Ackrill's Problem is a tension between Aristotle's alleged view that the matter of a living being... more Ackrill's Problem is a tension between Aristotle's alleged view that the matter of a living being is a body that is essentially ensouled, and his view that the matter of a substance preexists its generation. Most interpreters solve the tension by claiming that the subject of substantial generation is not the organic body of the living being, but its non-organic matter. I defend a different solution by showing that the embryological theory of On the Generation of Animals implies that the organic body of a living being already exists before acquiring the soul in actuality.
Although the view that Anaximander was a Material Monist is not very popular nowadays, it is stil... more Although the view that Anaximander was a Material Monist is not very popular nowadays, it is still widely held that it was embraced by Aristotle at least on some occasions, then adopted by Theophrastus, and later on inherited by Simplicius, our main source on the Presocratics. I argue that none of these three philosophers held this view and that, for this reason, it should not be seen as the standard Ancient interpretation of Anaximander.
Ackrill's Problem is a tension between Aristotle's alleged view that the matter of a living being... more Ackrill's Problem is a tension between Aristotle's alleged view that the matter of a living being is a body that is essentially ensouled, and his view that the matter of a substance preexists its generation. Most interpreters solve the tension by claiming that the subject of substantial generation is not the organic body of the living being, but its non-organic matter. I defend a different solution by showing that the embryological theory of On the Generation of Animals implies that the organic body of a living being already exists before acquiring the soul in actuality.
Although the view that Anaximander was a Material Monist is not very popular nowadays, it is stil... more Although the view that Anaximander was a Material Monist is not very popular nowadays, it is still widely held that it was embraced by Aristotle at least on some occasions, then adopted by Theophrastus, and later on inherited by Simplicius, our main source on the Presocratics. I argue that none of these three philosophers held this view and that, for this reason, it should not be seen as the standard Ancient interpretation of Anaximander.
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