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"One and Many" in Aristotle's Metaphysics: Books, "Alpha to Delta" is sequentially the first volume of a three volume set, the second of which was first published by Ohio State University Press in 1989 and was reprinted with revisions by Parmenides Publishing in 2005. The final volume, "Lota to Nu", is scheduled for release in 2009. Most treatments of the opening books of Aristotle's Metaphysics aim to elucidate Aristotle's doctrines of being and substance or to discover, within his accounts of his philosophical predecessors, their doctrines of being. In this first volume of "One and Many", Halper argues that books "Alpha to Delta" should be read as a coherent treatment, within the larger whole of the Metaphysics, that addresses the problem of how there can be a science of metaphysics. At issue is whether the topics that should be treated by metaphysics can fall under a single science, and this question turns on whether these topics constitute the sort of unity that can be the subject matter of an Aristotelian science. Aristotle shows that metaphysics exists by showing that these topics do indeed constitute the appropriate unity. Halper argues that Aristotle poses and pursues the problem of the existence of metaphysics as a version of the problem of the one and the many. However, Aristotle resolves this problem by introducing doctrines of being and substance, and it is these latter that he continues to explore in the next portion of the Metaphysics, treated in the second volume, "The Central Books". Hence, the opening books of the Metaphysics show, Halper argues, Aristotle's transformation of metaphysics from a treatment of the problem of the one and the many to a treatment of being and substance. Understanding the one/many problem that these doctrines resolve is the key to understanding Aristotle's arguments in the opening books of the Metaphysics and, consequently, the doctrines they support. Many of the details in these well worked books of the Metaphysics are, of course, well known. What Halper does here is fit them together into a coherent treatment of the problem of the one and many. In doing so, he locates the Metaphysics firmly in the tradition of Presocratic and Platonic metaphysical speculation. Aristotle undermines this tradition, but understanding how he does so is essential for understanding his argument in the Metaphysics.
Show more"One and Many" in Aristotle's Metaphysics: Books, "Alpha to Delta" is sequentially the first volume of a three volume set, the second of which was first published by Ohio State University Press in 1989 and was reprinted with revisions by Parmenides Publishing in 2005. The final volume, "Lota to Nu", is scheduled for release in 2009. Most treatments of the opening books of Aristotle's Metaphysics aim to elucidate Aristotle's doctrines of being and substance or to discover, within his accounts of his philosophical predecessors, their doctrines of being. In this first volume of "One and Many", Halper argues that books "Alpha to Delta" should be read as a coherent treatment, within the larger whole of the Metaphysics, that addresses the problem of how there can be a science of metaphysics. At issue is whether the topics that should be treated by metaphysics can fall under a single science, and this question turns on whether these topics constitute the sort of unity that can be the subject matter of an Aristotelian science. Aristotle shows that metaphysics exists by showing that these topics do indeed constitute the appropriate unity. Halper argues that Aristotle poses and pursues the problem of the existence of metaphysics as a version of the problem of the one and the many. However, Aristotle resolves this problem by introducing doctrines of being and substance, and it is these latter that he continues to explore in the next portion of the Metaphysics, treated in the second volume, "The Central Books". Hence, the opening books of the Metaphysics show, Halper argues, Aristotle's transformation of metaphysics from a treatment of the problem of the one and the many to a treatment of being and substance. Understanding the one/many problem that these doctrines resolve is the key to understanding Aristotle's arguments in the opening books of the Metaphysics and, consequently, the doctrines they support. Many of the details in these well worked books of the Metaphysics are, of course, well known. What Halper does here is fit them together into a coherent treatment of the problem of the one and many. In doing so, he locates the Metaphysics firmly in the tradition of Presocratic and Platonic metaphysical speculation. Aristotle undermines this tradition, but understanding how he does so is essential for understanding his argument in the Metaphysics.
Show moreEdward C. Halper graduated from the University of Chicago, USA and went on to receive his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He is the Josiah Meigs Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Georgia, and author of Form and Reason: Essays in Metaphysics (1993), One and Many in Aristotle's Metaphysics: The Central Books (1989, 2005), and One and Many in Aristotle's Metaphysics: Iota-Nu (2014).
This book deserves to become a kind of reference point interpretation for contemporary Scholarship precisely because it is a comprehensive reading that reasserts the integrity of Aristotle's Metaphysics. Halper attends meticulously but not tediously to Aristotle's text, and he defends a plausible reading that remains philosophically rich while preserving Aristotle from confusion and contradiction"". - Review of Metaphysics
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