On Ian Mueller on Aristotle on Abstraction, intelligible matter, and Geometrical Objects and Newton's 'De Gravitatione'

In an influential (1970) article, "Aristotle on Geometric Objects," my late teacher, Ian Mueller, noted that "Aristotle refers fairly frequently to mathematical objects as abstractions (εξ άφοαρέσεω$, εν αφαιρέσει, δι* αφαιρέσεως)." (p. 159) After running through a number of passages, Mueller concludes that for Aristotle, "abstracting involves eliminati…