drinkingbird.

mpa
Core Question:

How to handle the facts

you knew?

3
UGFN1000 In Dialogue with Nature
與自然對話

Lindberg, The Beginnings of

Western Science

4
 Text

 David C. Lindberg, The

Beginnings of Western
Science, 2nd edition.
Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press, 2007.
 Read Chapters 3 and
Chapters 12

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 The author
 Main focus: History of
medieval and early modern
science, especially physical
science and the relationship
between religion and science
 was recipient of the Sarton
medal (薩頓勳章) in 1999 (the
medalists include Joseph
Needham in 1968, I. Bernard
Cohen in 1974, Edward Grant
in 1992)
David C. Lindberg (1935-2015),
an American historian of science
http://histsci.wisc.edu/people/faculty/lindberg/lindberg.shtml
7
 Praise for the 1st Edition:

“Solidly based on a competent knowledge of a huge

variety of primary sources and secondary studies,
engagingly written, and well produced, it provides, us
for the first time with an authoritative account of
Western science from its beginnings to the height of
medieval scientific achievement.”
– Richard C Dales,
American Historical Review

9
 Chapter 3:Aristotle’s Philosophy of Nature

Metaphysics – sources
of motions, etc.
Motion – terrestrial Epistemology - Theory
and celestial motions of knowledge

Nature and Change –

how change happens
and be explained
Cosmology – Aristotelian
universe: sublunar and
supralunar region

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 Plato
(Forms) has objective,
independent, and indeed
prior existence.
Text 1b , Para. 39

Aristotle
There is no perfect form of a dog, for
example, existing independently in the
world of forms and replicated imperfectly
in individual dogs.
Text 2, Para. 4

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 Plato’s attention was naturally directed toward the
eternal forms, knowable through reason or philosophical
reflection. Aristotle’s metaphysics of concrete individuals,
by contrast, directed his quest for knowledge toward the
material world of individuals, of nature, and of change – a
world encountered through the senses
Text 2, Para. 9

Knowledge begins with experience…

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 Importance of Aristotle’s work

Aristotle’s logical works, treatises on biology,

metaphysics, psychology and ethics were carefully
studied and also were the following:

Physics principles of changes and motion

On the Heavens and World motions of heavenly bodies
Meteorology phenomena that occur below the
moon and above the earth.
On Generation and chemistry involving the four
Corruption elements

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Lecture today…

o Change: What? Why? Cause?

o Aristotelian cosmology
o Motion, Terrestrial and Celestial
o Causes of motion (Text 2, Para. 48-55)

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 Nature and Change

A corporeal object is a composite of (Chap. 3, Para. 6-8)

- Form: property/quality, e.g., white, heavy, hot, etc.
- Matter: provides substratum in which properties
adhere.
 Example: Gold

Yellow, cold, heavy, smooth, etc:

determined by its form;

if all properties could be stripped

away, what remain would be
matter.

Aristotle:
1. No matter without form, and no form without
matter;
2. Important: identify the forms of things
(classification of forms) 16
 Change: What?

Elements are interchangeable

by changing forms

Sensible object changes:

form changes, matter
remains the same

Fig. 3.2 (Text 2, p.27) 17

 Change: Why?

Why does an acorn (橡實) become an oak tree?

The nature of an acorn is to do so.
Change: Why?

Why does a rock fall?

The nature of a rock is
to do so.
 Change: Why?

Aristotle’s world is not a world of chance of

coincidence, but an orderly, organized world, a world of
purpose, in which things develop toward ends
determined by their nature.
Text 2, Para. 22

All change and motion can be traced back to

the natures of things. These natures are the
central object of study.
 Change: Cause? (conditions and factors)

Four Aristotelian causes (Chap. 3, Para. 20-22):

Formal cause, material cause, efficient cause, and
final cause

Efficient cause: Formal cause:

sculptor the shape

Final cause: purpose

material cause:
marble

Example: Production of a statue

 An example of final cause

To explain the arrangement of teeth:

Different purposes of teeth cause different shapes.
 Aristotelian cosmology
Celestial region: Perfect;
made of aether (以太)
circular motion’s
symbolic of a perfect
motion

Terrestrial region: Imperfect;

made of four elements (fire,
air, water, earth) 23
Perfect is unchangeable

If something is perfect,
it will neither be improved or
deteriorate.
 Circle is perfect. It does not change no matter
how we rotate it.
 celestial objects are perfect, so they all move
in circles.

does not change

upon rotation.
change as they rotate
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 Four elements

Centre: Natural place of the

stone, which is made of the
element earth. (Chap.3,
Para. 30).

Ideal case only: The world is composed largely of

mixed bodies, so this ideal is never attained.
Why does a stone fall?
Fall: to fulfill its potential
of being situated about
the center of the universe
The nature of a thing is its
tendency (change) to actualize
its potential.
If we are ignorant of change, then we
are ignorant of Nature.

Three Points about natures:

1. When left unimpeded, all things would follow
their natures (but most things are impeded by
interactions with other things.)
2. Only natural things have natures (artificial things
do not have)
3. To determine natures, observation is sufficient.
No need for intervention.
Hence, controlled
experimentations are invalid.
 Motion, Terrestrial and Celestial

Two claims of Aristotle’s theory of motion

(Text 2, Parra. 32)
1. Motion never spontaneous
upward
2. Two types of motion
Natural motion: toward the natural place
Violent motion: any other direction

downward 30
Natural motion Mover Violent motion

Nature of the body, external force

e.g., earth and water:
upward

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Motion of Mars and Saturn
on the celestial sphere
from 1/2 to 30/4/2008 32
Prime mover:
Pure actuality

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 (prime mover) Not as efficient cause, for that would require contact
between the mover and the moved, but as final cause. This is, the
Prime Mover is the object of desire for the celestial spheres, which
endeavor to imitate its changeless perfection by assuming eternal,
uniform circular motions.
Text 2, Para. 41

Recall
Efficient cause: Formal cause:
sculptor the shape

Final cause: purpose

material cause:
marble

Example: Production of a statue

Aristotle’s beliefs were
not random; Interrelated,
interlocking, coherent
system of beliefs (like a
jigsaw puzzle).

DeWitt, Richard, Worldviews: An Introduction to

the History and Philosophy of Science. (West
Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), p.10
Enjoy reading
(Chap. 3: In Dialogue With Nature, pp.17-34)

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