Date: Wed, 26 Feb 97 18:00 +0100
From: artefact-AT-t-online.de (M.Eldred_artefact)
Subject: Aristotle: I'm a soul man 


Cologne, 26 February 1997

ME:
> First one has to bring the unsaid to light. And is what is hidden an
assumption? 

Chris Morrissey:
>>Would you agree that what is hidden are the archai? And that nous sees the 
archai?<<

Yes and no. For any given metaphyisical system, the _archai_ themselves are 
given and insofar visible for _nous_. For Aristotle, the categories would be the 
starting point that is immediately given. But the _archai_ are not given to 
in-sight once and for all and this can lead to a re-reading that digs deeper 
into the _archai_ resulting, say, in a meaning of being as standing presence. 

CM:
>>Yes, this is Heidegger as he out-Greeks the Greeks. But how is he able to
see "staendiges Anwesen" _as such_ everywhere in the Greeks and in
subsequent metaphysics? Is it through epagoge?<< 

Yes, I think so.

CM:
>>The pagan Greek commentator, Themistius, on the passage concerning the
"one" (An. Post. 100a8) says that the "one" and the "same" spoken of here
is the universal ("to katholou"). Do you see this the same way?<<

Aristotle himself uses "to katholou" at this point of the text. I'll attempt a 
translation: 
"And from experience or from all that is resting, directed towards the whole, in 
the psyche, from the one next to the many, from the one present in all as the 
same, comes the starting point of art and knowledge" (100a:6-9). 

The "one next to the many" is "to katholou", which breaks down into kath' holou, 
literally, in relation to or directed towards the whole (holos). (Universum 
means basically the same thing: turned towards the One.) The many are 
gathered into a whole. Such a gathering of the many particular memories of sense 
impressions would not be possible without the category of the whole always 
already providing a direction for the gathering. 

This gives the translation of _epagoge_ as "leading-to" plausibility. It's not 
just that there are particular sense perceptions, but that these have to be 
brought to rest in the psyche so that they point towards the whole. 

I see a connection here between coming to rest in the psyche and the 
illustration Aristotle employs of fleeing soldiers coming to stand (_histatai_; 
100b:2) and turn to face the enemy (the whole). The psyche brings the sense 
perceptions to rest, i.e. to stand. It is not simply a matter of species being 
gathered into genera by being led on, but ultimately of sense percepts being 
gathered into the One. H. then interprets this One as the standing presence of 
being. 

CM: 
>>I am wondering whether Heidegger has indeed seen the arche of all
metaphysics ("All Being is standing presence") or if there is something
unsaid in metaphysics that Heidegger has failed to see and say? Perhaps he
has not understood the Greeks better than they understood themselves?<< 

The texts of metaphysics and H.'s texts remain open, i.e. the unsaid is 
unfathomable. This unfathomability is apparent every time a text becomes 
questionable, since a question points to an other possible reading. In other 
words, H.'s is by no means the last word. But his word opens up possibilities of 
thinking about modes and moods of presencing other than standing presence. Or 
just thinking about the soul as that which gathers into standing presence. 

CM:
>>1. What is the mode of being of the active intellect? Is it present at hand?
2. What do you see as superior in Heidegger's account that overcomes the
problematic associated with the passive and the active intellects? How do
you relate being-in and being-alongside to this problematic?<< 

Would you like to suggest some specific passages in An. Post. II.19 and _De 
Anima_?


Michael
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