Isagoge
The Isagoge (
Versions
The earliest Latin translation, which is now no longer extant, was made by Gaius Marius Victorinus in the fourth century. Boethius heavily relied upon it in his translation. The earliest known Syriac translation was made in the seventh century by Athanasius II Baldoyo, the Patriarch of Antioch. An early Classical Armenian translation of the work also exists.[1]
The Introduction was translated into Arabic by
Predicables
The
Porphyrian Tree
In medieval textbooks, the all-important Porphyrian tree illustrates his logical classification of substance. To this day, taxonomy benefits from concepts in the Porphyrian tree in classifying living organisms: see cladistics.
Problem of universals
The work is celebrated for prompting the medieval debate over the status of
- For the moment, I shall naturally decline to say, concerning genera and species, whether they subsist, whether they are bare, pure isolated conceptions, whether, if subsistent, they are corporeal or incorporeal, or whether they are separated from or in sensible objects, and other related matters. This sort of problem is of the very deepest, and requires more extensive investigation.
- αὐτίκα περὶ τῶν γενῶν τε καὶ εἰδῶν τὸ μὲν εἴτε ὑφέστηκεν εἴτε καὶ ἐν μόναις ψιλαῖς ἐπινοίαις κεῖται εἴτε καὶ ὑφεστηκότα σώματά ἐστιν ἢ ἀσώματα καὶ πότερον χωριστὰ ἢ ἐν τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς καὶ περὶ ταῦτα ὑφεστῶτα, παραιτήσομαι λέγειν βαθυτάτης οὔσης τῆς τοιαύτης πραγματείας καὶ ἄλλης μείζονος δεομένης ἐξετάσεως.[3]
Though he did not mention the problem further, his formulation constitutes the most influential part of his work, since it was these questions that formed the basis of medieval debates about the status of universals. Do universals exist in the mind, or in reality? If in reality, are they physical things, or not? If physical, do they have a separate existence from physical bodies, or are they part of them?
References
Bibliography
- Barnes, Jonathan (2003). Introduction to Introduction by Porphyry. Clarendon Press (modern translation of the Isagoge)
- King, Daniel (2010). The Earliest Syriac Translation of Aristotle's Categories: Text, Translation and Commentary. Brill
- "Porphyrii Isagoge translatio". Corpus scriptorum latinorum (in Latin). Retrieved 2008-05-03.
- Pearse, R. "Porphyry, Introduction (or Isagoge) to the logical Categories of Aristotle. Preface to the online edition". Manuscripts. Retrieved 2008-05-03.
- Porphyry, Isagoge, translation by Octavius Freire Owen (1853)
- MS 484/15 Commentum super libro Porphyrii Isagoge; De decim predicamentis at OPenn