14. Explanation and Definition in Thomas Aquinas’ Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics

Abstract

In a series of texts that Sten Ebbesen has published in the Cahiers de l’Institut du Moyen-Âge Grec et Latin and elsewhere, he has directed the attention of scholars to the presence of sensitive logical and semantical issues in the commentary tradition on Aristotle’s Metaphysics . In this chapter the author continues this line of investigation and focuses on the interconnection between logic and metaphysics. He discusses the contribution that (syllogistic) logic can give to metaphysics. Since the medievals normally read Aristotle’s Metaphysics as a work applying the Posterior Analytics theory of science to the field of metaphysics, (syllogistic) logic is supposed to structure the way of doing investigation in metaphysics. The author deals with Thomas Aquinas’s interpretation of Metaphysics 7.17 , the chapter where, according to some contemporary interpreters, Aristotle extends the Posterior Analytics explanation theory from attributes to substances. Keywords:Aristotle; logical approach; metaphysics; Metaphysics 7.17 ; Posterior Analytics ; Thomas Aquinas