Judson, Lindsay (ed.) - Aristotle’s Physics: A Collection of Essays

Aristotle begins his Physics, and thus his studies in natural science generally, with a chapter on method. Further remarks on this subject are added at crucial junctures later in the work, particularly in the subsequent chapters of Book I and in Book IV. This concern with method in the Physics is just one prominent example of the explicit and self-conscious attention to method which is displayed in nearly all of Aristotle's major works. Among other things, this interest reflects the lively concern, and the lively disagreement, among philosophers and scientists in Aristotle's own day not only about positive doctrine in various areas but also about the proper method or methods to use to reach such doctrine.¹