The paper aims to identify the rationale for crucial tenets in Aristotle's Socratic doxography. This implies different steps. The first step is a preliminary selection of material. Thus, among the many and various instances of the name of Socrates in the Aristotelian corpus, we try to classify them in various categories, so that we can focus on a consistent group of quotations. We need to treat as a separate category a wide range of occurrences of the name of Socrates in the corpus, where this merely occurs as the most typical example of a single individual, a particular person. This use of Socrates as an example is found in all parts of the corpus, with special frequency in the works of logic. The question "why Socrates as a model? Why always Socrates?" naturally arises in this regard. According to a late nineteenth century thesis, this suggests that a statue of Socrates was placed in the Lyceum, and was pointed to every time. But this is not the only possible explanation, may be there simpler ones. Certainly, however, such reference do not say anything about the philosophy of Socrates, and thus must be put aside, for our present purposes. An important group of references, especially in Aristotle's Politics, are directed to Socrates' alleged sayings in Plato's Socratic dialogues, especially in Plato's Republic. These references often imply interesting summaries of the positions expressed by the voice of Socrates in Plato's work. It is clear that they refer rather to Plato, and to especially well-known pages of Plato's dialogues, rather than to Socrates himself. Even these can be left out, if one intends to investigate the role of Socrates in Aritotle's philosophical doxography. As a proof, one can consider the parallel case of the reference to 'Socrates' as in Plato's Phaedo in Arist., De generatione and corruptione, II 335b10ss. References to the ethical thought of Socrates are very different in nature. This type of evidence concerns the kind of philosophy to which Socrates, as Aristotle warns in Met. Alpha, exclusively devoted himself. At various times in his writings (especially EN) Aristotle presents Socrates' basic tenets, such as the intellectual nature of virtues, and the reductio ad unum of the virtues themselves, so that they would all be one (Aristotle in part agrees, but in part disagrees: for, in his view, this would indicate that virtues are not different from one another. In fact, they have different definitions; still, they imply each other). These theories, probably, will relate very directly to the arguments presented by Socrates and / or known and debated as Socratic. As such, they are taken by Aristotle in the special and careful consideration. Finally, as for subtraction, a small, but important group of references to Socrates emerges in the field of purely theoretical philosophy: in fact, Aristotle in Metaphysics Alpha 987b1ss, and My 1078b23ss., uses Socrates as a chronological watershed in his conceptual and historical design about the origins of philosophy. He does so, in two different senses: Socrates is the one who first embraced an entirely ethical area of philosophy, and is the one who first brought philosophy to deal with definitions and "universal" beings, as in the language of Aristotle, but did not place them as separate as Platonists did. In this regard, we intend to explore how the figure of Socrates intertwine these two different primates - to which extent are they compatible, and how can they be reconciled – both together and with the remaining Socratic doxography.
La figura di Socrate nella Metafisica, libri Alpha e My
Fazzo, Silvia
2013-01-01
Abstract
The paper aims to identify the rationale for crucial tenets in Aristotle's Socratic doxography. This implies different steps. The first step is a preliminary selection of material. Thus, among the many and various instances of the name of Socrates in the Aristotelian corpus, we try to classify them in various categories, so that we can focus on a consistent group of quotations. We need to treat as a separate category a wide range of occurrences of the name of Socrates in the corpus, where this merely occurs as the most typical example of a single individual, a particular person. This use of Socrates as an example is found in all parts of the corpus, with special frequency in the works of logic. The question "why Socrates as a model? Why always Socrates?" naturally arises in this regard. According to a late nineteenth century thesis, this suggests that a statue of Socrates was placed in the Lyceum, and was pointed to every time. But this is not the only possible explanation, may be there simpler ones. Certainly, however, such reference do not say anything about the philosophy of Socrates, and thus must be put aside, for our present purposes. An important group of references, especially in Aristotle's Politics, are directed to Socrates' alleged sayings in Plato's Socratic dialogues, especially in Plato's Republic. These references often imply interesting summaries of the positions expressed by the voice of Socrates in Plato's work. It is clear that they refer rather to Plato, and to especially well-known pages of Plato's dialogues, rather than to Socrates himself. Even these can be left out, if one intends to investigate the role of Socrates in Aritotle's philosophical doxography. As a proof, one can consider the parallel case of the reference to 'Socrates' as in Plato's Phaedo in Arist., De generatione and corruptione, II 335b10ss. References to the ethical thought of Socrates are very different in nature. This type of evidence concerns the kind of philosophy to which Socrates, as Aristotle warns in Met. Alpha, exclusively devoted himself. At various times in his writings (especially EN) Aristotle presents Socrates' basic tenets, such as the intellectual nature of virtues, and the reductio ad unum of the virtues themselves, so that they would all be one (Aristotle in part agrees, but in part disagrees: for, in his view, this would indicate that virtues are not different from one another. In fact, they have different definitions; still, they imply each other). These theories, probably, will relate very directly to the arguments presented by Socrates and / or known and debated as Socratic. As such, they are taken by Aristotle in the special and careful consideration. Finally, as for subtraction, a small, but important group of references to Socrates emerges in the field of purely theoretical philosophy: in fact, Aristotle in Metaphysics Alpha 987b1ss, and My 1078b23ss., uses Socrates as a chronological watershed in his conceptual and historical design about the origins of philosophy. He does so, in two different senses: Socrates is the one who first embraced an entirely ethical area of philosophy, and is the one who first brought philosophy to deal with definitions and "universal" beings, as in the language of Aristotle, but did not place them as separate as Platonists did. In this regard, we intend to explore how the figure of Socrates intertwine these two different primates - to which extent are they compatible, and how can they be reconciled – both together and with the remaining Socratic doxography.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione