ABSTRACT
Sergius’ Commentary on the Categories of Aristotle addressed to Theodore is the earliest known major work in Syriac on the subject of Aristotelian logic.1 Although the original title of the work is unknown, this designation is a fair description, for five of its seven chapters run in parallel to the text of Aristotle. It is, however, clear that it is a commentary in the tradition of the Alexandrians already through the contents of the first two chapters, in which the Categories are viewed as the first work in a much more extensive curriculum, the overall form of which is presented here before entering into the particular subject matter of the Categories itself. Thus Sergius’ first chapter deals with the divisions of philosophy, the divisions of the works of Aristotle, and the question as to whether logic is a part or instrument of philosophy. In chapter two he presents the divisions and the sequence of Aristotle’s works on logic, the reason why the Philosopher made a point of being obscure, and the aim of the Categories, following which he discusses the species of discourse before going on to a presentation of the ten categories and a discussion of naming (cf. Categories 1-3). These two chapters therefore deal with some, but by no means all, or even the majority, of the standard preliminary questions treated by the Greek Alexandrians at the start of their commentaries on the Categories. Sergius was therefore a disciple of his Alexandrian masters, but a selective disciple. While accepting, at the start of chapter one, the well known description of philosophy as assimilation to God,2 he did not, like his master Ammonius, pose the question of
1 The work is still unedited, but there is a partial Italian translation by G. Furlani, ‘Sul trattato di Sergio di Rêsh‘aynâ circa le categorie’, Rivista trimestrale di studi filosofici, 3 (1922): pp. 135-72. There is a French translation of the prologue and chapter one, together with introduction and commentary, in H. Hugonnard-Roche, La logique d’Aristote du grec au syriaque (Paris, 2004), pp. 165-231. On the shorter treatise to Philotheos, cf. ibid., pp. 143-64.
