A large section of Aristotle's philosophy on the heavens and the universe on the book "On the Heavens on astronomy” is brought out clearly and in a logical sense, every idea complementing the other systematically. Aristotle selects his words carefully to elaborate complex paradigms that are foundational to guided future scientists to explore more on planets, stars and other bodies. For instance, he indicates, “the bodies below the sphere of the planets are contiguous with the sphere above them. The sphere then will be spherical throughout; for everybody within it is contiguous and continuous with spheres (Hankinson, 1960)." As a reader, one may feel mixed up with the composition and style of this specific book, but with determination, one can locate fundamental life lessons that apply in every place and generation, irrespective of if one recognizes the process of the functioning of the universe. This paper is going to analyze Aristotle’s thoughts on the book “On the Heavens,” especially as it regards to astronomy.
The science that is directed to nature mostly deals with bodies and magnitudes, their content as well as their motions. Depending on the composition of nature, some things are bodies and magnitudes, while some possess the same, and others are principles of their content (Mariey & Marchetto, 2017). According to Aristotle, a magnitude can only be divided once making it a line, and if it can be divided twice it is a surface, and the body is formed when it is divisible three times. The world and everything inside it are determined by the content. All things are only different when one considers their form.
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For Aristotle, he would not bother himself to determine the size of the many bodies, as he wondered if their size is infinite or otherwise. Of course, through technology, the sizes of some of these bodies have been determined already. Aristotle determined that all natural bodies and magnitudes were able to move, and nature being their principle of motion (Hankinson, 1960). Aristotle believed that the earth had always been there. He also supported that the Earth could not be flat but spherical. The evidence he gave was the idea of moon eclipse, holding that the moon eclipse was because of the interposition of the earth. He believed that this interposition of the earth was because of its circumference (Mariey & Marchetto, 2017). The proofs of the earth being spherical after further investigations that followed authenticate the ideas that Aristotle started. The concepts that Aristotle suggested were commendable particularly considering the time. Thus, he lay a foundational structure for the work of Newton and other scientists to understand life and the universe.
Aristotle indicates that the heavenly bodies are the perfect substances ever realized, and their motions are guided by principles unlike the bodies in the sublunary sphere. The bodies in the sublunary sphere contain all the classical components that would only last for a while. The elements on the heavens are predominantly containing aether that is not perishable (Hankinson, 1960). Thus, they cannot be corrupted but they operate to their optimum making their movement everlasting as they offer a perfect reality. In some instances, Aristotle referred the celestial bodies to be the same as living beings that have a rational soul in their formation. This line of philosophy is vague because the soul in living beings make them be rational and can unpredictably behave in the way they please, unlike the planets and earth.
Today, it has been determined through technology that the Earth revolves around the Sun taking 365 days to make one round. Again, we understand that planets except the Earth have more than one moon. Through technology, experiments to determine the authenticity of such remarks become easier. However, that was not the case thousands of years ago. People like Aristotle could only imagine and explore, which was foundational to push the next generation to synthesize the ideas and authenticate them (Mariey & Marchetto, 2017). People only believed that everything else they saw above belonged to God and we had no business with them, like seeking to understand them. Philosophers subjected such ideas to a higher school of thought that prompted the need for things like technology.
Being the grandfather of science, Aristotle made a lot of sense at that time on his views in “On the Heavens.” He pushed the idea of a geocentric universe that held that planets and stars were perfect, even if the Earth itself was the opposite. He further indicated that the motion of the planets and earth took a circular path as perfect bodies, which also affirmed their infinity (Tuominen, 2016). Presently, this is not true, but Aristotle earned a lot of respect back then even with such wrong perceptions that were projected for a long time. His contributions to the infinity of the heavenly bodies sparked discussions that would make the following scholars want to locate the truth. Aristotle's astronomical ideas could only be attributed to his skills of observing and experimenting as much as it was possible.
In conclusion, Aristotle as one of the early scientists left a legacy that still speaks today. His ideas on the content and principles of the earth set the pace for instruments, science, logical reasoning and creativity to establish the truth. In fact, through the ideas present in “On the Heavens,” the subsequent scholars and philosophers would acquire more information on their universe. In this manner, we in this present generation are connected to the astronomical ideas of centuries ago as philosophers like Aristotle gave us direction to uncover about the motion and composition of stars and planets .
References
Hankinson, R. J. (1960). Aristotle : On the heavens . Harvard University Press.
Mariev, S., & Marchetto, M. (2017). The Divine Body of the Heavens. Byzantine Perspectives on Neoplatonism , 31.
Tuominen, M. (2016). The ancient commentators on Plato and Aristotle . Routledge.
