How does physics bear upon metaphysics; and why did Plato hold that philosophy cannot be written down?

Abstract

The paper begins with consideration of Plato and Aristotle, but the question addressed in this essay is the following: What has been meant--and what role has been played--in the succession of doctrines of physics we have had since the seventeenth century, by notions (not necessarily technical) of “power” and of “cause”? The essay concludes with consideration of (classical) field theories set in relativistic space-time.