De Anima <span class='italic'><span class='sc'>ii</span>.5</span>

Myles Burnyeat

doi:10.1017/9781009049146.009

Chapter 5 - De Anima ii.5

from Part I - Ontology and epistemology

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 March 2022

Myles Burnyeat

Prepared for publication by

Carol Atack ,

Malcolm Schofield and

David Sedley

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Myles Burnyeat: Affiliation:
All Souls College, Oxford
Carol Atack: Affiliation:
Newnham College, Cambridge
Malcolm Schofield: Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
David Sedley: Affiliation:
University of Cambridge

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Summary

This is a close scrutiny of De Anima II.5, led by two questions. First, what can be learned from so long and intricate a discussion about the neglected problem of how to read an Aristotelian chapter? Second, what can the chapter, properly read, teach us about some widely debated issues in Aristotle’s theory of perception? I argue that it refutes two claims defended by Martha Nussbaum, Hilary Putnam, and Richard Sorabji: (i) that when Aristotle speaks of the perceiver becoming like the object perceived, the assimilation he has in mind is ordinary alteration of the type exemplified when fire heats the surrounding air, (ii) that this alteration stands to perceptual awareness as matter to form. Claim (i) is wrong because the assimilation that perceiving is is not ordinary alteration. Claim (ii) is wrong because the special type of alteration that perceiving is is not its underlying material realisation. Indeed, there is no mention in the text of any underlying material realisation for perceiving.

Keywords

actuality alteration Aristotle De Anima form knowledge learning matter perception potentiality

Type: Chapter
Information: Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy , pp. 155 - 212

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009049146.009 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2022

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References

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