Stein, Nathanael: Plato and Aristotle on the Aims and Value of Division

In Ground and Fundamentality in Plato and Aristotle. New York: Routledge. pp. 299-322. 2026Disputes about ground and fundamentality are connected to a cluster of questions about essences, definitions, explanation, priority, and knowledge. Aristotle and Plato of course disagree on a number of these issues, but one of the least understood concerns the nature and value of “division,” i.e. seeking an account of something by successive divisions of a higher genus. Plato introduces his method of “coll