Aristotle: Physics (in Greek)

Aristotle is not concerned in this work to do physics in the modern sense (for that enquiry one must read his On the Heavens and On Generation and Corruption), but to examine a number of important philosophical issues relating to the study of the natural world in general. These include the concept of nature itself; the types of explanation required in natural science (including the issue of the legitimacy of teleological explanation in biology); chance; the nature of change; time; infinity; a critique of the various atomistic theories; and an extended argument designed to show that the changes in the natural world must depend in some way on an unchanging first principle. The Physics will have less direct connection with other philosophical subjects that you might study than the Nicomachean Ethics; on the other hand it is in some ways a better introduction to Aristotle himself - his distinctive approach to philosophical method is much more evident, and central Aristotelian concepts such as substance, form, and cause play a much greater role.

The examination includes a compulsory question with passages for translation and critical comment, as well as essay questions. You will be expected to have read books I-IV and VIII in Greek (Ross, Oxford Classical Texts), and books V-VII in translation (in Barnes, ed., The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation (Princeton), vol. 1). There will be a compulsory question containing passages for translation and comment from the books read in Greek; any passages for comments from the remaining books will be accompanied by a translation.