Aristotle Vs. Copernicus

Aristotle vs. Copernicus


Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist, who shared with Plato the

distinction of being the most famous of ancient philosophers. Aristotle was born

at Stagira, in Macedonia, the son of a physician to the royal court. At the age

of 17, he went to Athens to study at Plato's Academy. He remained there for

about 20 years, as a student and then as a teacher. When Plato died in 347 bc ,

Aristotle moved to Assos, a city in Asia Minor, where a friend of his, Hermias

(d. 345 bc ), was ruler. There he counseled Hermias and married his niece and

adopted daughter, Pythias. After Hermias was captured and executed by the

Persians, Aristotle went to Pella, the Macedonian capital, where he became the

tutor of the king's young son Alexander, later known as Alexander the Great. In

335, when Alexander became king, Aristotle returned to Athens and established

his own school, the Lyceum. Because much of the discussion in his school took

place while teachers and students were walking about the Lyceum grounds,

Aristotle's school came to be known as the Peripatetic ("walking" or

"strolling") school. Upon the death of Alexander in 323 bc , strong anti-

Macedonian feeling developed in Athens, and Aristotle retired to a family estate

in Euboea. He died there the following year.


His works on natural science include Physics, which gives a vast amount of

information on astronomy, meteorology, plants, and animals. His writings on the

nature, scope, and properties of being, which Aristotle called First Philosophy

( Prote philosophia ), were given the title Metaphysics in the first published

edition of his works (c. 60 bc ), because in that edition they followed Physics.

His treatment of the Prime Mover, or first cause, as pure intellect, perfect in

unity, immutable, and, as he said, "the thought of thought," is given in the

Metaphysics. To his son Nicomachus he dedicated his work on ethics, called the

Nicomachean Ethics. Other essential works include his Rhetoric, his Poetics

(which survives in incomplete form), and his Politics (also incomplete). Some of

the principal aspects of Aristotle's thought can be seen in the following

summary of his doctrines, or theories. Physics, or natural philosophy.


In astronomy, Aristotle proposed a finite, spherical universe, with the earth at

its center. The central region is made up of four elements: earth, air, fire,

and water. In Aristotle's physics, each of these four elements has a proper

place, determined by its relative heaviness, its "specific gravity." Each moves

naturally in a straight line-earth down, fire up-toward its proper place, where

it will be at rest. Thus, terrestrial motion is always linear and always comes

to a halt. The heavens, however, move naturally and endlessly in a complex

circular motion. The heavens, therefore, must be made of a fifth, and different

element, which he called aither. A superior element, aither is incapable of any

change other than change of place in a circular movement. Aristotle's theory

that linear motion always takes place through a resisting medium is in fact

valid for all observable terrestrial motions. Aristotle also held that heavier

bodies of a given material fall faster than lighter ones when their shapes are

the same; this mistaken view was accepted as fact until Galileo proved otherwise.


In his metaphysics, Aristotle argued for the existence of a divine being,

described as the Prime Mover, who is responsible for the unity and

purposefulness of nature. God is perfect and therefore the aspiration of all

things in the world, because all things desire to share perfection. Other movers

exist as well-the intelligent movers of the planets and stars (Aristotle

suggested that the number of these is "either 55 or 47"). The Prime Mover, or

God, described by Aristotle is not very suitable for religious purposes, as many

later philosophers and theologians have observed. Aristotle limited his

"theology," however, to what he believed science requires and can establish.


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