Allegations: A New Translation of the “Categories” with an Introduction and Interpretive EssayAllegations: A New Translation of the “Categories” with an Introduction and Interpretive Essay
Aristotle's ALLEGATIONS provides a new, literal translation of the text traditionally called Aristotle's CATEGORIES, which was once the introductory text not only to Aristotle's corpus but also to philosophy as such. The text is, among other things, Aristotle's introduction to the fundamental question of philosophy: the meaning of being. This translation is an attempt to get the English reader as close to the original Greek text as possible. It is directed, above all, to those who wish to begin the study of Aristotle's logical and scientific works. The translation attempts to uncover the original, puzzling character of Aristotle's original text, which a two-millennia tradition has obscured. This is the only English version of Aristotle's CATEGORIES with an interpretive essay included. Written without jargon and intended to be accessible to students, this essay identifies the various parts and subparts of the ALLEGATIONS and interprets them in light of their contexts. Its primary concern is exploring the rich questions that the text raises with a view to Aristotle's manner of writing, which has been largely neglected for several centuries. Most ambitiously, this book wishes to encourage readers to learn from Aristotle on the grounds that his teaching in the ALLEGATIONS might be true and to defend its worthiness as an introduction to philosophy proper.