Anna Marmodoro, "Carlo Natali, Cristina Viano (éd.), Aitia II. Avec ou sans Aristote : le débat sur les causes à l’âge hellénistique et impérial", review, Philosophie Antique, Numero 16, 2016, pp. 226-228

Extract

Given how central causality is in ancient as well as in modern philosophical thought, it is surprising that the number of existing studies on the way the topic was theorized on in antiquity are still too few. This is one of the reasons why the present volume is a very welcome addition to the literature on ancient theories of causation. This volume also has the special merit of covering a period in ancient Western thought that, as a whole, has been so far less investigated than others: the Hellenistic and Imperial period, roughly from the times of flourishing of the Peripatetic school until Plotinus. (In covering this period, this book complements Aitia I. Les quatre causes d’Aristote : origines et interprétations, coedited by C. Viano, C. Natali and M. Zingano and published in 2013, also by Peeters.) Another special feature of Aitia II is that its domain of investigation covers both Greek and Roman sources; additionally, it features interesting new angles on the material under consideration (for instance in the chapters about the Skeptics, and in the one about Alexander of Aphrodisias).

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