Averroes' Middle Commentaries on Aristotle's Categories and De Interpretatione.

Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langj�igem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - leicht berieben, Kopfschnitt leicht angeschmutzt, sonst sehr guter Zustand / slightly rubbed, top edge slightly soiled, otherwise very good condition. - PREFACE These are the first in a series of English translations of the Arabic text of Averroes� middle commentaries on Aristotle�s logical works. Subsequent volumes will present English translations of Averroes� middle commentaries on Aristotle�s Prior Analytics, Posterior Analytics, Topics, On Sophistical Refutations, Rhetoric, and Poetics. These, like the other translations in this series, are based on the new critical editions of Averroes� Arabic text which are being prepared and published in Cairo under the auspices of the American Research Center in Egypt. As with these other translations, the goal here has been to present the English reader with an understandable and coherent version of Averroes� text, a version that remains faithful to the thought of the original Arabic while retaining the character of standard English expression. Averroes� commentaries on Aristotle can make a claim to the attention of learned people on at least two counts. The first derives from their own intrinsic merit as philosophic treatises and will be explored at greater length in the introductions to each of the translations. The other has to do with their significance as works representative of a distinct tradition of Aristotelian scholarship and is related to the curious manner in which Aristotle�s writings eventually made their way to Western European centers of learning. Though not without some relevance to this whole issue, there is no reason to recount at length here the fascinating and controversial tale of how a set of Aristotle�s writings was passed on from Theophrastus to Neleus, preserved intact by the latter�s heirs for an extraordinarily long period of time, then transmitted to Apellikon, seized by Sylla when he took Athens, sent to Rome to be entrusted to Tyrannion, and finally made available to Andronikus of Rhodes who newly catalogued and edited them. Far more germane is the fact that Andronikus� edition had so little subsequent influence in Western Europe. Indeed, historians of the tradition of scholarship agree that Greek versions of Aristotle�s texts disappeared shortly after the middle of the sixth century. Apart from copies of Marius Victorinus� Latin translation of the Categories as well as copies of Boethius� Latin translations of the same work, plus the De Interpretatione and part of the Prior Analytics, Aristotle�s works were simply not known in Western Europe until about the middle of the twelfth century. Yet Boethius, who died in 525,1 must have had access to the Greek text of all of Aristotle�s works as well as to those of Plato, for he proclaimed his intention of translating all the works of each and then of proving that they were in basic agreement on all important issues. Though Isidore of Sevilla, Julian of Toledo, Archbishop St. Ouen of Rouen, Hadrian, and Theodore of Tarsus all bear witness to knowledge of Greek and of Greek authors in their writings, they are exceptions. So, too, are Alcuin and Joannes Scotus or Erigena, the former for his familiarity with Homer and the latter for his familiarity with Plato�s Timaeus as well as for his Latin translation of Dyonysius the Areopagite. Among the numerous factors contributing to this lack of interest in Greek and Greek learning in general and in Aristotle and Plato in particular, three are pre-eminent: the closing of the school at Athens in 529 by order of Justinian, the fall of the Roman Empire along with the break between Rome and Constantinople, and the single-minded emphasis on the Scriptures and the Church fathers within the Roman Catholic Church to the exclusion of philosophic and pagan authors. [.] / CONTENTS PREFACE AVERROES� MIDDLE COMMENTARY ON ARISTOTLE�S CATEGORIES INTRODUCTION THE ORDER OF THE ARGUMENT THE TEXT AVERROES� MIDDLE COMMENTARY ON ARISTOTLE�S DE INTERPRETATIONE INTRODUCTION THE ORDER OF THE ARGUMENT THE TEXT INDEX. ISBN 9781890318017