The volumes Forms of Representation in the Aristotelian Tradition, published by Brill in the series Philosophia Antiqua, investigate how Aristotle and his ancient and medieval successors understood the relation between the external world and the human mind. They give an equal footing to the three most influential linguistic traditions – Greek, Latin, and Arabic – and interpretations of historical theories of perception, dreaming, and thinking.
Offers a range of examples
The fundamental aim of the present volumes is to offer a broad range of interesting examples of how the late ancient and medieval commentary tradition on the Parva naturalia and related parts of Aristotle’s other writings contributed to the development of philosophical theories on mental representation.
”Our sincere hope is that these examples will spark the interest for further philological and philosophical research into this and the many other related, and still understudied, aspects of ancient and medieval philosophy”, Christina Thomsen Thörnqvist and Juhana Toivanen write in the preface.
Aristotle advanced his theories about how human consciousness functions in his major treatise On the Soul. But he also wrote a collection of shorter treatises, known as the Parva naturalia (short treatises on nature), on closely related phenomena such as perception, memory, sleep and dreams, which he believed concerned both the body and the soul. Students at medieval universities developed Aristotelian philosophy, including Aristotle’s theories in these shorter treatises . Their work came to lay the foundations for our knowledge today in the area.
The research programme, Representation and Reality: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on the Aristotelian Tradition, with funding from “Riksbankens Jubileumsfond”, ended in 2020. The project manager was Christina Thomsen Thörnqvist, Professor of Latin at the University of Gothenburg.
Volume 161 – Forms of Representation in the Aristotelian Tradition. Volume One: Sense Perception
Volume Editor: Juhana Toivanen
Volume 162 – Forms of Representation in the Aristotelian Tradition. Volume Two: Dreaming
Volume 163 – Forms of Representation in the Aristotelian Tradition. Volume Three: Concept Formation
Volume Editors: Christina Thomsen Thörnqvist och Juhana Toivanen
The books are published with open access for free reading on Brill.com.
Link to the publications
