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171Ontological DifferencesEpoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy 11 (2): 421-434. 2007.Aristotle’s discussions, in Metaphysics Delta 7 and 8, of things designated by the terms we translate ‘being’ and ‘substance’ are revealing in several respects. The discussion in chapter 7 reveals the centrality in his thinking of the distinction between in itself and accidental being, a distinction different from that between substance and the other categories. The discussion in chapter 8 in turn reveals not only two related criteria for calling things substance, but a distinction as well betwe…Read more
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74Aristotelian metaphysics and biology: Furth's substance, form and psyche (review)Philosophical Studies 94 (1-2): 57-68. 1999.
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58The Activity of Being: A reply to my critics, Mary Louise Gill, Jonathan Beere, and David CharlesEuropean Journal of Philosophy 26 (2): 881-888. 2018.
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52The Activity of Being: An Essay on Aristotle’s OntologyHarvard. 2013.Understanding “what something is” has long occupied philosophers, and no Western thinker has had more influence on the nature of being than Aristotle. Focusing on a reinterpretation of the concept of energeia as “activity,” Aryeh Kosman reexamines Aristotle’s ontology and some of our most basic assumptions about the great philosopher’s thought.
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40Colloquium 3: The Faces of Justice. Difference, Equality, and Integrity in Plato’s RepublicProceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy 20 (1): 153-175. 2005.
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38Aristotle's First PredicamentReview of Metaphysics 20 (3). 1967.Alternatively, we might attend not to the different answers appropriate to different questions asked about the same entity, but to the different answers which result when, about different entities, the same question is asked repeatedly, the question "What is it?" What is Socrates? a man; what is a man? an animal; and so on, branch by branch up the Porphyrian tree, until we reach "substance." Each ultimate answer will signify a supreme and irreducible genus of entity, not a type of predicate, but…Read more
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35Chapter FiveProceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy 3 (1): 165-188. 1987.
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35Chapter 7. Aristotle’s Prime MoverIn Mary Louise Gill & James G. Lennox (eds.), Self-Motion: From Aristotle to Newton, Princeton University Press. pp. 135-154. 2017.
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25Colloquium 3 Why the Gods Love what is Holy: Euthyphro 10–11Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy 31 (1): 95-112. 2016.In Plato’s Euthyphro, an early response to Socrates’ question, What is holiness? defines holiness as what is loved by all the gods. Socrates responds to this proposed definition with an argument that is often misunderstood. English translations, in particular, finding it difficult to represent the argument’s distinction between finite passive constructions—‘x is loved’—and passive participial constructions—‘x is beloved’—represent the argument instead as concerned with a distinction between acti…Read more
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24Virtues of ThoughtHarvard. 2013.Exploring what two foundational figures, Plato and Aristotle, have to say about the nature of human awareness and understanding, Aryeh Kosman concludes that ultimately the virtues of thought are to be found in the joys and satisfactions that come from thinking philosophically, whether we engage in it ourselves or witness others' participation.
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217. Being Properly Affected: Virtues and Feelings in Aristotle's EthicsIn Amélie Rorty (ed.), Essays on Aristotle’s Ethics, University of California Press. pp. 103-116. 1980.
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20Commentary on TelohProceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy 2 (1): 39-43. 1986.
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13Mechanisms in ancient philosophy of sciencePerspectives on Science 12 (3): 244-261. 2004.. This essay considers the place of mechanisms in ancient theories of science. It might seem therefore to promise a meager discussion, since the importance of mechanisms in contemporary scientific explanation is the product of a revolution in scientific thinking connected with the late Renaissance and its mechanization of nature. Indeed the conception of astronomy as devoted merely to “saving the appearances” without reference to the physics of planetary motion might seem an instance of ancient …Read more
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2The Divine in Aristotle's EthicsAnimus 13 101-107. 2009.God plays several roles in Aristotle’s account of a good life, none explicitly. A principle of good in general and of human good in particular, God is specifically a principle of intelligent agency, of our ability to choose and thus shape and act in accordance with virtue. God explains well-being not obviously a result of virtuous action: the divine can be seen as the source of blessed lives. Similarly, the divine can figure moral luck, the way lives turn out despite our choices. Finally, God is…Read more
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1The Activity of Being in Aristotle's MetaphysicsIn M. L. Eds and Gill D. Charles T. Scaltsas (ed.), Unity, Identity, and Explanation in Aristotle's Metaphysics, Oxford University Press. pp. 195-213. 1994.
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1Self-Knowledge and Self-Control in Plato's "Charmides"In Virtues of Thought, Harvard. pp. 227-245. 2013.
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1What Does the Maker Mind Make?In Martha Craven Nussbaum & Amélie Rorty (eds.), Essays on Aristotle's De anima, Oxford University Press. pp. 343-358. 1995 [1992].
Aryeh Kosman
(1935 - 2021)
Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States of America