Petrić’s Objections to Aristotle’s Notion of the Continuum Cover Image

Petrićevi prigovori Aristotelovu pojmu neprekidnine
Petrić’s Objections to Aristotle’s Notion of the Continuum

Author(s): Ivica Martinović
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Hrvatsko Filozofsko Društvo
Keywords: Aristotle; Frane Petrić; continuum; the potential infinite; the postulate of divisibility; minimal indivisible line; calculus of infinite quantities; genealogy of science; geometry; arithmetic

Summary/Abstract: The second book of Pancosmia provides full insight into Petrić’s view of the continuum or de divisibilitate quantitatis, offering us many details on Petrić’s futile strategy in refuting Aristotle’s notions of the continuum and the potential infinite. In his objections to Aristotle, Petrić implicitly points the major contributions of Aristotle’s doctrine of continuum, but also submits his own solutions such as the idea of the minimal indivisible line. Although his solutions failed to bring him the results as brilliant as those of Aristotle with the notion of the continuum in the interpretation of nature and mathematics, within his polemic with Aristotle, Petrić comes forward with new questions dealing with the calculus of infinite quantities and genealogy of science.

  • Issue Year: 30/2010
  • Issue No: 03/119
  • Page Range: 467-485
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Croatian