A New Fragment of Aristotle

Abstract

We are indebted to Bywater (I. Bywater, “On a Lost Dialogue of Aristotle”, Journal of Philology 2 [1869] 55–69; idem, “Aristotle’s Dialogue On Philosophy”, 7 [1877] 64–87) and Jaeger (W. Jaeger, Aristoteles ² [1955] 60–80) for the identification of extensive passages in Iamblichus’ Protrepticus as being excerpts from the Protrepticus of Aristotle. On the whole, these excerpts * present man as a being whose true destiny is the disinterested contemplation of true reality for contemplation’s sake, and philosophy as the way on which man can fulfil this destiny. At the same time, two passages from ch. XXVI of Iamblichus’ Isc have by Jaeger been identified as two additional excerpts from the same work of Aristotle: ch. XXVI, p. 79, 1–81, 7 F and p. 83, 6–22 F (fr. 52 and 53 Rose; Protrepticus fr. 5 b and 8, p. 31–33 and 38 f. Walzer) rather than from On Philosophy, as Bywater had it. These two passages contain many references to mathematical sciences. The former discusses geometry, music theory, and astronomy as examples of (purely) theoretical sciences; the latter mentions geometry and τὰς ἄλλας παιδίας as having made stupendous progress within a very short time. Thus it immediately becomes obvious that some of the matters discussed by Aristotle in hisProtrepticus were indeed closely related to the subject matter of Isc **. It is therefore natural from the very outset to expect that, in addition to those quoted above,Isc will contain some other excerpts from Aristotle’s Protrepticus.