Being, Nature, and Life in Aristotle Essays in Honor of Allan Gotthelf

This volume of essays explores major connected themes in Aristotle's metaphysics, philosophy of nature, and ethics, especially themes related to essence, definition, teleology, activity, potentiality, and the highest good. The volume is united by the belief that all aspects of Aristotle's work need to be studied together if any one of the areas of thought is to be fully understood. Many of the papers were contributions to a conference at the University of Pittsburgh entitled 'Being, Nature, and Life in Aristotle', to honor Professor Allan Gotthelf's many contributions to the field of ancient philosophy; a few are contributions from those who were invited but could not attend. The contributors, all longstanding friends of Professor Gotthelf, are among the most accomplished scholars in the field of ancient philosophy today.

Introduction; 1. Teleology, Platonic and Aristotelian David Sedley; 2. Biology and metaphysics in Aristotle Robert Bolton; 3. The unity and purpose of On the Parts of Animals I James G. Lennox; 4. An Aristotelian puzzle about definition: Metaphysics Z.12 Alan Code; 5. Unity of definition in Metaphysics H.6 and Z.12 Mary Louise Gill; 6. Definition in Aristotle's Posterior Analytics Pierre Pellegrin; 7. Male and female in Aristotle's Generation of Animals Aryeh Kosman; 8. Metaphysics Θ. 7 and 8: some issues concerning actuality and potentiality David Charles; 9. Where is the activity? Sarah Broadie; 10. Political community and the highest good John M. Cooper; Publications of Allan Gotthelf.

Robert Bolton is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. He is author or editor of numerous books and articles on topics in ancient philosophy, particularly those concerning questions in epistemology and philosophy of mind, and those concerning philosophical and scientific methods and their applications, in natural science, metaphysics and ethics.
James G. Lennox is Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He has published many articles in professional journals and edited volumes, and his most recent books are Aristotle: On the Parts of Animals (translation with introduction and commentary, 2001), and Aristotle's Philosophy of Biology: Studies in the Origins of Life Science (Cambridge, 2001).