โ Scribed by J.O. Urmson
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Aristotleโs Physics Book 3 covers two subjects: the definition of change and the finitude of the universe. Change enters into the very definition of nature as an internal source of change. Change receives two definitions in chapters 1 and 2, as involving the actualisation of the potential or of the changeable. Alexander of Aphrodisias is reported as thinking that the second version is designed to show that Book 3, like Book 5, means to disqualify change in relations from being genuine change. Aristotleโs successor Theophrastus, we are told, and Simplicius himself, prefer to admit relational change. Chapter 3 introduces a general causal principle that the activity of the agent causing change is in the patient undergoing change, and that the causing and undergoing are to be counted as only one activity, however different in definition. Simplicius points out that this paves the way for Aristotleโs God who moves the heavens, while admitting no motion in himself. It is also the basis of Aristotleโs doctrine, central to Neoplatonism, that intellect is one with the objects it contemplates.In defending Aristotleโs claim that the universe is spatially finite, Simplicius has to meet Archytasโ question, โWhat happens at the edge?โ. He replies that, given Aristotleโs definition of place, there is nothing, rather than an empty place, beyond the furthest stars, and one cannot stretch oneโs hand into nothing, nor be prevented by nothing. But why is Aristotleโs beginningless universe not temporally infinite? Simplicius answers that the past years no longer exist, so one never has an infinite collection.
๐ SIMILAR VOLUMES
Aristotle's "Physics Book 3" covers two subjects: the definition of change and the finitude of the universe. This text provides a translation of Simplicius' commentry on Aristotle's work, with notes by Peter Lautner.
In this volume Simplicius is dealing with Aristotle's account of the Presocratics, and for many of them he is our chief or even sole authority. He quotes at length from Melissus, Parmenides and Zeno, sometimes from their original works but also from later writers from Plato onwards, drawing particul
In this volume Simplicius is dealing with Aristotleโs account of the Presocratics, and for many of them he is our chief or even sole authority. He quotes at length from Melissus, Parmenides and Zeno, sometimes from their original works but also from later writers from Plato onwards, drawing particul
<p>In this volume Simplicius is dealing with Aristotle's account of the Presocratics, and for many of them he is our chief or even sole authority. He quotes at length from Melissus, Parmenides and Zeno, sometimes from their original works but also from later writers from Plato onwards, drawing parti
Cover; Contents; Introduction; Textual Emendations; Translation; Chapter 1; Chapter 2; Chapter 3; Chapter 4; Chapter 5; Chapter 6; Chapter 7; Chapter 8; Chapter 9; Notes; Bibliography; Appendix: The Commentators; English-Greek Glossary; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; Q; R; S; T; U;