Title

On the Meaning of Kategoria in Aristotle's Categories

Authors

John P. Anton, University of South Florida, Tampa

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-28-1983

Abstract

All the commentators who have suppressed the terminological difference between predicate and predication (κατηγορούμενον and κατηγορία) conclude that kategoria means 'predicate', thus lending their authority to a misreadng of the passages in which Aristotle uses the word κατηγορία to mean 'attributive proposition.' In this paper I take the position presented as an argument to support a different reading and with the hope that the established interpretation can be challenged through a fresh examination of the textual testimonies to accommodate the suppressed part of Aristotle's theory of categories as ultimate types of canonical propositions. The thesis that i seek to advance is, in technical language, that the categories stand for fundamental types of attribution that conform to rules formulated in accordance with the ontology of first substance, πρώτη οὐσἰα.

Notes

John Anton presented “Aristotle’s Categories Revisited” at the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy meeting with the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association in 1983. It was published in John P. Anton & Anthony Preus, eds. 1992. Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy, Volume V: Aristotle’s Ontology. SUNY Press, 111-118.

For information on the author, see Wikipedia "John P. Anton."

Recommended Citation

Anton, John P., "On the Meaning of Kategoria in Aristotle's Categories" (1983). The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter. 111.
https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp/111