Aspasius (; grc-gre, Ἀσπάσιος; c. 80 – c. 150 AD) was a
Peripatetic
Peripatetic may refer to:
* Peripatetic school, a school of philosophy in Ancient Greece
* Peripatetic axiom
*Peripatetic minority, a mobile population moving among settled populations offering a craft or trade.
*Peripatetic Jats
There are severa ...
philosopher.
Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480 – 524 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, '' magister officiorum'', historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the t ...
, who frequently refers to his works, says that Aspasius wrote
commentaries on most of the works of
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical Greece, Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatet ...
.
The following commentaries are expressly mentioned: on ''
De Interpretatione
''De Interpretatione'' or ''On Interpretation'' (Greek: Περὶ Ἑρμηνείας, ''Peri Hermeneias'') is the second text from Aristotle's ''Organon'' and is among the earliest surviving philosophical works in the Western tradition to deal ...
'', the ''
Physica'', ''
Metaphysica
''Metaphysics'' (Greek: τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά, "things after the ones about the natural world"; Latin: ''Metaphysica'') is one of the principal works of Aristotle, in which he develops the doctrine that is sometimes referred to as '' ...
'', ''
Categoriae
The ''Categories'' ( Greek Κατηγορίαι ''Katēgoriai''; Latin ''Categoriae'' or ''Praedicamenta'') is a text from Aristotle's '' Organon'' that enumerates all the possible kinds of things that can be the subject or the predicate of a ...
'', and the ''
Nicomachean Ethics''. A portion of the commentary on the ''Nicomachean Ethics'' (books 1, 2, 4, 7, and 8) is extant. The Greek text of this commentary has been published as ''
Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca
''Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca'' 'edita consilio et auctoritate academiae litterarum Regiae Borussicae''(''CAG'') (Greek Commentaries on Aristotle dited by order and auctority of the Prussian Royal Academy of literary studies is the standa ...
'' (CAG) vol. 19.1, and David Konstan has published an English translation. It is notable as the earliest extant commentary on any of Aristotle's works. From
Porphyry, who also states that Aspasius wrote
commentaries on Plato
Commentaries on Plato refers to the great mass of literature produced, especially in the ancient and medieval world, to explain and clarify the works of Plato. Many Platonist philosophers in the centuries following Plato sought to clarify and summa ...
, we learn that his commentaries on Aristotle were used in the school of
Plotinus
Plotinus (; grc-gre, Πλωτῖνος, ''Plōtînos''; – 270 CE) was a philosopher in the Hellenistic philosophy, Hellenistic tradition, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neop ...
.
Albert the Great
Albertus Magnus (c. 1200 – 15 November 1280), also known as Saint Albert the Great or Albert of Cologne, was a German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop. Later canonised as a Catholic saint, he was known during his li ...
, in his commentary on Aristotle's ''
Politics
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...
'' also refers to a monograph on natural affections (''Libellus de naturalibus passionibus''), as written by Aspasius.
References
*
Further reading
* Antonina Alberti and Robert W. Sharples, eds., ''Aspasius: The Earliest Extant Commentary on Aristotle's Ethics'' (de Gruyter, 1999)
80 births
150 deaths
2nd-century philosophers
Ancient Greek writers
Commentators on Aristotle
Commentators on Plato
Roman-era Greeks
Roman-era Peripatetic philosophers
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