Aristotle's "Physics" and Its Medieval Varieties (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 161 age Navia to take on that delicate task, for the idea of"presence" might prove provocative if freshly worked out. ELINOR J. M. WESX Long Island University Helen S. Lang. Aristotle's "Physics" and Its Medieval Varieties. SUNY Series in Ancient Greek Philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press, 199~. Pp. ix + 3~. Board, $44.5o. Paper, $14.95. In plan, this is an admirable and exciting book. In Part I, on Aristotle's Physics, Helen Lang considers four self-contained problems: Aristotle's definition of nature; parts, wholes and motion (Physics7.1); why fire goes up; and Aristotle's location of the prime mover at the edge of the cosmos (Physics 8.1o). In Part II, she then considers the medieval varieties of Aristotelian physics: Aristotle and Philoponus on things that are by nature; the influence of Neoplatonism on Albertus Magnus; the structure of physics for Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and Buridan; and the views of Duns Scotus on the place of angels. The tone is set in the introduction. There is no internal evidence for the order of composition of Aristotle's works, Lang argues, so theories of Aristotle's intellectual development, such as that of Werner Jaeger, are circular, and depend on the historian 's own ideas of what is a better or more mature position. It is better to admit that, although Aristotle's works may have been written and rewritten over a period of time, we cannot now distinguish earlier and later parts. On the other hand, according to Lang, Aristotle's works are consistently written in modular form and intended to be the basis of argument or discussion within Aristotle's school. Each separate part or "treatise" of a work like the Physics discusses a single main problem, which is stated at the beginning of that treatise. So, for example, according to Lang, Book 7 of the Physics is devoted to the proposition that everything moved is moved by something, while Book 8 attempts to prove only that motion in things must be eternal. Thus, although the Prime Mover may be introduced in Book 8, this is not the main point of the Book, and it is misguided to attempt to derive Aristotle's opinion on the Prime Mover from Book 8. In Part II, Lang then shows how the Physics was reinterpreted by its medieval commentators, so that the physics of Philoponus, Albertus Magnus, Buridan, and Duns Scotus was significantly different from that of Aristotle himself. Philoponus connects Aristotle's conception of nature as an intrinsic source of being moved to Plato's concept of souls as self-movers and thereby redefines the problem being addressed . Although Philoponus's work was not translated into Latin until long after Albertus Magnus, he was nevertheless a "silent partner in Latin Aristotelianism" through his influence on the Arabic commentators. Buridan, according to Lang, was profoundly influenced by Thomas Aquinas's view that Physics 8 is a proof of God's existence, though this is not a correct understanding of Aristotle's intent. By revising Aristotelian views of place in order to discuss the theological problem of the place of 162 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 33:1 JANUARY 1995 angels, Duns Scotus brought about a radical change within physics itself resulting from the centrality of the concept of place within Aristotelian physics. While the 187 pages that constitute the body of this book are addressed to the texts of Aristotle and his medieval commentators, there are nearly a hundred pages of notes in which the more recent secondary literature is addressed, as well as quotations of the sources provided, and there is also a twenty-seven-page bibliography. But if, overall, this is a stimulating book, unfortunately, some of Lang's major points are based upon misread texts. The text of Physics 8.4 will not support her argument in Chapter 3 that for AristotLe the natural place "upward" is the essential cause that moves fire up. In Chapter 8, Lang says that Scotus redefines place to be the extension of the body. The point at issue, however, concerns not the dimensions of the body in place, but those of the medium...