The Physics (Greek: Φυσικὴ ἀκρόασις Phusike akroasis; Latin: Physica, or Naturales Auscultationes, possibly meaning "lectures on nature") is a named text, written in ancient Greek, collated from a collection of surviving manuscripts known as the Corpus Aristotelicum, attributed to the 4th-century BC philosopher Aristotle. The meaning of physics in Aristotle It is a collection of treatises or lessons that deals with the most general (philosophical) principles of natural or moving things, both living and non-living, rather than physical theories (in the modern sense) or investigations of the particular contents of the universe. The chief purpose of the work is to discover the principles and causes of (and not merely to describe) change, or movement, or motion (κίνησις kinesis), especially that of natural wholes (mostly living things, but also inanimate wholes like the cosmos). In the conventional Andronicean ordering of Aristotle's works, it stands at the head of, as well as being foundational to, the long series of physical, cosmological and biological treatises, whose ancient Greek title, τὰ φυσικά, means "the [writings] on nature" or "natural philosophy". Description of the content The Physics is composed of eight books, which are further divided into chapters. This system is of ancient origin, now obscure. In modern languages, books are referenced with Roman numerals, standing for ancient Greek capital letters (the Greeks represented numbers with letters, e.g. A for 1). Chapters are identified by Arabic numerals, but the use of the English word "chapter" is strictly conventional. Ancient "chapters" (capita) are generally very short, often less than a page. Additionally, the Bekker numbers give the page and column (a or b) used in the Prussian Academy of Sciences' edition of Aristotle's works, instigated and managed by Bekker himself. These are evident in the 1831 2-volume edition. Bekker's line numbers may be given. These are often given, but unless the edition is the Academy's, they do match any line counts.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“At present, physicists are enamoured of symmetry and search only for continuous pictures of fundamental physics. Maybe, one day, they will be motivated to look at possible structures of a fundamentally discrete world.”
— John D. Barrow, Theories of Everything: The Quest for Ultimate Explanation (1991) p. 37
“Physics is not just a set of true facts and s and things like that. In many ways it's kind of an attitude. It's a way of thinking about different things.”
— Sean M. Carroll, (quote at 31:28 of 50:18 in video)
“The "paradox" is only a conflict between reality and your feeling of what reality "ought to be."”
— Richard Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964) Volume III, p. 18-9
“It is impossible, and it has always been impossible, to grasp the meaning of what we nowadays call physics independently of its mathematical form.”
— Jacob Klein, Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra (1968)
“It has seemed to me for some years that among physicists there is almost a cult, although certainly not an organized one, which I please to call a cult of obscurity. The creed of the cult is that a member disgraces the profession if he ever writes, lectures or teaches intelligibly to anyone but his immediate colleagues in the profession.”
— Robert N. Varney, "Obscurity cult", Physics Today, vol. 19, no. 7 (1966) p. 12
“... it's one thing in physics to write down the equations, but then you have to solve them — and that is sometimes easier said than done.”
— Edward Witten, interviewed in "How Do Scientific Breakthroughs Happen?", Closer to Truth (YouTube, March 13, 2021) at 12:42 of 15:43

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Overview

The Physics (Greek: Φυσικὴ ἀκρόασις Phusike akroasis; Latin: Physica, or Naturales Auscultationes, possibly meaning "lectures on nature") is a named text, written in ancient Greek, collated from a collection of surviving manuscripts known as the Corpus Aristotelicum, attributed to the 4th-century BC philosopher Aristotle. The meaning of physics in Aristotle It is a collection of treatises or lessons that deals with the most general (philosophical) principles of natural or moving things, both living and non-living, rather than physical theories (in the modern sense) or investigations of the particular contents of the universe. The chief purpose of the work is to discover the principles and causes of (and not merely to describe) change, or movement, or motion (κίνησις kinesis), especially that of natural wholes (mostly living things, but also inanimate wholes like the cosmos). In the conventional Andronicean ordering of Aristotle's works, it stands at the head of, as well as being foundational to, the long series of physical, cosmological and biological treatises, whose ancient Greek title, τὰ φυσικά, means "the [writings] on nature" or "natural philosophy". Description of the content The Physics is composed of eight books, which are further divided into chapters. This system is of ancient origin, now obscure. In modern languages, books are referenced with Roman numerals, standing for ancient Greek capital letters (the Greeks represented numbers with letters, e.g. A for 1). Chapters are identified by Arabic numerals, but the use of the English word "chapter" is strictly conventional. Ancient "chapters" (capita) are generally very short, often less than a page. Additionally, the Bekker numbers give the page and column (a or b) used in the Prussian Academy of Sciences' edition of Aristotle's works, instigated and managed by Bekker himself. These are evident in the 1831 2-volume edition. Bekker's line numbers may be given. These are often given, but unless the edition is the Academy's, they do match any line counts.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The Physics (Greek: Φυσικὴ ἀκρόασις Phusike akroasis; Latin: Physica, or Naturales Auscultationes, possibly meaning "lectures on nature") is a named text, written in ancient Greek, collated from a collection of surviving manuscripts known as the Corpus Aristotelicum, attributed to the 4th-century BC philosopher Aristotle.

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Notable quotes

“At present, physicists are enamoured of symmetry and search only for continuous pictures of fundamental physics. Maybe, one day, they will be motivated to look at possible structures of a fundamentally discrete world.”
— John D. Barrow, Theories of Everything: The Quest for Ultimate Explanation (1991) p. 37
“Physics is not just a set of true facts and s and things like that. In many ways it's kind of an attitude. It's a way of thinking about different things.”
— Sean M. Carroll, (quote at 31:28 of 50:18 in video)
“The "paradox" is only a conflict between reality and your feeling of what reality "ought to be."”
— Richard Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964) Volume III, p. 18-9
“It is impossible, and it has always been impossible, to grasp the meaning of what we nowadays call physics independently of its mathematical form.”
— Jacob Klein, Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra (1968)
“It has seemed to me for some years that among physicists there is almost a cult, although certainly not an organized one, which I please to call a cult of obscurity. The creed of the cult is that a member disgraces the profession if he ever writes, lectures or teaches intelligibly to anyone but his immediate colleagues in the profession.”
— Robert N. Varney, "Obscurity cult", Physics Today, vol. 19, no. 7 (1966) p. 12
“... it's one thing in physics to write down the equations, but then you have to solve them — and that is sometimes easier said than done.”
— Edward Witten, interviewed in "How Do Scientific Breakthroughs Happen?", Closer to Truth (YouTube, March 13, 2021) at 12:42 of 15:43

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

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