Aristotle's Empiricism: Experience and Mechanics in the 4th Century B.C.
In Aristotle’s Empiricism, Jean De Groot argues that an important part of Aristotle’s natural philosophy has remained largely unexplored and shows that much of Aristotle’s analysis of natural movement is influenced by the logic and concepts of mathematical mechanics that emerged from late Pythagorean thought. De Groot draws upon the pseudo-Aristotelian Physical Problems XVI to reconstruct the context of mechanics in Aristotle’s time and to trace the development of kinematic thinking from Archytas to the Aristotelian Mechanics. She shows the influence of kinematic thinking on Aristotle’s concept of power or potentiality, which she sees as having a physicalistic meaning originating in the problem of movement.
De Groot identifies the source of early mechanical knowledge in kinesthetic awareness of mechanical advantage, showing the relation of Aristotle’s empiricism to more ancient experience. The book sheds light on the classical Greek understanding of imitation and device, as it questions both the claim that Aristotle’s natural philosophy codifies opinions held by convention and the view that the cogency of his scientific ideas depends on metaphysics.
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Aristotle's Empiricism: Experience and Mechanics in the 4th Century B.C.
In Aristotle’s Empiricism, Jean De Groot argues that an important part of Aristotle’s natural philosophy has remained largely unexplored and shows that much of Aristotle’s analysis of natural movement is influenced by the logic and concepts of mathematical mechanics that emerged from late Pythagorean thought. De Groot draws upon the pseudo-Aristotelian Physical Problems XVI to reconstruct the context of mechanics in Aristotle’s time and to trace the development of kinematic thinking from Archytas to the Aristotelian Mechanics. She shows the influence of kinematic thinking on Aristotle’s concept of power or potentiality, which she sees as having a physicalistic meaning originating in the problem of movement.
De Groot identifies the source of early mechanical knowledge in kinesthetic awareness of mechanical advantage, showing the relation of Aristotle’s empiricism to more ancient experience. The book sheds light on the classical Greek understanding of imitation and device, as it questions both the claim that Aristotle’s natural philosophy codifies opinions held by convention and the view that the cogency of his scientific ideas depends on metaphysics.
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Aristotle's Empiricism: Experience and Mechanics in the 4th Century B.C.

Aristotle's Empiricism: Experience and Mechanics in the 4th Century B.C.

by Jean De Groot
Aristotle's Empiricism: Experience and Mechanics in the 4th Century B.C.

Aristotle's Empiricism: Experience and Mechanics in the 4th Century B.C.

by Jean De Groot

Paperback(1st Edition)

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Overview

In Aristotle’s Empiricism, Jean De Groot argues that an important part of Aristotle’s natural philosophy has remained largely unexplored and shows that much of Aristotle’s analysis of natural movement is influenced by the logic and concepts of mathematical mechanics that emerged from late Pythagorean thought. De Groot draws upon the pseudo-Aristotelian Physical Problems XVI to reconstruct the context of mechanics in Aristotle’s time and to trace the development of kinematic thinking from Archytas to the Aristotelian Mechanics. She shows the influence of kinematic thinking on Aristotle’s concept of power or potentiality, which she sees as having a physicalistic meaning originating in the problem of movement.
De Groot identifies the source of early mechanical knowledge in kinesthetic awareness of mechanical advantage, showing the relation of Aristotle’s empiricism to more ancient experience. The book sheds light on the classical Greek understanding of imitation and device, as it questions both the claim that Aristotle’s natural philosophy codifies opinions held by convention and the view that the cogency of his scientific ideas depends on metaphysics.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781930972834
Publisher: Parmenides Publishing
Publication date: 05/02/2014
Edition description: 1st Edition
Pages: 468
Product dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Jean De Groot is Associate Professor in the School of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America. She received her Ph.D. in the History of Science from Harvard University, where she studied early mechanics and ancient optics. She studied Neo-Platonism at the University of Paris, attending the seminar of Pierre Hadot, and Aristotelian natural philosophy at the Warburg Institute and the Institute for Classical Studies in London. At Catholic University, she teaches the logic and natural philosophy of Aristotle and twentieth century philosophy. 

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xi

Figures xi

Charts and Tables xiii

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction xvii

Note on Transliterations and Abbreviations xxv

Chapter 1 Empiricism and Mathematical Science in Aristotle 1

Qualitative Science 6

Experience of Mathematical Properties 10

Experience and Dunamis 12

Powers and Mechanical Philosophy 15

Automata in Plato and Aristotle 17

Chapter 2 Expressions of the Moving Radius Principle in the Fourth Century BC 21

The Aristotelian Mechanics 22

Two Versions in Plato and Aristotle 25

The Lever In Aristotle's Movement of Animals 31

Physical Problems XVI 39

A New Proportional Rule 45

Classification of Expressions by Texts 48

Chapter 3 Kinesthetic Awareness, Experience, and Phainoomena 51

The Moving Radius in Kinesthetic Awareness 55

Empeiria and Universals 63

Experience and Natural Philosophy 75

Chapter 4 Phoinomena in Aristotle's Astronomy 83

Phainomena and Propositional Knowledge 84

Percepts and Intelligibility 87

Experience and Concentric Circles in the Heavens 97

Mechanical Properties as Perceived 103

Theorem Ta Phoinomena 104

Chapter 5 Dunamis and Automata in Aristotle's Movement of Animals 107

Prospectus 107

What is Movement of Animals About? 110

The Rolling Cone in Movement of Animals 7 113

Dunamis, Leverage, and Form 124

Dunamis as Active Receptivity 135

Chapter 6 Dunamis in Aristotle's Embryology 141

Causes and Motion in Embryology 142

Dunamis and Matter 146

The Sensitive Soul and the Nutritive Soul 151

The Micro-Structure of Movement 153

Dunamis, Soul, and Efficient Cause 159

Chapter 7 Leverage and Balance in Physical Problems XVI 163

Scientific Problems in the Aristotelian School Literature 165

The Related Topics of Book XVI 170

Constraint and Curved Motion 173

The Rebound of Objects from a Surface, Falling, and the Descent of Airborne Objects 181

The Cone, the Cylinder, and the Scroll 188

Archytas on the Shape of Growth 195

An Aristotelian Argument for the Proportion of Equality 207

The Rounding of Shells in the Surf 214

Summary and Results 216

Chapter 8 The Maturity of Kinematics in the Aristotelian Mechanics 221

Physical Problems XVI and Mechanics 1 221

The Demonstration of Mechanics 1 225

The Scholarly Context 236

Chapter 9 Did Aristotle have a Dynamics? 249

An Interpretive Frame 249

Multi-Variant Movement in Physics IV.8 254

Continuum Reasoning Without Mechanics 269

Homonymy in Physics VII 281

Summary 296

Coda on the Sequence of Aristotle's Interests 297

Chapter 10 Weight and Mathematical Science 301

Quantity and Proportion 303

Weight in Plato 306

Aristotle's Criticism of Earlier Cosmology 312

Aristotle on Quantity and Relation 318

Mechanics and Pha'momena in Posterior Analytics 1.13 326

Proportionality and Commonality 336

Chapter 11 Aristotle's Empiricism in Cognitive History 339

The Fundamental Insight of Mechanics 339

Proportional Reasoning and Versions of Action 352

A Summation of Coming to Know 361

Conclusion

Empiricism and Experience 363

The Other Aristotle 366

Bibliography

Primary Sources 371

Texts 371

Translations and Modern Commentaries 373

Secondary Sources 374

Index Locorum 389

Index of Names and Subjects 397

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