The Distinction between Chance and Fortune. Arist. Phys. II.6
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Francesca Masi
Abstract
With regard to Aristotle’s discussion of chance and fortune in Phys. II.5–6, interpreters maintain that, after having provided a specific definition of fortune, applicable to intentional chance processes, in ch. 5, Aristotle is, in ch. 6, seeking to identify a specific meaning of αὐτόματον, which exclusively applies to strictly natural chance processes. When understood in such terms, however, ch. 6 turns out to be problematic, insofar as the examples Aristotle uses to illustrate αὐτόματον refer to mixed natural and intentional chance processes. To show that ch. 6 is internally consistent, I will argue that Aristotle’s goal simply is to emphasise the generic quality of the notion of αὐτόματον compared to that of τύχη and that the examples are chiefly geared towards this aim. I will also explain why such a treatment of chance is relevant within his critical analysis of Empedocles’ and Democritus’ theories of τύχη and αὐτόματον.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Articles
- Anaximander on basic substances and the desiccation of the sea
- Commensuration and Currency in Plato’s Phaedo
- Plato on the Power of Dialectic and the Necessity of Forms
- The Distinction between Chance and Fortune. Arist. Phys. II.6
- On the So-called Focal Analysis of Friendship in Eudemian Ethics VII.2
- Reviews
- Plínio Junqueira Smith, Sextus Empiricus’ Neo-Pyrrhonism: Skepticism as a Rationally Ordered Experience. Cham: Springer, 2022, xvi + 372 pp.
- Andrea Nightingale, Philosophy and Religion in Plato’s Dialogues. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2021. xii + 296 pp, ISBN 978-1108837309, US $ 39.99.
