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Headword: Akribês
Adler number: alpha,979
Translated headword: accurate, precise
Vetting Status: high
Translation:
[sc. Something] "accurate" seems to indicate also what is necessary. And suppose we wish to establish [the statement] that every assumption of a serious person [is] accurate. For "accurate" seems to be [the assumption] which occurs through necessary [causes],[1] ones in which every assumption of a serious person participates; for assumptions occur to the serious person even concerning contingent matters. By changing the [term] "accurate" into "clear" or into "true," we shall more easily show what is proposed: for every assumption of the serious person is both clear and articulated, and true. Likewise too, concerning someone proposing a proper assumption concerning something, as about pleasure, the one calling the assumption "accurate" does not yet speak intelligibly; but if he should change "accurate" to "clear," he would make what he says intelligible. It is possible to show that the serious person is inquisitive [philopragmon] by changing "inquisitive" into "curious," for to examine and inquire of celestial matters and the things constituted by nature[2] is to be curious; and the serious person [is] like that. [Thus we show that] the assumption of the serious person [is] not clear by changing "clear" to "accurate;" for if the "accurate" [should be] necessary, not every assumption of the serious person would be accurate, and so not clear either.[3]
Greek Original:
Akribês: dokei akribes kai to anankaion sêmainein. kai ei kataskeuasai boulometha, hoti pasa hupolêpsis tou spoudaiou akribês. akribês gar dokei einai hê di' anankaiôn genomenê, kai hôn pasa spoudaiou hupolêpsis echei: ginontai gar hupolêpseis tôi spoudaiôi kai peri tôn endechomenôn. metalambanontes to akribes eis to saphes ê eis to alêthes, eukolôteron to prokeimenon deixomen: pasa gar hê tou spoudaiou hupolêpsis saphês te kai diêrthrômenê, kai alêthês. homoiôs kai pros ton oikeian tina hupolêpsin peri tinos ektithemenon, hoion peri hêdonês, hopoian autôi einai dokei, ho men legôn akribê autou tên hupolêpsin einai oudepô gnôrimôs legei: ei de to akribes eis to saphes metalaboi, gnôrimon an ho legei poiêseien. esti de ton men spoudaion philopragmona deixai, metalabonta tên philopragmosunên eis polupragmosunên: to gar kai peri tôn ouraniôn te kai phusei sunestôtôn etazein te kai zêtein polupragmonein esti: toioutos de ho spoudaios. tên de tou spoudaiou hupolêpsin ou saphê, metalambanontas to saphes eis to akribes: ei gar to men akribes anankaion, ou pasa de hupolêpsis tou spoudaiou akribês eiê, hôste oude saphês.
Notes:
See also alpha 980, and cf. alpha 981, alpha 982.
[1] The author is probably thinking of Aristotle's model of science in Posterior Analytics 71b10ff. [so Boeri]
[2] See Aristotle, Physics 192b13. [so Boeri]
[3] This (re)translation was substantially aided by consultation with Marcelo Boeri. The Greek text is quoted partially and inexactly from Alexander of Aphrodisias' Commentary on Aristotle's Topica 111a8-13 [157.1-17], where the philosopher explains that a change of terms can make an argument more intelligible, whether we support a proposition or oppose it. The Suda's quotation varies in text from the standard modern edition by Wallies (below) and overlooks a serious lacuna in the last sentence. The difference between "inquisitive" (filopra/gmwn) and "curious" (polupra/gmwn) in Greek is not as apparent to the modern reader as the difference between the terms used here in English. Both Greek terms are generally pejorative, but the one I have rendered "curious" is somewhat more common than the one for "inquisitive". For a translation of Aristotle's Topica, see web address 1.
Reference:
Alexandri Aphrodisiensis in Aristotelis Topicorum Libros Octo Commentaria, ed. Maximilian Wallies. Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1891, 156-157
Associated internet address:
Web address 1
Keywords: definition; philosophy; rhetoric
Translated by: Oliver Phillips ✝ on 18 November 2001@20:48:50.
Vetted by:
David Whitehead (cosmetics) on 5 June 2002@04:33:59.
David Whitehead (tweaks and cosmetics) on 31 January 2012@06:20:13.
David Whitehead (x-refs) on 31 January 2012@06:21:58.
Catharine Roth (augmented note) on 28 April 2012@22:11:42.
Catharine Roth (coding) on 14 May 2015@23:46:37.

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