The Reshaping
of Forms
Aristotle's arguments against Plato's Forms, and the theory of Forms that Syrianus and Proclus developed in response to them.
Separate, intelligible causes of what things are: the theory that sets the terms of the later debate.
Metaphysics A 6, A 9 and M 4–5, read with Alexander of Aphrodisias: the most systematic critique of the theory in antiquity.
Their commentaries on the Metaphysics and the Parmenides respond to Aristotle's objections and, in doing so, revise the theory.
The project
Aristotle's objections to Plato's theory of Forms are usually studied on their own, as a chapter in the history of the Academy. ReForms studies them together with the replies they received. The late-antique Platonists Syrianus and Proclus knew Aristotle's arguments well, took them seriously, and answered them with a theory of Forms that remains recognisably Platonic while addressing the difficulties Aristotle had raised.
The project reconstructs that exchange from both sides: first Aristotle's arguments, as they stand in the Metaphysics and as Alexander read them; then the Platonist replies, in Syrianus' commentary on Metaphysics M–N and Proclus' commentary on the Parmenides. The aim is historical and philosophical at once. The theory that emerges from this exchange has enough structure to be brought into conversation with contemporary metaphysics, in particular with current work on universals, naturalness, grounding and ontological dependence.
Three questions
- Are there Forms at all? Proclus' indispensability argument for the existence of Forms, and what it answers in Aristotle.
- Of what are there Forms? The range of the Forms and the problem of naturalness: why some kinds have a Form and others do not.
- How do things share in them? Participation (methexis) after Aristotle's objections to it, and whether the Platonist account of it holds up.
People
Gonzalo Gamarra Jordán
PhD in Philosophy, University of Notre Dame.
Christian Pfeiffer
Supervisor, University of Toronto.
Federico Maria Petrucci
Supervisor, University of Turin, Department of Philosophy and Educational Sciences.
Outputs
Three articles, one on each of the questions above, and an edited volume on Metaphysics M arising from a workshop in Toronto. Publications and talks will be listed here as they appear.