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Aristotelian Force as Newtonian Power

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

John Aidun
John Aidun*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics University of California, Berkeley
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Abstract

Aristotle's rule of proportions of the factors of motion, presented in VII 5 of the Physics, characterizes Aristotelian force. Observing that the locomotion to which Aristotle applied the Rule is the motion produced by manual labor, I develop an interpretation of the factors of motion that reveals that Aristotelian force is Newtonian power. An alternate interpretation of the Rule by Toulmin and Goodfield implicitly identifies Aristotelian force with Newtonian force. In order to account for the absence of an acceleration in the rate of forced motion, they incorporate into the Rule the medium's resistance to motion due to viscosity as an additional factor. The resulting interpretations of the original factors of motion lose the exactness the power interpretation grants them. The constant rate of forced motion follows immediately from the power interpretation. It is also compatible with the Rule's description of the motion that is produced by the sum of forces.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , June 1982 , pp. 228 - 235
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

I would like to express my appreciation for the critical comments and instruction given to me by Dr. Peter Achinstein.

References

REFERENCES

Apostle, H. G. (1969), Aristotle's Physics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Hope, R. (1961), Aristotle's Physics. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
McKeon, R. (1941), The Basic Works of Aristotle. New York: Random House, Inc.Google Scholar
Toulmin, S. (1963), Foresight and Understanding. New York: Harper and Row, Inc.Google Scholar
Toulmin, S. and Goodfield, J. (1965), The Fabric of the Heavens. New York: Harper and Row, Inc.Google Scholar