Martina Buston

Summary of doctoral thesis: My research project investigates Aristotle’s discussion of infinity with reference to two aspects of the physical world: its spatial extension and its temporal duration. In Physics 3 and De Caelo 1, Aristotle argues extensively that the universe is spatially finite and temporally infinite, two theses that were not granted in his time and that remained controversial afterwards. That Aristotle was committed to these theses is unproblematic; but interesting questions arise concerning their grounds and implications, as well as their role in Aristotle’s overall model of the physical world. Since no systematic examination of the relevant texts has been made so far, I intend to achieve a better understanding of Aristotle’s ideas, primarily focusing on the following issues: how does Aristotle establish such claims, and what are his main reasons for endorsing them? In what respects does Aristotle’s discussion differ in the cases of spatial extension and temporal duration? And how are both his claims and his arguments connected to his general views on time, spatial magnitude, motion, and infinity? In this way, I hope to shed some light on important aspects of Aristotle’s physics, and at the same time explore understudied texts within the Aristotelian corpus.

Other research interests: Metaphysics, History of physics, Logic, Textual criticism