Mariska Leunissen recently published Explanation and Teleology in Aristotle’s Science of Nature (2010). Aristotle’s study of the natural world plays an important role in his philosophical thought. He was highly interested in notions such as motion, causation, place, time, and teleology, and his reflections on these concepts are collected in his Physics, a treatise of eight books. In this edited volume, Leunissen brings together research that takes into account recent changes in the field of Aristotelian studies. The volume does not focus on the history, unity, or structure of Aristotle’s Physics. Rather, each of the chapters engages with recent changes in Aristotelian scholarship by either reassessing key concepts of Aristotle’s natural philosophy, reconstructing Aristotle’s methods for the study of nature, or determining the boundaries of Aristotle’s natural philosophy. There are 14 chapters in addition to the Introduction by Leunissen comprising this volume. In what follows, I will highlight some salient points from the chapters.
In reassessing key concepts of Aristotle’s natural philosophy, in Chapters 2-7, various contributors discuss the notions of nature, chance, teleology, and art. In Chapters 8-13, other contributors revise the traditional understandings of Aristotle’s notion of kinesis, which is variously translated as change, process, or motion. In reconstructing Aristotle’s methods for the study of nature, several of the chapters work towards closing the gap in existing scholarship by offering interpretations of what it means according to Aristotle to investigate things physikos—i.e., in the manner of a natural scientist, how this method relates to other methods available to the philosopher, and how methodological concerns stemming from the Posterior Analytics drive the conversation in Physics. In determining the boundaries of Aristotle’s natural philosophy, several of the chapters deal with Aristotle’s ethics and metaphysics.
In the introduction, Leunissen notes that within the Physics, Aristotle investigates the principles and causes of all natural things in general and, in the course of doing so, defines a large number of key concepts of his philosophy. Moreover, therein he specifies his methodological guidelines for how one should study natural entities. In this way, Leunissen contends, Aristotle lays out his conceptual apparatus and methodological framework for all of his natural philosophy, including his psychology, biology, and other inquiries.
In Chapter 1, James Lennox addresses three methodological questions regarding the science of nature, arguing that Aristotle believes each scientific domain is governed by norms for inquiry that are specific for that individual domain, and not another. Sean Kelsey, in Chapter 2, addresses Aristotle’s definition of nature in Physics II.I, tracing it through the rest of the Physics, where explicit mention of the concept is scarce. According to Kelsey, Aristotle’s definition of nature functions as a kind of instruction for how to interpret the phenomena of nature. Chapter 3 also focuses on Aristotle’s definition of nature in Physics, but Stasinos Stavrianeas herein provides an assessment of the content and meaning of Aristotle’s definition of nature as used in Physics; Stavrianeas believes that Aristotle intentionally leaves the definition of nature vague and general in Physics, which would allow him to further specify it in later treatises. In Chapter 4, James Allen reinterprets Aristotle’s notion of luck and spontaneity, which are both types of chance, in Physics II.4-6, by showing that chance is not an alternative to teleological explanations, but is an inevitable byproduct of final causes instead.
Margaret Scharle offers a new interpretation of Aristotle’s rainfall example in Physics II.8 in Chapter 5, claiming that Aristotle sees winter rainfall as a natural phenomenon that is also teleological. Against standard readings that have downplayed the import of Aristotle’s analogy between art and nature for his argument in favour of natural teleology, Charlotte Witt argues, in Chapter 6, that artifacts have intrinsic ends and proper functions just like natural beings. Robert Bolton, in Chapter 7, focuses on Aristotle’s account for the origin of natural teleology noting that, for Aristotle, teleology is not—contra Plato—reducible to efficient causes.
In Chapter 9, Diana Quarantotto analyzes Aristotle’s concepts of change and substantial being, noting that his conclusions are a major innovation over the Greek tradition of natural philosophy. David Charles, in Chapter 10, analyzes Aristotle’s definition of process in Physics III.1-3 and what this definition entails, analyzes Aristotle’s account of the individual processes in Physics III.3, and analyzes the nature and role of the concept of actuality in Aristotle’s definitions of process. Leunissen makes her own contribution in Chapter 12, noting what changes one undergoes when acquiring virtues of character, according to Aristotle; she notes that, in a way, Physics provides a physical ground for Aristotle’s political science. In Chapter 13, Usula Coope notes how Aristotle characterizes self-movers as both being a part that produces the movement while being itself unmoved, and a part that is moved. Finally, in Chapter 14, Andrea Falcon argues that Aristotle’s treatment of the unmoved mover does not go beyond the boundaries of natural philosophy, offering instead a single and extended natural scientific argument concerned with eternal motion.
All in all, one who has interests in Ancient philosophy generally, and Aristotelian philosophy in particular, cannot go wrong with the purchase and consumption of this title. It is a profitable read, as the contributors’ insights into the enduring questions that the Physics addresses—i.e., nature, cause, change, time, and the ‘infinite’—are still pertinent today. To understand the intellectual assumptions of a powerful worldview—and the roots of our own scientific revolution—reading Aristotle’s Physics is critical. This critical guide enables one to understand the import of Aristotle’s positions for today’s environment.
