Physics

Philosophy

First published: 1472
Print length: 301 pagesOxford University Press, 2008

Description

Aristotle’s Physics investigates what it means for anything in nature to change. Proceeding through tightly linked arguments, the treatise examines motion and rest, matter and form, cause and explanation, and the puzzles posed by place, time, infinity, and continuity. Aristotle distinguishes natural objects, which possess internal principles of change, from artifacts, and develops the fourfold account of causation that shapes his explanations of growth, movement, and purpose. The work often begins with ordinary observations before testing the assumptions hidden inside them or confronting rival theories. More foundational inquiry than modern experimental physics, it asks what any coherent study of the natural world must explain before its specialized sciences can begin.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Academic · Dense · Technical

Pace

Slow

Tone

Cerebral · Earnest · Philosophical

Structure

Argumentative

Focus

Argument · Ideas

Emotional intensity

1 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 5 / 5
Ideas: 5 / 5
Structure: 4 / 5
Background knowledge: 3 / 5

Themes

Knowledge and truthNature and environment

About Aristotle

Aristotle (384–322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and polymath born in Stagira. He founded the Peripatetic school at the Lyceum in Athens, and his writings range across natural science, metaphysics, ethics, politics, language, and the arts. Across these subjects, he pursued a consistent method: defining the problem, considering accepted views and competing explanations, drawing careful distinctions, and reasoning toward causes or purposes. Whether examining change in Physics, cultivated character in the Nicomachean Ethics, or dramatic structure in Poetics, he sought the principles that make a subject intelligible while keeping abstract questions connected to observation, conduct, or practice. His surviving works are often dense and technical, developing through closely linked arguments, but their breadth reveals a thinker who treated the study of nature, human action, civic life, and art as related forms of disciplined inquiry.

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Oxford University Press
Language: English
ISBN: 9780199540280

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