Michael Ewbank

This presentation of one of the most coherent articulations of knowledge and sign theory available at the time of emerging Renaissance speculation is of interest for both doctrinal and historical reasons. A secondary achievement is a general defense of the objectivity of knowledge which takes the reflections of De Saussure and Derrida into account, as well as the historical origin of their concerns in Kant's understanding of how his own predecessors understood judgment. All of these portrayals, however, are consistently utilized to highlight John of St. Thomas's systematization and development of Medieval sources.

Peter of Bergomo, one of the first to attempt to compile an index and concordance of Aquinas's works, often noted apparent discrepancies between diverse texts. His entry for "accidens" is no exception since approximately ten percent of its divisions are prefaced by the familiar "oppositum videtur dicere." The reader is left with the task of determining whether Bergomo's notations concern only apparent contradictions or whether St. Thomas indeed made significant alterations in his understanding of the topic. Brown's portrayal of Aquinas's texts in their specific contexts permits a nuanced interpretation of St. Thomas's diverse considerations of the being of accidents which avoids both of the aforementioned alternatives.

This translation has been rendered in order to compensate for the absence of any recent commentary in French on Aristotle's Categories, that work which Simplicius insisted is the proem to all Philosophy since this treatise is a source of logic, and logic precedes all Philosophy. Besides offering as literally and accurately as possible the sense of Aristotle's text, this volume contains as well the interesting commentary inspired by the teaching of Ammonius of Hermeias, which to this date has not been accessible in any modern Western European language.