacon on Experiment, Induction and Intellect in his Reception of Analytica Posteriora II 19
Pia A. Antolic-Piper
7. Alexander and Philoponus on Prior Analytics I 27â30: Is There Tension between Aristotleâs Scientific Theory and Practice?
Miira Tuominen
8. Two Traditions in the Ancient Posterior Analytics Commentaries
Owen Goldin
9. Aristotle and Philoponus on Final Causes in Demonstrations in
Posterior Analytics II 11
Mariska Leunissen
10. Aristotle on Causation and Conditional Necessity: Analytica
Posteriora II 12 in Context
Inna Kupreeva
All those interested in classical scholarship, the history of ancient philosophy, the history of logic and epistemology, philosophy of science, metaphysics and theories of causation and concept formation.