Aristotle's Science of Matter and Motion

Aristotle's Science of Matter and Motion
Author: Christopher Byrne
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2018-01-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1487503962

Although Aristotle's contribution to biology has long been recognized, there are many philosophers and historians of science who still hold that he was the great delayer of natural science, calling him the man who held up the Scientific Revolution by two thousand years. They argue that Aristotle never considered the nature of matter as such or the changes that perceptible objects undergo simply as physical objects; he only thought about the many different, specific natures found in perceptible objects. Aristotle's Science of Matter and Motion focuses on refuting this misconception, arguing that Aristotle actually offered a systematic account of matter, motion, and the basic causal powers found in all physical objects. Author Christopher Byrne sheds lights on Aristotle's account of matter, revealing how Aristotle maintained that all perceptible objects are ultimately made from physical matter of one kind or another, accounting for their basic common features. For Aristotle, then, matter matters a great deal.

Physics

Physics
Author: Aristotle
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 246
Release: 1999
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 9780198240921

The eighth book of Aristotle's Physics is the culmination of his theory of nature. He discusses not just physics, but the origins of the universe and the metaphysical foundations of cosmology and physical science. He moves from the discussion of motion in the cosmos to the identification of a single source and regulating principle of all motion, and so argues for the existence of a first 'unmoved mover'. Daniel Graham offers a clear, accurate new translation of this key text in the history of Western thought, and accompanies the translation with a careful philosophical commentary to guide the reader towards an understanding of the wealth of important and influential arguments and ideas that Aristotle puts forward.

Aristotle's Science of Matter and Motion

Aristotle's Science of Matter and Motion
Author: Christopher Byrne
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2018-08-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1487519176

Although Aristotle’s contribution to biology has long been recognized, there are many philosophers and historians of science who still hold that he was the great delayer of natural science, calling him the man who held up the Scientific Revolution by two thousand years. They argue that Aristotle never considered the nature of matter as such or the changes that perceptible objects undergo simply as physical objects; he only thought about the many different, specific natures found in perceptible objects. Aristotle’s Science of Matter and Motion’s focus is on refuting this misconception, arguing that Aristotle actually offered a systematic account of matter, motion, and the basic causal powers found in all physical objects. Author, Christopher Byrne sheds lights on Aristotle’s account of matter, revealing how Aristotle maintained that all perceptible objects are ultimately made from physical matter of one kind or another, accounting for their basic common features. For Aristotle, then, matter matters a great deal.

Theory and Practice in Aristotle's Natural Science

Theory and Practice in Aristotle's Natural Science
Author: David Ebrey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2015-06-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 110705513X

This collection of groundbreaking new essays show how Aristotle's natural science illuminates fundamental topics in his philosophy.

Bodies and Media

Bodies and Media
Author: Ido Yavetz
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2015-08-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 331921263X

This book presents a recasting of Aristotle’s theory of spatial displacement of inanimate objects. Aristotle’s claim that projectiles are actively carried by the media through which they move (such as air or water) is well known and has drawn the attention of commentators from ancient to modern times. What is lacking, however, is a systematic investigation of the consequences of his suggestion that the medium always acts as the direct instrument of locomotion, be it natural or forced, while original movers (e.g. stone throwers, catapults, bowstrings) act indirectly by impressing moving force into the medium. Filling this gap and guided by discussions in Aristotle’s Physics and On the Heavens, the present volume shows that Aristotle’s active medium enables his theory - in which force is proportional to speed - to account for a large class of phenomena that Newtonian dynamics - in which force is proportional to acceleration - accounts for through the concept of inertia. By applying Aristotle’s medium dynamics to projectile flight and to collisions that involve reversal of motion, the book provides detailed examples of the efficacy and coherence that the active medium gives to Aristotle’s discussions. The book is directed primarily to historians of ancient, medieval, and early modern science, to philosophers of science and to students of Aristotle’s natural philosophy.

Space, Time, Matter, and Form

Space, Time, Matter, and Form
Author: David Bostock
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 203
Release: 2006-02-16
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199286868

Space, Time, Matter, and Form collects ten of David Bostock's essays on themes from Aristotle's Physics, four of them published here for the first time. The first five papers look at issues raised in the first two books of the Physics, centred on notions of matter and form, and the idea of substance as what persists through change. They also range over other of Aristotle's scientific works, such as his biology and psychology and the account of change in his De Generatione et Corruptione. The volume's remaining essays examine themes in later books of the Physics, including infinity, place, time, and continuity. Bostock argues that Aristotle's views on these topics are of real interest in their own right, independent of his notions of substance, form, and matter; they also raise some pressing problems of interpretation, which these essays seek to resolve.

Aristotle on Matter, Form, and Moving Causes

Aristotle on Matter, Form, and Moving Causes
Author: Devin Henry
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2019-12-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108475574

Examines Aristotle's doctrine of hylomorphism and its importance for understanding the process by which substances come into being.

Aristotle on Earlier Greek Psychology

Aristotle on Earlier Greek Psychology
Author: Jason W. Carter
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2019-03-21
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1108574777

This volume is the first in English to provide a full, systematic investigation into Aristotle's criticisms of earlier Greek theories of the soul from the perspective of his theory of scientific explanation. Some interpreters of the De Anima have seen Aristotle's criticisms of Presocratic, Platonic, and other views about the soul as unfair or dialectical, but Jason W. Carter argues that Aristotle's criticisms are in fact a justified attempt to test the adequacy of earlier theories in terms of the theory of scientific knowledge he advances in the Posterior Analytics. Carter proposes a new interpretation of Aristotle's confrontations with earlier psychology, showing how his reception of other Greek philosophers shaped his own hylomorphic psychology and led him to adopt a novel dualist theory of the soul–body relation. His book will be important for students and scholars of Aristotle, ancient Greek psychology, and the history of the mind–body problem.

Aristotle's Theory of Bodies

Aristotle's Theory of Bodies
Author: Christian Pfeiffer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2018-07-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0191085308

Christian Pfeiffer explores an important, but neglected topic in Aristotle's theoretical philosophy: the theory of bodies. A body is a three-dimensionally extended and continuous magnitude bounded by surfaces. This notion is distinct from the notion of a perceptible or physical substance. Substances have bodies, that is to say, they are extended, their parts are continuous with each other and they have boundaries, which demarcate them from their surroundings. Pfeiffer argues that body, thus understood, has a pivotal role in Aristotle's natural philosophy. A theory of body is a presupposed in, e.g., Aristotle's account of the infinite, place, or action and passion, because their being bodies explains why things have a location or how they can act upon each other. The notion of body can be ranked among the central concepts for natural science which are discussed in Physics III-IV. The book is the first comprehensive and rigorous account of the features substances have in virtue of being bodies. It provides an analysis of the concept of three-dimensional magnitude and related notions like boundary, extension, contact, continuity, often comparing it to modern conceptions of it. Both the structural features and the ontological status of body is discussed. This makes it significant for scholars working on contemporary metaphysics and mereology because the concept of a material object is intimately tied to its spatial or topological properties.