Heidegger and Aristotle

Walter A. Brogan

Description

Walter A. Brogan's long-awaited book exploring Heidegger's phenomenological reading of Aristotle's philosophy places particular emphasis on the Physics, Metaphysics, Ethics, and Rhetoric. Controversial and challenging, Heidegger and Aristotle claims that it is Heidegger's sustained thematic focus and insight that governs his overall reading of Aristotle, namely, that Aristotle, while attempting to remain faithful to the Parmenidean dictum regarding the oneness and unity of being, nevertheless thinks of being as twofold. Brogan offers a careful and detailed analysis of several of the most important of Heidegger's treatises on Aristotle, including his assertion that Aristotle's twofoldness of being has been ignored or misread in the traditional substance-oriented readings of Aristotle. This groundbreaking study contributes immensely to the scholarship of a growing community of ancient Greek scholars engaged in phenomenological approaches to the reading and understanding of Aristotle.
Acknowledgments
Preface

1. Martin Heidegger's Relationship to Aristotle

Heidegger's Phenomenological Reading of Aristotle
What It Means to Read Aristotle as a Phenomenologist
The Lost Manuscript: An Introduction to Heidegger's Interpretation of Aristotle

2. The Doubling of Phusis: Aristotle's View of Nature

The Meaning of Phusis
Heidegger's Ontological Interpretation of Movement in Aristotle's Philosophy
The Phenomenology of Seeing and the Recognition of Movement as the Being of Beings
The Meaning of Cause in Natural Beings: Heidegger's Rejection of Agent Causality
Ontological Movement and the Constancy of Beings
Phusis as the Granting of Place: Change and the Place of Beings
The Complex Relationship of Phusis and Techné
The Horizon for Understanding Phusis: The Meaning of Ousia

3. The Destructuring of the Tradition

Aristotle's Confrontation with Antiphon

Elemental Being (Stoicheia): Aristotle's Conception of Ontological Difference
The Meaning of Eternal (Aidion) and Its Relation to Limit (Peras)
The Necessity Belonging to Beings (Anangké) and the Possibility of Violence
The Law of Non-Contradiction
The Difference Between Being and Beings
The Method of Aristotle's Thought

The Path of Aristotle's Thought: The Twofoldness of Phusis

Aristotle's Hylomorphic Theory
The Way of Logos in the Discovery of Phusis
Genesis and Sterésis: The Negation at the Heart of Being

4. The Force of Being

Aristotle's Resolution of the Aporia of Early Greek Philosophy
The Rejection of the Categorial Sense of Being as the Framework for Understanding of Being as Force
The Non-Categorial Meaning of Logos in Connection with Being as Dunamis: Force in Relationship to Production
Aristotle's Confrontation with the Megarians: The Way of Being-Present of Force
The Connection Between Force and Perception: The Capability of Disclosing Beings as Such

5. Heidegger and Aristotle: An Ontology of Human Dasein

Dasein and the Question of Practical Life
Sein und Zeit and the Ethics of Aristotle
Plato's Dialectical Philosophy and Aristotle's Recovery of Nous: The Problem of Rhetoric and the Limits of Logos

The Ontological Status of Dialectic
Plato's Negative Account of Rhetoric in the Gorgias
Plato's Positive Account of Rhetoric in the Phaedrus

The Sophist Course: Aristotle's Recovery of Truth after Plato
The 1925-1926 Logik Course: Aristotle's Twofold Sense of Truth

Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Épistémologie
• Philosophie de l'esprit
• Philosophie antique
• Epistémologie
• Epistémologie
• Epistémologie
• Ancient philosophy

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791483015
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Heidegger and AristotleSUNY series in Contemporary
Continental Philosophy
Dennis J. Schmidt, editorHeidegger and
Aristotle
The Twofoldness of Being
Walter A. Brogan
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESSPublished by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2005 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
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For information, address State University of New York Press,
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Production by Kelli Williams
Marketing by Michael Campochiaro
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brogan, Walter, 1945–
Heidegger and Aristotle: the twofoldness of being / Walter A. Brogan.
p. cm. — (SUNY series in contemporary continental philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 0-7914-6491-1 (hardcover: alk. paper)
1. Heidegger, Martin, 1899–1976. 2. Aristotle. 3. Ontology—History.
I. Title. II. Series.
b3279.h49b743 2005
193—dc22 2004024570
10987654321For my mother, Lillian Berry Brogancontents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface xi
Chapter 1 Martin Heidegger’s Relationship to Aristotle 1
Heidegger’s Phenomenological Reading of Aristotle
What It Means to Read Aristotle as a Phenomenologist
The Lost Manuscript: An Introduction to Heidegger’s
Interpretation of Aristotle
Chapter 2 The Doubling of Phusis: Aristotle’s View of Nature 21
The Meaning of Phusis
Heidegger’s Ontological Interpretation of Movement
in Aristotle’s Philosophy
The Phenomenology of Seeing and the Recognition of
Movement as the Being of Beings
The Meaning of Cause in Natural Beings: Heidegger’s
Rejection of Agent Causality
Ontological Movement and the Constancy of Beings
Phusis as the Granting of Place: Change and the Place
of Beings
The Complex Relationship of Phusis and Techn¯e
The Horizon for Understanding Phusis: The Meaning
of Ousia
Chapter 3 The Destructuring of the Tradition 57
Aristotle’s Confrontation with Antiphon
Elemental Being (Stoicheia): Aristotle’s Conception of
Ontological Difference
The Meaning of Eternal (Aidion) and Its Relation
to Limit (Peras)
The Necessity Belonging to Beings (Anangk¯e) and the
Possibility of Violence
The Law of Non-Contradictionviii contents•
The Difference Between Being and Beings
The Method of Aristotle’s Thought
The Path of Aristotle’s Thought: The Twofoldness
of Phusis
Aristotle’s Hylomorphic Theory
The Way of Logos in the Discovery of Phusis
Genesis and Ster¯esis: The Negation at the Heart
of Being
Chapter 4 The Force of Being 110
Aristotle’s Resolution of the Aporia of Early
Greek Philosophy
The Rejection of the Categorial Sense of Being as the
Framework for Understanding of Being as Force
The Non-Categorial Meaning of Logos in Connection with
Being as Dunamis: Force in Relationship to Production
Aristotle’s Confrontation with the Megarians: The Way
of Being-Present of Force
The Connection Between Force and Perception:
The Capability of Disclosing Beings as Such
Chapter 5 Heidegger and Aristotle: An Ontology of
Human Dasein 138
Dasein and the Question of Practical Life
Sein und Zeit and the Ethics of Aristotle
Plato’s Dialectical Philosophy and Aristotle’s Recovery
of Nous: The Problem of Rhetoric and the Limits
of Logos
The Ontological Status of Dialectic
Plato’s Negative Account of Rhetoric in the Gorgias
Plato’s Positive Account of Rhetoric in the Phaedrus
The Sophist Course: Aristotle’s Recovery of Truth
after Plato
The 1925–1926 Logik Course: Aristotle’s Twofold
Sense of Truth
Conclusion 188
Notes 191
Bibliography 203
Index 209acknowledgments
Heidegger says that the cause of something is that which is responsible for
its coming into being. In this regard, I am indebted to many besides those
I will name here, whose gift to me cannot be repaid. I am especially
grateful for their patience and encouragement. Sandy Brown has allowed me to
see that there are no limitations to the possibilities of being and being
together. My son Daniel first taught me to appreciate birth and nature in the
hills around Rielingshausen. He and my son Steven are a constant
reminder of the wonder of life. My philosophical life began with the
provocation of my brother Harold, and I owe to him not only a lifelong feast of
philosophical conversation, but an awareness of what it means to live life
fully and be a great human being. All of my brothers and sisters have been
incredibly supportive.
I am grateful to John Sallis for his formative intellectual inspiration and
guidance, but especially for what he has taught me about the connection
between philosophy and friendship. The graduate students I have taught
over the years at Villanova have been an indispensable resource for me. In
very specific ways, I am grateful to Elaine Brogan, James Risser, Jerry Sallis,
Dennis Schmidt, Peter Warnek, and my colleagues at Villanova for all they
have contributed to my work.preface
This book offers a study of the central texts in which Heidegger presents
his phenomenological reading of Aristotle’s philosophy. Heidegger’s
readings span the corpus of Aristotle’s philosophy, with particular
emphasis on the Physics, Metaphysics, Ethics, and Rhetoric. I claim in the
book that Heidegger has a sustained thematic focus and insight that
govern his overall reading of Aristotle—namely, that Aristotle, while
attempting to remain faithful to the Parmenidean dictum regarding the
oneness and unity of being, nevertheless thinks being as twofold. It is
this philosophical discovery that permits him, within the framework of
the Greek understanding of being, to account for the centricity of
motion in the meaning of being, what I call Aristotle’s kinetic ontology.
On the basis of a detailed reading of sections of the Physics and
Metaphysics, I try to defend Heidegger’s controversial claim that metaphysics
for Aristotle is as much physics as physics is metaphysics. This is
accomplished in chapters two and three, devoted to his reading of Physics B1.
These chapters show how Heidegger attempts to draw out the affinity of
Aristotle’s treatment of phusis to the original Greek sense of phusis as a
word for being in general. Given that Aristotle’s account of nature involves
a treatment of motion and change, Heidegger’s reading shows, against
many of the traditional accounts of Aristotle, that becoming and therefore
privation belong to the very meaning of ousia, Aristotle’s word for being.
In chapter four, on Heidegger’s reading of Aristotle’s Metaphysics Θ1–
3, I try to show similarly that dunamis, force, is central to Aristotle’s
manifold sense of being. Heidegger’s reading of dunamis and energeia calls
into question many of the traditional accounts of Aristotle’s Metaphysics
that reduce Aristotle’s sense of being to the categorial sense of substance
alone.
In chapter five, I turn to a consideration of Heidegger’s controversial
readings of Aristotle’s practical philosophy, with special emphasis on
ethics and rhetoric. I claim that, in Heidegger’s reading, Aristotle’s treatment
of ethics is not primarily focused on normative questions, but is concerned
with what one might call an ontology of human being. It becomes clearxii preface•
through a study of these early Heidegger courses on Aristotle’s ethics and
rhetoric how great an influence Aristotle is on the genesis of Heidegger’s
own original analysis of human existence in his major work, Being and
Time. Heidegger couches these readings of Aristotle in the context of the
overcoming of a certain kind of dualistic Platonism, to which he argues
Aristotle is responding. These discussions hearken back to the first chapter of
the book, where I try to show that Heidegger not only reads Aristotle as a
phenomenological thinker, but also derives his own unique sense of
phenomenology from his dialogue with Aristotle.
The book oscillates between commentary and thematic focus. One of
my primary objectives is to offer a careful and detailed analysis of several
of the most important of Heidegger’s works on Aristotle. One of the
strategies I employ is to subject Heidegger’s interpretation of specific
Aristotelian concepts, as they arise in the context of his translations of Aristotle
passages, to a broader test in terms of other passages and texts. For this
reason, for example, I frequently cite passages from the Metaphysics in an
attempt to assess the validity of Heidegger’s revolutionary reading of the
Physics. What becomes evident from this approach is that Heidegger’s
readings of sections of Aristotle’s work, such as Physics B1 and
Metaphysics Θ1–3, are carefully chosen by Heidegger to implicate Aristotle’s
philosophy as a whole. Because one of my primary objectives is to offer an
exegesis of Heidegger, I do not frequently point out how radical a challenge
his work on Aristotle presents to most traditional accounts. Anyone
knowledgeable of the history of Aristotle interpretation will readily
recognize this challenge. To some extent, the confrontation occurs at the level of
translation, and I had the temptation to provide a standard translation as a
contrast to Heidegger’s. This would no doubt have had some value for
readers of this text, and I would encourage careful consultation of the
Greek as well as available alternative translations. In the end I decided
against doing this because it in effect canonizes or castigates the standard
translations, and neither of these positions is desirable. One of Heidegger’s
great contributions is to return the reader constantly to a philosophical
concern with the Greek words themselves, and to free the interpretation of
Aristotle from its bondage to a translated vocabulary derived from the
Latin. A word like “substance,” from the L