I would like to publicly congratulate Professor Demetra Sfendoni-Mentzou most warmly on the occasion of the publication of her new book. I predicted a brilliant future for her since she was my student – and I was not wrong. Her latest success confirms her international recognition as an epistemologist specializing in Aristotelianism.
Through her research, now resumed and confirmed by this book, the author recovers the continuity between Aristotelianism and current positive science. It is true that Aristotle's teachings were criticized during the Christian Middle Ages as a denial of any cosmogony, assuming that the universe had no beginning or end, while his theory of the prime mover, set out in the lambda book of his Metaphysics, together with the theory of finality, were almost ignored. On the other hand, up until almost the late 13th century, Aristotle's theory of universals divided philosophers as much as it did theologians because of an ambiguity of interpretation introduced by Porphyry. Aristotelian logic, however, was given full prominence. For her part, Demetra Sfendoni-Mentzou shows in her analysis that Aristotle was the precursor of contemporary science. She explores and clearly formulates the conditions in which Aristotelian teachings took place, and connects them to present-day scientific ideas. She successfully goes back to Aristotle's scientific notions through both deductive and inductive historical method, and she never fails to verify her conclusions.
The book's structure is admirably solid. It thoroughly examines the resonance of Aristotelianism in current science, e.g. the philosophy of science, and especially in ontology and epistemology. It even goes so far as to investigate microphysics and the laws of nature, referring to universals, and proceeds, via the author's peerless precision, to a justification of Aristotle's idea of time as it was received and interpreted by Peirce and Prigogine, extending in the process to Aristotle's thoughts on tragedy and mimesis in general. A conclusion with an overall assessment of Aristotelianism rounds off this weighty synthesis. We can only welcome its publication. It is a work that shows us the diachronic presence of Aristotle in science and bears witness to the impressive value of its author as a philosopher of science.
Translated from the French by Jean Burrell
