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5 - On Generation and Corruption II 4

from Part I - Introduction and Interpretative Essays

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2022

Panos Dimas
Affiliation:
Universitetet i Oslo
Andrea Falcon
Affiliation:
Concordia University, Montréal
Sean Kelsey
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame, Indiana
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Summary

After arguing that each of the elements can come to be out of each of the three others, the bulk of GC II 4 presents and compares the speed and ease of three mechanisms by which the elements change into one another. While scholars have thought these three mechanisms are narrowly focused on individual changes, i.e., the three ways an element can change into each of the others, on my interpretation, the three mechanisms describe every possible complete cycle by which all four elements come to be, either singly or pairwise. Thus, I understand Aristotle’s interest in speed and ease as an interest in which mechanism generates all four elements most quickly and easily. My interpretation shows Aristotle builds on passages other scholars and translators have deemed textual oddities or mistakes and has the additional advantage of showing that Aristotle’s interest in the relative speed and ease of cycles of elemental transformation lays the groundwork for his metaphysical and scientific projects in GC II 10 and the Meteorology.

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Aristotle: On Generation and Corruption Book II
Introduction, Translation, and Interpretative Essays
, pp. 79 - 104
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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