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Aristotle's Physics Aristotle’s Physics: The Metaphysics of Change, Matter, Motion and Time Philipp Blum, [email protected] Hauptseminar, autumn term Seminar admin Semester plan Topics: .. Introduction I: Aristotle’s concept of natural science, explanation and causation in relation to his metaphysics .. Introduction II: Aristotelian time + Aristotelian space = Aristotelian space-time? .. no meeting (St. Leodegar) .. Physics I, II.-: Beginnings and Causes .. Physics, II.-: Forms and natures .. Physics II.-: Chance, Necessity and Teleological Explanation .. Physics III: Motion and the Infinite .. Physics IV.-: Place and the Void .. Physics IV.-: Time .. Physics V+VI: Motions .. Physics VII: Movings .. Physics VIII: The First Motion and the First Mover .. The Aristotelian theory of relations and reciprocal powers .. Aristotelian process ontology and the ontological status of lesser entities Editions, introductions Editions: I find the bilingual German edition by Hans Günter Zekl in the Meiner Verlag (Aristoteles , ) very useful. In the Clarendon Aristotle Series, only five books have been edited: • Books I and II: Charlton (, ) • Books III and IV: Hussey (, ) • Book VIII: Graham () The greek text isavailable in the Loeb ClassicalLibrary: https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL228/ 1957/volume.xml, Thomas Aquinas’ commentary is here: http://dhspriory.org/thomas/Physics. htm. Among the entries on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (generally a very good resource) I found useful are the following: • https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle/, by Christopher Shields (Shields ), which gives a comprehensive but problem-aware and surprisingly non-partisan account of the main strands in Aristotle’s philosophy; • https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-metaphysics/ by Sheldon Marc Co- hen (Cohen ) • https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-causality/, by Andrea Falcon (Fal- con b) • https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/form-matter/ by Peter Mark Ainsworth (Ainsworth ) • https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-categories/ by Paul Studtmann (Studt- mann ) • https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-biology/, by James G. Lennox (Lennox ) • https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-psychology/, by Christopher Shields (Shields ) Though not directly on Aristotle, the following are also helpful: • https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/substance/, sct. and ., by Howard Robinson (Robinson ) • https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato/, by Richard Kraut (Kraut ) • https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-metaphysics/, by Alan Silverman (Silver- man ) • https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atomism-ancient/, by Silvia Berryman (Berryman ) • https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/analysis/, by Michael Beaney (Beaney ), esp. the “Supplementary Document: Ancient Conceptions of Analysis” • https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-commentators/, by Andrea Falcon (Falcon ) In comparison, I found very much less helpful the following entry: • https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-natphil/, byIstvánBodnár(Bodnár ), which uses technical terminology without explaining it, has (or at least seems to have) a psychologist methodology of interpretation (i.e.: lots of affirmations about what Aristotle had in mind or meant to do in such-and-such circumstances, without much textual backup) and uses a lot of unnecessarily anthropomor- phic language in the description of natural events. Bibliography Translations, with commentaries • Complete: Aristotle () (revised Oxford Translation, Jonathan Barnes); Aristotle () (trans. and comm. by W.D. Ross); Aristotle () (trans. by R. Waterfield; notes by D. Bostock) • Books I and II: Charlton (, ) • Books III and IV: Hussey (, ) • Book VIII: Graham (), Wardy () Commentaries and guidebooks • Bonelli () • Bostock (), • Broadie () • Coope () • de Gandt and Souffrin () • Düring () • Falcon () • Harry () • Judson () • Kaufmann () • LeBlond () II • Leunissen (b) containing: Leunissen (c), Lennox (), Kelsey (), Stavrianeas (), Allen (), Scharle (), Witt (), Bolton (), Henry (), Quarantotto (), Charles (), Rosen (), Leu- nissen (d), Coope (), Falcon (a) • Lévêque () • Mansion () • Owen () • Roark () • Seeck () • Solmsen () • Strobach () • Wieland () • Yavetz () Physics I Method: Angioni (); Bolton (); Bostock (); De Haas (); Turnbull (); Henry () Causes: Lang (): Scharle (); Bolton () Physics II Nature and the natural: Fritsche () Four causes: Hennig (, ); Falcon (b); Hocutt () and especially Annas (); Moravcsik () prefers the more neutral term ‘generative factor’. Aristotelian teleology: Sauvé Meyer (); Gotthelf (); Furley (); Charles (); Johnson () (file). Physics III Motion: Anagnostopoulos (); Marmodoro (); Verbeke () Physics IV Place and Space: Lang (); Morison (), discussed in Mendell () Space: Sedley (); Hankinson () Time: Coope (); Harry (); Katayama (); Loughlin (); Roark () For issues pertaining to Aristotle’s treatment of time, see Bostock (); Coope () Aristotle on the individuation of numbers: Gaukroger (); Annas (, a) Physics V-VI Motions: Bostock (); Broadie (); Morison (); Murphy (); Rosen () On Aristotle and Zeno: Medlin (); Chappell () Instant of change: Kretzmann (); Sorabji (); cf also Sorabji (: –) and Sorabji () Physics VII Movings: Schofield ()Leunissen (d); Maso, Natali and Seel () Alteration: Maso, Natali and Seel () III Physics VIII First Motion: Blyth (); on its medieval reception: Puig (); Scharle (); Falcon (a) Medieval commentaries Simplicius, Themistus, Philoponus, Zimmermann () IV Contents Aristotelian science: why-questions and archai . What- and why-questions ............................................. .. The Socratic method ........................................... .. Finding the archai ............................................. .. Priority in Aristotle ............................................ . Euthyphro and the direction of explanation ................................... .. Euthyphro questions ........................................... .. A typology of Euthyphronic inquiry ................................... .. Kinds and senses of “because” ...................................... . Platonism and Aristotelianism .......................................... .. Physical mathematics vs. mathematical physics ............................. .. Ideas & participation vs. form and matter ................................ .. Mere appearance vs. the reality of change ................................ Physics I: Beginnings and Causes . The argumentative strategy of Physics I ...................................... .. “Better known by nature” ........................................ .. Againstmonism .............................................. .. Against the physicists ........................................... . The problem ofchange .............................................. .. Variation and constancy in change .................................... .. Hylomorphic change ........................................... .. The ‘Aufhebung’ of the predecessors ................................... . The puzzle of matter ............................................... .. Matter as the subiectum / hupokeimenon of change .......................... .. There cannot be genesis ex nihilo: the puzzle of prime matter ..................... .. What, on earth, are Aristotelian forms? ................................. Physics II: Nature, teleological explanation, chance and necessity . Nature, natures, and the natural ......................................... .. Natural things and artefacts ....................................... .. Why natural science is not mathematics ................................. .. Why natural science is not metaphysics ................................. V . Thefourcauses .................................................. .. “aition” is said in many ways ....................................... .. The four causes as explanations ..................................... .. The four causes as ‘becauses’ ....................................... . Chance and necessity ............................................... .. Aristotelian chance ............................................ .. Autonomous causation .......................................... .. The priority of teleological explanation ................................. Physics III: Motion and the Infinite . Aristotelian change ................................................ .. Whatchangeis .............................................. .. Active and passive change ........................................ .. The location of change .......................................... . The nature of kinêseis ............................................... .. Powers, processes and events ....................................... .. The location of change .......................................... .. Changeisofforms ............................................ . The Aristotelian infinite .............................................. .. Against the actual infinite ........................................ .. The potential infinite ........................................... .. Beginningless time ............................................ Physics IV.-: Place and the Void . The ontology of places .............................................. .. Theneedforanaccountofplace .................................... .. Places as what is changed in motion ................................... .. Inner and outer boundaries ....................................... . The superiority of Aristotle’s account of places
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