Unanswered Questions
84 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
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Does hylomorphism have anything to do with the extremely broad use of "form" in scholasticism?
Introductions to the Aristotelian concept of form always begin with hylomorphism: everyday objects (like horses) are composed of matter and form. The form is the intelligibility of the thing (e.g., ...
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Is Aquinas's "act is the principle of action" a tautology?
In Summa Contra Gentiles II.6.7, Aquinas suddenly claims that "act is the principle of action" (actus autem actionis principium est).
Is this phrase supposed to be a definition of act? Or a ...
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According to Aquinas, what is the relationship between the substantial form of a bodily being and its act of existing, ie. its esse?
Consider, for example, an existing bodily being. Because it is bodily, we know that it is composed of prime matter and substantial form. Also, because the bodily being is existing (not just made up in ...
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Aristotle definition of irony
Several internet sources quote Aristotle describing irony as “dissembling toward the inner core of truth.” I wonder if this is an elegantly worded butchery of Nicomachean Ethics 1108a20. But it ...
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What kind of things have causes and are causes for Aristotle?
In Aristotle's Categories he tells us there are a certain number of kinds of things for example; quantity, quality and substance. Later in the works he writes about causes of things but I don't know ...
- 1,113
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Seeking insights on the origin of the term "Peripatetic Axiom"
I have been researching the origins of the "Peripatetic Axiom," which states that nothing is in the mind that was not first in the senses. While I understand that this principle was first ...
- 199
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Aristotle's epistemology: the proper objects of perception?
I think we can safely say that for Aristotle the proper objects of perception are sensible forms. The proper objects of reason are intelligible forms.
It is often said that in seeing, sense and its ...
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Aristotelian Analysis of Forgiveness?
I am in the process of responding to one of the latest Reading Comprehension Questions in my Ethics course. This week we were reading from pages 27-33 of Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics (2nd Ed.) ...
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How do numbers and quantities relate in Aristotle's philosophy?
I'm trying to find out how numbers (and other mathematical objects) and quantities relate in Aristotles philosophy. For example if the distance between point A and point B is "287 miles", ...
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Any consensus on Łukasiewicz' idea that Aristotle's syllogisms were systematically misrepresented in the academic literature?
Is there a consensus today on Jan Łukasiewicz' 1957 assertion that Aristotle's syllogisms were systematically misrepresented in the academic literature?
Łukasiewicz, in Aristotle's Syllogistic from ...
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Justification for Aristotle's principle of causality?
[W]hen... a potential is actualized.. something already actual must be
what actualizes it. This is sometimes called the principle of
causality. (Feser, Edward. Five Proofs of the Existence of God. ...
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How do quantities apply to subjects in Aristotles work?
Quantities like '10 degrees celcius', '5 feet long' and '15 miles per hour' apply to subjects but I can't figure out what the connection is.
For example, we say things like 'that cars speed is 15 ...
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How to express an is/too-much gap?
Phrases like "too much" and "not enough" can be morally charged fairly easily, so how would we express the fact/value distinction in these terms? I was thinking of using special ...
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The priority of locomotion in Aristotelian physics - what are qualities then?
Reading through the Physics I came across a passage whose significance I had not adequately appreciated, in VIII.7 260b7-14, when he's arguing for the causal and temporal priority of locomotion to ...
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What difference does Aquinas's 'actus essendi' really make?
According to Wikipedia,
Aristotle didn't have the notion of actus essendi. In fact, the
contribution of Aquinas to the philosophy of being is precisely that
he discovered that all Aristotelian acts ...
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