Order 1309200: Aristotle

Ancient  philosophy    Paper  topics      Fall  2018    2nd  Assignment    due  Friday  16  Nov.     Please  select  one  topic  and  compose  an  essay  of  5-­‐6  double-­‐spaced  pages.  Number  your   pages.  Passages  in  Aristotle  should  be  referred  to  by  work,  book  number  (when  there  is   one),  chapter  and  Bekker  page  number  (e.g.,  Physics  II  8  199a5-­‐10;  more  examples  on  the   handout  of  24  October).  Please  submit  the  paper  to  Jonathan  Milad  in  your  tutorial  section   and  online  via  Turnitin.       1.  In  Categories  ch.  2  Aristotle  distinguishes  between  four  kinds  of  beings  with  reference  to   two  relations,  being  said  of  a  subject  and  being  in  a  subject.  What  are  these  relations  and   what  are  the  four  kinds  of  being  distinguished  with  their  aid?  How  are  they  related  to  the   types  of  being  that  things  said  apart  from  combination  signify,  which  are  enumerated  in   chapter  4,  and  the  most  important  of  which,  substance,  is  discussed  in  chapter  5?       2.  In  Physics  II  8,  Aristotle  defends  his  own  view,  natural  teleology  as  it  has  come  to  be  called   (though  not  by  him)  against  an  alternative  upheld  by  opponents  like  Empedocles,  called   mechanism  (though  not  by  him  or  them).  What  is  at  stake  in  the  debate?  How  is  it  related  to   the  four  causes  that  Aristotle  distinguishes  earlier  in  bk.  II.  What  role  does  luck  or  chance   (sometimes  called  the  ‘automatic’)  play  in  the  mechanists’  view?  What  are  Aristotle’s  main   arguments    against  his  opponents’  mechanist  position  and  in  support  of  natural  teleology   (you  may  be  selective  focusing  on  some  of  the  arguments  that  Aristotle  presents  between   198b33  –  199b33)?