All Outputs (12)

The Megaric Possibility Paradox (2024)
Journal Article

In Metaphysics Theta 3 Aristotle attributes to the Megarics and unknown others a notorious modal thesis: (M) something can φ only if it is φ-ing. Aristotle does not tell us what motivated (M). Almost all scholars take Aristotle’s report to indicate t... Read More about The Megaric Possibility Paradox.

Diodorus Cronus on Present and Past Change (2023)
Journal Article

Diodorus Cronus reportedly denied that there are truths about present kinēsis (change or movement) but affirmed that there are truths about past kinēsis. Although scholars have argued that Diodorus’s atomism about bodies, place, and time supports his... Read More about Diodorus Cronus on Present and Past Change.

Infinite Regress Arguments as per impossibile Arguments in Aristotle: De Caelo 300a30–b1, Posterior Analytics 72b5–10, Physics V.2 225b33–226a10 (2023)
Journal Article

Infinite regress arguments are a powerful tool in Aristotle, but this style of argument has received relatively little attention. Improving our understanding of infinite regress arguments has become pressing since recent scholars have pointed out tha... Read More about Infinite Regress Arguments as per impossibile Arguments in Aristotle: De Caelo 300a30–b1, Posterior Analytics 72b5–10, Physics V.2 225b33–226a10.

The Scandal of Deduction and Aristotle’s Method for Discovering Syllogisms (2021)
Journal Article

(1) If a deductive argument is valid, then the conclusion is not novel. (2) If the conclusion of an argument is not novel, the argument is not useful. So, (3) if a deductive argument is valid, it is not useful. This conclusion, (3), is unacceptable.... Read More about The Scandal of Deduction and Aristotle’s Method for Discovering Syllogisms.

Relative Change (2020)
Book

A relative change occurs when some item changes a relation. This Element examines how Plato, Aristotle, Stoics and Sextus Empiricus approached relative change. Relative change is puzzling because the following three propositions each seem true but ca... Read More about Relative Change.

Ancient Relativity: Plato, Aristotle, Stoics, and Sceptics (2020)
Book

In Ancient Relativity Matthew Duncombe explores how ancient philosophers, particularly Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and Sextus Empiricus, understood the phenomenon and how their theories of relativity affected, and were affected by, their broader ph... Read More about Ancient Relativity: Plato, Aristotle, Stoics, and Sceptics.

Fine-grained and Coarse-grained Knowledge in Euthydemus 293b7–d1 (2019)
Journal Article

McCabe [2021: 137–40] identifies a crucial ambiguity in the terms ‘learns’ and ‘knows’. Such terms can be read as either ‘perfective’ or ‘imperfective’. This is an aspect difference. The former indicates a settled state, the latter a directed process... Read More about Fine-grained and Coarse-grained Knowledge in Euthydemus 293b7–d1.

Aristotle's Categories 7 adopts Plato's view of relativity (2018)
Book Chapter

Thought as internal speech in Plato and Aristotle (2016)
Journal Article

Scholars often assert that Plato and Aristotle share the view that discursive thought (dianoia) is internal speech (TIS). However, there has been little work to clarify or substantiate this reading. In this paper I show Plato and Aristotle share some... Read More about Thought as internal speech in Plato and Aristotle.

Aristotle’s two accounts of relatives in Categories 7 (2015)
Journal Article

At Categories 7, 6a36-7 Aristotle defines relatives (R1), but at 8a13-28 worries that the definition may include some substances. Aristotle introduces a second account of relatives (R2, at 8a31-2) to solve the problem. Recent commentators have held t... Read More about Aristotle’s two accounts of relatives in Categories 7.

The Role of Relatives in Plato’s Partition Argument, Republic 4, 436 B 9–439 C 9 (2015)
Book Chapter

In Republic IV (436b9-439c9), Socrates argues that the soul has parts. Some commentators object that his argument fails to show that the soul has more than one part. Other commentators worry that Socrates' argument entails that the soul has indefinit... Read More about The Role of Relatives in Plato’s Partition Argument, Republic 4, 436 B 9–439 C 9.

Irreflexivity and Aristotle’s syllogismos (2014)
Journal Article

Aristotle's definition of syllogismos at Prior Analytics 24b18–20 specifies syllogistic consequence as an irreflexive relation: the conclusion must be different from each premise and any conjunction of the premises. Typically, commentators explain th... Read More about Irreflexivity and Aristotle’s syllogismos.