This volume provides a rich collection of original essays on Aristotle's metaphysics written by sixteen prominent scholars in the field. Honouring the seminal influence of David Charles to philosophical scholarship, it offers fresh interpretations and assessments of Aristotle's thinking in metaphysics and related areas such as philosophy of language, psychology, natural philosophy, and mathematics.
The collection contributes to the recent resurgence of interest in Aristotelian metaphysics, furthering our understanding of Aristotle's seminal contribution to the history of western philosophy. It evaluates key features of Aristotle's metaphysical thinking: his accounts of definition and meaning; his understanding of being and the categories; his models of explanation, causation, and accounts of modality, space, and change. The chapters are written with clarity and attention to the detail of Aristotle's texts but presuppose no knowledge of ancient Greek and can be read with benefit by advanced philosophy students and scholars.
Sixteen prominent scholars offer fresh interpretations and assessments of Aristotle's metaphysical thinking: his accounts of definition and meaning; his understanding of being and the categories; his models of explanation and causation; and his accounts of modality, space, and change. No knowledge of ancient Greek is assumed.
IntroductionPart I: Definition, Meaning, and Language1. A Puzzle in Aristotle's Theory of Definition, David Bronstein2. Antisthenes on Definition: Metaphysics H.3, Marko Malink3. Focality, Analogy, and the Articulation of Concepts, S. G. Williams4. David Charles on Wittgenstein, Aristotle, and Artisans, The late Paul SnowdonPart II: Categories, Substance, and Essence5. Plato's Butcher: Questions about the Metaphysics of Classification, Verity Harte6. Non-Substance Individuals in Aristotle's Categories, Jennifer Whiting7. Essential Predication in Aristotle's Categories: A Defence, Christof Rapp8. Aristotle on How Essence Grounds Necessity, Michail PeramatzisPart III: Form, Matter, and Teleology9. Predicative Hylomorphism in Metaphysics Z, Mary Louise Gill10. Aristotelian Matter, Lindsay Judson11. Matter-Involving Form and Hypothetical Necessity in Aristotle's De Anima, T. K. Johansen12. Life, Agency, and Value, James G. LennoxPart IV: Modality, Change, and Space13. Reflections on Aristotle's Modal Ontology, Kei Chiba14. How Aristotle Understands Change: A Reading of Physics 3.1-3, Frank A. Lewis15. Aristotle: Processes and Continuants, Ursula Coope16. Why is Space Discontinuous? De Lineis Insecabilibus 968b5-22, Vassilis Karasmanis
David Bronstein is Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Ethics and Society at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney, and Australian Research Council Future Fellow (2023-2026). He previously held positions at the University of New South Wales, Georgetown University, Boston University, and the University of Oxford. He is the author of Aristotle on Knowledge and Learning: the Posterior Analytics (OUP, 2016) and several articles on Plato and Aristotle.
Thomas Kjeller Johansen studied Philosophy and Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge, from which he also attained his PhD. He subsequently taught in the departments of Classics and Philosophy at Bristol, Edinburgh, and Oxford, before moving to the University of Oslo in 2016.
Michail Peramatzis took both a BA in Classics and Philosophy and an MSt in Philosophy at the University of Athens. After two years in the Hellenic Navy, he completed his DPhil at Christ Church, Oxford. Before taking up his current position he held a Junior Research Fellowship at Christ Church and a Lectureship in Philosophy, Queen's University, Belfast.
