Publisher's Synopsis
These two volumes of essays by outstanding Aristotelian scholars, philosophers of science, and scientists explore the relevance of Aristotle's thought to developments in contemporary science in such diverse fields as Newtonian and quantum mechanics, relativity theory, mathematics, cosmology, biology, psychology, philosophy of mind, logic, ethics, politics, poetics, and economics. In addition, they offer original and enlightening perspectives on how Aristotle's thinking can help us solve problems concerning scientific knowledge and method, demonstrative science, explanation, mechanistic determinism, teleology, and realism. Although not all the contributors are in accord as to Aristotle's success in answering questions of our own day, their exploration of the Stagirite's thought contributes to a deepening of our understanding of such fundamental concepts as time, infinity, continuity, matter, causation, mind, soul, life, and potentiality and shows why Aristotle is so very alive today. These volumes are the result of the 1997 Aristotle and Contemporary Science International Conference held at the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece. The conference was host to eighty scholars from Belgium, Canada, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Volume I includes essays initially presented in the plenary sessions, while volume II is a collection of selected papers presented at the conference.
