Burnyeat, Myles. A Map of Metaphysics Zeta

Review of Metaphysics, The, March, 2003 by Helen S. Lang

Pittsburgh: Mathesis Publications, 2001. x 176 pp. Paper, n. p.--Burnyeat calls this book a "map" because, he explains, he intends to set up signposts for readers of one of the most difficult texts in philosophy to use in their own explorations (p. 3). The "map" consists of an Introduction (chapter 1, pp. 1-8) that explains the assumptions behind his "map," most importantly that this text consistently operates on "two levels," the "logical" and the "metaphysical"; an analytic guide to the map (chapter 2, pp. 9-10); and the heart of the map, "signposts" from which the reader can survey and then move through the text (chapter 3, pp. 11-77). Three chapters that are not formally part of the map conclude this study. Chapter 4 (pp. 79-86) asks "Why do it this way?" and suggests that "Metaphysics Zeta, is not only the most difficult work in the corpus. It is also methodologically unique. And that does need explaining" (p. 86). Two final chapters return to the "logical level" and to the "metaphysical level," asserted at the outset, explaining what they mean and why they provide a fruitful way of reading Metaphysics Zeta. Chapter 5 considers "The Organon as `logical'" and how Aristotle's logic is reflected in this text (pp. 87-125); chapter 6 places Metaphysics Zeta within the larger context of Aristotle's Metaphysics and in so doing provides a vision of the work as a whole (pp. 127-49). The book is completed by several indices: Index to issues of text and translation (p. 151); Index locorum (pp. 152-66); Index of names (pp. 167-9); Index of Greek terms discussed (p. 170); and a General index (p. 171-6).

Burnyeat takes the metaphor of a "map" seriously. The "traveler" is the reader of Metaphysics Zeta and a map is a tool for the reader's own explorations of this text. Thus Burnyeat first explains that his purpose is not to defend his own interpretation against those of others, "but to open up questions about how this text should be read" (p. 3). The point of this book is not to teach conclusions about Metaphysics Zeta, so much as to "encourage fresh thought about its philosophical content" (pp. 3-4).

Of course, it is impossible to avoid claims that are in fact substantive. Zeta, Burnyeat immediately asserts, is best read within an ever-widening context, most locally the triad of Metaphysics Zeta, Eta, and Theta, then the project of the Metaphysics as a whole, and finally "a larger system of philosophy that Aristotle always aimed to build, however much his conception of the whole may have evolved through the years" (p. 3). Zeta itself, Burnyeat claims, is a preliminary investigation (and not Aristotle's most mature thoughts) with a single positive purpose, "to show that substantial being is form," and it fulfills this purpose not by a progressive (or linear) building up of arguments and conclusions but by a series of four independent starting points that all lead to the same conclusion (pp. 3-6). Within each section there is regular movement from a "logical" (that is, relatively abstract) level to a level that is "metaphysical," which concerns things to be studied after physics (pp. 6-8; compare pp. 87-90).

The map, then, is a set of signposts that mark out the main routes, each of which starts at a logical level and moves to a metaphysical level. The signposts are organized chapter by chapter, except for Zeta 7-9, which, Burnyeat claims, is a distinct unit (pp. 9-77). Insofar as this book is a map, the heart of it lies here. Individual terms and the sequence of topics throughout Zeta are brought into sharp focus as a "suggestion" that the act of reading set out from this marker. Burnyeat is an experienced and intelligent guide who has lived with this text for more than twenty years (pp. 1-2).

To complete his map, Burnyeat explains more fully his notion of "two levels," logical and metaphysical. For this reader, "The Organon As `Logical'" reveals a master doing extremely well what he loves best. Burnyeat argues that the Organon is not part of philosophy but preliminary to it; it is best understood by considering "the order of learning" as distinct from and more important than the order of writing (pp. 111-24). The final chapter places the metaphysical level of Metaphysics Zeta within the larger context of the Metaphysics and concludes with a "story"--Aristotle wrote Metaphysics Lambda in a white heat as he was rushing to beat death (pp. 127-49, especially p. 148). The reader can reject this "story" and the map too, if its "suggestions" do not seem helpful. But to do so would be to miss an exciting journey through this difficult text with a marvelous guide and an invitation to make up one's own mind on substantive issues.

Helen S. Lang, Villanova University.