Is Life a “Complete” or “Complex” Activity? How a Transcription Error Caused Centuries of Confusion — a Talk by Robbie Howton

Every work of ancient thought that survives into the present has done so through a contingent, at times ideologically motivated, process of transmission. Reproduction in the ancient and medieval worlds meant copying by hand, whereby not only errors were introduced but additions: glosses and exegetical annotations. Where such errors have been corrected, these corrections have not seldom been incorporated, as with extant glosses, into the original text, occasionally even replacing it. Such a precarious textual history has shaped how generations of scholars have understood, and misunderstood, the arguments put forth by Aristotle. In this talk, we’ll explore one remarkable transcription error—the substitution of “complete” for “complex”—that drove, and still drives, a debate over the internal coherence of Aristotle’s teleological argument concerning the body’s activity of living. What exactly is at stake in considering life a “complex” versus a “complete” activity?

Robbie holds a PhD in Philosophy with certification from the Collaborative Programme in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy from the University of Toronto. His research focuses on issues in ancient Greek philosophy and the philosophy of perception, most recently on a cluster of topics in Aristotle’s psychology and natural science, including perceptual discrimination, the metaphysics of color and other sensible qualities, the epistemic value of sense experience, and the status of soul as a final cause in the Aristotelian life sciences.

This talk is being held in the context of BISR’s Language Learning and Critique program, an innovative approach to classical languages and their ever-changing scenes of reception. RSVPs will receive a link to the Zoom meeting room where the talk will be held.

This talk is now available for viewing on BISR’s Vimeo page; click here to watch.

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