Aristotle's Theory of Substance The Categories and Metaphysics Zeta [Paperback]

Michael Wedin argues against the prevailing notion that Aristotle's views on the nature of reality are fundamentally inconsistent. According to Wedin's new interpretation, the difference between the early theory of theCategoriesand the later theory of theMetaphysicsreflects the fact that Aristotle is engaged in quite different projects in the two works--the earlier focusing on ontology, and the later on explanation.

Introduction; I. The Plan of theCategories; II. Nonsubstantial Individuals; III. Commitment and Configuration in theCategories; IV. Tales of the Two Treatises; V. The Structure and Substance of Substance; VI. Form as Essence; VII. Zeta 6 on the Immediacy of Form; VIII. The Purification of Form; IX. Generality and Compositionality; X. Form and Explanation; Bibliography; Indexes.

Scrupulous...masterful...[this] book deserves an honored place in the literature on Aristotle's metaphysics. --Ancient Philosophy

Michael Wedin has written the equivalent for Aristotle of what biblical scholars would call a 'harmony of the gospels.' It is a wonderfully rich and argumentatively dense reconstruction of Aristotle's two most important treatises on substance, the Categories and Metaphysics Zeta, works that many of our most able Aristotle scholars have declared irreconcilable....Both the magisterial scope of this fine book and its rich detail are worthy of the great treatises it examines. Since Wedin works out his own positions with explicit and detailed reference to some of the most careful recent scholarship on these works, his book will no doubt be subjected to intense scrutiny and thorough debate. It deserves nothing less. --Journal of the History of Philosophy

Michael Wedin is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Davis.