On Aristotle's "physics 7" (Ancient Commentators on Aristotle)

Book 7 of Aristotle's Physics - once regarded as merely an undeveloped early version of Book 8 - has recently attracted renewed interest. Differences of opinion concerning its importance are as old as Aristotle's text, and Simplicius' commentary, written in the sixth century A.D., is an indispensable tool for understanding Book 7. Charles Hagen here gives the English reader access to this commentary for the first time.
Among the most important aspects of the commentary are Simplicius' explanation of the interconnections among the chapters of Book 7 and his references to a more extensive second version of Aristotle's text than the one that survives today. Acknowledging that Book 8 offers a more precise discussion of the subject covered in Book 7, the case for a prime mover, Simplicius both identifies ways in which Book 7 reveals Aristotle's acumen and clarifies its relationship to the other books in the Physics.