Aristotle on Homonymy: Dialectic and Science

Julie K. Ward examines Aristotle’s thought regarding how language informs our views of what is real. First she places Aristotle’s theory in its historical and philosophical contexts in relation to Plato and Speusippus. Ward then explores Aristotle’s theory of language as it is deployed in several works, including Ethics, Topics, Physics, and Metaphysics, so as to consider its relation to dialectical practice and scientific explanation as Aristotle conceived it.

• Provides new conclusions for Aristotle’s theory of predication • Suggests ways of relating Aristotle’s theories of dialectic and science • Places Aristotle’s theory in relation to Plato’s earlier theory of naming

1. Aristotle’s theory of homonymy in Categories and its precursors; 2. Homonymy in The Topics; 3. The concept of related homonymy; 4. The homonymy of being; 5. Physis, Philia, and homonymy; 6. Homonymy and science.