Void in Aristotle’s Physics and in the Greek Philosophical Tradition

The purpose of this project is to write a thorough and exhaustive monograph on the treatment of void in Aristotle and Greek philosophical tradition, accompanied by a philological inquiry into the constitution of the text of the relevant chapters of Aristotle’s Physics (IV 6–9).

The project examines in depth the Aristotelian rebuttal of void and analyses the reasons why his theory was not considered successful by later commentators. Furthermore, I shall investigate the theories of void proposed by other ancient philosophers, both among Aristotle’s predecessors (i.e. Atomists and Pythagoreans) and successors (i.e. Stoics and Epicureans).