Aristotle's Sublunary Elements.
After a long time, my monograph, Aristotle's Sublunary Elements, should be published in late February 2027.
Information from Brill's website: https://brill.com/display/title/68299
Chapter Abstracts
Chapter 1: Simple sublunary bodies and ‘elements’: Aristotle’s stoicheia
Aristotle identifies elements (stoicheia) as the primary constituents of things. While it is common to think of Aristotle’s four simple sublunary bodies (earth, water, air, and fire) as ‘elements’, it is not clear that these bodies are, indeed, elements in the strict sense. Chapter 1 examines textual evidence in favour of three different interpretations of elements (stoicheia) in Aristotle, and ultimately, argues that the three different interpretations are not incompatible.
Chapter 2: Elemental generation in On Generation and Corruption 2.4
In De Caelo 3.6, Aristotle establishes that the simple sublunary bodies must be generated from one another, and in On Generation and Corruption 2.4, explains how they are generated from one another. Aristotle’s explanation in GC 2.4 introduces two interpretative questions: first, it is unclear how each of the sublunary elements relates to each of the others; and second, it is unclear whether Aristotle’s explanation is consistent with his more general views about unqualified generation. Chapter 2 addresses the first question, and argues that in GC 2.4, Aristotle introduces three distinct mechanisms whereby one simple sublunary element changes into one of the others.
Chapter 3: Unqualified generation and a puzzle for Aristotle’s elements
Chapter 3 takes up the second question introduced by On Generation and Corruption 2.4: namely, whether Aristotle’s explanation of elemental generation is consistent with his more general views about unqualified generation. Chapter 3 introduces a puzzle for Aristotle’s elements, and shows how three distinct interpretations avoid the puzzle by rejecting or modifying one or both controversial assumptions that lead to the puzzle. Ultimately, the chapter concludes that none of the three standard interpretations successfully resolve the puzzle.
Chapter 4: Solution Part 1: Matter as a subject and matter as a constituent
Chapter 4 offers a first step toward a solution to the puzzle for Aristotle’s elements introduced in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 argues that in unqualified generation, the concepts of matter as potentiality and matter as subject come apart. When applied to the puzzle for elemental generation in Aristotle, this implies that when one simple body is generated from another, matter persists as a potentiality and constituent but does not persist as a subject.
Chapter 5: Solution Part 2: Primary contraries and elemental hylomorphism
Chapter 5 applies the general solution offered in Chapter 4 to the specific instances of elemental generation that Aristotle examines in On Generation and Corruption 2.4. In doing so, Chapter 5 argues that sublunary elements are hylomorphic compounds, with distinct primary contraries that function as matter and form. The chapter also briefly addresses the further question of prime matter and its role in the unqualified generation of the elements.
Chapter 6: Qualities and the Primary Contraries
Chapter 6 examines the primary contraries (heat, cold, moisture, and dryness) from which simple sublunary bodies are constructed. Chapter 6 first shows that the primary contraries are best understood as powers of bodies, and establishes two ways in which other powers in the category of quality supervene upon these four. Then, Chapter 6 offers an account of the special perceptible qualities that sublunary elements both have and lack. The chapter concludes that sublunary elements have their perceptible qualities essentially.
Chapter 7: Quantity, place, and the powers of bodies
Chapter 7 turns to a further question about the features of sublunary bodies within the categories of quantity and place. The chapter begins by identifying contraries within the categories of quantity and place. Then, the chapter argues that for Aristotle, the contrary powers rare-dense and light-heavy determine the proper quantity and proper place for inanimate sublunary bodies. Accordingly, changes in quantity and changes in proper place are underwritten by changes in a body’s degree of rarity or density and lightness or heaviness.
Chapter 8: Proper place and form in De Caelo 4.3
In De Caelo 4.3, Aristotle explains why light bodies tend to be moved upward and heavy bodies tend to be moved downward. Chapter 8 offers a close reading of Aristotle’s explanation in De Caelo 4.3, arguing that that the text introduces a close relationship between a body’s quantitative form and proper place. As a result, Chapter 8 demonstrates that contrary to a standard interpretation of the text, De Caelo 4.3 provides no strong reason to conclude that Aristotle’s discussion of elemental locomotion in De Caelo 4 is separate from, or inconsistent with, his discussion of elemental structure and transformation in On Generation and Corruption 2.4.
Chapter 9: Heaviness, lightness, and the primary contraries
Chapter 9 establishes a stronger relationship between the primary qualitative contraries (heat, cold, moisture, and dryness) and a body’s powers as rare or dense and light or heavy. Chapter 9 examines Aristotle’s discussion of relative heaviness and lightness in De Caelo 4.4, and argues that a standard interpretation does not allow Aristotle to make sense of the four simple sublunary bodies as four distinct types of matter. As an alternative, Chapter 9 shows that by grounding heaviness and lightness in heat, cold, moisture, and dryness, it is possible to adequately and consistently explain the arrangement of sublunary bodies within the sublunary region.
Chapter 10: Proper Place, Actual Place, and Elemental Nature
Chapter 10 addresses two challenges to the account of simple sublunary bodies developed in Chapters 6-9. By offering an interpretation of Physics 8.4, Chapter 10 argues that simple sublunary bodies can frequently be heavy or light while they exist outside of their proper places: in these cases, bodies are heavy or light as a first actuality, rather than a second actuality or fulfilment. Furthermore, Chapter 10 argues that simple sublunary bodies have two-sided natures: while the activity of a simple sublunary body is being at rest in its proper place, each body also possesses a passive potentiality to be changed into a different body and acquire a different proper place.
Chapter 11: Sublunary elements in GC 2.1-4 and De Caelo 4: Extensions and limitations
Chapter 11 examines two limitations on the case for consistency between GC 2.1-4 and De Caelo 4 developed in the earlier chapters of the book, and argues that GC 2.1-4 remains incomplete when compared with De Caelo 4 because it explicitly ignores teleological explanation. The final section of the chapter briefly considers a further question about the formal and numerical identity of simple sublunary elements.