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Petrić's »Discussiones Peripateticae« as an attempt at solving the hermeneutical problem
Erna Banić-Pajnić
; Institut za filozofiju, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
The intention of Petrić’s ’Discussiones peripateticae’, explicitly expressed in the foreword, was to enable (Zacharia Mocenigo) an easier access to the study of Aristotle’s philosophy. Petrić’s analysis of this philosophy should make it easier to understand and grasp. The prerequisite of this process is a »cleansing job« undertaken by Petrić mostly in the first, and then in the second and third volumes of the ’Discussiones’, consisting of a critical analysis of the entire Aristotelian tradition and including a critical investigation of the authenticity of the works attributed to Aristotle in Petrić’s time, that is, a critical evaluation of all the then known ways of mediating and interpreting Aristotle’s philosophy. Trying to determine the corpus of works undeniably Aristotle’s, Petrić describes the history of mediation of his works, which bears testimony to the justifiability of the questioning of the authenticity of many of the works attributed to Aristotle. Petrić then warns about the condition of the works and the ways of mediating them which had together caused distortions, which Petrić believes makes it legitimate to doubt the exactness of Aristotelian tradition. The unconfirmed tradition (doubt in the authenticity of works attributed to Aristotle, the sources, the interpretations) causes a critical approach to Aristotle as a philosophical authority, corroborated by Petrić’s definition of the best method of interpretation. Through a critical elaboration of all the known ways of interpreting Aristotle’s philosophy, yet also relying on Aristotle’s statements in the elaboration of the problems of truth and the definition of the task of philosophy, Petrić reaches his formulation of the best method of interpretation and philosophizing about Aristotle’s philosophy. According to Aristotle’s definitions of the highest stage of truth and the task of philosophy, which cares about the truth of things, the method consists of an attempt to comprehend and interpret Aristotle from his own works, not from secondary sources, and by considering all the places in which separate doctrines are thematized, not just one of them. An essential characteristic of the thus formulated method, Petrić writes, is not to rely on Aristotle »as on a tripod«, but critically, comparing the meanings of his statements with the »truth of things themselves«, as – according to Petrić – some of the more important Greek interpreters of this philosophy had done. Despite his elaboration of the problems of understanding and interpretation merely serving the function of the basic, although not expressed intention – refuting Aristotle as a philosophical authority – Petrić’s critical analysis of Aristotle’s philosophy and the entire Aristotelian tradition opens several issues important for hermeneutics, especially the question of the best method of comprehension and interpretation on the example of Aristotle’s philosophy, which alo includes a historical survey and critical evaluation of all the then known methods of interpretation. It is the formulation of the best method of interpretation which shows the bonds among the beginnings of modern hermeneutics and the crucial tendencies of the fiifteenth- and sixteenth-centuries Humanism, which, opposed to Scholastic methods, and making transparent the entire Classical heritage – thus enabling a comparison of different traditions of interpretations of Classical philosophers –makes it feasible to introduce the critical method.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
76488
URI
Datum izdavanja:
6.12.1999.
Posjeta: 1.498 *