Interpreting Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics in Late Antiquity and Beyond

This collection of essays highlights Ancient, Byzantine and Medieval developments in the discussion of scientific method and argument in the comment(arie)s on Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics and related methodological passages in the Aristotelian corpus. Despite the importance of these discussions, the larger part of the commentary tradition on the Posterior Analytics still remains uncharted. The contributors to this volume identify and explore three important strands of interpretation, viz. (1) the reception of Aristotle’s logic of inquiry and theory of concept formation in Posterior Analytics II 19; (2) the influence of the Posterior Analytics on the evaluation of metaphysics as a science; and (3) the reception of Aristotle’s theory of demonstration, definition, and causation in Posterior Analytics book II.

Frans A.J. de Haas, Ph.D. (Leiden 1995) is Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at Leiden University. He has published extensively on the ancient commentary tradition, on Aristotle and on Neoplatonism, including John Philoponus' New Definition of Prime Matter (Brill, 1997).

Mariska Leunissen, Ph.D. (Leiden 2007) is Assistant Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. She has published several articles on Aristotle's teleology and theory of demonstration, and is the author of Explanation and Teleology in Aristotle's Science of Nature (CUP, 2010).

Marije Martijn, Ph.D (Leiden 2008) is Lecturer Ancient and Patristic Philosophy at VU University Amsterdam. She has published a number of articles on Neoplatonic philosophy of nature, epistemology and aesthetics, and a monograph, Proclus on Nature (Brill, 2010).

Contributors: Pia Antolic-Piper, Maddalena Bonelli, Owen Goldin, Christoph Helmig, Katerina Ierodiakonou, Inna Kupreeva, Angela Longo, Mariska Leunissen, Richard Sorabji, and Miira Tuominen.