Aristotelis Opera (Bekker Edition, Vol. 2): Metaphysica, Ethica, Politica, Rhetorica, Poetica

PROLEGOMENA OF PHILOSOPHY BY DAVID.

...of philosophy) are the Pyrrhonists... to whom Plato replies... since in the philosophy in which the subject has its end—where each of these is twofold, as has been said (proximate or remote)—for this reason it has four limits... this was the dissolution by division showing why the definitions of philosophy are six; and this is the numerical one... the number six is the first perfect number.

Act 8. It must be known that others wish to introduce two different definitions to philosophy, one as physicians, one as others. For as physicians, intending to honor their own art, and changing it like a poet "forging golden works" An allusion to Homeric phrasing, here applied to the fabrication of definitions., they define it by saying that philosophy is the medicine of souls, and medicine is the philosophy of the body... others, introducing another definition to philosophy, say that philosophy is the greatest music; for thus Plato defines it in the Phaedo (p. 61).

It must be known that the two definitions derived from the subject and the one from etymology refer to Pythagoras. But this is what we must show from Pythagorean writings; for Pythagoras made no writing; for he said that he wished to leave his own things not in inanimate things (he called books inanimate) but in animate things, that is, in his disciples, who, when asked, could answer, whereas a book could not. As one of the Pythagoreans said, books cannot teach me; but I always speak other things about the same subjects, while the book always says the same things about the same subjects, and it cannot answer when asked... nor should anyone think his Golden Verses are his, but one of the Pythagoreans made these and wrote the name of his own teacher in honor. We show that these definitions are Pythagoras's from the Pythagoreans; for Nicomachus (in his Year of the Pythagoreans) says that Pythagoras defined philosophy thus: philosophy is the knowledge of beings qua beings, or again, the knowledge of divine and human things, or again, philosophy is philosophy.

The two from the end refer to Plato... and the definition from preeminence, which says that philosophy is the art of arts and the science of sciences, refers to Aristotle; for so he defines it in his Metaphysics (1.2).

Act 9. It must be known that a certain Cleombrotus, thinking that Plato calls the natural death a state of separation of soul and body what the philosopher must practice, threw himself from a wall and died. Regarding whom Callimachus says thus:

Saying "Farewell, Sun," Cleombrotus of Ambracia
Leaped from the high wall into Hades,
Having suffered no evil worthy of death, but after reading
One book of Plato on the soul.
To this, Olympiodorus the philosopher replied:
Had not Plato's book imposed my impulse,
I would have solved the mournful, heavy bond of life.

Act 11. Since Plato defined philosophy as the practice of death, the Stoics, thinking he meant natural death, hand down to us certain ways by which one reasonably takes one's own life.

Aristotle, in a certain hortatory work of his in which he encourages the young to philosophize, says that whether one must philosophize, one must philosophize, or whether one must not philosophize, one must philosophize; in any case, one must philosophize. That is, if someone says there is no philosophy, he uses proofs by which he abolishes philosophy; if he uses proofs, it is clear that he philosophizes; for philosophy is the mother of proofs.

Act 5. It must be known that Plato mentions the definition from division, as he does in the dialogue Phaedrus (p. 237), saying: "O youth, there is one beginning for deliberating well: to know what the deliberation is about"... he mentions division in the dialogue Sophist.

We hand down nine chapters. The first chapter is where we say what a definition is; the second is where we say how a definition differs from a description or descriptive definition; the third is where we say what kind is a perfect definition; the fourth is where we say from where definitions are taken; the fifth is where we say what is a perfect or imperfect definition, or what is the vice or what is the health of a definition; the sixth is where we say how many are the definitions of philosophy; the seventh is where we say why there are so many definitions of philosophy, neither more nor less; the eighth is where we say their order; the ninth is where we say who discovered these definitions.

Act 6. It must be known that the word "definition" horismos definition/boundary is said by metaphor from the boundaries or demarcations in lands. For the ancients, avoiding both excesses—greed and deficiency—discovered boundaries, so that through these they might enjoy their own and abstain from others'... as the Pythia reveals, speaking of Lycurgus the lawgiver, the being of philosophy (for the ancients were philosophers or lawgivers):

You have come, O Lycurgus, to my rich temple.
I wonder whether I shall prophesy you a god or a man.
But yet I will prophesy you a god, O Lycurgus.

She wonders as if not knowing what to call him, or needing another Pythia, but to show the equality of the man's nature to the divine nature; whence she adds, "But yet I will prophesy you a god"... just as poetry shows, saying of the good "gods are givers of good things," and of the knower "gods know everything," and of the powerful "gods can do everything." In the same way, the perfect philosopher is characterized by these three: I mean the good, the knowing, and the powerful.

Act 7. How many and what are the definitions of philosophy? There are six: first, the one saying philosophy is the knowledge of beings qua beings. Second, the knowledge of divine and human things. Third, the practice of death. Fourth, likeness to God as much as is possible for man. Fifth, the art of arts or science of sciences. Sixth, philosophy is the love of wisdom... as philosophy was, as has been said, named or established, it has its existence in the first things.