SOURCE: An introduction to Aristotle's "Physics ": A Guided Study, Rutgers University Press, 1995, pp. 31-52.

In the following essay, Sachs introduces Aristotle's Physics by discussing its relevance to modern physics, by exploring the modern resistance to Aristotle's philosophic examination of physics, and by reviewing the content of the books of Physics. Sachs notes that the central themes of Physics include nature, cause, and motion.

Socrates: In those days, when people were not wise like you young people, they were content to listen to a tree or a rock in simple openness, just as long as it spoke the truth, but to you, perhaps, it makes a difference who is speaking and where he comes from, for you do not concentrate on this alone: is that the way things are, or not?

Phaedrus: You are right to rebuke me.

Philosophic Writing

The activity we call science is dependent upon and...