ENGLISH

Aristotle and Mathematics: Aporetic Method in Cosmology and Metaphysics

By John J. Cleary

Book information

Publisher
Brill Academic Publishers
Year
1995
ISBN
9004101594, 9789004101593
ISSN
0079-168
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
49 MB (51668886 bytes)
Series
Philosophia Antiqua 67
Pages
xxxvi+558\602
DPI
300
Orientation
portrait
Paginated
yes
Scanned
yes
Time added
2016-07-06 07:17:54
Decorative Arts;Decorative Arts & Design;Arts & PhHobbies & Home;Mathematics;Applied;Geometry & Topo

Description

John Cleary here explores the role which the mathematical sciences play in Aristotle's philosophical thought, especially in his cosmology, metaphysics, and epistemology. He also thematizes the aporetic method by means of which he deals with philosophical questions about the foundations of mathematics. The first two chapters consider Plato's mathematical cosmology in the light of Aristotle's critical distinction between physics and mathematics. Subsequent chapters examine three basic aporiae about mathematical objects which Aristotle himself develops in his science of first philosophy. What emerges from this dialectical inquiry is a different conception of substance and of order in the universe, which gives priority to physics over mathematics as the cosmological science. Within this different world-view, we can better understand what we now call Aristotle's philosophy of mathematics.

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