Aristotle rejection

In closing this section, remember that Aristotle rejected the concept of atoms. Aristotle could not accept the idea of a void space and believed that nature abhors a vacuum. Furthermore, Aristotle did not consider internal structure. Substances contained their qualities and elements as a homogenous mixture. An Aristotelian would explain the reaction of hydrogen gas and oxygen gas to produce liquid water as... 

Aristotle rejected the atomic theory of matter. Democritos had maintained that atoms were in perpetual motion in a void, and Aristotle criticised both the concepts of atomic motion and of the void. Aristotle accounted for motion in terms of the natural tendencies of bodies, and the perpetual random motion of atoms did not concur with his ideas. Aristotle rejected the idea of the void partly as a result of erroneous beliefs concerning falling bodies. He believed that the speed with which a body falls to earth is proportional to its weight he had no understanding of the acceleration of falling bodies. From the observation that bodies fall more slowly in water than in air, Aristotle also concluded that the speed of fall was inversely proportional to the thickness or resistance of the medium. Since a vacuum would have a resistance of zero, the speed of fall of a body in it would be infinite. This was impossible, so Aristotle concluded that a vacuum could not exist. 

Canon of Medicine, guided the practice of medicine for 500 years after his death. Avicenna rejected the idea that a base metal could be transformed into gold. Avicenna claimed correctly that diseases were spread through air and water. Much of Avicenna s teachings questioned the status quo and teachings of Aristotle. 

Aristotle of Stageiros (384-322 BCE) did not agree with his teacher s geometric bodies for the different elements. He rejected the Democritian atoms in which matter was considered a principle but form was a secondary characteristic. Nor did he accept the existence of a void. According to the Aristotelian view, the four elements arose from the action on primordial matter by pairs of qualities (warm + dry, fire, warm + moist, air, cold + dry, earth, cold + moist, water). He introduced another element, ether, as a divine substance of which the heavens and stars are made (23). 

Galen of Pergammn (129-216 CE) rejected the atomic theory because the grouping of atoms could not explain why the properties of a compoimd differed from the properties of its constituents (26). His rejection effectively exiled atomism in the Western world in which the views of Aristotle prevailed until the seventeenth century, CE (27). 

The Stoics rejected the idealism of Plato and the teleological point of view of Aristotle, adopting a materialistic philosophy. Matter and nature they considered as eternal and even the soul was material. They however contributed nothing to constructive theories of matter or nature. 

Thesis I finds support in Aristotle s division of substance in book XU of die Metaphysics. Thesis II comes direedy from Aristode s discussion of the category of quantity in the Metaphysics. Thesis III comes direedy from Aristode s discussion of change in the Physics. Thesis IV comes from Aristode s claim that form is a principle of motion. Thesis V comes from Aristode s views that composite substances have forms and that bodies in the category of substance are composites. Thesis VI is, of all the theses, the most controversial In fact, I shall reject it in chapter 4. Nonetheless, as shall become apparent there, the connection between prime matter and extension is sufficiendy intimate that the above solution to the body problem can easily be altered in order to accommodate what is the correct understanding of prime matter. Finally, thesis VII emerges from an examination of Aristode s understanding of the qua locution. 

While a fair amount of Democritus s ideas do not agree with modern atomic theory, his belief in the existence of atoms was amazingly ahead of his time. Despite this, his ideas did not turn out to be a major step toward our current understanding of matter. Over time, Democritus s ideas were met with criticism from other philosophers. What holds the atoms together they asked. Democritus could not answer the question. Other criticisms came from Aristotle (384-322 b.c.), one of the most influential Greek philosophers. Aristotle is shown in Figure 4-3. He rejected the atomic theory entirely... 

The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.c.) was influential In the rejection of the concept of the atom. 

Plato s most famous pupil was Aristotle. Aristotle came from Stageirus, on the Chalcidic peninsula of northern Greece, where his father, Nicomachus, was a physician. Aristotle would probably have followed his father into medicine, since medical education and practice were passed down from father to son, but Nicomachus died when Aristotle was about 10 years old. He was raised by a relative, and, in 367 b.c.e., at the age of 17, Aristotle became a student at the Academy. He stayed for 20 years, first as a student and later as a teacher. When Plato died, Aristotle may have expected to become the head of the Academy in Athens, but the position went to Speusippus, who was Plato s nephew. Little is known about Speusippus he seems to have followed some of Plato s ideas but rejected Plato s theory of forms. Aristotle left the Academy, partly because of his situation at the Academy and partly because of political turmoil in Athens. He traveled to Macedonia, where he tutored Alexander, son of King Philip. When Alexander became king, he supported Aristotle s creation of the Lyceum, a rival school in Athens. 

The air pump also seemed to suggest that there could be regions of space that had nothing in them. The idea of a vacuum, or a void in nature, had been rejected by most natural philosophers since the time of Aristotle, but if a void could exist, it made the corpuscularian position more feasible. 

To Willis, Aristotle s elements (earth, air, fire, and water) needed to be rejected because they provided no special insight into the... 

Since matter affects and is affected by matter in virtue of being of one kind of substance or another, questions arise of what indivisibles are made of and how that dictates their behavior. One of Aristotle s difficulties with atoms stems from this idea that they must be made of some substance and his rejection of the idea that a single substance is naturally separated, like a heterogeneous mixture of oil and water which are two substances. Pieces of the same kind of matter would form a uniform whole, as do drops of water when they come into contact if all of them [the indivisibles]... 

Aristotle was an anti-Atomist, in part, because he did not believe that space could be empty. This view was adopted by the great mathematician and philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650) who envisioned only two principles in matter (extent and movement) and rejected the four Aristotlean qualities. The... 

B.C. Aristotle, a philosopher with great influence, rejects Democritus s theory and supports the belief that all matter is composed of fire, air, water, and earth. 

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