Philosophy (Non peer-reviewed publications)

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    Aristotle on efficient and final causes in Plato (Pre published)
    (2022-11-09) Vázquez, Daniel
    In Metaphysics A 6, Aristotle claims that Plato only recognises formal and material causes. Yet, in various dialogues, Plato seems to use and distinguish efficient and final causes too. Consequently, Harold Cherniss accuses Aristotle of being an unfair, forgetful, or careless reader of Plato. Since then, scholars have tried to defend Aristotle’s exegetical skills. I offer textual evidence and arguments to show that their efforts still fall short of the desired goal. I argue, instead, that we can reject Cherniss’ assertation by re-examining Aristotle’s exegetical and methodological assumptions.
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    Getting younger (Pre published)
    (2022-11-09) Vázquez, Daniel
    I argue that in Plato’s Parmenides 141a6-c4, things in time come to be simultaneously older and younger than themselves because a thing’s past and present selves are equally real. As a result, whatever temporal relation is predicated of any of these past and present selves is true of the thing in question. Unlike other interpretations, this reading neither assumes that things in time have to replace their parts, nor that time is circular.
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    The last natural philosophers in the Phaedo (Pre published)
    (2022-11-08) Vázquez, Daniel
    This paper examines the possible sources of the two theories introduced by Plato in Phaedo 99b2-c6. First, it shows that the theories belong to people who remain unpersuaded by the teleology introduced by Socrates (Phaedo 97c4-6) and believe they can find a better alternative. Then, it rejects that the most proximate references could be Empedocles, Anaximenes, Anaximander or Anaxagoras. Next, it argues that Plato is most plausibly alluding to both Aristophanes’ Clouds and views held by Diogenes of Apollonia and Archelaus of Athens. Finally, it concludes by noting that this interpretation raises a challenge to the widespread assumption that Socrates’ abandons or modifies his teleological views.