Article ID: CBB000773916

Aristotle, Dynamics and Proportionality (2001)

unapi

What ought we to make of Aristotle's apparently disparate comments on bodies in motion? I argue that Aristotle is concerned with a higher level project than dynamics and that is the establishment of a coherent theory of change in general. This theory is designed to avoid the paradoxes and infinities that Aristotle finds in Eleatic, Heraclitean and atomist accounts, notably in relation to comparatives such as 'quicker' and 'slower'. This theory relies on a broad application of proportionality to all types of change, not merely those we would label 'dynamics'. To support this I argue that Aristotle denied the existence of the void and the possibility of instantaneous change, and that he could accommodate 'threshold' changes within his scheme. If this is so, then the aims of Aristotle's comments on motion become more comprehensible, and it will be understandable why Aristotle was more concerned with the application of proportionality in general rather with the investigation of specific cases in dynamics.

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Authors & Contributors
Anders, John
David Blair Pass
Santiago Chame
Mathieu Gibier
Sentesy, Mark
Zhang, Butian
Concepts
Motion (physical)
Physics
Philosophy
Mechanics
Dynamics
Explanation; hypotheses; theories
Time Periods
Ancient
3rd century, B.C.
Early modern
Medieval
17th century
Places
Greece
Europe
Paris (France)
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