Breve commento ai paragrafi 4-6 del prologo di Tommaso d’Aquino alla Politica di Aristotele

Traduzione e commento dei paragrafi 4-6 del prologo di Tommaso d’Aquino alla Politica di Aristotele

The Notion of Being as Act in Neoplatonism and Its Transmission in the Translatio Studiorum

The problem related to the origin of the concept of actus essendi constitutes one of the central themes in the history of ancient philosophy, and is one of the most important in the process known as Translatio studiorum. The idea according to which Thomas Aquinas was the first to consider this concept has been contrasted to the idea that actus essendi had already been present in Neoplatonism. In fact, the concept of \u201cbeing\u201d in Thomas Aquinas\u2019 philosophy has been interpreted in many different ways over the years, especially in relation to Aristotle\u2019s concept of being. In his book about being according to Thomas, G. Ventimiglia recognizes three generations within the historiography on Thomistic ontology. The first generation, begun by R. Garrigou-Lagrange, lasted until the end of the 1930s and maintained that the being of Thomas equalled Aristotle\u2019s. During the second generation, lasting from the beginning of the 1930s till the end of the \u201950s and whose main exponent was E. Gilson, the being of Thomas is seen as the actus essendi. These scholars therefore interpreted it as a completely new and original concept compared to both Aristotle\u2019s being and the Neoplatonic school of thought, by which Thomas may have been influenced. Lastly, the third generation, in which Thomas\u2019 concept of being is considered to be unoriginal, having been elaborated within the world of Neoplatonism, originated at the beginning of the 1970s and lasts yet today. W. Beierwaltes and K. Kremer, among others, have lead this final generation. However, together with Ventimiglia, it is necessary to recognize the importance that the publication of two other works had on the assertion made by the \u201cthird generation\u201d. These works are P. Hadot\u2019s volume on Porphyre et Victorinus, published in 1968 and Beierwaltes\u2019 book entitled Platonismus und Idealismus, published in 1972. In the latter\u2019s book, the author demonstrates that the identification of God with being had been made by Plutarch and Porphyry as well as by Philo of Alexandria, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, Victorinus and Augustine. In Hadot\u2019s volume, together with the observation that this identification had been expressed in Neoplatonism, also the definition of being as act is traced back to the same period. In the paper it is discussed the section of Hadot\u2019s study which appears in the appendix of the second volume, containing the text and the translation of the fragments of the anony\uacmous commentary to Plato\u2019s Parmenides. It also considered the introductory essay added in the Italian translation of this section. It is thanks to Hadot and the exponents of Ventimiglia\u2019s \u201cthird generation\u201d that the communis opinio, according to which the concept of actus essendi can be found first in the philosophy of Thomas, was disproved. Hadot in particular demonstrated that the notion of \u201cact of being\u201d originated from both the anonymous commentary to the Parmenides by Plato, which he attributes to Porphyry, and the Enneads by Plotinus. This paper will first examine the fragments of the commentary in order to show that in it may be found both the identification of God with being and the concept of being as actus essendi. An analysis of Enneads VI 8, 7 will follow. This is one of the passages in the work by Plotinus which most deserves to be considered in order to verify the effective anticipation of Neoplatonism in a doctrine that has traditionally been considered of Thomistic origin. Finally, of particular interest is the comparison between being as interpreted by Neoplatonism, especially by Plotinus, and act as conceived by Aristotle, unanimously recognized as its discoverer

Ethical judgment and radical business changes: the role of entrepreneurial perspicacity

This study examines the implications of practical reason for entrepreneurial activities. Our study is based on Thomas Aquinas’ interpretation of such virtue, with a particular focus on the partition of practical reason in potential parts such as synesis, or common sense, and gnome, or perspicacity. Since entrepreneurial acts and actions deal with extremely uncertain situations, we argue that only this perspicacity, as the ability of correctly judging in exceptional cases, has the power to find wisdom under such blurred conditions. Perspicacity frees entrepreneurs from their cognitive schemata rendering them able to be truly entrepreneurial. Based on this vision and thanks to a semantic analysis of the meaning of the Greek word gnome, we construct an interpretative model for entrepreneurial judgment composed of three dimensions, specifically, knowledge-cognitive, external-affective and personal-reflective. The model highlights how a ‘successful’ entrepreneurial judgment is also such from a holistic point of view

The Unity of Aristotle\u2019s Metaphysics: Book \u395 according to the Interpretation of the Ancient Commentators

This paper discusses the three ancient commentaries on Book E of Aristotle\u2019s Metaphysics, that have been handed down to us. It aims to demonstrate the fundamental part played by their particular interpretation of Aristotle\u2019s doctrines in the birth of the traditional interpretation of his Metaphysics, according to which all the books comprising the work were written as a function of Book \u39b, containing the well-known doctrine of the unmoved mover. Among the main elements supporting this assumption there is Aristotle\u2019s distinction between three types of science - the theoretical, the practical and the productive - and his claiming the primacy of metaphysics as a theological science. According to the ancient commentators, the remainder of Book E would belong to the unitary project of the Metaphysics, since it would indicate what is not encompassed in the object of metaphysics. This would mean that Aristotle\u2019s treatment of accidental being, being as truth and not-being as falsity, and being potentially and actually would take on a negative function. The theological interpretation of Aristotle\u2019s Metaphysics thus retains its ultimate foundations in premises contained in the Aristotelian text itself

I movimenti dei corpi celesti nel commento dello pseudo-Alessandro alla \uabMetafisica\ubb di Aristotele

Il contributo analizza il commento di pseudo-Alessandro al capitolo VIII del libro Lambda della Metafisica di Aristotele, in cui si espone la dottrina aristotelica delle sfere controagenti e si descrivono i sistemi astronomici di Eudosso e Callippo. In particolare si identifica la fonte della spiegazione di pseudo Alessandro relativamente al sistema di Eudosso nel commentario di Simplicio al De Caelo di Aristotele

New Approaches to the Book Alpha Meizon of Aristotle’s Metaphysics and to its Unique Neoplatonic Commentary by Asclepius of Tralles

R. Loredana Cardullo (a cura di), Il libro Alpha della Metafisica di Aristotele tra storiografia e teoria, Catania 2009, pp. 294.R. Loredana Cardullo, A sclepio di Tralle. Commentario al libro Alpha Meizon (A) della Metafisica di Aristotele. Intoduzione, testo greco, traduzione e note di commento, Acireale-Roma 2012, pp. 512.Paris 2012, pp. 164

How Aristotelian is Martha Nussbaum’s “Aristotelian Social Democracy”?

The paper examines Martha Nussbaum’s «Aristotelian Social Democracy», and in particular her appropriation of Aristotle’s political philosophy. The paper questions Nussbaum’s claim that Aristotle’s account of human nature and her capabilities approach are not metaphysical. It critically analyses Nussbaum’s egalitarian interpretation of Aristotle’s doctrine of distributive justice, laying out the primary reasons supporting the thesis that Nussbaum’s «Aristotelian Social Democracy» is incompatible with Aristotle’s non-egalitarian political philosoph

The Birth of Tragedy in the Cinquecento: Humanism and Literary History

Humanist literary historians treated Aristotle’s ‘Poetics’ in a distinctive way: as a historical source. How had the Greek tragedy arisen, what was its relation to the comedy, and how was it performed? They approached Aristotle’s scanty and confusing words with a repertoire of methods: bold inference and exegesis, textual criticism, and above all comparison with Roman texts. These discussions were deeply relevant to the rise of the opera around 1600. Angelo Poliziano, Francesco Robortello, Piero Vettori, and Francesco Patrizi da Cherso are examined