Deciphering Aristotle's Physics

Abstract

Aristotle’s Physics has long been held to be the seminal work on physics as physics progressed from philosophy to science. This thesis unravels certain elements of Aristotle’s Physics and gives helpful analysis and commentary so that the reader may approach the Physics and the concepts therein more easily and readily. The thesis is focused on Aristotle’s belief in the existence of an eternal and immobile first mover. In order to address the preceding concept, Chapter 1 defines and discusses motion, infinity, time and place. Chapter 2 continues to address motion by looking at contrary vs. contradictory things, as well as the concept of continuity as it relates to motion while also addressing Zeno’s argument against motion. Chapter 3 is the culmination of the thesis bringing together Aristotle’s concepts discussed in Chapters 1 and 2 to show how Aristotle proved there is an eternal and immobile first mover. Aristotle does this by proving the hypothesis that every moving thing must be moved by something, disproving the disjunction against a first mover, and tying together motion as to the eternal, and motion as to time, and time as to the eternal.