Natural philosopher — Aristotle (Stagira, 384 BC – Chalcis, 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and naturalist, pupil of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great, founder of the Lyceum school in Athens. His inquiry spanned almost every field of knowledge: logic, biology, metaphysics, ethics and physics. In the “Physics” and “On the Heavens” he developed a conception of motion and the cosmos destined to dominate Western thought for almost two millennia: he distinguished natural and violent motions, held that bodies tend toward their own “natural place”, and denied the existence of the void. His geocentric cosmology, with the Earth motionless at the centre and the celestial spheres, was later systematised by Ptolemy. Although many of his physical theses were refuted by Galileo and Newton, his method of observation and classification deeply influenced the birth of science.
Trivia
Aristotle held that a heavier body falls faster than a lighter one: it was precisely the refutation of this idea (traditionally attributed to Galileo’s experiments from the Tower of Pisa) that symbolically marked the birth of modern physics.
Theories and contributions
- Theory of motion — Every body tends toward its own natural place; violent motion requires a continuous, acting cause.
- Geocentric cosmology — The motionless Earth at the centre of the universe, surrounded by the celestial spheres of the eternal bodies.
- Rejection of the void — “Nature abhors a vacuum”: the void cannot exist in nature.
Present in chapters
Linked atoms
3 linked atoms.