Aristotle on Mutilation: Metaphysics 5.27
Abstract
R.K. Sprague: Aristotle on Mutilation17 Aristotle on Mutilation: Metaphysics 5.27 Rosamond Kent Sprague Dedicated to the memory of Hippocrates G. Apostle Delta] is a mystery."1 Kirwan's puzzlement is shared by A. Edel, who writes, "in Metaphysics 5, which analyzes all sorts of important philosophical concepts, we are surprised to find a brief discussion of the mutilated."2 Although the presence of 5.27 may be puzzling if one thinks of the entire book as a study of equivocal expressions, in other respects a discussion of the from which is absent none of the parts of which it is said by nature to be a whole" was aroused by C. Kirwan's remark that "the reason for its inclusion here [in Book My interest in Aristotle's discussion of the term ????ß?? in Metaphysics 5.27 concept "mutilated" follows quite naturally on the discussions of "part" in 5.25 and "whole" in 5.26.3 Once Aristotle has given, as one of the meanings of "whole," "that (1023b27-28),4 it is not really strange for him to go on to consider the case of wholes number may be mutilated, which appears to be introduced rather abruptly in Aristotle Series (Oxford 1971) 177. from which one or more parts