Originating from two conferences that took place in September 2013 and June 2015 at Sapienza University of Rome, this outstanding specialist volume aims to systematically illuminate the arguments that Aristotle uses in trying to establish the ‘first principles’ of his natural philosophy in Physics I. Not only is it successful in achieving this overall goal, but it is also timely, as its publication anticipates the forthcoming proceedings of the July 2014 Symposium Aristotelicum, devoted to the Physics.

The volume contains ten chapters, each written by an established scholar of ancient philosophy, as well as a new translation of Physics I that represents the joint work of all the contributors. Each chapter, with the exception of the first, offers an analytical exposition and exploration of one of the nine chapters of Physics I. Unlike many scholarly collections, each author in the volume is careful to take into account the interpretations of the other contributors. The overall result is that its interpretation of Physics I is not only systematic, but also unified.