Joseph A Novak

University of Waterloo, Philosophy, Emeritus

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Professor Emeritus at the University of Waterloo, ON (Canada). My areas of research have been primarily in Ancient Philosophy and secondarily in Medieval Philosophy and Christian Thought.
Address: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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Commentary on Gratton

Professor Gratton's paper stimulates reflection on the role of the question (more precisely, the ... more Professor Gratton's paper stimulates reflection on the role of the question (more precisely, the reiterated question) in regress arguments. This is important not simply because it raises the role of the question generally in reasoning and thereby echoes a theme present in erotetic logic (one can think here even of the more popular textbook by Hintikka and Bachman, What if ...? Toward Excellence in Reasoning1) but also because it provokes us to a closer analysis of the nature of questioning present in the regress argument. The aim of my comments is to further the attempts made in the paper toward a complete as possible arrangement or taxonomy of regress arguments both visa -vis one another and visa -vis other arguments with due attention to the points made by Claude Gratton. My own citation of examples from the history of philosophy is highly selective and, I hope, not too baffling. Through them I wish to offer some material which might enrich the author's attempt to grapple with the structure of regress arguments.

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Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie , The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library . Reviewed by

Philosophy in review, 1990

Aristotle on method : definition and demonstration

University Microfilms International eBooks, 1977

Toward a New Interpretation of Plato

Review of Metaphysics, Jun 1, 1999

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R.W. Sharples, trans. , Alexander Aphrodisias' On Fate . Reviewed by

Philosophy in review, 1985

Thomas M. Johnson, trans., "Iamblichus: The Exhortation to Philosophy." Reviewed by

Philosophy in review, 1990

Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, trans. , Porphyry's Launching Points to the Realm of Mind . Reviewed by

Philosophy in review, 1990

Some recent work on the assertoric syllogistic

Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, Apr 1, 1980

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Commentary on Rose

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The Meno, Recollection, and the Role of Hypothesis

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Richard Bodéüs , Aristotle and the Theology of the Living Immortals . Reviewed by

Philosophy in review, Oct 1, 2002

Classical Cynicism: A Critical StudyLuis E. Navia Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996, x + 227 pp., $65.00

Dialogue, 1999

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Plato and the Irrationals

Apeiron, 1982

... (15D-E). Euthyphro runs off without responding, leaving Socrates to stew in his own ignorance... more

Plato and the Irrationals — Part 2

Apeiron, 1983

Part III-Plato and Mathematics In the last two sections of this paper (see Apeiron XVI No. 2 [198... more Part III-Plato and Mathematics In the last two sections of this paper (see Apeiron XVI No. 2 [1982]) a brief sketch was presented of both the development of dialectic in Plato's thinking as well as the growth of the theory of irrational quantities in Greek mathematics. The aim of the present section is to exhibit that Plato was in fact affected by the then current state of Greek Mathematics. Plato is often portrayed as a philosopher whose thought was significantly influenced by mathematics or at least by mathematical method. This impression arises, no doubt, from the discussions of the Republic where the analogy of the line and the mathematical training of the guardians plays such a key role (Books VI-VIII). Not only do Plato's writings show the importance mathematics held for him, however, but even the facts of his biography reveal the dominant influence mathematics had upon his life. Before a review of some passages in the dialogues which illustrate the impact of mathematics upon his thought, a summary of some biographical details of his life may be in order. Of the six ancient lives of Plato 45 the report of Diogenes Laertius is probably the most comprehensive (Book III, 1-47). Diogenes relates that after Plato studied logic in Megara, he went to Cyrene to study with Theodoros the mathematician and then went to the Pythagoreans, Philolaus and Eurytus, in Italy (III, 6: also II, 103). This association with the Pythagoreans is also hinted at in the Phaedo where the group surrounding Socrates (which would normally include Plato) is composed of Pythagoreans; the two chief interlocutors in the dialogue, Simmias and Cebes, are both Pythagoreans 46 and the dialogue is narrated by Echechrates, a Pythagorean from the school's settlement at Phlius. 47 Further, the Pythagorean Archytas is a friend of Plato and is influential in Plato's Sicilian adventures (Ep. VII, 338C-D; 339D). Not only Plato's person, however, but also his institution, the Academy, bears witness to the importance of mathematics in Plato's thought. Evidence runs from the famous anecdote about the sign posted over the Academy (Άγεωμέτρητος μηδείς είσίτω) 41 to the fact that Plato's school was filled with mathematicians. Among others, Leodamas, Archytas, Leon, Menaechmus, Theudius and of course, Theaetetus and Eudoxus, were known to Plato and most of them associated with the Academy. 49 Moreover, Plato is said to have fostered mathematical developments among his pupils and is said to have been responsible for formulating the method of analysis. 50 When Plato left for his second Sicilian voyage, the time of Aristotle's entrance into the Academy, Eudoxos of Cnidos who developed a theory of proportions capable of dealing with the irrationals was made acting scholarch or head of the Academy. 51 That Plato would have left a mathematician in charge of his school-one who is said to have developed his own school previously and brought it to Athens (to the Academy) 52-is another indication of the importance he attributed to mathematics. Of all the aforementioned personalities, Eudoxos, Theaetetus, and Theodoros seem to have left the most lasting impression on Plato. The details of Plato's biography, however, do not argue the mathematical influence upon him as forcibly as do his works themselves. Proclus notes that Plato 14

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Aristotle's Topics and informal reasoning

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Brentano's Über Aristoteles

Apeiron, 1988

In producing this edition of Brentano's Nachlass on Aristotle, Rolf George has rendered a tre... more In producing this edition of Brentano's Nachlass on Aristotle, Rolf George has rendered a tremendous service not only to the international scholarly community pursuing Aristotelian studies but also to those interested in Brentano's thought. As George notes in his introduction to the volume, some work had been done in the 1920s and 1930s to produce an edition of these writings, but it never came to fruition. Although this earlier work was of some utility in preparing the present edition, it is the original manuscripts of Brentano which serve as the base for this, in effect, comprehensive edition of what might be called the Opuscula Aristotelica of Brentano. With minor exceptions, the manuscripts included span the years 1908-1911. George decided not only to leave out preliminary versions of pieces that are included here in order to avoid needless repetition, but also to exclude pieces which were rough drafts for the subsequently published work on Aristole's doctrine on the origin of the human mind. The essays included in the present volume constitute Brentano's preparations for an allencompassing presentation of Aristotle's work, something which would presumably have resembled the present day work by I. During. However, in reality, they came to serve as the base for two less ambitious works, one of which R. George and R. Chisholm translated into English about a decade ago, Aristotle and His World View. This

Peter Ramus and a Shift of Logical Cultures

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Comments on Calvert's ‘Dualism and the problem of evil’

Sophia, Mar 1, 1987

... If two beings were essentially necessary, there would be no way of distinguishing them from o... more

Socrates and Induction: An Aristotelian Evaluation

De Gruyter eBooks, Dec 31, 2014

John Dillon and Lloyd Gerson , Neoplatonic Philosophy' Introductory Readings . Reviewed by

Philosophy in review, Oct 1, 2005

Joseph A Novak

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