Aristotle’s Μετεωρολογικά: Meteorology Then and Now by Anastasios A. Tsonis and Christos Zerefos

Abstract

Aristotle’s Meteorologica is one of the least studied of Aristotle’s major works, and scholars who do study it often concentrate on its logical and theoretical aspects rather than on the empirical science contained in it. The two authors of this study are professional meteorologists from Greece: Anastasios Tsonis, emeritus distinguished professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Christos Zerefos, head of the Research Centre for Atmospheric Physics and Climatology at the Academy of Athens and professor of atmospheric physics at the Universities of Athens and Thessaloniki. They are interested in Aristotle’s work as a contribution to science and not just as an essay in the logic of scientific inquiry. This book thus fills a gap in the resources available for the study of Aristotle’s Meteorologica. I shall provide an overview of the book and then offer a critical assessment of it.