What is the criterion for distinguishing between the excellence of the excellent constitution κατ’ εὐχήν in Politics VII and the excellence of the other excellent constitutions? Every constitution includes in its composition necessity and good. Yet, unlike what happens in the other excellent constitutions, in the best constitution of Politics VII there is a convergence, not an opposition, between necessity and goodness. This point is confirmed by a change in the meaning of the word ἀναγκαῖον. In the constitution delineated in (...) Book VII, ultimately matter and form are identical. Both the convergence between necessity and good and the fact that every citizen should be a good man or a ‘maker of virtue’ lead to equate the excellent constitution with the completed form of political capacity. Hence, the relationship between πολιτεία and ἀρίστη πολιτεία is similar to the relationship between ἔργον κιθαριστοῦ and ἔργον σπουδαίου κιθαριστοῦ. (shrink)

This work reveals the ambivalence of the notion of philia and its inability to serve as a foundation for the civic order when it is not supported by dike. The range of different analytical approaches opens up the perspective from which philosophy addresses a pivotal question for social and political ties in ancient Greece.

Given the necessary connection between pleasure and energeia, the value of an aristotelian pleasure depends on the value of its correlative activity. Since the absolute pleasures the philokalos takes in his virtuous activities might go hand in hand with pains, the definition of absolute pleasure cannot rely on the distinction between mixed pleasure versus pure pleasure. So, how can we characterize the pleasures of the temperate man? My thesis is that the right way to define the pleasures of the temperate (...) man is to describe them as pleasures derived from differences. A pleasure derived from differences is involved in the pleasure human beings get from the formal use of their senses. It then belongs to the kind of pleasure they take in knowing. This formal use of the senses helps understanding how the pleasures of the temperate man can be separated from the pleasures enjoyed by children and animals. (shrink)

Les catégories dégagées par Aristote sont-elles un instrument formel, ontologiquement neutre, comme pourrait le laisser penser l'usage propédeutique qu'en firent les néoplatoniciens dans leur cursus scolaire? Si l'on refuse cette hypothèse, est-on contraint de donner aux catégories le statut d'êtres? L'opposition même entre interprétation ontologique et interprétation formelle devrait être remise en question, car une grille formelle, comme l'est le schéma des catégories, lorsqu'elle possède un ordre, comme c'est le cas avec les catégories, ne saurait être ontologiquement neutre. Are the (...) categories developed by Aristotle a formal, ontologically neutral instrument? The way they were used by the neo-Platonists in the foundation course of their school program would lead us to believe so. If we reject this hypothesis, are we then forced to give those categories the status of beings? The very opposition between ontological interpretation and formal interpretation should be questioned, since a formal grid such as the framework of the categories, possessing an order, as the categories do, could not be ontologically neutral. (shrink)

La théorie des deux sexes, proposée par Thomas Laqueur dans La fabrique du Sexe, suscite plusieurs questions d’ordre méthodologique ; notamment, Aristote est un contre-exemple pour sa théorie de l’unisexe.

A collection of eight studies on Theophrastus' Metaphysics, presenting an overview of the first reception of Aristotle.

L'introduction par Aristote de la matière dans la théorie des contraires est une correction des modèles du devenir proposés par ses prédécesseurs : il est désormais possible de penser ensemble devenir et ordre. La matière récuse le dilemme de être et du non-être qui rendait impossible toute théorie de la génération. Cette introduction de la matière commande, à l'intérieur de la pensée d'Aristote, la distinction entre deux sortes de dynamis, et la distinction corrélative de deux sortes de moteurs : les (...) moteurs mus et immobiles. La matière est ainsi autant cause d'ordre que de contingence. The introduction of matter into the theory of contraries by Aristotle puts right earlier versions of kinèsis suggested by his predecessors : thinking kinèsis and order together is henceforth possible. Matter resolves the dilemma of being or not-being which was making any theory of generation impossible. That introduction of matter commands, in Aristotle's thinking, the distinction between two sorts of dynamis and the correlative distinction between two sorts of movers : the moved movers and the unchanging ones. Matter is thus as much cause of order as of contingency. (shrink)

In Aristotle, substance, being specified in Z17 as cause and principle, is to be understood according to the analogical theory of principles and causes, namely form, matter and privation. These three causes involve potentiality and actuality, since form, privation, and the compound substance are in actuality, while matter is in potentiality. ≪What a substance is≫ depends on the connection between these three principles. In order to grasp the meaning of this connection, one has to put the analogical theory of principles (...) back in its context, where previous theories on contraries are amended.The amendment of previous theories of principles relies on positing a third term, matter, between both opposites, i.e. form and privation. The implied distinction between matter and privation allows an understanding of generation which makes it compatible with substance. While generation removes privation, substance as form gives shape to matter, final matter and shape being identical to one another. Predication of matter by form supplies a relevant pattern for considering the relationship between matter, form and privation. At the same time, predication of matter by form provides both a renovated theory of opposites and a new theory of form as a cause, i.e. a theory of form as actuality. (shrink)

What does Nature mean in the famous Aristotelian formula?man is, by nature, a political animal?? Within the context of the discussion with the Socratic assertions in Plato?s Republic, Nature means that polis is not the result of deficiency, but the expression of a positive desire. Thus, for human beings, there is no state of nature before political life. This does not mean that everything that is political is natural. nema.

ARISTOTLE ON PURSUIT AND AVOIDANCE. Pleasure and pain play an essential role in Aristotle’s conception of the goal‑directed activities of animals and human beings, since they trigger the reactions of pursuit or avoidance, and hence the entire behavior. The present paper inquires into Aristotle’s analysis of this phenomenon on the basis of De Anima III, chapter 7 and De Motu Animalium, chapters 6‑7‑8. The crucial move in this analysis is the definition of pleasure and pain given in both treatises : (...) “To feel pleasure or pain is to actualize through the sensitive mean towards what is good or bad, as such”. The paper examines the meaning of this definition and shows how it connects and agrees with the explanation of the principles of the physical motions of animals in the De Motu Animalium. (shrink)

Résumé — Dans le § VI du De fato, Alexandre d’Aphrodise déclare exposer la conception péripatéticienne du destin. Il pose à cet effet l’identité de la nature et du destin. Le but de cet article est d’expliciter la détermination de la nature mise en œuvre pour établir cette identité et de la confronter à la théorie aristotélicienne. L’examen est mené d’un double point de vue : celui des procédures méthodologiques utilisées et celui du concept de nature qui en résulte.Remarques sur (...) la conception de la nature dans les § 2-6 du De Fato d’Alexandre d’Aphrodise— In De fato VI, Alexander of Aphrodisias states the Peripatetic theory of Fate, arguing that nature and Fate are identical. What notion of nature results from this statement ? Is it still Aristotelian ? The question will be examined under two aspects, methodological and conceptual. (shrink)

Ce livre est issu de deux journées d'études organisées par D. Gardey et I. Löwy au Centre de Recherche en Histoire des sciences et des Techniques, journées tenues les 24 janvier et 24 avril 1997 à la Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie à Paris. La première journée était consacrée au thème : « Genre et science. État de la question historique en France et à l'étranger » et proposait un bilan historiographique. La deuxième journée proposait une réflexion sur « (...) L'invention du naturel : le... (shrink)