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Being is said in many ways... (Met. 7.1 1028a10).
...what is being, this is [the question] what is substance... (Met. 7.1 1028b4).
...being is said...according to potentiality and actuality... (Met. 9.1 1045b32-34).
...being is said most strictly to be the true... (Met. 9.10 1051a34-36)
ARISTOTLE’S METAPHYSICS
INTRODUCTION (approx. 4 classes)
Four causes.
Four causes in different sciences.
Theoretical, practical & productive sciences.
Methodology.
Metaphysics as a whole.
BOOK 1 (approx. 4 classes)
Wisdom.
Predecessors.
Ideas.
BOOK 2 (approx. 1 class)
Methodology. Infinity.
First paper assigned (four pages).
BOOK 4 (approx. 2 classes)
Being qua being. Primary being.
Primary axioms: law of contradiction, law
of excluded middle.
BOOK 6 (approx. 2 classes)
Methodology.
Being as accident, truth, figures of the
categories, potentiality/actuality:
(1) Accident (6.2-6.3).
(2) Truth (6.4).
Second paper assigned (five pages).
BOOK 7 (approx. 6 classes)
(3) Categories. Substance as primary being (7.1).
Substances (7.2)
Substance: as the ‘what was being’, universal,
genus, substratum (7.3).
Substratum (7.3).
The ‘what was being’ (7.4-7.11).
Genus (7.12).
Universal (7.13-7.15).
Substance (7.16-7.17).
Third paper assigned (five pages).
BOOK 8 (approx. 1 class)
Substance (continued).
Remote & proximate matter.
Unity of definition.
BOOK 9 (approx. 4 classes)
(4) Potentiality & actuality (9.1-9.9).
(2) Truth (9.10).
Fourth paper assigned (five pages).
BOOK 10 (approx. 1 class)
Unity.
BOOK 12 (approx. 2 classes)
Types of substance.
Change.
God, gods.
Fifth paper assigned (five pages).
COURSE TOPIC: Aristotle’s metaphysics: the science of being qua being; first philosophy; theology.
COURSE GOAL: greater understanding of the course topic: of beings insofar as they are beings, of what is primary in philosophy, of what is most independent among beings; of the relation between form and matter and between potentiality and actuality; of being as substance, as actuality, as the true; and of the relation between metaphysics and other types of science or study for Aristotle.
COURSE TEXT: Richard McKeon and C.D.C. Reeve, The Basic Works of Aristotle (New York: Random House, 2001).
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Readings as assigned.
Participation in class discussion.
Class attendance.
Five papers.
ATTENDANCE: Much of the important work in this course goes on in class. Students are expected to be in attendance except in cases of illness, emergency or religious holiday, to be present for the entire seventy-five minute period and not to make appointments that conflict with class sessions. Graded assignments are based, in part, on class discussion and are expected to reflect familiarity with topics discussed. As a result, it is to your disadvantage to miss class.
PAPERS: The papers will be essays (not research papers). They will be four or five pages long. You need use no books other than the course texts in order to write the papers. In an essay, you state a thesis, explain it and argue for it. The basic structure of an essay is: an introduction in which you state your thesis, the body of the essay in which you explain and argue for your thesis, the conclusion in which you summarize or highlight what you have done in the essay.
Essays will be word-processed or typed, double-spaced, in 10- or 12-point type. They will have a title and a title page. They will be in finished form and without errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation. All quotations will be accompanied by a reference in parentheses. Long quotations will be block indented. Essays will be evaluated on the following basis:
1. Do you have the parts mentioned above (introduction, body, conclusion)?
2. Do you fulfill the functions mentioned above (state thesis, explain it, argue for it, summarize or highlight)?
3. Is the thesis you are writing about an interesting and important one?
4. Does your explanation of the thesis show that it is an interesting and important one? Does your explanation make the basic concepts and terms in your essay clear to the reader?
5. Are your arguments clear and convincing to the reader?
6. Do you use specific examples from the text you are writing about to make your arguments stronger? Do you use direct quotations from the text you are writing about to make your arguments stronger?
7. Does your conclusion add something to the essay as a whole?
8. Is the essay typed or word-processed (double-spaced)? Does it include a title and a title page? Is it in finished form and without errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation? Are all quotations accompanied by a reference in parentheses? Are long quotations block indented?
REFERENCES: References will be to book, chapter and line numbers not to the page numbers in our edition, e.g.:
Aristotle divides being into categories, including “the ‘what is’ or ‘this-what’, quality, quantity and each of the other things that are categorized as these are” (Met. 7.1 1028a11-13).
For Aristotle, being is a focal equivocal: “Being is said in many ways, but toward one--one specific nature--not ambiguously” (Met. 4.2 1003a34).
Aristotle also divides being into potentiality and actuality: “being is said on the one hand according to the ‘what’, quantity and quality, and on the other hand according to potentiality and actuality, that is, according to function” (Met. 9.1 1045b32-34).
Aristotle is widely known for thinking human beings desire knowledge: “All human beings by nature desire to know” (Met. 1.1 980a1).
The goal of Aristotle’s Metaphysics is wisdom (sophia) understood to concern “first causes and principles” (Met. 1.2 981b28).
Aristotle believes that some things are permanently puzzling as he suggests in the Metaphysics where he asks the question that "was asked of old, is asked now and will always be asked and will always be a subject of puzzlement, the question what is being", that is, "what is substance" (Met. 7.1 1028b2).
For Aristotle, a substance is a whole not a heap. Substance is “compounded out of something so that the all is one not like a heap but like a syllable” (Met. 7.17 1041b11-12).
Aristotle explains substance in terms of matter and form, and matter and form in terms of potentiality and actuality: “the proximate matter and the form are the same and one, on the one hand potentially and on the other hand actually. So it is like seking what is the cause of the one and of being one, for each something is one, and potentiality and actuality are somehow one” (Met. 8.6 1045b18-21).
Aristotle’s frequent use of the word ‘somehow’ (pos) is another indication that he believes there are irremediably puzzling aspects of ontology. To say that “potentiality and actuality are somehow one” is to indicate that they somehow are not one and also that it is not possible to specify exactly how they are one (Met. 8.6 1045b20-21).
Aristotle’s holism is hierarchical: “For in all compounds, that is, things which come to be one common something out of many, whether out of the continuous or the discrete, the ruler and the ruled show up. And this, out of all of nature, belongs to the animate (empsychois), for there also is some rule in those that do not participate in life, for example, in a musical mode” (Pol. 1.2 1254a28-33).
Aristotle’s god is an unmoved mover (“something which moves while itself unmoved”), thought of thought (“thought thinks itself”) and pure actuality (“by itself actuality”) (Met. 12.7 1072b7, 19-20, 27-28).
EVALUATION: Grades will be based on the five papers weighted equally (1/5 each). Excellent class participation may raise your grade somewhat over the mathematical average, at the discretion of the instructor.
Late papers will lose a letter grade (10 points) for each class session they are late. Papers will be turned in not e-mailed. There will be no extra credit work. The student will be held responsible for knowing what goes on in class. Absences will not excuse you from knowing due dates of papers.
The grading scale is: 94-100, A; 90-93 A-; 87-89 B+; 84-86 B; 80-83 B-; 77-79 C+; 74-76 C; 70-73 C-; 67-69 D+; 64-66 D; 60-63 D-; below 60, F.
It is the instructor's policy that cheating, plagiarism or submission of written work for this course which was submitted in another course merits a course grade of 'F'.
COURSE LINKS: The course outline and class assignments can be accessed through my homepage: <www.unr.nevada.edu/§achten/homepage.html>. They will also be distributed in class. My homepage can also be accessed through the Department of Philosophy website <www.unr.edu/philosophy> or by means of a search engine such as Google: <www.google.com> (search for: “Deborah Achtenberg” homepage).
USE OF THE INTERNET: Use of the internet for research purposes is appropriate. However, students should use their own ideas in papers they write. In addition, they should be aware that papers plagiarized from internet sources can easily be detected through the use of a search engine such as Google.
PLAGIARISM: Plagiarism is a serious offense. You plagiarize when you use someone else’s words or ideas without attribution. When you do this, you are putting forward someone else’s work as if it were your own.
Changing a few words in a phrase or sentence is not enough to avoid plagiarism. (1) Instead, when you utilize someone else’s exact phrases, put them in quotation marks and cite in parentheses the person whose words you have used. (2) It is fine to paraphrase someone, but when you do, you must say so. You can make it clear by saying “As Aristotle says...” or “According to Heidegger...”. (3) Finally, do not utilize even short phrases from another person’s work without a citation. If you follow these three guidelines, you will find it is easy to use sources in your own writing without being academically dishonest.
CLASS FORMAT: The class will be a combination of lecture and discussion. Discussions generally will have a focus rather than being general discussion or debate.
Class discussions will refer to the course text. Students will need to bring the course text to class if they are to benefit from the discussions.
STUDYING: Many students will find that they do better work in this course if they study together with other students.
DISABILITY POLICY: The Department of Philosophy is committed to equal opportunity in education for all students, including those with documented physical or learning disabilities. If you have a disability for which you will need to request accommodations, please contact me or the Disability Resource Center (Thompson Building, Suite 101) as soon as possible to arrange for appropriate accommodations.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
General:
Jonathan Lear, Aristotle: The Desire to Understand (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). General introduction to Aristotle.
Joseph Owens, ‘The Doctrine of Being in the Aristotelian “Metaphysics”’ (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1978). Includes classic discussion of equivocity.
David Ross, Aristotle (London: Methuen and Company, 1971). Older introduction.
Brentano, Franz, On the Several Senses of Being in Aristotle (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975 <1862>). Husserl’s teacher. This book influenced Heidegger.
Greek text of the Metaphysics:
Werner Jaeger, Aristotelis Metaphysica (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978) (the Oxford Classical Text, or OCT).
Energeia in the Metaphysics:
Charlotte Witt, Ways of Being: Potentiality and Actuality in Aristotle’s Metaphysics (Cornell: Cornell University Press, 2003).
Deborah Achtenberg, Cognition of Value in Aristotle’s Ethics: Promise of Enrichment, Threat of Destruction (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002).
Aryeh Kosman, “The Activity of Being in Aristotle’s Metaphysics” in Charles Scaltsas and M.L. Gill, Unity, Identity, and Explanation in Aristotle’s Metaphysics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994).
M.L. Gill, Aristotle on Substance: The Paradox of Unity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989).
Aryeh Kosman, “Substance, Being and Energeia,” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 2 (121-150, 1984).
Martin Heidegger, Aristotle’s Metaphysics Theta 1-3: On the Essence and Actuality of Force (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1995 <1981>). Lectures from 1931.
Internet:
“Aristotle” (Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://www.rep.routledge.com).
INTERNET RESOURCES:
Loeb Classical Library Hugh Tredennick translation of the Metaphysics (on-line at the Perseus Project)
OCT Ross Greek text of the Metaphysics (correlated with the English translation)
non-contradiction.com: Aristotle and Aristotelianism(Chris Howard’s extensive site, Silicon Valley, California; the links currently are not active but perhaps will be activated at some point)
Perseus (classics) (Tufts University site for texts, images, museum photography, site photography, etc., of the classical world)
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (the on-line edition of Routledge's encyclopedia of philosophy)
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (another good on-line encyclopedia of philosophy, this one from Stanford University)
Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper (In addition to suggestions I will make in class, you may find this webpage from Jim Pryor at NYU's Department of Philosophy helpful.)
Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (the electronic version of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, published in 1961, with updates)
Oxford English Dictionary (the electronic version of the OED with the latest new and revised entries)
Liddell, Scott, Jones Lexicon (Perseus's on-line version of the Liddell, Scott, Jones lexicon (dictionary) of ancient Greek. To look up a transliterated Greek word--such as logos or physis--type the word in the Find space, click on the Submit Query button, then double-click on Middle Liddell which will take you to definitions found in the middle-sized Liddell, Scott, Jones Lexicon.)
CONFERENCES:
Ancient Philosophy Society (New School for Social Research, April 10 - 13, 2007)
GRADUATE STUDENTS: This course is a 400-level undergraduate course offered also for graduate-level credit. To receive graduate-level credit, students will fulfill some requirements that are the same as the requirements for undergraduate students, namely: readings as assigned, participation in discussion, attendance.
Graduate students will also fulfill some requirements that are different than the requirements for undergraduate students. They will write four papers, eight pages each. The papers are due after books 2, 7, 9 and 12. Grades will be based on the four papers, weighted equally (1/4 each).
In addition, graduate students will meet with the instructor to discuss papers before beginning work on them and are expected to do some additional reading on Aristotle during the course of the semester. Graduate students will take the initiative to make appointments with the instructor to discuss papers (i.e., they will not wait for the instructor to set up a meeting).
Graduate students will meet the same evaluation criteria as undergraduate students and some additional criteria, namely: Does the student’s writing reflect broad familiarity with philosophic concepts and modes of argumentation? Does the student’s writing reflect some understanding of the history of philosophic treatment of the concepts discussed? Is the student able to sustain multifaceted argument and analysis?
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My office hours are Monday, 2:15 - 3:30 p.m., and Wednesday, 2:15 - 3:00 p.m., or by appointment (Cain Hall 108D). Please feel free to come by to discuss the course topics or your progress in the course. I am happy to meet with you at some other time if it is more convenient. If you wish to make an appointment to see me at another time, call 784-6742 (my office in Philosophy) or 682-6481 (my office in Women’s Studies). If you try to get in touch with me and cannot, leave a note with your phone number so that I can call you.
Please contact me as much as possible in person or by phone so that I can get to know you better. For short communications, my e-mail address is: <achten@unr.nevada.edu>. Keep in mind that, due to time delays, e-mail generally is an unsuccessful medium for making appointments or for taking care of other time-sensitive matters. In addition, e-mail is an inappropriate medium for discussion of grades. Finally, most advisement is best taken care of in person rather than by e-mail.