Structure and Method in Aristotle's Meteorologica
A More Disorderly Nature

This book decodes the Meteorologica and shows how it provides the key to understanding Aristotle's natural philosophy.

Malcolm Wilson (Author)

9781107617254, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 March 2016

322 pages, 12 b/w illus.
23 x 15.5 x 1.6 cm, 0.47 kg

'In this remarkable book, Malcolm Wilson returns Meteorologica I-III to its important place in Aristotle's account of the natural world.' Craig Martin, Early Science and Medicine

In the first full-length study in any modern language dedicated to the Meteorologica, Malcolm Wilson presents a groundbreaking interpretation of Aristotle's natural philosophy. Divided into two parts, the book first addresses general philosophical and scientific issues by placing the treatise in a diachronic frame comprising Aristotle's predecessors and in a synchronic frame comprising his other physical works. It argues that Aristotle thought of meteorological phenomena as intermediary or 'dualizing' between the cosmos as a whole and the manifold world of terrestrial animals. Engaging with the best current literature on Aristotle's theories of science and metaphysics, Wilson focuses on issues of aetiology, teleology and the structure and unity of science. The second half of the book illustrates Aristotle's principal concerns in a section-by-section treatment of the meteorological phenomena and provides solutions to many of the problems that have been raised since the time of the ancient commentators.

Introduction
1. The rebirth of meteorology
2. From elements to exhalations
3. The exhalations
4. The biological method
5. Teleology in the Meteorologica
6. Kapnosphere
7. Condensation and precipitation (1.9-12)
8. Fresh waters (1.13-14)
9. The sea (2.1-3)
10. Winds (2.4-6)
11. Earthquakes and stormy phenomena (2.7-3.1)
12. Reflections (3.2-6)
13. Minerals and metals.

Subject Areas: Meteorology & climatology [RBP], History of science [PDX], History of ideas [JFCX], Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]