Event
Christian Pfeiffer (University of Toronto), "Aristotle on Senses and Causes of Being"
Friday, March 17, 2023 15:30to17:30
Leacock Building
Room 927, 855 rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montreal, QC, H3A 2T7, CA
Colloquium Series
Christian Pfeiffer, University of Toronto
Title: "Aristotle on Senses and Causes of Being"
Friday, March 17, 2023
3:30-5:30 PM EST
Leacock 927
Abstract: Aristotle claims that being is said in many ways. In the history of metaphysics, this thesis has been seen as either a profound insight or unintelligible. But what exactly did Aristotle mean by it? Based on an interpretation of Metaphysics H.2, I will argue (1) that it concerns ways of being and not kinds of beings; (2) that Aristotle distinguishes between existential and predicative being; (3) that it is not a semantical but a metaphysical claim concerning the explanation of what it is for things to exist; and finally (4) that in the background of Aristotle’s analysis is Plato’s Sophist, where Plato maintains that the Form of Being explains what it is for things to exist.