AGAINST HYPOTHESES. A RESPONSE CONCERNING PHYSICS VIII 1.250B13

Abstract

This is a response to the article published by Silvia Fazzo, ‘A Hypothetical Premise about Eternal Cosmic Motion in Physics VIII 1.250b13’ in a previ-ous issue of Aristotelica, in which she argues on the basis of the sources, Vind. Phil. gr. 100 in particular, that at Physica VIII 1.250b13 one should adopt the hypothetical reading ἀλλ’ εἰ ἦν, καὶ ἀεὶ ἔσται, rather than the categorical reading ἀλλ’ ἀεὶ ἦν καὶ ἀεὶ ἔσται. We argue that a complete and methodologi-cally sound consideration of all the textual evidence available shows that the proposal is implausible.