Home Classical, Ancient Near Eastern & Egyptian Studies Aristotle and the Stoics on the Notion of ἐνέργεια
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Aristotle and the Stoics on the Notion of ἐνέργεια

  • Giuseppe Nastasi EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: November 7, 2024

Abstract

The Stoic theory of movement has never been the object of a deep investigation despite the considerable number of sources in Neoplatonist commentators. This paper explores for the first time the Stoic notion of ἐνέργεια, which plays a fundamental role in the Stoic conception of movement and generally in the characterization of interaction between bodies. I will show that the Stoics identified movement and activity, so that everything that is active is necessarily moved. This implies that the Stoics merely characterized ἐνέργεια in a dynamic or kinetic sense, namely by connecting it with movement. In order to prove the coherence of this philosophical position to the Stoic doctrine, I will display the compatibility of Neoplatonists’ reports with other sources. Accordingly, I will claim that the Stoics conceived this peculiar sense of ἐνέργεια in reaction to Aristotle, who clearly distinguished between ἐνέργεια and κίνησις in his physical theory.


Corresponding author: Giuseppe Nastasi, Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere, Università di Pisa, Pisa 56126, Italy, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

I am very grateful to the two anonymous readers for their helpful comments, which significantly enhanced the final version of this paper. To Barbara Castellani, my first reader and esteemed colleague, I extend my gratitude and friendship.

References

Ackrill, John L. 1997. “Aristotle’s Distinction between Energeia and Kinesis.” In Essays on Plato and Aristotle, edited by John L. Ackrill, 142–66. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780198236412.003.0010Search in Google Scholar

Ademollo, Francesco. 2012. “The Platonic Origins of Stoic Theology.” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 43: 217–43.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199666164.003.0008Search in Google Scholar

Ademollo, Francesco. 2020. “Cosmic and Individual Soul in Early Stoicism.” In Body and Soul in Hellenistic Philosophy: Proceedings of the 14th Symposium Hellenisticum, edited by Brad Inwood, and James Warren, 113–44. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781108641487.006Search in Google Scholar

Anagnostopoulos, Andreas. 2010. “Change in Aristotle’s Physics 3.” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 39: 33–79.Search in Google Scholar

Anagnostopoulos, Andreas. 2011. “Senses of Dunamis and the Structure of Aristotle’s Metaphysics Θ1.” Phronesis 56 (4): 388–425. https://doi.org/10.1163/156852811X588705.Search in Google Scholar

Anagnostopoulos, Andreas. 2017. “Change, Agency and the Incomplete in Aristotle.” Phronesis 62 (2): 170–209. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685284-12341323.Search in Google Scholar

Armstrong, Arthur H. 1988. Plotinus, Enneads VI, 1–5. Cambridge, MA and London, England. Loeb.Search in Google Scholar

Barnes, Jonathan. 1984. In The Complete Works of Aristotle. The Revised Oxford Translation, Vol. 2, edited by Barnes, Jonathan. Princeton: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9781400835850Search in Google Scholar

Beere, Jonathan. 2009. Doing and Being: An Interpretation of Aristotle’s Metaphysics Theta. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199206704.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Bénatouïl, Thomas. 2016. “Aristotle and the Stoa.” In Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Aristotle in Antiquity, edited by Andrea Falcon, 56–75. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004315402_005Search in Google Scholar

Berti, Enrico. 1958. “Genesi e sviluppo della dottrina della potenza e dell’atto in Aristotele.” Studia Patavina. Rivista Di Filosofia e Teologia 3: 477–505.Search in Google Scholar

Berti, Enrico. 2017. Aristotele, Metafisica. Roma-Bari: Laterza.Search in Google Scholar

Betegh, Gábor. 2003. “Cosmological Ethics in the Timaeus and Early Stoicism.” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 24: 273–302. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199263431.003.0008.Search in Google Scholar

Bignone, Ettore. 1936. “L’Aristotele Perduto e La Formazione Filosofica Di Epicuro.” Vol. 1. 2 vols. Firenze: La Nuova Italia.Search in Google Scholar

Brague, Rémi. 1991. “Note sur la définition du mouvement (Physique III, 1–3).” In La Physique d’Aristote et les conditions d’une science de la nature, edited by F. De Gantand, and D. Souffrin, 107–20. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Search in Google Scholar

Bréhier. 1928. La Théorie des Incorporels dans l’Ancien Stoïcisme. Paris: Vrin.Search in Google Scholar

Bréhier, Émile. 1951. Chrysippe et l’ancien Stoïcisme. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Search in Google Scholar

Bréhier, Émile. 1963. Plotin, Ennéades VI (1ère Partie). Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Search in Google Scholar

Bronowski, Ada. 2019. The Stoics on Lekta: All There Is to Say. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780198842880.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Brunschwig, Jean. 1988. “La théorie stoïcienne du genre suprême et l’ontologie platonicienne.” In Matter and Metaphysics, edited by Jonathan Barnes, and Mario Mignucci, 19–127. Napoli: Bibliopolis.Search in Google Scholar

Brunschwig, Jean. 2003. “Stoic Metaphysics.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Stoics, edited by Brad Inwood, 206–32. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CCOL052177005X.009Search in Google Scholar

Burnyeat, Myles F. 2008. “Kinēsis Vs. Energeia : A Much-Read Passage in (But Not of) Aristotle’s Metaphysics.” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 34: 219–92.10.1093/oso/9780199544875.003.0008Search in Google Scholar

Chame, Santiago. 2023. “The Non-Kinetic Origins of Aristotle’s Concept of Ἐνέργεια.” Apeiron 56 (3): 469–94. https://doi.org/10.1515/apeiron-2022-0060.Search in Google Scholar

Chiaradonna, Riccardo. 2002. Sostanza Movimento Analogia. Plotino critico di Aristotele. Napoli: Bibliopolis.Search in Google Scholar

Duhot, Jean-Joël. 1991. “Y-a-t-il des catégories stoïciennes?” Revue Internationale de Philosophie 45 (178(3)): 220–44.Search in Google Scholar

Falcon, Andrea. 2016. “Introduction.” In Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Aristotle in Antiquity, edited by Andrea Falcon, 1–9. Leiden-Boston: Brill.10.1163/9789004315402_002Search in Google Scholar

Frede, Michael. 1994. “Aristotle’s Notion of Potentiality in Metaphysics.” In Unity, Identity, and Explanation in Aristotle’s Metaphysics, edited by T. Scaltsas, David Charles, and Mary Louise Gill, 173–93. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780198240679.003.0008Search in Google Scholar

Frede, Michael. 2005. ‘La Théologie Stoïcienne’. In Les Stoïciens, edited by Gilbert Romeyer Dherbey and Jean-Baptiste Gourinat, 213–32. Paris: Vrin.Search in Google Scholar

Gaskin, Richard, ed. 2013. Simplicius, On Aristotle Categories, 9-15. London-New York: Bloomsbury.Search in Google Scholar

Gonzalez, Francisco J. 2019. “Being as Activity: A Defence of the Importance of Metaphysics 1048b18–35 for Aristotle’s Ontology.” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 56: 123–91. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198851059.003.0004.Search in Google Scholar

Gourinat, Jean-Baptiste. 2019. “Les Stoïciens et les catégories d’Aristote.” In Qu’est-ce qu’une catégorie? Interprétations d’Aristote, 231–59. Louvain-la-Neuve: Peeters.10.2307/j.ctv1q26ndf.12Search in Google Scholar

Griffin, Michael J. 2015. Aristotle’s Categories in the Early Roman Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198724735.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Hadot, Ilsetraut. 2015. Athenian and Alexandrian Neoplatonism and the Harmonization of Aristotle and Plato. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004281592Search in Google Scholar

Hahm, David E. 1977. The Origins of Stoic Cosmology. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Hahm, David E. 1991. “Aristotle and the Stoics: A Methodological Crux.” Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 73 (3): 297–311.Search in Google Scholar

Hahm, David E. 1994. “Self-Motion in Stoic Philosophy.” In Self-Motion. From Aristotle to Newton, edited by Mary Louise Gill, and James G. Lennox, 175–225. Princeton: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9781400887330-012Search in Google Scholar

Harven, Vanessa de. 2022. “The Metaphysics of Stoic Corporealism.” Apeiron 55 (2): 219–45. https://doi.org/10.1515/apeiron-2020-0094.Search in Google Scholar

Havrda, Matyáš. 2017. The So-Called Eighth Stromateus by Clement of Alexandria. Early Christian Reception of Greek Scientific Methodology. Leiden-Boston: Brill.10.1163/9789004325289Search in Google Scholar

Henry, Paul, and Hans R. Schwyzer, eds. 1982. Plotini Opera, Tomus III: Enneas VI. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Search in Google Scholar

Hussey, Edward. 1983. Aristotle, Physics, Books III and IV. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Search in Google Scholar

Ioppolo, Anna Maria. 2004. “Le categorie del πως ἔχον e del πρός τί πως ἔχον nello stoicismo antico.” In Metafisica, Logica, Filosofia Della Natura. I termini delle categorie aristoteliche dal mondo antico all’Età moderna, edited by E. Canone, 63–78. La Spezia: Agorà.Search in Google Scholar

Kalbfleisch, Karl. 1907. Simplicii In Aristotelis Categorias Commentarium. Berlin: Reimer.10.1515/9783110805000Search in Google Scholar

Kenny. 2011. Aristotle, The Eudemian Ethics, edited by Anthony Kenny. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oseo/instance.00258602Search in Google Scholar

Kosman, Louis A. 1984. “Substance, Being, and Energeia.” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 2: 121–49.Search in Google Scholar

Kosman, Louis A. 2013. An Essay on Aristotle’s Ontology. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Linguiti, Alessandro. 2022. “Reminiscenze di Aristotele, Metafisica IX 6.1048b18–35 in Autori Neoplatonici.” Elenchos 43 (2): 363–7. https://doi.org/10.1515/elen-2022-0019.Search in Google Scholar

Long, Anthony A., and David N. Sedley. 1987. The Hellenistic Philosophers, Vol. 1. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511808050Search in Google Scholar

Luna, Concetta. 2001. “Commentaire.” In Simplicius. Commentaire sur les Catégories d’Aristote, Chapitres 2–4, edited by Philippe Hoffmann, and Concetta Luna, 67–687. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Search in Google Scholar

Menn, Stephen. 1994. “The Origins of Aristotle’s Concept of Ἐνέργεια: Ἐνέργεια and Δύναμις.” Ancient Philosophy 14 (1): 73–114. https://doi.org/10.5840/ancientphil199414150.Search in Google Scholar

Menn, Stephen. 1999. “The Stoic Theory of Categories.” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 17: 215–48. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198250197.003.0007.Search in Google Scholar

Moraux, Paul. 1984. Der Aristotelismus bei den Griechen von Andronikos bis Alexander von Aphrodisias. Zweiter Band: Der Aristotelismus im I. und II Jh. n. Chr. Berlin-New York: De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110873580Search in Google Scholar

Nastasi, Giuseppe. 2023. “Stoici e Peripatetici su Agire, Patire e Movimento: la testimonianza di Simplicio.” Elenchos 44 (2): 333–65. https://doi.org/10.1515/elen-2023-0017.Search in Google Scholar

Natali, Carlo. 1999. ‘La critica di Plotino ai concetti di attualità e movimento in Aristotele’. In Antiaristotelismo, edited by Stefano Maso and Carlo Natali, 211–29. Amsterdam: Hakkert.Search in Google Scholar

Natali, Carlo. 2013. “A Note on Metaphysics Θ. 6, 1048b18–36.” Rhizomata 1: 104–14.10.1515/rhiz-2013-0005Search in Google Scholar

Pistelli, Ermenegildo, eds. 1888. Iamblichi Protrepticus. Leibzig: Teubner.Search in Google Scholar

Rashed, Marwan. 2020. “Les Petites Catégories.” In Boéthos de Sidon – Exégète d’Aristote et Philosophe, edited by Riccardo Chiaradonna, and Marwan Rashed, 213–54. Berlin: De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110699845-007Search in Google Scholar

Reydams-Shils, Gretchen. 1999. Demiurge and Providence: Stoic and Platonist Readings of Plato’s Timaeus. Turnhout: Brepols.10.1484/M.MON-EB.5.112278Search in Google Scholar

Rieth, Otto. 1933. Grundbegriffe der stoischen Ethik. Eine traditionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung.Search in Google Scholar

Sandbach, Francis H. 1985. Aristotle and the Stoics. Cambridge: Cambridge Philological Society.Search in Google Scholar

Sedley, David. 2002. “Aristotelian Relativities.” In Le Style de la Pensée. Recueil de textes en hommage à Jacques Brunschwig, edited by Monique Canto-Sperber, and Pierre Pellegrin, 324–52. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Search in Google Scholar

Taormina, Daniela P. 1999. Jamblique critique de Plotin et Porphyre. Quatre études. Paris: Vrin.Search in Google Scholar

Totschnig, Wolfhart. 2013. “Bodies and Their Effects: The Stoics on Causation and Incorporeals.” Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 95 (2): 119–47.10.1515/agph-2013-0006Search in Google Scholar

Tsekourakis, Damianos. 1974. Studies in the Terminology of Early Stoic Ethics. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag.Search in Google Scholar

Vamvoukakis, Nicolas. 1980. “Les catégories aristotéliciennes d’action et de passion vues par Simplicius.” In Concepts et Catégories dans la Pensée Antique, edited by Pierre Aubenque, 247–69. Paris: Vrin.Search in Google Scholar

Verde, Francesco. 2022. Peripatetic Philosophy in Context. Knowledge, Time, and Soul from Theophrastus to Cratippus. Berlin: De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110772722Search in Google Scholar

Walzer, Richard. 1934. Aristotelis. Dialogorum fragmenta in unicum scholarum. Firenze: Sansoni Editore.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2024-04-08
Accepted: 2024-10-06
Published Online: 2024-11-07
Published in Print: 2024-10-28

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 20.12.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/apeiron-2024-0085/html
Scroll to top button