The systems of Plato and Aristotle compared as to their contributions to physics
pp. 197-206
in: Wolfgang Spohn, Brian Skyrms, Bas C. van Fraassen (eds), Existence and explanation, Berlin, Springer, 1991Abstract
The science of kinematics did not arise before Christian Huyghens was able to analyse circular motion, though this analysis was implicit in Descartes' reflections and, from the time of Eudoxus and especially Ptolemy on, ingenious techniques concerning the measurement of superimposed or deformed circular motions had been developped in celestial kinematics. As to dynamics, if the law of falling bodies is due to Galileo and the principle of inertia is conceived in its generality by Descartes, the principles of motion find their first systematic expression in Newton's Principia. Newton's principles and their development during the 19th century gave to the relation between kinematics and dynamics a form which has been questioned by quantum mechanics. I aim to seek in the philosophical analysis of the concept of motion by Plato and Aristotle some explanations of the difficulties discovered in the relations between kinematics and dynamics and more generally in the history of physics.
