1st Edition
Ancient Logic, Language, and Metaphysics Selected Essays by Mario Mignucci
The late Mario Mignucci was one of the most authoritative, original, and influential scholars in the area of ancient philosophy, especially ancient logic. Collected here for the first time are sixteen of his most important essays on Ancient Logic, Language, and Metaphysics.
These essays show a perceptive historian and a skillful logician philosophically engaged with issues that are still at the very heart of history and philosophy of logic, such as the nature of predication, identity, and modality. As well as essays found in disparate publications, often not easily available online, the volume includes an article on Plato and the relatives translated into English for the first time and an unpublished paper on De interpretatione 7.
Mignucci thinks rigorously and writes clearly. He brings the deep knowledge of a scholar and the precision of a logician to bear on some of the trickiest topics in ancient philosophy. This collection deserves the close attention of anyone concerned with logic, language, and metaphysics, whether in ancient or contemporary philosophy.
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Conventions
PART 1: INFERENCE AND SYLLOGISM
Chapter 1: Syllogism and Deduction
Chapter 2: Expository Proofs in Aristotle’s Syllogistic
Chapter 3: The Stoic Themata
PART 2: IDENTITY, PREDICATION, AND QUANTIFICATION
Chapter 4: Remarks on Aristotle's Theory of Predication
Chapter 5: Puzzles about Identity: Aristotle and his Greek Commentators
Chapter 6: Aristotle's Topics and Contingent Identity
Chapter 7: Aristotle on Universals and Particulars
PART 3: MODALITY, TIME, AND FUTURE CONTINGENTS
Chapter 8: Aristotle’s Conception of the Modal Operators
Chapter 9: Logic and Omniscience: Alexander of Aphrodisias and Proclus
Chapter 10: Ammonius on Future Contingent Propositions
Chapter 11: Truth and Modality in Late Antiquity: Boethius and Future Contingents
PART 4: PARADOXES
Chapter 12: The Stoic Analysis of the Sorites
Chapter 13: The Liar Paradox and the Stoics
PART 5: RELATIVES
Chapter 14: Relatives in Plato
Chapter 15: Aristotle's Definition of Relatives in Categories 7
Chapter 16: The Stoic Notion of Relatives
Bibliography
Publications by Mario Mignucci
General Index
Index of Passages
Biography
Andrea Falcon is Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. His expertise is ancient philosophy. He works on Aristotle and the Aristotelian tradition in antiquity and beyond.
Pierdaniele Giaretta is retired Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the University of Padua, Italy. He has published on the history of logic and philosophy of logic and in particular on the notion of identity, logic, and reasoning.
"Mignucci challenges some traditional interpretations of classical thought by exploring them until a position is found which is more fully justified than its predecessors. Having both the evidence and the arguments presented makes it possible to evaluate Mignucci’s suggestions as he goes along. While the book seems to be designed for fairly advanced students of ancient thought and modern logic, less advanced students will learn a great deal from investing their effort in it."- Bryn Mawr Classical Review
