Mechanics (Aristotle)

Mechanics (Greek: Μηχανικά; Latin: Mechanica), also called Mechanical Problems or Questions of Mechanics, is a text traditionally attributed to Aristotle, but generally regarded as spurious (cf. Pseudo-Aristotle).[1] Thomas Winter has suggested that the author was Archytas,[2] while Michael Coxhead says that it is only possible to conclude that the author was one of the Peripatetics.[3]

During the Renaissance, an edition of this work was published by Francesco Maurolico. A Latin translation was made by Vettor Fausto, dedicated to Giovanni Badoer in 1517.

  1. ^ It is marked by a double asterisk in the contents of Jonathan Barnes (ed.), The Complete Works of Aristotle (Princeton, 1984), indicating that "its spuriousness has never been seriously contested" (p. xiii).
  2. ^ Thomas Nelson Winter, "The Mechanical Problems in the Corpus of Aristotle," DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln, 2007.
  3. ^ Coxhead, Michael A. (2012). "A close examination of the pseudo-Aristotelian Mechanical Problems: The homology between mechanics and poetry as techne". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. 43: 300–306. doi:10.1016/j.shpsa.2011.12.015.