Aristotle (Harold Joachim, ed.)
Oxford University Press (Clarendon Press), 1999 (reprint of 1926 edition).
Cloth, dj. 344 pp.
Book Number 20947
The foremost textual critic and interpreter of Spinoza and Aristotle of his generation, Harold Joachim provides a completely revised text of De generatione et Corruptione based on a collation of six manuscripts, and taking into consideration the commentary of Philoponus and the 15th century Latin translation by Asulanus. Following the Physics and De Caelo, Aristotle's treatise on coming-to-be and passing-away forms a part of his natural philosophy which defines a type of change, distinct from alteration, growth or diminution, among 'simple' natural sublunary bodies. Joachim describes the work as "full of allusions to the speculations of his predecessors and contemporaries" and 'inextricably interwoven with the theories elaborated in his other works,² and this philosophical richness is fully explored in the Commentary. The Preface details the manuscript sources and the Introduction offers a lucid account of Aristotle's conception of a 'science' and the place of De generatione et Corruptione in his writings on natural philosophy.