Skip to Main Content

Style Guide

University of Divinity Style Guide

Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas

Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas

This section, based on the Style Guide requirements for Philosophy units at Catholic Theological College, serves as a guide for other parts of the University. The works of Plato, Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas exist in many different translations and editions, each of which has a different pagination. Consequently, referring to the page number of the edition being used will only be helpful for those who also have access to that particular edition. Therefore, in a similar approach to quoting from the Bible, reference to these works is made by citing a division of the work itself, or by citing details relating to the page of a standard edition. The elements cited include: paragraph markers or argument-parts (for Aquinas), page numbers (for Aristotle and Plato), column and line numbers (for Aristotle), or vertical subdivisions of the page (for Plato). This allows every reader to locate the text being referred to, regardless of the pagination in the edition they are using.

Plato

Elements to include
  • the name of the dialogue in English
  • the book number (only for the two dialogues that are divided into books: the Republic and the Laws)
  • the page number of the Stephanus edition (1578, Greek-Latin)
  • the vertical subdivision (a–e) of the page in the Stephanus edition
  • the translation you are using
  • (some more precise references also add a line number within the subdivision)

Example of note entry (first footnote)

Plato, Phaedo, in The Collected Dialogues of Plato, Including the Letters, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, trans. Lane Cooper and others (New York: Pantheon, 1961), 65a.

Example of subsequent note entry   

Plato, Phaedo, 66c–67d.

65a and 66c–67c are the Stephanus references, and not the page number in the Hamilton & Cairns translation (or the translation or edition you have used). Most editions have the Stephanus numbers clearly marked in the margin. It is not necessary to reference the Stephanus edition or mention it in your bibliography. Your bibliography only needs to reference the translation and source you have used – either the book or a unit reader (see note above on referencing unit readers above).

Example of bibliography entry

Plato. “Phaedo.” Translated by Lane Cooper and others. In The Collected Dialogues of Plato, Including the Letters, edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns. New York: Pantheon, 1961. DOI or URL if consulted online; if consulted in a class reader: In AP2/3/9135C Readings. Melbourne: CTC, 2018.

Aristotle

Elements to include
  • the standard English or Latin name of the work (e.g. De Anima, Metaphysics, or Nichomachean Ethics)
  • the book number in Roman numerals
  • the chapter number in Arabic numerals
  • the page number in the Bekker edition (1831–36)
  • the column on the page in the Bekker edition (a or b)
  • the line number in the column of the Bekker edition
  • the translation you are using

Example of note entry

(first footnote)

Aristotle, Metaphysics, in The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation, ed. Jonathan Barnes (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984), XII.10, 1075a11–24.

Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, in Nicomachean Ethics: Books II–IV, ed. Christopher C. W. Taylor, Clarendon Aristotle Series (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), IV.8, 1128b16–19.

Example of subsequent note entry           

Aristotle, Metaphysics, IX.8, 1049b4–12.

Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, II.7, 1107b9–16.

1075a and 1128b are the Bekker references, and not the page number in the Barnes or Taylor translations (or the translation or edition you have used). Most editions have the Bekker numbers clearly marked in the margin. It is not necessary to reference the Bekker edition or mention it in your bibliography. Your bibliography only needs to reference the translation and source you have used – either the book or a unit reader.

Example of bibliography entry

Aristotle. “Metaphysics.” In The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation, edited by Jonathan Barnes. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984. DOI or URL if consulted online; if consulted in a class reader: In AP2/3/9135C Readings. Melbourne: CTC, 2018.

Aquinas

Because Aquinas’ texts have so many divisions to mark their structure, passages are identified by citing these divisions rather than by referring to the pages of a standard edition.

Summa Theologiae

Elements to include
  • the title of the work (which may be abbreviated after the first footnote)
  • the part number in upper case Roman numerals (Ia, IaIIae, IIaIIae, IIIa or Suppl.IIIa)
  • the question number in Arabic numerals (e.g., q. 10 or q. 94)
  • the article number (e.g., art. 2 or art. 5)
  • the part of the article:
    •  one of the opposing arguments (“videtur”) cited in the opening
    •  the sed contra “on the other hand” consideration
    •  the main statement of Aquinas’ position, in his general reply to the question
    • the response to a particular opposing argument
  • the translation you are using

Example of note entry (first footnote)

Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Blackfriars ed., vol. 2, trans. Timothy McDermott (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1964), Ia, q. 4, art. 3, r.

Example of subsequent note entry           

Aquinas, S.T., Ia, q. 1, art. 2, 3. [refers to the third opposing argument]

Aquinas, S.T., Ia, q. 4, art. 3, s.c. [refers to the sed contra “on the other hand”]

Aquinas, S.T., Ia, q. 4, art. 3, r. [refers to the general reply to the question]

Aquinas, S.T., Ia, q. 6, art. 1, ad 3. [refers to the response to the third opposing argument]

Aquinas, S.T., Ia, q. 5, art. 5, r. & ad 4.

Example of bibliography entry

Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Trans. Timothy McDermott. In Blackfriars ed., Vol. 2. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1964. DOI or URL if consulted online; if consulted in a class reader: In AP2/3/9135C Readings. Melbourne: CTC, 2018.

Other works by Aquinas

Adaptation of this referencing can be made for the Summa Contra Gentiles (SCG), the commentary on the sentences (# Sent.), the Disp. Quaestiones de Anima (QDA), etc., as shown below.

SCG: book, chapter, and paragraph number only

QDA: article and part only

Parisian and Roman Sentences Commentaries: book number, distinction number, question number, article number, the part of the article

Expositions of Aristotle: Aristotle’s book and chapter, followed by Aquinas’ Lectio and paragraph number [n.]

Expositions of Scripture: chapter of the scriptural text, followed by Aquinas’ Lectio and paragraph number

Refer to the examples of bibliography entries for Aquinas’ S.T., the works of Aristotle and Plato above.

Note that one may also decide to use the examples below as a guide for referencing other scholastic authors’ Sentences commentaries and other comparable scholastic commentary works.

Example of note entry (first footnote)

Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, in On the Truth of the Catholic Faith: Summa Contra Gentiles, trans. Anton. C. Pegis (New York: Doubleday, 1955), I, 27, [9].

Aquinas, Quaestiones De Anima, in The Soul: A Translation of St. Thomas Aquinas’ ‘De Anima’, trans. James P. Rowan (St. Louis: B. Herder, 1949), art. 5, ad 1. [Refers to the reply to the first opposing argument]

Aquinas, II Sent., in Aquinas: Political Writings, ed. and trans. R. W. Dyson (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 2002), D. 17, q. 2, art. 2, 4. [Refers to the fourth opposing argument of article 2, question 2, distinction 17 of book two of the Parisian Sentences Commentary] Aquinas. In Met., in Commentary on Aristotle’s ‘Metaphysics’, trans. John P. Rowan (Notre Dame, IN: Dumb Ox Books, 1995), V.2, L. 3, n. 777. [Refers to Aquinas’ Lectio three, paragraph 777, which is his commentary on book 5, chapter 2 of Aristotle’s Metaphysics]

Example of subsequent note entry           

References in subsequent footnotes omit the translation details and may use an abbreviated title (e.g., SCG, QDA).