La tridimensionalità, la completezza e la sostanzialità dei corpi: Aristotele, De caelo I.1

According to the standard interpretation, in DC I.1 Aristotle provides a series of arguments to prove that the body, insofar as it has three dimensions, has all dimensions, and that the body, insofar as it has all dimensions, is complete. Starting from the ancient to the most recent commentators, the arguments whereby Aristotle proves that the body has all dimensions are considered very weak. This paper sets out to show that DC I.1 does not contain any argument aimed at proving that the body has all dimensions. Rather, the thesis that the body has all dimensions is assumed by Aristotle: it is assumed on the basis of some basic principles of Aristotle’s physical ontology, which are hinted at from the beginning of DC I.1, in particular on the basis of the idea that bodies are substances and that all other physical entities inhere in them.