Aristotle's Empiricism: Experience and Mechanics in the 4th Century BC
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Aristotle's Empiricism: Experience and Mechanics in the 4th Century BC

Aristotle's Empiricism: Experience and Mechanics in the 4th Century BC

By
Jean De Groot (Author)  

Paperback

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In Aristotle's Empiricism, Jean De Groot argues that an important part of Aristotle's natural philosophy has remained largely unexplored. She shows that much of Aristotle's analysis of natural movement is influenced by mathematical mechanics that emerged from late Pythagorean thought. De Groot draws upon the pseudo-Aristotelian Physical Problems XVI to reconstruct the context of mechanics of Aristotle's time and to trace the development of kinematic thinking from Archytas to the Aristotelian Mechanics. She argues that the influence of kinematics on Aristotle pinpoints the original meaning of his concept of power, or potentiality, as a physicalistic meaning addressed to the problem of movement. De Groot identifies epistemic features of kinematics as a scientific enterprise, including economy of explanation and direct inference to a principle. She shows how these features are woven into Aristotle's thinking in the motion books of the Physics, On the Heavens, and Movement of Animals. The book places in doubt both the view that Aristotle's natural philosophy codifies opinions held by convention and, alternatively, the view that the cogency of his scientific ideas depends on metaphysics. 61 illustrations
Jean De Groot is a professor in the school of philosophy at The Catholic University of America, USA. She received her Ph.D. in History of Science at Harvard University, where she studied the history of early mechanics and wrote her dissertation on ancient optics. She went on to study 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. Since that time, she has taught philosophy courses, focusing on the logic and natural philosophy of Aristotle and twentieth century philosophy of science. She lives in Arlington, Virginia. She and her husband have three daughters.
  • Contributor: Jean De Groot
  • Imprint: Parmenides Publishing
  • ISBN13: 9781930972834
  • Number of Pages: 468
  • Packaged Dimensions: 152x229mm
  • Packaged Weight: 783
  • Format: Paperback
  • Publisher: Parmenides Publishing
  • Release Date: 2014-05-30
  • Binding: Paperback / softback
  • Biography: Jean De Groot is a professor in the school of philosophy at The Catholic University of America, USA. She received her Ph.D. in History of Science at Harvard University, where she studied the history of early mechanics and wrote her dissertation on ancient optics. She went on to study 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. Since that time, she has taught philosophy courses, focusing on the logic and natural philosophy of Aristotle and twentieth century philosophy of science. She lives in Arlington, Virginia. She and her husband have three daughters.

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