John Damascene. Dialectica: Elements of New Translation.

Abstract

Dialectica of John Damascene (circa 675$-$circa 750) the last of the Greek Fathers is the first part of is basic logical philosophical and theological work The Fount of Knowledge. This work is the compilation using the texts of Aristotle, Porphyry, Ammonius Hermiae and other authors. The translation of this text into contemporary russian language (first published in 1913 that is more than 100 years ago) requires in my opinion to use contemporary logical philosophical terminology which must be taken from corresponding translations of above-mentioned founts of John Damascene. In our previous articles we refined and sometimes made important changes of some terms of Dialectica (first of all logical ones that is the so-called five predicables of Porphyry and some others) and the conclusion was made that significant remaking of available translations is necessary. The new translation will be proposed of the text of chapter 5 which has traditional title “On sound”, but new variants are “On sound sign” or “On term”. In this chapter for the first time in the text of Dialectica the designations of “genus”, “species” “specific difference”, “property” and “accident” are explained.