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Forms and Concepts Concept Formation in the Platonic Tradition

:	Christoph Helmig
:	Forms and Concepts Concept Formation in the Platonic Tradition
:	Walter de Gruyter GmbH& Co.KG
:	9783110267242
:	Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca et ByzantinaISSN
:	1
:	CHF 143.40
:

:	Antike
:	English

:	407
:	Wasserzeichen
:	PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
:	PDF

< >Forms and Concepts is the first comprehensive study of the central role of concepts and concept acquisition in the Platonic tradition. It sets up a stimulating dialogue between Plato’s innatist approach and Aristotle’s much more empirical response. The primary aim is to analyze and assess the strategies with which Platonists responded to Aristotle’s (and Alexander of Aphrodisias’) rival theory. The monograph culminates in a careful reconstruction of the elaborate attempt undertaken by the Neoplatonist Proclus (6th century AD) to devise a systematic Platonic theory of concept acquisition.

< >Christoph Helmig, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany.

	A word of thanks	11
	Introduction	13
	1. ‘How comes the mind to be furnished?’	13
	2. Survey of recent literature	17
	3. Structure and contents of this study	21
	I. Concepts – (ancient) problems and solutions	25
	1. What is a concept?	25
	2. The relevance of concepts in ancient epistemological debates	36
	3. Different models of concept acquisition in antiquity	41
	4. Forms and concepts	41
	47	41
	II. Plato on learning as recollection	51
	1. Forms and concepts	51
	1.1. The role of concepts in Plato	51
	1.2. Forms, concepts, language	53
	2. The Parmenides and the archaeology of conceptualism	57
	2.1. Concepts as ‘one over many’	57
	2.2. Refuting conceptualism?	60
	2.3. Conclusion	63
	3. The Meno on the different stages of recollection	64
	3.1. The transition from opinion (doxa) to knowledge	64
	3.2. Conclusion	68
	4. The Phaedo on the necessity of innate knowledge	69
	4.1. The deficiency argument (Phaedo 72e–77a)	69
	4.2. The continuity between Meno and Phaedo	76
	5. The Phaedrus on acquiring universal concepts	77
	5.1. Recollection and concept attainment (Phaedrus 249b–c)	77
	5.2. Forms, concepts, language again	82
	5.3. Conclusion	83
	6. Concept formation and concepts in the Timaeus, Theaetetus, and Sophist	83
	6.1. Recollection in Plato’s later works	83
	6.2. Innateness and the structure of the human soul	85
	7. The limits of recollection	90
	7.1. Some problematic concepts	90
	7.2. Recollection and error	95
	8. Forms, concepts, and recollection	96
	III. Aristotle’s reaction to Plato	99
	1. Aristotle and his teacher Plato	99
	1.1. A strange couple	99
	1.2. Aristotle’s arguments against innate knowledge	100
	2. The origin and nature of mathematical concepts	102
	2.1. Concepts and the division of sciences	102
	2.2. A troublesome emendation	104
	2.3. Abstraction and the qua-operator	108
	2.4. Aristotelian and Platonic separation	110
	2.5. Mathematical objects and concepts	112
	2.6. Linking abstractionM and induction?	120
	3. Universal concepts – induction (epagoge) and its different domains	123
	3.1. A general definition of induction	124
	3.2. Induction and its different domains	125
	3.3. The language of induction	126
	3.4. Different kinds of induction in Aristotle	128
	3.4.1. Induction in dialectical and rhetorical practice	128
	3.4.2. Digression: likeness and the charge of circularity	131
	3.4.3. Induction in ethics and natural science	133
	3.4.4. The troublesome case of ‘complete’ or ‘perfect induction’	134
	3.5. Induction and the starting points of syllogism	137
	4. Induction of first principles (Posterior Analytics II 19)	140
	4.1. Introduction	140
	4.2. What is the object of Analytica Posteriora II 19?	141
	4.3. Articulation and summary of the argument	144
	4.4. The relation of sense perception and intellect	146
	IV. Three case studies: Alcinous, Alexander	146
	153	146
	1. Alcinous between empiricism and recollection	153
	1.1. The doctrine of the doxastic logos	154
	1.2. Alcinous’ psychology	156
	1.3. Empiricism vs. innate knowledge	159
	2. Alexander of Aphrodisias	159
	166	159
	2.1. Alexander – elaborating Aristotle’s notion of abstraction	167
	2.2. Neoplatonic readings of Alexander	169
	2.3. Immanent forms, definitional natures, and universal concepts	173
	2.4. A unitary theory of intellect?	176
	2.5. Porphyry – an abstractionist malgré lui?	183
	2.6. The ‘short commentary’ on Aristotle’s Categories	184
	2.7. The epistemological digression in the commentary on Ptolemy	187
	3. Plotinus – ‘Wegbereiter’ of Syrianus and Proclus	196
	3.1. The doctrine of the twofold nature of the logoi (I): logoi as criteria in perceptual judgements	198
	3.2. The doctrine of the twofold nature of the logoi (II): logoi as causes in matter	203
	3.3. Plotinus on innate knowledge and recollection	207