Aristotle's Natural Philosophy

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

The course will focus on the first four books of Aristotle’s Physics, a text which shaped the way of understanding the physical world for many centuries (including the whole of the Middle Ages). The course will begin with a brief overview of Aristotle’s theory of science and of the theory of deduction that lies at its foundation and will then proceed to analyze Aristotle’s treatment of some concepts that are important for our understanding of the physical world: monism, becoming, causality, teleology, chance, change, place, the infinite, void, and time. The course will be a combination of upfront lectures by the instructor and presentations of important articles or chapters of books which will be offered by students. Active contribution to the class discussion will be of the greatest importance and will contribute to the final evaluation of the student’s performance in the course. The evaluation will also be based on three written essays (but every presentation offered to the class by the student will exempts him or her from writing one of the essays).