2011 Summer Shandong University Syllabus
Topic: Aristotle’s Metaphysics
Instructor:
E-mail:
Time:
Jiyuan Yu
jyyu@buffalo.edu
May-Early July:
in total: 12 seminars, and each for 3 hours.
1: Course Description:
The objective of this graduate seminar is to acquire a critical understanding of Aristotle’s
Metaphysics. We will read the key sections of the Metaphysics and other treatises which are
essential for our grasp of Aristotle’s project in the Metaphysics. I will begin with an introduction
to Aristotle’s works and Aristotelian studies, and then cover the following major topics: the
Nature of Metaphysics (Metaphysics I. 1-2, II. 1, III.1); Category and Being (Categories 1-5;
Topics I, 9; Metaphysics V. 7), Being qua being and Substance (Metaphysics Metaphysics IV,
1-2; VII. 1-2, 3), Substance, Essence, and Form (Metaphysics VII. 3-16); Change, Cause,
Nature (Metaphysics VII. 17, Physics I-II); Potentiality and Actuality (Metaphysics VIII, IX),
Theology (Metaphysics XII 6-10), and the unity of Aristotle’s metaphysical project (Metaphysics
vi.1-2)
2: Texts:
The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation (ed. By J. Barnes,
Princeton, 2 vols.) is surely better. If you have Greek, consult Oxford classical texts or Loeb.
3: Required readings:
One article is chosen for each session, which is intended (1) to help you to understand the
text(s) under discussion, and (2) to serve as an example of how to write an academic research
paper.
4: General readings:
Ackrill, J.L. Aristotle the Philosopher, 1981
Ackrill, J.L. Aristotle’s Categories and De Interpretatione, 1963
Bostock, D. Aristotle’s Metaphysics Z and H, 1994
Charlton, W. Aristotle: Physics I- II, 1970
Gill, M. L. Aristotle on Substance, 1989
Jeager, W. Aristotle: Fundamentals of the History of His Development, 1923
Lear, J.
Aristotle: the Desire to Understand, 1988.
Loux, M. J. Primary Ousia, 1989
Owen, G.E.L. Logic, Science and Dialectic, 1986
Owens, J,
The Doctrine of Being in the Aristotelian Metaphysics, 2nd,
1963
Reeve, C. D. C. Substantial Knowledge: Aristotle’s Metaphysics, 2000
Yu, J
The Structure of Being in Aristotle’s Metaphysics, 2003
Seminar/discussion topics
Lecture 1: Reading Aristotle
The Nature of Metaphysics
Metaphysics I. 1-2, II. 1, III.1
Lecture 2: Categories and Beings
Metaphysics V. 7 and E2--Topics I, 9—Categories 1-4
Michael Frede: “Categories in Aristotle”
Lecture 3: Substance and Attributes
Categories 5---Metaphysics VII. 1-2
G.E.L. Owen: “Logic and Metaphysics in Some Earlier Works of Aristotle”
Lecture 4: Being qua Being
Metaphysics IV; Posterior Analytics I, 1-3.
T. H. Irwin: “Aristotle’s Discovery of Metaphysics”
Lecture 5: Change, Substance, Subject,
Physics I; On Generation and Corruption I.4
Metaphysics VII. 3
David Bostock: “The Principles of Change in Physics 1”
Lecture 6:
Essence, Definition, Form, Matter
Metaphysics VII. 4-6, 10-11, 12, 14-16
Michael Frede: “Substance in Aristotle’s Metaphysics”
Lecture 7: Form: Universal or Particular?
Metaphysics VII. 7-9, 13
Roger Albritton: “Forms of Particular Substances in Aristotle’s Metaphysics”
Lecture 8: Formal Cause
Metaphysics VII. 17, and VIII
Jiyuan Yu: “Two Conceptions of Hylomorphism in Metaphysics ZHT”
Lecture 9: Nature
Physics II, III.1; Parts of Animals I. 1, 5, and II.1
Joseph Owens: “Teleology of Nature in Aristotle”
Lecture 10: Potentiality and actuality
Metaphysics IX; On the Soul, II.1-4
C. Witt. “The priority of Actuality in Aristotle”
Lecture 11: Theology:
Metaphysics XII 6-10
Charles Kahn: “The Place of the Prime Mover in Aristotle’s Teleology”
Lecture 12 The Unity of Metaphysics
Metaphysics, E1
Michael Frede: “The Unity of General and Special Metaphysics: Aristotle’s
Conception of Metaphysics”.