SCHOLE (Jul 2017)
The “relics” of the past. Aristotle – the historian of philosophy
Abstract
According to a later report (Synesius, Calvit. Enc. 22.85c, Aristotle, On philosophy, fr. 8), Aristotle thought that wise sayings are the “relics” (enkataleimmata) of the past tekhne, preserved thanks to their conciseness and cleverness when ancient civilization perished in a world cataclysm. In this respect they are valuable clues for a retrospective reconstruction of the intellectual history of Greece, and Aristotle was the first to develop in his works a sense of historical consciousness, prerequisite for such a reconstruction, although some contemporary authors would contest this view. In the paper I translate and comment selected fragments of and testimonies about Aristotle’s lost works (mostly On philosophy, On poets, and On the Pythagoreans) and observe how he used this historical observations in his philosophical treaties, having thus paved the way to a systematic historical research, conducted by the Peripatetics in a pre-established institutional framework.
