A great mass of literature has been produced to explain and clarify the works of Aristotle, especially during the ancient and medieval eras. The pupils of

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

(384322 BC) were the first to comment on his writings, a tradition which was continued by the

Peripatetic school The Peripatetic school ( ) was a philosophical school founded in 335 BC by Aristotle in the Lyceum in ancient Athens. It was an informal institution whose members conducted philosophical and scientific inquiries. The school fell into decline afte ...

throughout the

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

and Roman periods. The

Neoplatonists Neoplatonism is a version of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a series of thinkers. Among the common i ...

of the

Later Roman Empire In historiography, the Late or Later Roman Empire, traditionally covering the period from 284 CE to 641 CE, was a time of significant transformation in Roman governance, society, and religion. Diocletian's reforms, including the establishment of t ...

wrote many commentaries on Aristotle, attempting to incorporate him into their philosophy. Although Ancient Greek commentaries are considered the most useful, commentaries continued to be written by the Christian scholars of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

and by the many Islamic philosophers and Western scholastics who had inherited his texts.

Greek commentators

The first pupils of Aristotle commentated on his writings, but often with a view to expand his work. Thus

Theophrastus Theophrastus (; ; c. 371 – c. 287 BC) was an ancient Greek Philosophy, philosopher and Natural history, naturalist. A native of Eresos in Lesbos, he was Aristotle's close colleague and successor as head of the Lyceum (classical), Lyceum, the ...

invented five moods of

syllogism A syllogism (, ''syllogismos'', 'conclusion, inference') is a kind of logical argument that applies deductive reasoning to arrive at a conclusion based on two propositions that are asserted or assumed to be true. In its earliest form (defin ...

in the first figure, in addition to the four invented by Aristotle, and stated with additional accuracy the rules of hypothetical syllogisms. He also often differed with his master,Brucker 1837, pages 349-53 including in collecting much information concerning animals and natural events, which Aristotle had omitted. During the early

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

we find few celebrated names among the Peripatetic philosophers. Nicolaus of Damascus wrote several treatises on the philosophy of Aristotle; and Alexander of Aegae also wrote commentaries on Aristotle.Whewell 1837, pages 271-5 The earliest commentaries which survive, are those written in the 2nd century by Adrastus and Aspasius.Sorabji 1998, pages 435-7

Alexander of Aphrodisias Alexander of Aphrodisias (; AD) was a Peripatetic school, Peripatetic philosopher and the most celebrated of the Ancient Greek Commentaries on Aristotle, commentators on the writings of Aristotle. He was a native of Aphrodisias in Caria and liv ...

(c. 200) was regarded by subsequent Aristotelians among the Greeks, Latins, and Muslims, as the best interpreter of Aristotle. On account of the number and value of his commentaries, he was called, by way of distinction, "The Commentator". Several of his works are still extant, among which is a treatise ''On Fate'', wherein he supports the doctrine of

divine providence In theology, divine providence, or simply providence, is God's intervention in the universe. The term ''Divine Providence'' (usually capitalized) is also used as a names of God, title of God. A distinction is usually made between "general prov ...

. Many of the

undertook to explain and illustrate the writings of Aristotle, particularly on the subject of dialectics, which

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

had left imperfect. Porphyry (3rd century) wrote a book on the '' Categories'', which was found to be so suitable a complement to the ''Categories'' of Aristotle, that it was usually prefixed to that treatise. Porphyry sought to show that Plato and Aristotle were in harmony with each other, especially in regards to the compatibility of Aristotle's Categories with Plato's

Theory of Forms The Theory of Forms or Theory of Ideas, also known as Platonic idealism or Platonic realism, is a philosophical theory credited to the Classical Greek philosopher Plato. A major concept in metaphysics, the theory suggests that the physical w ...

. Porphyry's pupil

Iamblichus Iamblichus ( ; ; ; ) was a Neoplatonist philosopher who determined a direction later taken by Neoplatonism. Iamblichus was also the biographer of the Greek mystic, philosopher, and mathematician Pythagoras. In addition to his philosophical co ...

continued this process of harmonising Plato and Aristotle, and Dexippus, a disciple of

, wrote a ''Reply to the Objections of Plotinus against Aristotle's Categories'', which is still extant.

Themistius Themistius ( ; 317 – c. 388 AD), nicknamed Euphrades (, "''eloquent''"), was a statesman, rhetorician and philosopher. He flourished in the reigns of Constantius II, Julian, Jovian, Valens, Gratian and Theodosius I, and he enjoyed the favo ...

(4th century), who taught at

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

with great success, paraphrased several of the works of Aristotle, particularly the ''

Posterior Analytics The ''Posterior Analytics'' (; ) is a text from Aristotle's '' Organon'' that deals with demonstration, definition, and scientific knowledge. The demonstration is distinguished as ''a syllogism productive of scientific knowledge'', while the de ...

'', the ''

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

'', and the book '' On the Soul''. In the 5th century, Ammonius Hermiae represented Plato and Aristotle in agreeing that god was the artificier of a beginningless universe. Olympiodorus, an Alexandrian philosopher, wrote commentaries upon Aristotle's ''

Meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...

'' and '' Categories''.

Simplicius of Cilicia Simplicius of Cilicia (; ; – c. 540) was a disciple of Ammonius Hermiae and Damascius, and was one of the last of the Neoplatonists. He was among the pagan philosophers persecuted by Justinian in the early 6th century, and was forced for ...

(6th century) wrote extensive commentaries upon Aristotle, and, like many of the other Neoplatonists, attempted to reconcile the doctrines of the

Pythagoreans Pythagoreanism originated in the 6th century BC, based on and around the teachings and beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans. Pythagoras established the first Pythagorean community in the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek co ...

, of the

Eleatic The Eleatics were a group of pre-Socratic philosophers and school of thought in the 5th century BC centered around the ancient Greek colony of Elea (), located around 80 miles south-east of Naples in southern Italy, then known as Magna Graecia. ...

s, of Plato, and of the

Stoics Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that flourished in ancient Greece and Rome. The Stoics believed that the universe operated according to reason, ''i.e.'' by a God which is immersed in nature itself. Of all the schools of ancient ...

, with those of Aristotle. He also strenuously defended Aristotle's doctrine concerning the

eternity of the world The eternity of the world is the question, in pre-scientific philosophy, of whether the world has a beginning in time or has existed for eternity. It was a concern for ancient philosophers as well as theologians and philosophers of the 13th ce ...

. In the 6th century,

Boethius Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known simply as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480–524 AD), was a Roman Roman Senate, senator, Roman consul, consul, ''magister officiorum'', polymath, historian, and philosopher of the Early Middl ...

entertained the design of translating into

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

the whole of Aristotle's and Plato's works and of showing their agreementa gigantic plan, which he never executed. Alongside the misattributed to St Augustine, his

translations and commentaries on Aristotle's ''Categories'' and ''

On Interpretation ''On Interpretation'' (Ancient Greek, Greek: , ) is the second text from Aristotle's ''Organon'' and is among the earliest surviving philosophical works in the Western philosophy, Western tradition to deal with the relationship between language an ...

'' and Porphyry's '' Isagoge'' became the ("old logic") through which Aristotle was almost exclusively known in Western Europe until the 1130s. Boethius's near contemporary

John Philoponus John Philoponus ( Greek: ; , ''Ioánnis o Philóponos''; c. 490 – c. 570), also known as John the Grammarian or John of Alexandria, was a Coptic Miaphysite philologist, Aristotelian commentator and Christian theologian from Alexandria, Byza ...

, however, maintained that Aristotle had been entirely misunderstood by Porphyry and Proclus's incorporation of his terms into Neoplatonism and by projects like Boethius's that sought to reconcile Aristotle with Plato's

theory of forms The Theory of Forms or Theory of Ideas, also known as Platonic idealism or Platonic realism, is a philosophical theory credited to the Classical Greek philosopher Plato. A major concept in metaphysics, the theory suggests that the physical w ...

; John instead offered a Christian interpretation of the Aristotelian corpus. Others, again, wrote epitomes, compounds, abstracts; and tried to throw the works of Aristotle into some simpler and more obviously regular form, as John of Damascus, in the middle of the 8th century, who made abstracts of some of Aristotle's works, and introduced the study of the author into theological education. John of Damascus lived under the patronage of the Arabs, and was at first secretary to the

Caliph A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...

, but afterwards withdrew to a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

Simplicius Commentary on Aristotle De Caelo

The line of the Aristotelian commentators was continued to the later ages of the

. In the 12th century Anna Comnena organised a group of scholars which included the commentators

Michael of Ephesus Michael of Ephesus or Michael Ephesius (; fl. early or mid-12th century AD) wrote important commentaries on Aristotle, including the first full commentary on the ''Sophistical Refutations'', which established the regular study of that text. Life ...

, and Eustratius of Nicaea who employed himself upon the dialectic and moral treatises, and whom she does not hesitate to elevate above the Stoics and Platonists for his talent in philosophical discussions. Nicephorus Blemmydes wrote logical and physical epitomes for the use of John III Doukas Vatatzes; George Pachymeres composed an epitome of the philosophy of Aristotle, and a compendium of his logic: Theodore Metochites, who was famous in his time for his eloquence and his learning, has left a paraphrase of the books of Aristotle on ''Physics'', ''On the Soul'', ''

On the Heavens ''On the Heavens'' (Greek: ''Περὶ οὐρανοῦ''; Latin: ''De Caelo'' or ''De Caelo et Mundo'') is Aristotle's chief cosmological treatise: written in 350 BCE, it contains his astronomical theory and his ideas on the concrete workings o ...

'', etc. The same period saw the commentaries and paraphrases of Sophonias. In the post-Byzantine period, one of the most important Aristotelian commentators is Theophilos Corydalleus. One Byzantine-era commentator, Allīnūs, is known only from citations and excerpts in Arabic sources.

Islamic commentators

In the 9th century, the Platonising school of

Thābit ibn Qurra Thābit ibn Qurra (full name: , , ; 826 or 836 – February 19, 901), was a scholar known for his work in mathematics, medicine, astronomy, and translation. He lived in Baghdad in the second half of the ninth century during the time of the Abba ...

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

translated Aristotle and his commentators into Arabic. Islamic scholars made a point of studying the writings of Aristotle, especially his

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of h ...

and logical writings, and also of his ''Physics''. They wrote commentaries on Aristotle, and developed still further the abstract logical element. Many of these commentaries are still extant.Hegel 1896, pages 34-5 Al-Kindi, who wrote a commentary on Aristotelian logic, lived in the 9th century, under

Al-Ma'mun Abū al-ʿAbbās Abd Allāh ibn Hārūn al-Maʾmūn (; 14 September 786 – 9 August 833), better known by his regnal name al-Ma'mun (), was the seventh Abbasid caliph, who reigned from 813 until his death in 833. His leadership was marked by t ...

Al-Farabi file:A21-133 grande.webp, thumbnail, 200px, Postage stamp of the USSR, issued on the 1100th anniversary of the birth of Al-Farabi (1975) Abu Nasr Muhammad al-Farabi (; – 14 December 950–12 January 951), known in the Greek East and Latin West ...

(10th century) wrote commentaries on Aristotle's ''

Organon The ''Organon'' (, meaning "instrument, tool, organ") is the standard collection of Aristotle's six works on logical analysis and dialectic. The name ''Organon'' was given by Aristotle's followers, the Peripatetics, who maintained against the ...

'', which were made diligent use of by the Scholastics. It is related of him that he read through Aristotle's treatise '' On Hearing'' forty times, and his ''

Rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

'' two hundred times, without getting at all tired of them. The physicians made a study of philosophy, and formulated theories; among them was

Avicenna Ibn Sina ( – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna ( ), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian peoples, Iranian ...

(c. 980-1037), who came from

Bukhara Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...

, to the east of the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

; he wrote a commentary on Aristotle.

Al-Ghazali Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111), archaically Latinized as Algazelus, was a Shafi'i Sunni Muslim scholar and polymath. He is known as one of the most prominent and influential jurisconsults, legal theoreticians, muftis, philosophers, the ...

(1058–1111) wrote compendiums of logic and metaphysics.

Averroes Ibn Rushd (14 April 112611 December 1198), archaically Latinization of names, Latinized as Averroes, was an Arab Muslim polymath and Faqīh, jurist from Al-Andalus who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astron ...

(1126–1198), sometimes referred to simply as 'The Commentator', was especially distinguished as a commentator of Aristotle. He often wrote two or three different commentaries on the same work, and some 38 commentaries by Averroes on the works of Aristotle have been identified.Grant 1996, page 30 Although his writings had only marginal impact in Islamic countries, his works had a huge impact in the Latin West following the Latin translations of the 12th and 13th centuries.

Commentators in the Latin West

Scholastic philosophy in the Latin West was decisively shaped when the works of Aristotle became widely available, at first through translations of commentators and their basis texts from Arabic, and later through translations from Greek of Aristotle's original text (notably by

William of Moerbeke William of Moerbeke, Dominican Order, O.P. (; ; 1215–35 – 1286), was a prolific medieval translator of philosophical, medical, and scientific texts from Greek into Latin, enabled by the period of Latin Empire, Latin rule of the Byzanti ...

) and of the Greek commentators.

Albertus Magnus Albertus Magnus ( 1200 – 15 November 1280), also known as Saint Albert the Great, Albert of Swabia, Albert von Bollstadt, or Albert of Cologne, was a German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop, considered one of the great ...

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...

Duns Scotus John Duns Scotus ( ; , "Duns the Scot"; – 8 November 1308) was a Scottish Catholic priest and Franciscan friar, university professor, philosopher and theologian. He is considered one of the four most important Christian philosopher-t ...

, and

William of Ockham William of Ockham or Occam ( ; ; 9/10 April 1347) was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher, apologist, and theologian, who was born in Ockham, a small village in Surrey. He is considered to be one of the major figures of medie ...

, among many others, wrote important philosophical works in the form of Aristotelian commentaries. On this basis, 14th -century scholar Nicole Oresme translated Aristotle's moral works into French and wrote extensive comments on them.

Lists and indices of commentaries

A list of Medieval and Renaissance commentaries on all of Aristotle's works has been compiled by Charles H. Lohr:Heinrich Kuhn,
Aristotelianism in the Renaissance
" ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' accessed September 22, 2009. * 1967: “Medieval Aristotle Commentaries: Authors A-F”, ''Traditio'', 23, 313-413. * 1968: “Medieval Aristotle Commentaries: Authors G-I”, ''Traditio'', 24, 149-245. * 1970: "Medieval Aristotle Commentaries: Authors Jacobus-Johannes Juff", ''Traditio'', 26, 135-216. * 1971: "Medieval Aristotle Commentaries: Authors Johannes de Kanthi–Myngodus", ''Traditio'', 27, 251-351. * 1972: "Medieval Aristotle Commentaries: Authors Narcissus–Richardus", ''Traditio'', 28, 281-396. * 1973: "Medieval Aristotle Commentaries: Authors Robertus–Wilgelmus", ''Traditio'', 29, 93-197. * 1974: "Medieval Aristotle Commentaries: Supplementary Authors ", ''Traditio'', 30, 119-144. * 1974: "Renaissance Latin Aristotle Commentaries: Authors A-B", ''Studies in the Renaissance'', 21, 228-289. * 1975: "Renaissance Latin Aristotle Commentaries: Authors C", ''Renaissance Quarterly'', 28, 689-741. * 1976: "Renaissance Latin Aristotle Commentaries: Authors D-F", ''Renaissance Quarterly'', 29, 714-745. * 1977: "Renaissance Latin Aristotle Commentaries: Authors G-K", ''Renaissance Quarterly'', 30, 681-741. * 1978: "Renaissance Latin Aristotle Commentaries: Authors L-M", ''Renaissance Quarterly'', 31, 532-603. * 1979: "Renaissance Latin Aristotle Commentaries: Authors N-Ph", ''Renaissance Quarterly'', 32, 529-580. * 1980: "Renaissance Latin Aristotle Commentaries: Authors Pi-Sm", ''Renaissance Quarterly'', 33, 623-734. * 1982: "Renaissance Latin Aristotle Commentaries: Authors So-Z", ''Renaissance Quarterly'', 35, 164-256. The articles are reprinted in the following volumes by Charles H. Lohr: * ''Latin Aristotle Commentaries. I.1. Medieval Authors. A-L'' (Corpus Philosophorum Medii Aevi. Subsidia, 17), Firenze: Sismel Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2013. * ''Latin Aristotle Commentaries. I.2. Medieval Authors. M-Z'' (Corpus Philosophorum Medii Aevi. Subsidia, 18), Firenze: Sismel Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2010. * ''Latin Aristotle Commentaries. II. Renaissance Authors'' (Corpus Philosophorum Medii Aevi. Subsidia, 6), Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, 1988. * ''Latin Aristotle Commentaries. III. Index initiorum - Index finium'' (Corpus Philosophorum Medii Aevi. Subsidia, 10), Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, 1988. * ''Latin Aristotle Commentaries. V. Bibliography of Secondary Literature'' (Corpus Philosophorum Medii Aevi. Subsidia, 15), Firenze: Sismel Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2005.

References

Sources

* Johann Jakob Brucker, (1837), ''The History of Philosophy, from the Earliest Periods'', pages 349-53 *Edward Grant, (1996), ''The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious Institutional and Intellectual Contexts'', page 30. Cambridge University Press *

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political philosophy and t ...

, (1896), ''Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Part Two. Philosophy of the Middle Ages'', pages 34–35 *. * Richard Sorabji, "Aristotle Commentators" entry in ''Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (1998) *. *

William Whewell William Whewell ( ; 24 May 17946 March 1866) was an English polymath. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In his time as a student there, he achieved distinction in both poetry and mathematics. The breadth of Whewell's endeavours is ...

, (1837), ''History of the Inductive Sciences: From the Earliest to the Present Times'', pages 271-5

External links

*
A Bibliographical Guide to the Aristotelian Commentators
(

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

)
The Neoplatonic Commentators on Aristotle's ''Metaphysics''
with an annotated bibliography on the Ancient Greek Commentators

* ttps://www.ontology.co/categories-ancient.htm Ancient Greek Commentators on Aristotle's ''Categories''br>Latin Medieval Commentators on Aristotle's ''Categorie''sCommentaria in Aristotelem Graeca et Byzantina
{{Aristotelianism *