Aristotle’s Account of the Immobility of Place: A Cold Case

Phronesis 67 (4):421-461 (2022)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

At least since the Neoplatonic commentators, Aristotle’s thesis that place is immobile has been considered a serious problem for his theory of place and locomotion. This diagnosis, however, is essentially based on a single passage (212a14–21)—the famous passage on the boat moving in a river—which interpreters find both central and obscure or imprecise, and which has so far resisted a literal reading. I tackle this issue by considering texts hitherto neglected by scholars and propose a new and charitable interpretation, showing the consistency of Aristotle’s thesis of the immobility of place with his general theory of change, as well as a fresh reading of ll. 212a14–21 that stays close to the text. Further, I argue that there are good reasons to believe that the interpretation I put forward is the most ancient one.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

On location: Aristotle's concept of place.Benjamin Morison - 2002 - New York: Oxford University Press.
On Location. [REVIEW]Thomas V. Upton - 2004 - Review of Metaphysics 57 (4):858-861.
Dynamic Boundaries.Nathan Andersen - 2004 - Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 25 (1):5-29.
The Place of Intellect in Aristotle.Kurt Pritzl - 2006 - Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 80:57-75.
Aristotle's Two Modal Theses Again.Stephen Makin - 1999 - Phronesis 44 (2):114-126.
The Place of Intellect in Aristotle.Kurt Pritzl - 2006 - Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 80:57-75.
Aristotle’s Notion of ‘Place’ in the Context of Present-day Physics.Elena Mamchur - 2016 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 30 (4):319-326.
Chronos in Aristotle’s Physics.Chelsea C. Harry - 2015 - Dordrecht: Springer International Publishing.

Analytics

Added to PP
2022-09-08

Downloads
20 (#656,247)

6 months
4 (#319,344)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Diana Quarantotto
Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza

References found in this work

Aristotle’s Theory of Bodies.Christian Pfeiffer - 2018 - Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
L'espace et le temps selon Aristote.Joseph Moreau - 1969 - Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 25 (1):97-98.
Aristotle's Physics.Edward Hussey - 1983 - Philosophical Review 94 (2):270-273.

View all 7 references / Add more references