Uma “exploração arqueológica” da ideia de vazio como recipiente a partir de Aristóteles, Physica 4.6 213a15-19

Abstract

Even though rejecting the notion of void, Aristotle considers it a crucial theme in his discussion about motion. That becomes evident when we find four chapters of Physics 4 dedicated to the discussion and refutation of the void. In this paper, I set on an exploratory search for the reasons that moved Aristotle to discuss the idea of void as a container (ἀγγεῖον) in Phys. 4.6 213a15-19, unearthing a series of terms and notions used by previous thinkers that may have led Aristotle to formulate such conception. Special attention is given to Democritus, who, with his theory of atoms and void, is clearly the main target of Aristotle’s criticism of the void. I conclude that the notion of void as a container is not at all strange to ancient thinkers, and that its reconstitution by Aristotle is everything but trivial and simplistic, inasmuch as the Democritean notion of void he intends to refute is everything but trivial and simplistic.