Tuesday, 3 April 2007
Aristotle and the Aristotelian Tradition in Antiquity: Physics as a Case Study
Andrea Falcon, Department of Philosophy, Concordia University
12:05 pm, 817R Cathedral of Learning

Abstract: Aristotle and the Aristotelian tradition are emphatically not one and the same thing. To study the formation and development of the Aristotelian tradition is to study the reception of Aristotle's thought in antiquity. This entails a study of how this thought was transformed and how it gave rise to a variety of different positions.  It is obviously possible to study Aristotle without studying the Aristotelian tradition, but a full understanding and appreciation of Aristotle's contribution to ancient thought involves a study of how Aristotle was understood in antiquity. I will argue that we can fully appreciate the audacity of some of his physical doctrines by placing these doctrines in their most natural context, namely ancient physics.