Ancient & Medieval Studies Colloquium presents, Bridget Brasher “What Aristotle Thinks Void Is”

Abstract: Prior to arguing against the existence of void in Physics IV.6–9, Aristotle offers an answer to what void is: place deprived of body. His refutations then target two different sorts of void, separated and inseparable voids. It is unsolved in Aristotelian scholarship what these two sorts of void are. This paper offers an interpretation. I find that the distinction between voids is philosophically rich and bears explanatory potential in a way unrecognized by studies on ancient void theory. Indeed, if my interpretation is correct, the distinction may be prescient, anticipating Newton’s own distinction between relative and absolute inertial frames two millennia later.

Bio: Bridget Brasher is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. She completed my PhD at Princeton University in 2023. Her research concerns ancient Greek, Latin, and Indian physics and metaphysics. She is interested in how thinkers in these ancient traditions understood the physical world. Many of her current projects examine their perspectives on space and motion. She is also interested in to what extent these ancient traditions saw metaphysics and ethics as interconnected.