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