Table Of Content

’ Aristotle s Physics Aristotle’sstudyofthenaturalworldplaysatremendouslyimportantpart inhisphilosophicalthought.Hewasveryinterestedinthephenomenaof motion, causation, place and time, and teleology, and his theoretical materials in this area are collected in his Physics, a treatise of eight books which has been very influential on later thinkers. This volume of new essays provides cutting-edge research on Aristotle’s Physics, taking into account recent changes in the field of Aristotle in terms of its under- standing of key concepts and preferred methodology. The contributions reassess the key concepts of the treatise (including nature, chance, teleology, art, and motion), reconstruct Aristotle’s methods for the study of nature,anddeterminetheboundariesofhisnaturalphilosophy.Becauseof the foundational nature of Aristotle’s Physics itself, the volume will be a must-readforallscholarsworkingonAristotle. mariska leunissen is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her recent publications includeExplanationandTeleologyinAristotle’sScienceofNature(2010). cambridge critical guides Titlespublishedinthisseries Hegel’sPhenomenologyofSpirit edited by dean moyar and michael quante Mill’sOnLiberty edited by c. l. ten Kant’sIdeaforaUniversalHistorywithaCosmopolitanAim edited by ame´lie oksenberg rorty and james schmidt Kant’sGroundworkoftheMetaphysicsofMorals edited by jens timmermann Kant’sCritiqueofPracticalReason edited by andrews reath and jens timmermann Wittgenstein’sPhilosophicalInvestigations edited by arif ahmed Kierkegaard’sConcludingUnscientificPostscript edited by rick anthony furtak Plato’sRepublic edited by mark l. mcpherran Plato’sLaws edited by christopher bobonich Spinoza’sTheological-PoliticalTreatise edited by yitzhak y. melamed and michael a. rosenthal Aristotle’sNicomacheanEthics edited by jon miller Kant’sMetaphysicsofMorals edited by lara denis Nietzsche’sOntheGenealogyofMorality edited by simon may Kant’sObservationsandRemarks edited by richard velkley and susan shell Augustine’sCityofGod edited by james wetzel Descartes’Meditations edited by karen detlefsen Kant’sReligionwithintheBoundariesofMereReason edited by gordon michalson Kant’sLecturesonAnthropology edited by alix cohen Kierkegaard’sFearandTrembling edited by daniel conway Kant’sLecturesonEthics edited by lara denis and oliver sensen Aristotle’sPhysics edited by mariska leunissen Aristotle’sPolitics edited by thornton lockwood and thanassis samaras ’ ARISTOTLE S Physics A Critical Guide edited by mariska leunissen UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridgecb28bs,UnitedKingdom CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learningandresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107031463 ©CambridgeUniversityPress2015 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2015 AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata Aristotle’sphysics:acriticalguide/editedbyMariskaLeunissen. pages cm.–(Cambridgecriticalguides) isbn978-1-107-03146-3 Includesbibliographicalreferences. 1. Aristotle.Physics. 2. Physics–Earlyworksto1800. 3. Philosophy, Ancient. 4. Science–Philosophy. I. Leunissen,Mariska,1979–editor. q151.a8a76 2015 530–dc23 2015014691 978-1-107-03146-3Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracy ofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication, anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. Contents Notesoncontributors pageix Introduction 1 mariska leunissen 1 Howtostudynaturalbodies:Aristotle’sμέθοδος 10 james g. lennox 2 Aristotleoninterpretingnature 31 sean kelsey 3 Natureasaprincipleofchange 46 stasinos stavrianeas 4 Aristotleonchanceasanaccidentalcause 66 james allen 5 Manfrommanbutnotbedfrombed:Nature,art andchanceinPhysicsii 88 margaret scharle 6 Indefenseofthecraftanalogy:Artifactsand naturalteleology 107 charlotte witt 7 TheoriginsofAristotle’snaturalteleologyinPhysicsii 121 robert bolton 8 SubstantialgenerationinPhysicsi.5–7 144 devin henry 9 Adynamicontology:OnhowAristotlearrivedat theconclusionthateternalchangeaccomplishesousia 162 diana quarantotto vii viii Contents 10 Aristotle’sprocesses 186 david charles 11 Physicsv–vi versusviii:Unityofchangeanddisunity inthePhysics 206 jacob rosen 12 Perfectionandthephysiologyofhabituationaccording toPhysicsvii.3 225 mariska leunissen 13 Self-motionasother-motioninAristotle’sPhysics 245 ursula coope 14 TheargumentofPhysicsviii 265 andrea falcon Bibliography 284 Index 296 Contributors james allen is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto, Canada.HisprincipalinterestsareinancientGreekandRomanphiloso- phy.Heistheauthorofarticlesconcerningancientconceptionsofexper- tise, ancient scepticism, ancient medicine, Aristotelian logic, Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Cicero, as well as of the monograph InferencefromSigns:AncientDebatesabouttheNatureofEvidence(2001). robert bolton isProfessorofPhilosophyatRutgersUniversity,USA. He is the author of Science, dialectique et éthique chez Aristote (2010), and author oreditor of numerous books and articles on Aristotle’s methodology,epistemology,andpsychology,andonotheraspectsofancientphilo- sophy.HeisaformerRhodesScholarandFellowoftheCentreNational delaRechercheScientifique,Paris. david charles isProfessorofPhilosophyatYaleUniversity,USA.Heis theauthorofAristotle’sPhilosophyofAction(1984)andAristotleonMeaningand Essence(2000),andeditorofDefinitioninGreekPhilosophy(2010).Hehasalso writtenmanyarticlesonAristotle’sdiscussionofactionandteleology. ursula coope isProfessorofAncientPhilosophyandFellowofCorpus Christi College, Oxford University, UK. She is the author of Time for Aristotle:Physicsiv.11–14(2005),aswellasofarticlesonAristotle’sphysics andphilosophyofaction. andreafalconisAssociateProfessorintheDepartmentofPhilosophyat ConcordiaUniversity,Montreal,Canada.HeisaspecialistonAristotleand theAristoteliantraditioninantiquity.HewasamemberoftheInstitutefor AdvancedStudyinPrincetonin2008.HeistheauthorofCorpiemovimenti: IlDecaelodiAristotelee la suatradizionenelmondoantico (2001),Aristotle and the Science of Nature: Unity without Uniformity (2005), and AristotelianismintheFirstCenturybce:XenarchusofSeleucia(2011). ix x Notesoncontributors devin henry isanAssociateProfessorofPhilosophyattheUniversityof Western Ontario, Canada. He received his PhD from King’s College London, where he wrote a dissertation on the metaphysical foundations of Aristotle’s accountof biological generation. Heisthe author of several articlesontopicsinAristotle’sphilosophyofscience(includingclassifica- tion, teleology, inheritance, and sexism), as well as Plato’s late epistemology. sean kelsey is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, USA. He is a specialist on Aristotle’s natural science and metaphysics,andhispapershaveappearedinAncientPhilosophy,Phronesis, PacificPhilosophicalQuarterly,andOxfordStudiesinAncientPhilosophy. james g. lennox isProfessorofHistoryandPhilosophyofScienceatthe University of Pittsburgh, USA. He is the author of a translation, with introduction and commentary,ofAristotle:On the Parts of Animals(2001) and of Aristotle’s Philosophy of Biology: Studies in the Origins of Life Science (2001), as well as of several edited volumes and numerous articles on Aristotle’s science and biology. He has held fellowships at the Center for HellenicStudies(1983–4);ClareHall,UniversityofCambridge(1986–7);and theIstitutodiStudiAvanzati,UniversityofBologna(2006). mariska leunissen is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. She is the author of ExplanationandTeleologyinAristotle’sScienceofNature(2010),co-editorof Interpreting Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics in Late Antiquity and Beyond (2010),andhaswrittenseveralarticlesonAristotle’stheoryofdemonstra- tion,ontopicsinhisnaturalscience,andontherelationbetweennatural character and virtue. She has held fellowships at the Center for Hellenic Studies(2010)andatLeidenUniversity(2013). dianaquarantottoisProfessoreAggregatoattheUniversityofRome Sapienza, Italy. She is the author of Causa finale, sostanza, essenza in Aristotele (2005), as well as of articles on Aristotle’s science of nature, biology,metaphysics,philosophyoflanguageandethics. jacob rosen isAssistantProfessorofPhilosophyatHarvardUniversity. PreviouslyhewastheAcademicCoordinatorintheGraduateProgramin PhilosophyandResearcherintheTOPOIExcellencecluster‘Place,Space, andMotion’attheHumboldtUniversity,Berlin,Germany.Hispaperson Aristotle’s logic and physics have appeared in Phronesis, Oxford Studies in AncientPhilosophy,andMind.