The natural philosophy of Aristotle. Books I, II: How many and what kind are the first principles of nature. Critique of the views of Parmenides and Melissus. Observations regarding the first principles. Change and its causes. The concept of chance and its characteristics. The automatism. Distinction between chance and automatism.

Aristotle, son of the physician Nicomachus, was born in Stagira in 384 BC. There is very little information about the early years of his life. At the age of seventeen, he went to Athens to study at the Platonic Academy. He remained there for twenty years, from 367 to 348 BC, when Plato died.

Then Aristotle left for Assos in Troad, and after a three-year stay there, he went to Lesbos and subsequently to Macedonia, where he received the education of the royal youth Alexander. When his student ascended to the throne, Aristotle settled in Athens and founded his school, the Lyceum. After the death of Alexander (323 BC), the philosopher's stay in Athens became difficult. He was forced to flee to Chalcis, his mother's homeland, where he died in 322.

A universal mind, Aristotle created a vast and valuable philosophical and scientific body of work. Epistemology, logic, theology, physics, biology, psychology, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics are the main fields of knowledge he researched and studied. The Alexandrian Hermippus counted Aristotle's works at 400. Lists have survived to us that include 143 titles of his works. Diogenes Laertius estimated the number of lines in Aristotle's writings at 440,000.

The impact of his work on the formation of global thought was strong for centuries, and remains so.