Summary of doctoral thesis: Aristotle discusses absolute necessity and contrasts it with conditional necessity in several parts of the corpus. The notion of absolute necessity, however, is not clearly formulated by him and it seems to be used in different ways. The first aim of my thesis is to clarify how we should understand this type of necessity and whether there can be a unified account of it. The second question I will try to answer is regarding the realms in which this type of necessity is present. According to Aristotle’s view in On Generation and Corruption 2.11, absolute necessity obtains only in cyclical movements/processes. This view, however, seems to have two counterexamples in his philosophy: in spontaneous generation and the generation of non-essential parts of animals matter makes certain outcomes absolutely necessary. In my thesis, I hope I can show (1) that these two views can be reconciled and (2) why absolute necessity is present both at the lowest levels of the natural realm, being involved in spontaneous generation and the coming-to-be of insignificant parts of animals, and among the cyclical processes and movements, which are the noblest kinds of change.
Other research interests: Ancient Greek natural philosophy and metaphysics; Islamic philosophy (especially Avicenna's natural philosophy and metaphysics)