Was ist echt im 13. Kapitel der Aristotelischen Hermeneutik und was nicht?

Abstract

Abstract In an article published in 1934 Albrecht Becker argued that the final third of chapter 13 of Aristotle’s De interpretatione (22b38–23a26) is not the work of Aristotle himself but a later interpolation. The aim of the present article is to show that the passage is not entirely spurious but contains an extended section (23a6–20) which, apart from its first, third, and final sentence (23a6–7, 11–13, 18–20), is to be regarded as genuine. Its remaining sentences cannot be dispensed with, since they are connected with 22b29–37 by a logically coherent line of thought, which is however interrupted by the interpolated text. They are, as it were, the proverbial baby which Becker in his attempt to purge the chapter of later accretions threw out with the bath water.