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Article: Order in Multiplicity: Homonymy in the Philosophy of Aristotle. (Book Reviews).(Review)
- Article from:
- The Philosophical Review
- Article date:
- April 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Cornell University. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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ORDER IN MULTIPLICITY: HOMONYMY IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF ARISTOTLE. By CHRISTOPHER SHIELDS. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press, 1999. Pp. xiv, 290.
One of the most striking innovations in Aristotle's philosophical writing is also one of its most characteristic features. That feature is Aristotle's idea that terms central to philosophy, including `cause' [aition], `good', and even the verb `to be', are, as he likes to put it, "said in many ways." To be sure, philosophers before Aristotle give some evidence of having recognized the phenomenon of being said in many ways. Plato, in particular, suggests that things in this world that we call "just" are only ...