Speusippus

Giulia De Cesaris is a Marie Curie fellow at the University of Turin and a former FWO postdoctoral fellow at KU Leuven. She completed her PhD in classics at Durham University in 2020. Her research focuses on the history of Platonism, particularly the Early Academy.

• Acknowledgements x Introduction 1 Speusippus: a riddle yet to be solved 1 The lack of a global picture 3 The status quaestionis: the need for a different methodological approach 6 A novel understanding of Speusippus’ Platonic inheritance 15 Note of clarification 17 Aristotelian testimonia analysed 17 Exclusion of commentators on Aristotle’s text 17 Exclusion of other early witnesses 17 Aristotelian testimonia excluded from consideration 19 Inclusion of other authors: Appendix on Athenaeus 20 I Speusippus’ philosophy: The general framework and the rejection of Forms 28 Aristotle’s list of οὐσίαι 29 Primary principles 34 Other principles? 35 The mathematical realm 36 The soul 36 The sensibles 37 The episodicity of the world 38 The rejection of Forms 44 Speusippus’ ontology: preliminary conclusions 46 II The mathematical realm 58 The mathematical realm: a synoptic view of Aristotle’s testimonia 60 Separated . . . from what? 62 What is a mathematical number? Number 10 as a special ordinary number 65 Number 10 and the properties that are shared with other numbers 66 Number 10 and its peculiar properties 69 Numbers ‘are from’ the principles 73 Principles ὡς ἐνυπαρχόντων 75 A short digression about the ‘material’ principle 78 Principles ὡς οὐ 81 III The principles 95 What is most beautiful and noble is not ἐν ἀρχῇ: an internal assessment of Aristotle’s testimony 96 External assessment of Speusippus’ premises 99 Premise (i): what is most beautiful and noble is not in the principle/in the beginning (τὸ κάλλιστον καὶ ἄριστον μὴ ἐν ἀρχῇ εἶναι) 100 Premise (ii): principles (of plants and animals) are causes (τῶν φυτῶν καὶ τῶν ζῴων τὰς ἀρχὰς αἴτια μὲν εἶναι) 102 Premise (iii): beauty and completeness are in the things that come from the principles (τὸ δὲ καλὸν καὶ τέλειον ἐν τοῖς ἐκ τούτων) 103 The effectiveness of Aristotle’s rejection: preliminary conclusions 103 Another discussion concerning the principles 105 Pushing our conclusions further? Generalising the findings 109 IV Speusippus’ ethical doctrine 119 EN VII: Speusippus’ rebuttal of Eudoxus’ argument from contraries 122 EN X: another version of Speusippus’ rebuttal? 124 Clement’s testimony 131 Theophrastus’ testimony 136 Challenges to the standard account 142 A different account? Some conclusions about Speusippus’ ethical stances 145 Conclusions 164 Appendix 168 Bibliography 177 Index locorum 191 Index nominum 211 Index rerum 213