Mary Louise Gill

This book explores a fundamental tension in Aristotle's metaphysics: how can an entity such as a living organisma composite generated through the imposition of form on preexisting matterhave the conceptual unity that Aristotle demands of primary substances? Mary Louise Gill bases her treatment of the problem of unity, and of Aristotle's solution, on a fresh interpretation of the relation between matter and form. Challenging the traditional understanding of Aristotelian matter, she argues that material substances are subverted by matter and maintained by form that controls the matter to serve a positive end. The unity of material substances thus involves a dynamic relation between resistant materials and directive ends. Aristotle on Substance offers both a general account of matter, form, and substantial unity and a specific assessment of particular Aristotelian arguments. At every point, Gill engages Aristotle on his own philosophical ground through the detailed analysis of central, and often controversial, texts from the Metaphysics, Physics, On Generation and Corruption, De Anima, De Caelo, and the biological works. The result is a coherent, firmly grounded rethinking of Aristotle's central metaphysical concepts and of his struggle toward a fully consistent theory of material substances.

The Paradox of Unity

Aristotle on Substance

Plato famously promised a final dialogue in the Sophist-Statesman, a series aiming to define three sorts of experts--the sophist, the statesman, and the philosopher--but the final dialogue on the philosopher is missing. In Philosophos: Plato's Missing Dialogue, Mary Louise Gill argues that Plato promised the Philosopher but did not write it to stimulate his audience and encourage them to work out, for themselves, the portrait it wouldhave contained. Gill reveals how, in finding the philosopher through the exercises Plato sets in the work, the student of Plato becomes a philosopher by mastering his methods. She shows that the target of Plato's exercise isinternally related to its pedagogical purpose.

Plato's Missing Dialogue

Philosophos

Pierre Pellegrin

Provides an overview of the history of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. This volume contains papers, which treat topics in ancient philosophy, such as the problem of sources or the practice of ancient philosophical commentary and also explore the development of various disciplines, including mathematics, logic, grammar, physics, and medicine.

A Companion to Ancient Philosophy

Theodore Scaltsas

David Charles

This volume presents fourteen new essays by leading figures in the fields of ancient philosophy and contemporary metaphysics, discussing Aristotle's theory of the unity of substances. This topic remains at the centre of metaphysical enquiry.The contributors examine the nature of essences, how they differ from other components of substance, and how they are related to these other components. The central questions discussed here are: What does Aristotle mean by 'potentiality' and 'actuality'? How do these concepts explicate matter andform, and how are they related to the actuality of substance? What is the role of matter and form in accounting for the unity, identity, and individuation of substances? These questions are crucial to an understanding of the unity of composite substances and their identity over time.The aim of the volume is both exegetical and philosophical: to address central issues in Aristotle's Metaphysics, and to stimulate further investigation of the problems and controversies that arise from these.

Mary Louise Gill

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