Problēmata Mēchanika, the Analytics, and Projectile Motion

Abstract

The project of this paper is to look at problēmata in the Organon, how the Mēchanika employs problēmata, what these texts can teach us about each other, and the significance of all these things for the difficulties that Aristotelian natural philosophy encounters in explaining projectile motion. My treatment of the last item will highlight a pun used in the Mēchanika and argue that it makes a serious point. The paper proceeds as follows: first I will briefly present a reading of how problēmata are understood by Aristotle in the Organon. Next I will examine how problēmata are treated in the Mēchanika. Then I will put these two views of problēmata in dialogue with each other. Lastly I will utilize this discussion to address some of the well-known difficulties associated with Aristotle’s account of projectiles, and what this might mean for Aristotelian natural philosophy as a whole.