The Date of Aristotle's Topigs and its Treatment of the Theory of Ideas

Pamela M. Huby

doi:10.1017/S0009838800011630

The Date of Aristotle's Topigs and its Treatment of the Theory of Ideas

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009

Pamela M. Huby

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Pamela M. Huby: Affiliation:
University of Liverpool

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It is generally agreed that the Topics is one of Aristotle's earliest works. But after saying this most writers are unwilling to commit themselves any further and discuss the work, if they discuss it at all, with a vagueness about dating that leads them to do it less than justice. Part of the difficulty, no doubt, lies in the fact that the Topics consists of a central, early, core, surrounded by later additions, and cannot therefore be dealt with as a whole. The suggestions about its date that I wish to make now are concerned solely with what I take to be the original Topics—or such part of it as remains—which I believe can be delimited almost exactly.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Classical Quarterly , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , May 1962 , pp. 72 - 80

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838800011630 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Classical Association 1962

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^{page 72 note 1} Ross, , Aristotle ⁵, pp. 56, 59Google Scholar, implies that it is early; Solmsen, , Entwicklung der aristotelischen Logik und Rhetorik, pp. 191–5Google Scholar, puts it before Plato's death; Nuyens, , L'Évolution de la psychologic d'Aristote, pp. 115–18Google Scholar, gives an early date, but on insufficient grounds according to Verbeke, , Rev. Phil, de Louvain xlvi (1948), 342Google Scholar; Viano, , La Logica di Aristotele, p. 248,Google Scholar also puts it before Plato's death; Düring, , Eranos liv (1956), 113Google Scholar, suggests 360–355; Owen, G. E. L., in Aristotle and Plato in the Mid-Fourth Century, ed. Düring-Owen, , pp. 173–4Google Scholar, sees parts as early, though it ‘may have stretched over a considerable period’.

^{page 72 note 2} Syllogistik des Aristoteles, ii. 2, p. 78, n. 3.Google Scholar

^{page 72 note 3} Hermes lxiii (1928), 457. He notes the following terms, which he regards as early:(withandand the absence ofGoogle Scholar

^{page 72 note 4} Die Entstehung der aristotelischen Logik, pp. 18 ff. He does, however, think that 2. 1 is late, because of its reference to the quantity of a judgement, which presupposes the developed syllogism, and points out a few other passages which are almost certainly late.Google Scholar

^{page 72 note 5} For a discussion of how far they are synonyms see below, p. 74.

^{page 73 note 1} Zürcher, , Aristoteles' Werk und GeistGoogle Scholar, also discusses and giving figures for the Meteorologica, p. 191Google Scholar, and the Politics, p. 235.Google Scholar He is, however, completely wrong in saying, , p. 192Google Scholar, that the Topics shows the same preponderance of over as a number of other works, but states the position correcdy on p. 333. He is inclined, p. 232, to regard the relative frequencies of the two words as partly a sign of date and partly a sign of authorship, linking this point with his view that the Corpus Aristotelicum was largely rewritten by Theophrastus.

^{page 73 note 2} Aristotle ², ch. iv. I have mentioned only those fragments which contain some of die relevant words.

^{page 74 note 1} We can learn something of the methods of Iamblichus, the source of the majority of these fragments, by studying the passages he takes from Plato. In those I have examined he is usually verbally accurate: he selects large chunks and puts them together, with a number of grammatical alterations due to rearrangement and omission, and occasional changes and expansions to make the meaning clearer. In a number of cases he changes the grammar to that current in his own time, and there are a few sentences of his own which summarize a longer passage in the original. But nothing suggests that he would have tampered with the words that concern us now. See also Düring, I., Eranos lii (1954), 142 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 74 note 2} This point has been neglected by Rabinowitz, W. G., Aristotle's Protrepticus, and seems to vitiate much of his argument.Google Scholar

^{page 74 note 3} pp. 16 ff.

^{page 74 note 4} in Thucydides always means visible or evident.

^{page 74 note 5} Organon, ii. 326–7.Google Scholar

^{page 75 note 1} 113^a35, 126^a8, 10.

^{page 75 note 2} Plato's Statesman, , p. 239.Google Scholar

^{page 75 note 3} This is one of the reasons for dating the Timaeus early.

^{page 75 note 4} Ethische, Das in Aristoteles' Topik, p. 6. Nuyens does not mention this point.Google Scholar

^{page 75 note 5} 1249^b26, 30, 1250^a5, 6, 17, 19.

^{page 75 note 6} 432^a25, 433^b4.

^{page 75 note 7} 129^a12.

^{page 75 note 8} Op. cit., p. 50.Google Scholar

^{page 75 note 9} Republic 435 e ff.Google Scholar

^{page 75 note 10} Republic 431 e.Google Scholar

^{page 75 note 11} 123^a33, 139^b32.

^{page 75 note 12} 117^a31–33.

^{page 75 note 13} 126^a6–8, 13.

^{page 75 note 14} 113^a35–113^b1, 126^a10.

^{page 75 note 15} 126^a9–10.

^{page 75 note 16} 148^a27.

^{page 75 note 17} He has, however, been identified by, for example, Colli and Tricot with the sophist of Physiognomica 808^a16. But there are no grounds for this beyond the fact that both have the same name.

^{page 76 note 1} Logische Regeln der platonischen Schule in der aristotelischen Topik, passim.

^{page 76 note 2} Aristotle, (trans. Robinson, ), p. 369.Google Scholar

^{page 76 note 3} Die Entstehung der aristotelischen Logik, p. 16.Google Scholar

^{page 76 note 4} He actually says 1. 33.

^{page 76 note 5} Topics 100^a27—a later addition—and Prior. Anal. 24^a20.

^{page 76 note 6} Topics 104^b1–2.

^{page 76 note 7} Ad Demonicum 3.Google ScholarJaeger's, Aristotle1, pp. 58–60.Google Scholar

^{page 77 note 1} Aristotle's Criticism of Plato and the Academy, i. 9.Google Scholar

^{page 77 note 2} Plato, , Phaedo 104 d 10, is the most probable example, but even that is doubtful in view of 103 e 5. There is perhaps some similarity to the usage in the Topics passage under discussion.Google Scholar

^{page 77 note 3} Parm. 133 c.

^{page 77 note 4} Plato's Parmenides, , pp. 96, 86.Google Scholar

^{page 77 note 5} Op. cit., p. 2.Google Scholar

^{page 78 note 1} Das Ethische in Aristotdes' Topik, p. 128.Google Scholar

^{page 78 note 2} The first part of the Parmenides is largely concerned with this line of thought.

^{page 78 note 3} is a variant reading.

^{page 78 note 4} Op. cit., pp. 5–8.Google Scholar

^{page 78 note 5} 133 ^c–134 ^e.

^{page 79 note 1} Op. cit., pp. 3–5.Google Scholar

^{page 79 note 2} e.g. 112^a32.

^{page 79 note 3} e.g. Post. Anal. 91^a37.

^{page 79 note 4} 120^b3–6, 123^a13–14, 25–26, 140^b2–6.

^{page 79 note 5} From Platonism to Neoplatonism, p. 46.Google Scholar

^{page 79 note 6} In Arist. De Anima 404^b27, 408_b32, 429^a (pp. 30. 4; 62. 2; 221. 25Hayduck, ).Google Scholar

^{page 79 note 7} I am not sure that Merlan's treatment of the passage dealing with Aristotle is quite fair, but he at least points to a possibility.

^{page 79 note 8} Diogenes Laertius 4. 14 says he died in 314 in his eighty-second year.

^{page 79 note 9} 148^a15.

^{page 79 note 10} Always never

^{page 79 note 11} 248^a ff.

^{page 79 note 12} Aristotle's Criticism of Plato and the Academy, i. 18–19.Google Scholar

^{page 80 note 1} I must thank Mr. G. E. L. Owen for a number of helpful comments and references.

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