Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/346

Rh 328 ARISTOTELES. The origin of thess categories, according to Tren- delenburg's investigation, is of a linguistic- grammati- cal nature. (Trend, de Arist. Ckteg. BeroL 1833, 8vo.) 2. riepl epixrjveLas (de 'Elocutione oratorio)^ i. e. concerning the expression of thoughts by means of speech. By ep/xi^vfia Aristotle understands the import of all the component parts of judgments and conclusions. As the Categories are of a gram- matical origin, so also this small treatise, which was probably not quite completed, was, as it were, the fii-st attempt at a philosophical system of gram- mar. (See Classen, de Grammatkae Graecae Pri- inordiis, Bonnae, 1 829, p. 52 ; K. E. Geppert, Darstellung der Gramniaiischen Kategorieti, Berlin, 1836, p. 11.) After these propaedeutical treatises, in which definitions (opoi) and propositions {TrpoTdaeis) are treated of, there follow, as the first part of Logic, properly so called, 3. The two books 'AvaKiniKci TrpdTfpa (A7iaJi/tica priora), the theory of conclu- sions. The title is derived from the resolution of the conclusion into its fundamental component parts {dvaXvfiv). The word TrpSrepa, appended to the title, is from a later hand. 4. The two books, AvaKvTiKO, vcrrepa (also Seurepo, /LieyoAa), treat, the first of demonstrable (apodeictic) knowledge, the second of the application of conclusions to proof. 5. The eight books TottikcDj' embrace Dialectics, t. e. the logic of the probable according to Aristotle. It is the method of arriving at farther conclusions on every problem according to probable propositions and general points of view. From these last, (tottoi, se/Jes etfontes argumentorum^ loci, Cic. T<yp. c. 2, Oral. c. 14,) the work takes its name. We must regard as an appendix to the Topica the treatise, 6, Hepl ao<pi(TTiKuv eKeyx^i concerning the fallacies which only apparently prove something to us. Published separately by Winckelmann, Leipzig, 1833, as an appendix to his edition of Plato's Euthydemus. 2. T/teoretical Philosophy. Its three parts are Physics, Matluimaiics, and Metaphysics. In Physics, theoretical philosophy considers material substances, which have the source of motion in themselves (rd. ovra § kivov- ixeva). In mathematics the subject is the attri- butes of quantity and extension (to ttSctou /col t6 avvex^s), which are external to motion indeed, but not separate from things (x«P"rra), though they are still independent, Kaff aiira fieuovTa. Metaphysics (in Arist. irpwrri (pio(TO(pia, (rotpia, ^eohoyla, ^eooyiKTJ cttktt'^ij.t), or <piXo(To<pia simply) have to do with eaistence in itself and as such (to 6v p 6v, Met. V. 1, E. 1), which in like manner is external to motion ; but at the same time exists by itself separably from individual things (to xw^to-T^j' 6v koX to oxivt^tov). Their subject therefore is the universal, the ultimate cjiuses of things, the best, the first (to KaQoKov^ rd ahia, to &pi(TTOV^ to TrpcoTO, irepl dpxds (ttkt- TT^uTj), absolute existence, and the one. To this last branch belong The Metaphysics^ in 14 books {twv ixerd rd j <pv(nKd^ A — N), which probably originated after ! Aristotle's death in the collection of originally in- j dependent treatises. The title also is of late i origin. It occurs first in Plutarch (Alex. c. 7), j and must probably be traced back to Androuicus ARISTOTELES. of Rhodes. Out of this pragmaty there have been lost the writings Ile/ji <pLo(TO(plas^ in three books, containing the first sketch of metaphysics, and a description of the Pythagorean and Platonic philo- sophy ; and Uep) Ideas, in at least four books, a polemic representation of the Platonic doctrine of ideas. (See Brandis, Diatribe de perd. Arist. libr. 21. 14.) Literature of the Metaphysics. The edition by Brandis, Berlin, 1823, of which hitherto only the first vol., containing the text, has appeared. Scho- lia Graeai in Arist. Met. ed. Brandis, Berol. 1837, 8vo. iv. 1 ; Biese, die Philosophie des Arist. i, pp. 310 — 661; Michelet, Exameii critique de la Me- taph. d Arist., Paris, 1836 ; Ravaisson, Sicr la Metaph. d Arist.., Paris, 1838 ; Glaser, rfie i/e/apA. des Arist. nach Composition^ Inlialt, und Alethode. Berlin, 1841 ; Vater, Viadiciae tkeobgiae Arisio- ielis, Lips. 1795 ; Brandis, Diatribe de perd. Arist. libr. de Ideis et de Bono, sive de PhUosophia, Bon- nae, 1823, and Rlieinisclies Museum, ii. 2, p. 208, &c,, 4, p. 558, &c,; Trendelenburg, Platonis de Ideis et Numeris Doctrina ex A ristotele illustrata. Lips. 1826 ; Starke, de Arist. de Intelligentia, sive de Mente Sententia, Neo-Ruppini, 1833, 4to. ; Bonitz, Observationes criticae iti Aristotelis libros metaphy- sicos, Berol. 1842. Mathematics, the second science in the sphere of Theoretical Philosophy, is treated of in the follow- ing writings of Aristotle : — 1. rie/zi ur6p.(t)v ypafifioiu, i. e. concerning indi- visible lines, intended as a proof of the doctrine of the infinite divisibilitj' of magnitudes. This work was attributed by several ancient critics to Theo- phrastus. Ed. princeps by Stephanus, 1557. 2. MTixai'tKo -npoSK-nfiaroL, Mechanical Problems, critically and exegetically edited by Van Capelle, Amstelod. 1812. The Roman writer Vitruvius made diligent use of this treatise We now come to the third main division of Theoretical Philosophy, viz. Physics or Natural science (Trpay/xarela s. /xcBoSos (pucriKifi, iin(n-/iix7] TTfpJ (pvaeus, i(TTOpla ire pi (piiTecLS, Phys. i. I ; de Caelo, iii. 1.) According to the way in which it is treated of by Aristotle, it exhibits the following division and arrangement : The science of Physics considers as well the universal causes and relations of entire nature, as the individual natural bodies. The latter are either simple and therefore eternal and imperishable, as the heaven, the heavenly bodies, and the fundamental powers of the elements (warm, cold, moist, dry) ; or they are compound, earthly, and perishable. The compound physical substances are, 1. such as are formed immediately by the above-mentioned fundamental forces, as the elements — fire, air, water, earth ; 2. collections of homogeneous matter {6iJ.uioiJ.eprj, similaria), which are compounded of the elements, e.g. stones, blood, bones, flesh; 3, heterogeneous component parts (a^'o- fj,oiofj.eprj, dissimilaria), as e. g, head, hand, &c., which are compounded of ditferent homogeneous constituent parts, as of bones, blood, flesh, &c.; 4. organized objects compounded of such hetero- geneous constituent parts : animals, plants. The course of observation and investigation proceeds from the whole and universal to the particular and individual ; but in the case of each individual portion of the representation, from the cogiioscent observation of the external appearance to the in- vestigation of the causes. {Pkys. i. 1, iii. 1 ; de PartU). Animaly i. 5 ; Hist.Anim. i. 6. § 4, Schnci-