On Generation and Corruption

On Generation and Corruption (or "De Generatione et Corruptione") is a text by Aristotle. Like many of his texts, it is both scientific and philosophic. The philosophy, though, is dependant on the scientific; as in all Aristotle's works, the deductions made about the unexperienced and unobservabled are based on observations and real experiences.

The question raised at the begining of the text builds on an idea from Aristotle's earlier work "The Physics." Namely, whether things come into being through causes, through some prime material, or whether everything is generated purely through "alteration."

From this important work Aristotle gives us two of his most remembered contributions. First, the Four Causes and also the Four Elements (earth, wind, fire, and water). He uses these four elements to provide an explanation for the theories of other Greeks concerning atoms, an idea Aristotle considered absurd.

text translated by H. H. Joachim

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