In late antiquity the works of Plato and Aristotle were subject to intense study, which eventually led to the development of a new literary form, the philosophical commentary. Until recently these commentaries were understood chiefly as sources of information for the masters - Plato and Aristotle - they commented upon. However, in recent years, it has become increasingly acknowledged that the commentators themselves - Aspasius, Alexander, Themistius, Porphyry, Proclus, Philoponus, Simplicius and others - even though they ...
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In late antiquity the works of Plato and Aristotle were subject to intense study, which eventually led to the development of a new literary form, the philosophical commentary. Until recently these commentaries were understood chiefly as sources of information for the masters - Plato and Aristotle - they commented upon. However, in recent years, it has become increasingly acknowledged that the commentators themselves - Aspasius, Alexander, Themistius, Porphyry, Proclus, Philoponus, Simplicius and others - even though they worked in the Platonist - Aristotelian framework, contributed to this tradition in original, innovative and significant ways such that their commentaries are philosophically important sources in their own right. This book provides the first systematic introduction to the 'philosophy' of the commentators: their way of doing philosophy and the kind of philosophical problems they found interesting.Although there was no philosophy of the commentators in the sense of a definite set of doctrines, Tuominen shows how the commentary format was nevertheless a vehicle for original philosophical theorizing and argues convincingly that the commentators should take their place alongside other philosophers of antiquity in the history of western philosophy.
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I ordered this book because of my interest in more deeply understanding the philosophy of Aristotle. The source texts are highly fragmentary, making study a daunting exercise for non specialists and non academics. The accessible texts I've seen are essentially bulleted facts for recitation on exams. There is a remoteness and a static, known truth aspect to these de facto study guides.
I hoped that a review of the ancient commentators on Aristotle would inject missing intellectual life into this subject. I wanted to look into the work of those who were close in time and context to the philosopher, who had access to texts now lost, and who found the material sufficiently exciting to write about in a time when writing was unusual and difficult. I hoped this would be revelatory, and it is. The ancient commentators fill in missing intellectual contexts in a surprising way -- by opening the ideas to analysis and active debate. Reading them injects an exciting range of variability, of diverse questions and alternate considerations that breathe life into a difficult and obscure subject. It's sensible that their desire to understand these works must parallel our own, and their attempts to do so are at least highly stimulative to our own analysis. There are many commentaries to consider, no doubt invisible to the merely interested reader amidst the hundreds of secondary sources footnoted in the weighty, standardized textbooks. It seems from my initial read through that they should be read alongside the texts for which they can supply so much interest and life.
This book is written for "students", but is not an introduction to Aristotle. It is an indispensible supplement in my view, one that has enlivened and enriched my understanding greatly. It gives me, for the first time, a sense of the presence of that ancient, individual mind considering and answering seminal questions in a first hand, direct and controversial manner. I expect the references and bibliography to lead to additional insights and rewarding experiences. I will be looking at other books on the ancient Greek thinkers in the Ancient Philosophies series from the University of California Press.
