• Aristotle on the cognition of time
    In John E. Sisko (ed.), Philosophy of mind in antiquity, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. 2018.
  •  20
    Review of Aristotle’s Physics Book I: A Systematic Exploration ed. by Diana Quarantotto (review)
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 57 (1): 161-162. 2019.
    This volume is the product of a pair of conferences on book I of Aristotle’s Physics at Sapienza University of Rome in 2013 and 2015. Each chapter of book I receives a philosophical commentary by a prominent specialist in ancient philosophy. The contributions offer systematic and thorough exegesis, as well as new and interesting solutions to interpretative problems. In what follows, I will focus chiefly on the latter.Diana Quarantotto begins the volume with a discussion of the overall structure,…Read more
  •  1974
    Aristotle on Identity and Persistence
    Apeiron: A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science 41 (1): 63-88. 2008.
    In Physics 4.11, Aristotle discusses a sophistical puzzle in which "being Coriscus-in-the-Lyceum is different from being Coriscus-in-the-market-place." I take this puzzle to threaten the persistence of changing entities. Aristotle's answer to the puzzle is that the changing thing "is the same in respect of that, by (means of) being which at any time it is (what it is), S but in definition it is different." That is, Coriscus may be described as either a persisting substrate or as one or more acci…Read more
  • A Companion to World Literature
    Wiley-Blackwell. 2020.
  •  643
  •  161
    Aristotle’s Physics 5.1, 225a1-b5
    Philosophical Inquiry 43 147-164. 2019.
    This contribution offers an interpretation of the last half of chapter 1 of book 5 of Aristotle’s Physics in the form of a commentary. Among other things, it attempts an explanation of why Aristotle calls the termini of changes ‘something underlying’ (ὑποκείμενον) and ‘something not underlying’ (μὴ ὑποκείμενον). It also provides an analysis of Aristotle’s argument for the claim that what is not simpliciter does not change in the light of this interpretation.
  •  220
    Aristotle recognizes two modes of apprehending time, viz., perceiving time and grasping time intellectually. This chapter clarifies what is and is not involved in these two modes of apprehending time. It also clarifies the way in which they interact, and argues that, according to Aristotle, one’s intellectual grasp of time has an effect on one’s perception of time for those beings who have intellect.
  •  506
    Aristotle's Virtue Ethics
    In Bowin John (ed.), A Companion to World Literature, Wiley-blackwell. 2020.
    Aristotle, though not the first Greek virtue ethicist, was the first to establish virtue ethics as a distinct philosophical discipline. His exposition of the subject in his Nicomachean Ethics set the terms of subsequent debate in the European and Arabic traditions by proposing a set of plausible assumptions from which virtue ethics should proceed. His conception of human well-being and virtue as well as his brand of ethical naturalism were influential from antiquity through the Middle Ages and c…Read more
  •  581
    Aristotle on Various Types of Alteration in De Anima II 5
    Phronesis 56 (2): 138-161. 2011.
    In De Anima II 5, 417a21-b16, Aristotle makes a number of distinctions between types of transitions, affections, and alterations. The objective of this paper is to sort out the relationships between these distinctions by means of determining which of the distinguished types of change can be coextensive and which cannot, and which can overlap and which cannot. From the results of this analysis, an interpretation of 417a21-b16 is then constructed that differs from previous interpretations in certa…Read more
  •  791
    De Anima ii 5 on the Activation of The Senses
    Ancient Philosophy 32 (1): 87-104. 2012.
    This paper offers a new interpretation of Aristotle’s identification, in De Anima 2.5, of αἴσθησις with an ἀλλοίωσίς τις that is not ‘a kind of destruction of something by its contrary’. Drawing on a passage from Metaphysics Iota 5, it argues that when so described, what is referred to as an ἀλλοίωσίς τις is not a uniquely perceptual alteration.
  •  636
    Aristotelian Infinity
    Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 32 233-250. 2007.
    Bowin begins with an apparent paradox about Aristotelian infinity: Aristotle clearly says that infinity exists only potentially and not actually. However, Aristotle appears to say two different things about the nature of that potential existence. On the one hand, he seems to say that the potentiality is like that of a process that might occur but isn't right now. Aristotle uses the Olympics as an example: they might be occurring, but they aren't just now. On the other hand, Aristotle says that i…Read more
  •  1041
    Aristotle on the Order and Direction of Time
    Apeiron 42 (1): 49-78. 2009.
    This paper defends Aristotle’s project of deriving the order of time from the order of change in Physics 4.11, against the objection that it contains a vicious circularity arising from the assumption that we cannot specify the direction of a change without invoking the temporal relations of its stages. It considers and rejects a solution to this objection proposed by Ursula Coope, and proposes an alternative solution. It also considers the related problem of how the temporal orders and directi…Read more
  •  668
    Aristotle on 'First Transitions' in De Anima II 5
    Apeiron 45 (3): 262-282. 2012.
    At De Anima II 5, 417b17, Aristotle says, ‘The first transition (πρώτη μεταβολή) in that which can perceive is brought about by the parent, and when it is born it already has [the faculty of] sense-perception in the same way as it has knowledge. Actual sense-perception is so spoken of in the same way as contemplation.’ The purpose of this paper is to determine the nature of first transitions.