Predication and Ontology: Studies and Texts on Avicennian and Post-Avicennian Readings of Aristotle’s ›Categories‹

Alexander Kalbarczyk

Published by De Gruyter 2018

Predication and Ontology

Studies and Texts on Avicennian and Post-Avicennian Readings of Aristotle’s ›Categories‹

Alexander Kalbarczyk

Volume 22 in the series Scientia Graeco-Arabica

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110591972

Overview
Contents

About this book

In Predication and Ontology A. Kalbarczyk provides the first monograph-length study of the Arabic reception of Aristotle’s Categories. At the center of attention is the critical reappraisal of that treatise by Ibn Sīnā (d. 428 AH/1037 AD), better known in the Latin West as Avicenna. Ibn Sīnā’s reading of the Categories is examined in the context of his wider project of rearranging the transmitted body of philosophical knowledge. Against the background of the late ancient commentary tradition and subsequent exegetical efforts, Ibn Sīnā’s Kitāb al-Maqūlāt of the Šifāʾ is interpreted as a milestone in the gradual reshuffle of the relationship between logic proper and ontology. In order to assess the philosophical impact of this realignment, some of the subsequent developments in Ibn Sīnā’s writings and in the emerging post-Avicennian tradition are also taken into account. The thematic focus lies on the two fundamental classification schemes which Aristotle introduces in the treatise: the fourfold division of Cat. 2 ("of a subject"/"in a subject") and the tenfold scheme of Cat. 4 (i.e., substance and the nine genera of accidents). They both pose the question of whether and how the manner in which an expression is predicated relates to extra-linguistic reality. As the study intends to show, this question is one of the driving forces of Ibn Sīnā’s momentous reform of the Aristotelian curriculum.

This monograph has been awarded the Iran World Award for Book of the Year (2020).

Author / Editor information

Alexander Kalbarczyk, Ruhr-Universität Bochum.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	V
Table of contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	VII
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Key issues in ibn sīnā’s reception of the categories and in the ensuing philosophical debates Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
1. varying approaches of determining the scope of the categories
A. study Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
B. texts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
2. ibn sīnā’s reception of the two aristotelian criteria for dividing “beings” (ὄντα): “being said of a subject” and “existing in a subject”
A. study Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
B. texts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	122
3. attempts at providing a systematization of the scheme of ten categories
A. study Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
B. texts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	190
4. disputes about the conceptual unity and generic predicability of accident and substance
A. study Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
B. texts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	238
Summary and conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	295
Appendices Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	319
Indices Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	335

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Scholars in the fields of the history of ancient, medieval, and Arabic and Islamic philosophy, Arabic and Islamic studies
Pages
- Front matter: 11
- Main content: 344
Keywords: Avicenna; Aristotle's Categories; Arabic philosophy of language; Arabic ontology

eBook

Published: August 6, 2018
ISBN: 9783110591972

Hardcover

Published: August 21, 2018
ISBN: 9783110584738