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Planet_EN · 06:44 AM

Introduction:
Aristotle (or Aristoteles) was a Greek philosopher who lived from 384 to 322 BC. Along with Plato, he is often considered to be one of the two most influential philosophers in Western thought.

Aristotle's book on Physics
Aristotle in his "Physics - Book VII" talked about "Law of intertia" (Newton's first principle of motion), and it seems that Newton's work was quite unoriginal. He just copied his stuff from older manuscripts. Anyway, Translated version of Aristotle's book on Physics is available for free to download. His book is truly a masterpiece.

-EN

buggsuperstar · Jul 21, 2005, 06:46 AM

"erm... will this be in the semester exam?"

Planet_EN · Jul 21, 2005, 06:51 AM

The most interesting part is "Physics- Book I", where he tried to build the logic of understanding principles and creating them. Here's the part-1 of his book-1 on physics

WHEN the objects of an inquiry, in any department, have principles, conditions, or elements, it is through acquaintance with these that knowledge, that is to say scientific knowledge, is attained. For we do not think that we know a thing until we are acquainted with its primary conditions or first principles, and have carried our analysis as far as its simplest elements. Plainly therefore in the science of Nature, as in other branches of study, our first task will be to try to determine what relates to its principles.

The natural way of doing this is to start from the things which are more knowable and obvious to us and proceed towards those which are clearer and more knowable by nature; for the same things are not ‘knowable relatively to us’ and ‘knowable’ without qualification. So in the present inquiry we must follow this method and advance from what is more obscure by nature, but clearer to us, towards what is more clear and more knowable by nature.

Now what is to us plain and obvious at first is rather confused masses, the elements and principles of which become known to us later by analysis. Thus we must advance from generalities to particulars; for it is a whole that is best known to sense-perception, and a generality is a kind of whole, comprehending many things within it, like parts. Much the same thing happens in the relation of the name to the formula. A name, e.g. ‘round’, means vaguely a sort of whole: its definition analyses this into its particular senses. Similarly a child begins by calling all men ‘father’, and all women ‘mother’, but later on distinguishes each of them.

Planet_EN · Jul 21, 2005, 06:55 AM

Originally Posted by buggsuperstar

"erm... will this be in the semester exam?"

I wish that they were included in semseter exams. But for now, its great to read the writings of a person who died in BC and talked about the Science. You know this helps to build the core logic.

iLikebeer · Jul 21, 2005, 07:03 AM

Yeah, reading Plato is good exercise for the mind. I would have loved to listen in on a dialogue between him and Socrates, arguing points back and forth.

Planet_EN · Jul 21, 2005, 07:13 AM

Originally Posted by iLikebeer

Yeah, reading Plato is good exercise for the mind. I would have loved to listen in on a dialogue between him and Socrates, arguing points back and forth.

Plato's writing are very difficult ot understand for me. Those heavy greek names are irksome for me and whenever I come across with such names, I get confused that either it's the name of a person or a place or .... whatever ........

But still I try to read them again and again.

ghporter · Jul 21, 2005, 07:26 AM

Aristotle's doesn't even remotely address inertia. It points out that objects are moved by forces, but does not address that forces are needed to change an object's motion. This is a far cry from the elegant and concise "objects tend to retain their state of motion unless and until acted upon by an outside force" that Newton devised.

Aristotle thought deep thoughts about many things, motion included, but he did NOT introduce the concept of inertia.

Millennium · Jul 21, 2005, 08:16 AM

What was new in Newton's theory of inertia was the idea that forces were needed to change an object's motion. Newtonian physics assert that an object at rest remains at rest and an object in motion remains in motion at a constant speed in a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force. Aristotle, for example, did not believe any force was necessary to keep the Moon in orbit; now we know that gravity does this.

Newton did indeed build upon the work of earlier scientists, as all scientists do. This does not, however, diminish the importance or originality of his achievements.