The great Greek thinker Aristotle was born in 384 B.C. in Stagirus, a city in ancient Macedonia in northern Greece. At the age of eighteen Aristotle went to Athens to begin his studies at Plato's Academy. He stayed and studied at the Academy for nineteen years and in that time became both a teacher and an independent researcher. After Plato's death in 347 B.C. Aristotle spent twelve years traveling and living in various places around the Aegean Sea. It was during this time that Aristotle was asked by Philip of Macedon to be a private tutor to his son, Alexander. Aristotle privately taught Alexander for three years before he returned to Athens after Philip gained control of the Greek capital. During this period back in Athens Aristotle founded his own school, the Lyceum, where he taught for twelve years. In 323 B.C. Alexander the Great died and the Macedonians lost control of Athens. Aristotle was forced to leave and he died one year later in Chalcis, north of Athens, at the age of 62.
Aristotle is regarded by many as one of the most important thinkers of the ancient era. Although many of his theories regarding the physics of the natural world were later disproved by Galileo, Aristotle nevertheless offered the world at that time a relevant and consistent explanation of physics of impressive breadth and explanatory ability. Many of his theories endured for up to 1200 years, and helped to form the basis of the midieval christian perspective of the natural world. Much of his physics, when combined with Ptolemy's mathematical model of planetary motions, was used by midieval thinkers to describe the behavior of the cosmos.
Aristotle's book The Physics, was in existence by about 350 B.C. This book is mainly concerned with change a...
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... 1609, when Galileo destroyed Aristotle's mechanical model of the universe, was his authority on scientific theory truly undermined. So strong was Aristotle's grip on the science of the time, that Galileo was subsequently tried by the church as a heretic for disagreeing with his theories.
It is a generally accepted fact that Aristotle's physics and astronomy were the weakest of his areas of study. He made discoveries and developed theories in biology, ethics, and drama that still hold a great deal of importance in those fields today. However, many of his theories and hypotheses were not disproved unitl the nineteenth century and his original concept of a uniform and consistant flow of time was accepted by Newton and still has its place in physics today. We really cannot discount the scientific contributions of a man whose ideas have survived for over 2000 years.
In this paper, I offer a reconstruction of Aristotle’s argument from Physics Book 2, chapter 8, 199a9. Aristotle in this chapter tries to make an analogy between nature and action to establish that both, nature and action, have an end.
Aristotle lived in ancient Greece from 284 BC to 322 BC, but his teachings hav...
Galileo’s contributions to the science of Physics and Astronomy were many. His conviction was legendary. His willingness to suffer for his beliefs exemplify true courage in the name of truth, and has inspired others to venture intellectual independence from the Church‘s creeds, edicts, and proclamations. Perhaps these contributions led to the call for an investigation into Galileo's conviction, eventually calling for its reversal, in 1979 by Pope John Paul II. But regardless of his standing in the annals of the Catholic church he will always be the man who began the separation of science and religion.
Galileo Galilei was an Italian scientist, often referred to as “the father of modern physics”. He was one of the inventors of the telescope and a strong proponent of Copernicanism. Galileo used his invention to make astronomical observations which supported Copernicus’ heliocentric model of the universe. These discoveries led to a fierce dispute, because they contradicted the theory which was prevalent at the time – that the universe followed a geocentric model, a theory, which had been accepted by the Catholic Church. To address this dispute, Galileo wrote a letter to Tuscany’s Grand Duchess Christina, in which he presented his position on the relation between science and religion, stating that the Bible does not contradict science.
The condemnation of Galileo by the Catholic Church is a prime example of the vast dispute between religion and science. It is widely believed that his support of Copernicanism, the theory that the earth rotates on its own axis, led to his condemnation by the Catholic Church. However, modern historians disagree with this belief and as a matter of fact they do not believe that indeed there is warfare between religion and science. Under the content of condemnation of Galileo are subjects such as Copernicanism, Eucharist, Popes Paul 5 and atomism.
Aristotle was born in 384 B.C., in Northern Greece. His father was a physician to the king of Macedonia, Amyntas II. Amyntas II was the grandfather of Alexander the Great. When Aristotle was still a boy, both of his parents died; so he was raised by a guardian named Proxenus. At the age of seventeen, he went to Athens to attend Plato's school, the Academy. Aristotle stayed at the Academy for twenty years as a student, a research assistant, a lecturer, and a research scientist. After Plato died, he moved and lived with Hermeias, a former pupil of Plato. During his three year stay, Aristotle married princess Pithias, Hermeias's daughter. The couple had two children: a son named Nicomachus and a daughter. In 342 B.C., Aristotle was invited to educate Alexander by Philip of Macedon. He taught Alexander until King Philip was assassinated, then Alexander became ruler. In 335 B.C., he left Macedonia and returned to Athens to found a school named Lyceum. Twelve years later, when Alexander died, the Athenians charged Aristotle with impiety because they resented his relationship with Alexander and other influential Macedonians. Aristotle said that he would not let the Athenians "sin twice against philosophy" (Soll, 663), so he fled to Chalcis. One year later he died at the age of sixty-two.
Ball, Rouse. “Sir Isaac Newton.” A Short Account of the History of Mathematics. 4th ed. Print.
Dubbed him the “father of modern science,” Galileo left an impressive legacy in the physics, astronomy, cosmology, mathematics and philosophy. He championed the controversial theory of heliocentrism, a concept that opposed the Catholic church’s support of geocentrism and as a result he was charged with ‘heresy’ against the church. Galileo’s trial expresses the tension between religious doctrine and scientific discoveries during the Scientific Revolution, forcing us to consider the morality of political censorship and absolute power.
Aristotle, Physics, from 'The Complete Works of Aristotle: Revised Oxford Translation) edited Jonathan Barnes (Princeton University Press, 1984; two volumes).
Another important individual who drove history was the Italian astronomer and scientist Galileo Galilei. Galileo discovered something so important that it changed the selfish perspective that humans were the center of the universe and led to the growth of human knowledge. Utilizing mathematics and a telescope he had developed, Galileo observed that the planets revolved around the sun and not the Earth. This was a significant discovery because not only did it contradict what the church had taught, it also showed that the universe was not what it seemed. With this truth uncovered, many people began to fascinate over the universe. This triggered people to begin studying space extensively and eventually lead to present day space exploration. Galileo also left a lasting impression upon many great minds, such as Sir Isaac Newton, who used Galileo's research and theories to further his own studies such as the physical laws, and their properties.
To the modern reader, Aristotle's views on astronomy, as presented in Metaphysics, Physics, De Caelo (On the Heavens) and Simplicius' Commentary, will most likely seem very bizarre, as they are based more on a priori philosophical speculation than empirical observation. Although Aristotle acknowledged the importance of "scientific" astronomy - the study of the positions, distances and motions of the stars - he nevertheless treated astronomy in the abstract, linking it to his overall philosophical world picture. As a result, the modern distinction between physics and metaphysics is not present in Aristotle, and in order to fully appreciate him we must try to abandon this pre-conception. Aristotle argued that the universe is spherical and finite. Spherical, because that is the most perfect shape; finite, because it has a center, viz. the center of the earth, and a body with a center cannot be infinite. He believed that the earth, too, is a sphere. It is relatively small compared to the stars, and in contrast to the celestial bodies, always at rest. For one of his proofs of this latter point, he referred to an empirically testable fact: if the earth were in motion, an observer on it would see the fixed stars as moving, just as he now observes the planets as moving, that is from a stationary earth. However, since this is not the case, the earth must be at rest. To prove that the earth is a sphere, he produced the argument that all earthly substances move towards the center, and thus would eventually have to form a sphere.
The first of these was Anaximandu's theory of change which relied heavily on mythology as a means to explain the natural world but soon the tides changed and a greater emphasis was sought in the area of systematic explanations. Then came Aristotelian view which influenced the founder of the Christian Church. The Aristotelian views influenced and molded the Christian Church philosophies and thus changes the world because of Christianities distribution to all cultures of the earth. It was this theoretical framework that gave the basic foundation necessary to conceptualize the process of societal change. It was the Medieval era that the change from the idea of organic, living and spiritual universes was replaced by the concept of the machine which became the lead foundation of the modern era. This framework is the basis for the revolutions made in physics and astronomy and contributed and effected the achievements of Copernicus, Galileo, and Sir Isaac Newton. This new framework was the a way of inquiry that included the mathematical description of nature and the analytical methods of reasoning which later influenced the works of Descartes. It was his theories that influenced the "Age of the Scientific Revolution." Descartes mathematics was thought to be the only method to explain the natural world and thus these methods prevailed and set the foundat...
Democritus was the leader of a group called Atomists. Although they were unable to prove that matter was made up of small particles, they were the first to come up with the idea. Democritus believed that atoms differed in size, shape, and movement but were all made of the same substances. Aristotle was the most important scientific philosopher in Greece. He believed that all matter on earth consisted of four pure substances or elements, which were earth, air, fire, and water. He also believed that the earth was the centre of the universe, and that anything beyond the earth consisted of a fifth pure substance called quintessence. Archimedes was an inventor and mathematician, who discovered several basic scientific principles and developed a number of measuring techniques. Ptolemy was an Egyptian astronomer. He developed a model for predicting the positions of the sun, moon, stars, and planets. Like Aristotle, he believed that the earth was the center of the universe. Between 400 AD. and 1000 AD.
384 B.C.E., Aristotle was born in Stagira, Greece. At the age of fourteen, Aristotle went to Athens to study Philosophy with Plato. Although he studied with Plato, he did not always agree with some of his teachings. When Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and traveled to Macedonia. While in Macedonia, Aristotle tutored Alexander the Great. Later on in his life, Aristotle returned to Athens and created a school of him own, Lyceum. When Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C.E., Aristotle fled to Euboea to avoid charges and execution. He died shortly after in 322 B.C.E. (Aristotle Biography, 2015). Aristotle is seen as much more than just a great philosopher of his time. He practiced in ethics, biology, science, and much more (Chaffee, 2013, p. 250).
Aristotle made contributions to logic, physics, biology, medicine, and agriculture. He redesigned most, if not all, areas of knowledge he studied. Later in life he became the “Father of logic” and was the first to develop a formalized way of reasoning. Aristotle was a greek philosopher who founded formal logic, pioneered zoology, founded his own school, and classified the various branches of philosophy.