Walter Burley and Text 71
The famous argument which Aristotle employs in that passage of his Physics known to the Schoolmen as Text 71 of Averroes' commentary on the fourth book, enjoys a long and distinguished history. Projected originally as a critique of the Atomists' most fundamental position — i.e., that reali...
| Published in: | Traditio |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge University Press
1960
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| In: |
Traditio
Year: 1960, Volume: 16, Pages: 395-404 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The famous argument which Aristotle employs in that passage of his Physics known to the Schoolmen as Text 71 of Averroes' commentary on the fourth book, enjoys a long and distinguished history. Projected originally as a critique of the Atomists' most fundamental position — i.e., that reality is ultimately reducible to matter in motion through the void — it proved still later, as E. A. Moody and others have shown, to be equally potent as a germinal agent. The argument itself embodies, as basic, Aristole's belief that the speed with which a heavy body falls through corporeal media of diverse densities is in inverse proportion to the densities of the resistant media. Hence, Aristotle holds that the velocity of a body falling freely through a rarefied medium will be proportionally greater than if that body were passing through a more dense medium. It follows on this assumption that were a body to be let drop through a medium offering no resistance — a void — its speed would be infinitely great. As the traversal of a finite magnitude of totally evacuated space would thus, necessarily, be accomplished in no time at all, Aristotle concludes the impossibility of any motion taking place in a void. |
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| ISSN: | 2166-5508 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Traditio
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0362152900006140 |