Aristotle's Physics – Books III and IV

278 Pages·2011·19.51 MB·English

CLARENDON ARISTOTLE SERIES
General Editors
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ARISTOTLE
PHYSICS
BOOKS Ill AND IV
Translated with Introduction and Notes
by
EDWARD HUSSEY
Fellow of All Souls College
Oxford
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©Oxford University Press 1983
First published 1983
New impression with corrections and additions 1993
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Hussey, Edward
Aristotle's Physics: books III and IV.-(Clarendon
Aristotle Series)
1. Aristotle- Physics I. Title
110 Q151.A7
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Aristotle.
A1·istotle's Physics, books III and IV.
(Clarendon Aristotle series)
Translation of: Physics.
Bibliography: p.- Includes index.
1. Science, Ancient. 2. Physics-Early works
to 1800. I. Hussey, Edward. 11. Title. III. Series.
Q151.A7913 1983 500.2 82-18996
ISBN 0-19-872069-6 (pbk.)
5 7 9 10 8 6 4
Printed in Great Brt'tain
on acid-free paper by
Biddies Ltd, Guildford and King's Lynn
PREFACE AND DEDICATION
This volume offers guidance to a reader who wishes to explore books
III and IV of Aristotle's Physics. The translation and the notes
follow the common pattern of the Clarendon Aristotle Series. The
translation aims to be literal, in the sense that it tries to beg as few
questions of interpretation as possible. The notes give a step-by-step
discussion of the text.
In the Introduction, I have tried to give a more connected
account of what Aristotle is about in these books. Two fundamental,
and controversial, topics that arise are (i) Aristotle's philosophy of
mathematics; and (ii) Aristotle's mathematical or other 'laws' of
motion and of change in general. On these, I have provided fairly
systematic treatments, but ones which are in some degree unortho
dox. These topics, therefore, I have relegated to Additional Notes at
the end of the volume.
It is a pleasure to acknowledge the various kinds of help I have
received in preparing this book. I must record particularly my
gratitude to the Editor of the Clarendon Aristotle Series, Professor
John Ackrill, for his sympathetic patience and valuable comments
and advice at all stages. To David Charles, David Fowler, Jennifer
Hornsby, Gavin Lawrence, Christopher Peacocke, Malcolm Schofield,
and David Wiggins I am variously indebted for conversation,
guidance and encouragement. I thank Edna Laird and Diane Burden
for their efficient typing, and Derek Parfit for the generosity with
which he allowed me the use of his electronic word-processing
equipment.
To Gwil Owen, who died when the manuscript of this book was
already in the hands of the publisher, I owe in common with many
others a less easily defmed, but deeper debt for his teaching and
example in the study of ancient philosophy. I dedicate this book to
his memory, and to that of another friend early dead, R. C. ('Prof)
Zaehner.
All Souls College, Oxford E.L.H.
July 1982
V

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ix
TRANSLATION
NOTES 55
ADDITIONAL NOTES 176
(A) Aristotle's Philosophy of Mathematics 176
(B) Aristotelian Dynamics 185
EXPLANATION OF REFERENCES 201
LIST OF DIVERGENCES FROM THE TEXT OF ROSS 208
GLOSSARY 210
INDEXES 215
vii

INTRODUCTION
!.PHYSICS Ill AND IV AND THEIR INTERPRETATION
(a) Contents, aim, and method
Books Ill and IV of Aristotle's Physics consist of five essays, on the
subjects of change (111.1-3), the infinite (III.4-8), place (IV.l-4),
void (IV.S-9), and time (IV.l0-14). It is clear that they were
composed fairly early in Aristotle's career as an independent thinker.
Probably they were originally written soon after the Topics was
completed, and not (except for the essay on time) much reworked
later. Some clues to the history of their composition are pointed out
in the notes. For the understanding of the text, though, questions of
relative and absolute chronology are not of importance.1
Aristotle's aim is to arrive at a correct general theory about each
of the subjects under discussion. His method is the method of
dialectic, by which (in theory at least) the philosophical inquirer
started from the accumulated material of common-sense intuitions,
previous opinions of philosophers, and observed facts relevant to the
subject, and ascended by a process of rational criticism and
generalization to the correct account of the subject, which would
usually be enshrined in a definition of the central term. The practice
of Aristotelian dialectic is codified in the Topics, and Physics Ill and
IV provide one of the earliest surviving examples of its application.2
Dialectic is a formalization of the ordinary processes of rational
reflection, and most of the time the modern reader will not be far
out if he takes Aristotle to be doing in these essays much what a
modern physicist or philosopher does when discussing certain very
general topics, such as the nature of time or space, in general terms.
The peculiarities of Aristotle's discussions derive not so much from a
1 On the date and composition of the Phyrfics see esp. Ross (1), 1-11.
2 On dialectic in general: Index of subjects (under 'Dialectical Method');
and Owen (3), Wieland (2).
ix