Carlo Natali

Posterior Analytics and the Definition of Happiness in NE I

The first book of NE is organised on the model of investigating definitions described in the second Book of the Posterior Analytics , although, of course, with some adaptation due to the subject matter. It first establishes if the object exists and looks for the meaning of the terms used in common language to indicate it, next considers some necessary qualities of the object and then concludes with a definition of the object. We find there a dialectical syllogism of definition, and not the procedure in three steps described in NE VII 1, sometimes called ‘the method of ethics’. In fact, the method described in NE VII 1 does not apply to the first book of the NE . Its relevance for the NE has been somehow exaggerated.

Aristotle's conception of dunamis and techne

There is a tendency in recent continental philosophy to maintain, following Heidegger, that the form assumed by philosophy in our own time is that of techne . Aristotle was, according to this interpretation, the first thinker to fully formulate the concept of techne . The best Italian study of techne in Aristotle comes from quite a different cultural climate. It is Gianni Vattimo?s Il concetto di fare in Aristotele . Unfortunately his book on Aristotle did not receive, when it was published, the praise that was its due. But it was, and still is, the best introduction to Aristotle?s conception of techne and of art, and in this chapter the author draws upon it to a considerable extent. Aristotle?s conception of matter, and his use of the metaphysical concepts of privation and potency, allowed him to pose the problem of the capacity of natural materials to undergo artisanal transformations. Keywords: Aristotle?s conception; Heideggers philosophy; techne