Substantial Knowledge : Aristotle's Metaphysics / Edition 1

by C.D.C. Reeve

Overview

In this groundbreaking work, C. D. C. Reeve uses a fundamental problem--the Primacy Dilemma--to explore Aristotle's metaphysics, epistemology, dialectic, philosophy of mind, and theology in a new way. At a time when Aristotle is most often studied piecemeal, Reeve attempts to see him both in detail and as a whole, so that it is from detailed analysis of hundreds of particular passages, drawn from dozens of Aristotelian treatises, and translated in full that his overall picture of Aristotle emerges. Primarily a book for philosophers and advanced students with an interest in the fundamental problems with which Aristotle is grappling, Substantial Knowledge's clear, non-technical and engaging style will appeal to any reader eager to explore Aristotle’s difficult but extraordinarily rewarding thought.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780872205147
Publisher:	Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/01/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	341
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

C. D. C. Reeve is Delta Kappa Epsilon Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	xiii
	Abbreviations of Aristotle's Works	xvii
1	Platonism	1
1.1	Separation	1
1.2	Platonic Forms	10
1.3	Problems with Platonic Forms	13
2	Scientific Knowledge	18
2.1	Aristotelian Sciences	18
2.2	Dialectic and First Principles	21
2.3	Natural Sciences	27
2.4	Natural and Theoretical Sciences	35
2.5	Exact and Inexact Sciences	38
3	Essence	43
3.1	Natural Beings	43
3.2	How Natural Beings Come-to-Be	45
3.3	How Human Beings Come-to-Be	48
3.4	The Inheritance of Understanding	55
3.5	Artifactual Essences	60
3.6	Mathematical Essences	63
3.7	Penmattered Natural Essences and Inexact Sciences	66
3.8	The Definition of an Essence	70
3.9	The Parts of an Essence	80
3.10	The Formal Element of an Essence	83
3.11	Other Essences	88
4	Being as Substance	89
4.1	Intrinsic Being	89
4.2	Coincidental Being	92
4.3	Categories of Intrinsic Being	94
4.4	Non-Substantial Intrinsic Beings	96
4.5	Substantial Intrinsic Beings	98
4.6	The Structure of Intrinsic Being	100
4.7	The Task of Categories	105
4.8	Primary Substance[subscript c]	112
5	Per Ceptible Substance	115
5.1	Perceptible Substance and Change	115
5.2	Primary Substance[subscript m]	123
5.3	Form	125
5.4	Suniversals	130
5.5	Winners and Losers	132
6	Substance as Form	134
6.1	Potentiality and Actuality	134
6.2	Activities and Their Ends	140
6.3	Activity as Primary Substance[subscript m]?	147
7	Intelligible Substance	149
7.1	Sight as a Model for Understanding	149
7.2	Passive Understanding	160
7.3	Productive Understanding	167
7.4	Self-Understanding	174
7.5	Human Beings as Their Self-Understandings	182
7.6	Self-Understanding as Primary Substance[subscript m]?	188
8	Divine Substance	190
8.1	God as Unmoved Mover	190
8.2	God and the Heavens	209
8.3	God's Essence	219
8.4	God and "the Nature of the Whole"	230
8.5	God as Primary Substance[subscript m]?	237
9	The Science of Being Qua Being	240
9.1	Primary Science and Its Problems	240
9.2	Special and Universal Sciences	247
9.3	Theoretical Philosophies and First Principles	258
9.4	Primary Philosophy and Non-Contradiction	260
9.5	Non-Contradiction Demonstrated	271
9.6	Primary Philosophy as Primary Science?	273
9.7	Theology as Primary Science?	277
9.8	The Primacy Dilemma Solved	282
9.9	Post Dilemma Metaphysics	287
10	Aristotelianism	291
10.1	The Primacy Dilemma Revisited	291
10.2	Aristotelianism or Platonism?	293
10.3	Aristotle Without God?	298
10.4	Aristotle's Conception of Philosophy	300
	References	303
	Index Locorum	310
	General Index	319

Editorial Reviews

C.D.C. Reeve has made a remarkable contribution to the study of Aristotle’s metaphysics, not least because his interpretation restores Aristotle’s theology to its central place. His book will be important reading not only for scholars engaged in debate about Aristotle’s text, but also for the rest of us, because it is both an interpretation of Aristotle and a significant metaphysical inquiry in its own right. --Alasdair MacIntyre, Duke University

A splendid book! Reeve's Substantial Knowledge contains a remarkably rich and detailed exploration of the primacy, both metaphysical and epistemological, of substantial being in Aristotle's theoretical philosophy. It not only provides an accessible introduction to the key texts and problems, but also challenges contemporary scholarship in its highly original exposition and defense of a holistic interpretation of the aims and content of Aristotle's metaphysical theorizing. --Alan Code, University of California, Berkeley

Even scholars who have worked hard over decades on metaphysics in Aristotle will find much refreshment as well as much to learn in studying this book. This is not an ordinary working through, textbook fashion, of the established topics and the established texts, aimed at giving a thorough but traditionally conceived examination of Aristotle’s metaphysics of substance. It is a completely fresh, independently motivated philosophical reading of lots and lots of Aristotelian texts, assembled in order to buttress an ongoing interpretative project, and quoted in full and then analyzed step by step in the surrounding discussion. I am sure that any reader will find the book a spirited and instructive effort to deal intelligibly with these often quite daunting materials. --John Cooper, Princeton University

From the Publisher