Aristotle was the first to declare himself in the class of natural
philosophers ({\em physiologoi}) and he was the first physicist because he
spelled out the first definitions of some basic physical concepts. Moreover, he
was the first encyclopedist of the world and perhaps the greatestComment: 6 pages plus one figure, enlarged version in English of a published
  Spanish tex

Rosu, H. C.

English

arXiv

"Aristotle was the first to declare himself in the class of natural philosophers (physiologoi) and he was the first physicist because he spelled out the first definitions of some basic physical concepts. Moreover, he was the first encyclopedist of the world and perhaps the greatest.

Rosu Barbus, Haret-Codratian

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Este artículo puede ser usado únicamente para uso personal. Cualquier otro uso requiere permiso del autor y editor.  El siguiente artículo fue publicado en A Ciencia Exacta 2(12), Aug 2002 pp. 29-33.A Ciencia Cierta 2(12)The Bimestral Publication of the Potosinian Commettee of Science & TechnologySan Luis PotośıAugust 2002Enlarged version in EnglishSeptember 2002ARISTOTLE: THE FIRST ENCYCLOPEDISTHaret C. Rosu1Abstract. Aristotle was the first to declare himself in the class of natural philosophers (physiologoi)and he was the first physicist because he spelled out the first definitions of some basic physical concepts.Moreover, he was the first encyclopedist of the world and perhaps the greatest.In the January 2002 issue of the IOP magazine Physics World, M. Rowan-Robinson published the paper “Was Aristotle the first physicist ?” [1]. Thispaper generated several reactions [2] and stimulated me to learn more aboutone of the greatest thinkers of all times. I believe the answer to the question ofRowan-Robinson is positive, first of all because the first known physics booksthat have been conserved through the centuries belong to Aristotle. ButAristotle was much much more. He was the first encyclopedist of mankind.Because of his extremely imaginative mind he left behind him a multitude ofsystematic studies on almost all of the cultural fields of his epoch, includingcosmology. He is the founder of Logics, where he developed the syllogism asa basic argument of the theory of deduction. The syllogism starts from twodifferent premises that lead to a unique conclusion. Aristotle revised many ofPlato’s ideas insisting on methods based on observation and experiment (hewas practically a very acute observer of nature whereas his ‘experiments’ weremainly dissections). Aristotle argued that mankind, though a component ofnature, was different from the rest of the known world due to his capacity forthinking and reasoning. In his opinion, human beings are rational animalsand despite the fact they do not act always according to reason, they havealways the choice of exerting this superior quality. To be happy, human1e-mail: hcr@ipicyt.edu.mx; IPICyT, San Luis Potośı, Mexico1beings have the ethical duty to live in the realm of reason. Concerningpolitics, he believed that a monarchy with a clever king could be an idealsocial structure, but he agreed that a limited democracy may be one of thebest compromises. The arts have been interpreted by Aristotle as a formof intelectual pleasure. His analyses of the Greek tragedies have been usedas models of literary critical commentaries. Moreover, he asserted that theobserved material objects as well as the persons examining them are undercontinuous transformations. But since knowledge should be associated onlywith the universal unchangeable elements Aristotle claimed that knowledgeand perception are fundamentally different, one from the other. As for thebasic blocks of the material world, Aristotle believed that in addition to thefour elements of Empedocles - fire, air, earth, and water - there was a fifth onethat he called ether filling the whole universe and being actually the uniqueelement in the composition of any body ‘beyond the Moon’. The reason tointroduce the ether was Aristotle’s dogma that nature abhors empty space(vacuum).It is worth mentioning that the lecture notes of most of his courses inthe Lyceum were discovered by chance by Roman soldiers about two cen-turies after the death of Aristotle in a pit on the west coast of Asia Minor.The peripathetic philosopher Andronicus provided a Latin translation andtried without much success to publish a first edition of Aristotle’s works; theproject remained merely at the level of collection. The publication at a largerscale was achieved by the Arabs much later.The works of Aristotle became known in the early medieval Europe of theXIth-XIIth centuries by translation from the arabic and rapidly became rec-ognized textbooks by the Christian Church despite their laical origin. Havingthis religious support, Aristotle’s doctrines dominated scientificly orientedpeople until the Renascence.As far as Physics is concerned, the first drawback came with Galilei,when his theory of free fall was first questioned from the experimental pointof view2. With respect to the nature of time, Aristotle was the proponentof a uniform and continuous flux of time, an idea supported later by New-ton. Finally, the ether paradigm was a powerful concept for centuries tillthe beginning of the XXth century when Einstein formulated the theory of2It is to be noted that within nonrelativistic quantum mechanics free fall could be stillconsidered in a certain sense to be aristotelian, i.e., mass-dependent.2special relativity. However, one should say that the surprizes of technologicalprogress do not forbid the resurgence of different forms of ether-like conceptsat least as a convenient explicative necessity3. Aristotle was an antiatomist.He believed that matter was continuous and could be devided in ever smallerpieces forever! On the other hand, Aristotle was the first to provide def-initions of basic mechanical concepts, such as energy (energeia - activity)and dynamics (dynamis - capacity for action). He also first defined physics(physis -nature) as the science of the forms of motion.Biographical Sketch of Aristotle• Period of life: 384 - 322 BC (62 years).• Place of birth: Stagira in the ancient Macedon region4, now in the prefec-ture of Khalkidhiki in the northeastern part of Greece). Aristotle was bornas the son of Nicomachus, chief physician at the court of Amyntas III. Stagirawas a port in the three-fingered hand-like peninsula Calcidia and is now avillage of only 500 people.• At the age of 17 years he went to Athens to study in the Academy, thefamous educational institution of Plato (now equivalent to a department ofphilosophy). For the next 19 years he remained in Plato’s Academy wherehe reached the mature status of professor and independent research philoso-pher. Although many of his ideas were opposed to those of Plato, he wasconsidered as one of the possible successors by Plato himself.• In 347 BC, when Plato died, Aristotle could not stay as head of theAcademy since Plato’s last will was that his own nephiew, the much moreobscure Speusippus, be in charge of it, but probably also because of the op-position of the other philosophers and his Macedonian origin. Together with3As a matter of fact, vacuum quantum fluctuations can be considered as a form ofquantum ether. In addition, the so-called quintessence, which is in vogue in the cosmologyproduced by the high redshifted supernovae data and also some of the modern cosmologicalscalar fields can be viewed as ethereal fields.4Ancient Macedon region and people should not be confused with present Macedonia.3Xenocrates, who later became the third head of Plato’s Academy, Aristotleabandoned Athens spending the following 12 years in various cities of theisles and along the coasts of the Aegean Sea where for a while he engagedin his remarkable studies in biology. Fortunately, during this quite unstableperiod of his life (although he got married to Pythias, the niece of ruler Her-mias) he was asked by Philip II of Macedonia to come back to Stagira as aprivate mentor of his thirteen-year old son Alexander (later, Alexander theGreat).• In 335 BC Philip conquered Athens. Aristotle returned to the most impor-tant city of that epoch in a position allowing him to found his own school(known as the “peripatetic school” because of Aristotle’s habit of walkingduring his lectures). The place he chose for his school was known as theLyceum named so after the nearby temple of Apollo Lyceus (Lykaios), i.e.,Apollo “the Wolf-God”. Aristotle’s school location was discovered only in1997 by E. Ligouri. It is a quadratic place with a diagonal of about 50 meters.It is considered by many historians as the first university of the planet5. Aris-totle taught in the Lyceum during the next 12 years of his life. His courses(2000 pages published in ‘Complete Works’ representing only between a fifthand a quarter of his total cultural output) cover knowledge ranging fromEthics to Biology, Physics and Metaphysics.On the personal side, it is known that during his second Athenian periodhis wife Pythias died and subsequently he lived unmarried with Herpyllis, awoman from Stagira. Also, in 327 BC, his nephiew Callisthenes who wentwith Alexander in his famous military campaign was executed at the orderof Alexander !• In 323 BC, at the death of Alexander, Aristotle prudently abandonedAthens and died a year later in Calchis, hometown of his mother in Euboeaisland.5I think this is true if one takes into account the encyclopedic range of Aristotle’s coursesand the extended library that was accumulated there through the efforts of Aristotle.4Extant Aristotelian TreatisesPresented is the list as given by Turner [3] with the titles in Latin as assignedby Andronicus.Logical Treatises (also known as Organon)1. Categoriae2. De Interpretatione3. Analytica Priora4. Analytica Posteriora5. Topica6. De Sophisticis ElenchisPhysical Treatises7. Physica (or Physica Auscultatio)8. De Cœlo9. MeteorologicaMetaphysical Treatises10. Metaphysica6Biological and Zoological Treatises11. Historiae Animalium12. De Generatione et Corruptione13. De Generazione Animalium14. De Partibus AnimaliumPsychological and Anthropological Treatises15. De Anima16. De Sensu et Sensibili6Title given by Andronicus, who placed this treatise after the physical treatises in hiscollection; Aristotle entitled it ‘First Philosophy’ (Prote Philosophia).517. De Memoria et Reminiscentia18. De Vita et Morte19. De Longitudine et Brevitate VitaeEthical and Political Treatises20. Ethica Nicomachea21. PoliticaPoetical and Rhetorical Treatises22. De Poetica23. De RhetoricaReferences[1] M. Rowan-Robinson, “Was Aristotle the first physicist ?”, PhysicsWorld 15, 15-16 (January 2002), http://physicsweb.org[2] Y. Ne’eman, “Aristotle: top man”, Physics World 15, 18-19 (May 2002);D. Sathe, untitled, ibidem, p. 19[3] W. Turner, “Aristotle”, in The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 (R.Appleton Company, 1907)Figure Caption: Map showing the location of Stagira among other ancientGreek cities.6

Aristotle: the first encyclopedist

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