On Generation and Corruption - A Foundational Work on Change, Nature, Matter, and the Principles of the Physical World

OUR next task is to study coming-to-be and passing-away. We are to distinguish the causes, and to state the definitions, of these processes considered in general-as changes predicable uniformly of all the things that come-to-be and pass-away by nature. Further, we are to study growth and 'alteration'. We must inquire what each of them is; and whether 'alteration' is to be identified with coming-to-be, or whether to these different names there correspond two separate processes with distinct natures.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, scientist, and teacher whose writings became foundational works in Western thought. A student of Plato and tutor to Alexander the Great, Aristotle founded the Lyceum in Athens and produced influential works on philosophy, politics, ethics, logic, biology, literature, and the natural sciences.His systematic approach to studying the world influenced scholars for more than two thousand years. Aristotle's works remain essential to understanding the development of philosophy, scientific inquiry, and humanity's ongoing search for knowledge about the universe and our place within it.