10 ARISTOTLE'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE AND CULTURE - PHILOSOPHY - 2024

The contributions of Aristotle to culture and science were very prominent and accepted for centuries. In fact, his work influenced the great scientists who lived later, including Galileo and Newton.

Arisotle is one of the most recognized names among the scientists and philosophers of Ancient Greece, having been a disciple of Plato and a teacher of Alexander the Great. He was born in the year 384 a. C. in the city of Estagira, in Ancient Greece.

Schule des Aristoteles. Gustav Adolph Spagenberg. Picture representing the Lyceum. In this school the contributions of Aristotle began to be studied.

From a very young age, he showed interest in culture and science by making the decision to move to Athens to obtain higher education at Plato's Academy. He spent almost twenty years studying under Plato.

About five years after leaving the Academy, Aristotle was invited by the then Macedonian King Philip II to become a tutor for his son Alexander, later known as Alexander the Great. Upon arrival, Aristotle was appointed director of the Royal Macedonian Academy.

Returning to Athens some eight years later, Aristotle established his own school known as the Lyceum, named after the Greek god Apollo Lycian.

During this time, Aristotle built a library that contained both his writings and the research of his students, as well as historical philosophical texts.

Although many of the texts in that library were lost over time, the texts that have survived to this day have been translated and widely distributed as jewels of ancient Western philosophy.

The etymology of the name Aristotle means “the best purpose”, and in his 62 years of life Aristotle lived up to his name not only by studying and learning about the culture and science issues available in his time, but also by offering great contributions that continue to influence today.

10 contributions of Aristotle that changed the world and knowledge

1- A formalized system of reasoning

Considered by many to be the father of the field of logic, Aristotle established the foundations of argumentation and logic by emphasizing good reasoning, including the idea that virtues and morality were developed by reasoning and thinking.

Aristotle promoted the focus on the importance of premises (or bases) as part of the structure of an argument rather than the content of the argument. In this way, if the premises of the argument were true, then the conclusion should also be.

Aristotle's ideas were for many years the stepping stones for advancement in the field of logic.

2- Aristotle's political analogy

Bust of Aristotle, by HG Wells via Wikimedia Commons

Aristotle's treatises and ideas also left great contributions in the field of politics, especially related to the structure, functioning, and purpose of a city-state.

Aristotle compares a politician to a craftsman in the sense that, using productive knowledge, the politician operates, produces and maintains a legal system that follows universal principles to reach an ultimate goal.

Aristotle studied and widely promoted the need for a ruler for the successful existence of a city-state and for a constitution that would constitute the way of life of the citizens and that also defined the general objective of this organization.

3- Studies of biology and Greek medicine

Plato (left), pointing towards ideals, and Aristotle (right), reaching out to the physical world. The School of Athens by Raffaello Sanzio (1509).

The field of medicine was also one of great interest to Aristotle. Although he was noted for his studies in biology, he is also considered the father of comparative physiology and anatomy. It is believed that he came to compare more than 50 species of living beings during his research.

Aristotle was limited by the resources of his time and therefore many of his studies on the internal structure of the human body and bodily functions were wrong.

However, this did not prevent him from studying animal anatomy, especially those species that he could compare with human anatomy.

His observations include his embryological studies, using the chicken embryo to describe the early stages of development, the growth of the heart, and the differences between arteries and veins in the circulatory system.

His doctrine of the four basic qualities is considered the most important contribution to the theory of ancient Greek medicine, a doctrine that was used by many physicians and philosophers for centuries, although it was eventually superseded during the Renaissance.

The four basic qualities according to Aristotle were hot, cold, wet and dry. For years this doctrine shaped the research and teachings of many Greek philosophers.

4- Early ideas about the theory of evolution

Aristotle was a great coder and classifier, being one of the first philosophers to develop a taxonomic or classification scheme, studying the differences and similarities of dozens of animal species with the intention of learning by comparing them.

The system he used to organize these animals and their differences was one that ranged from "imperfect" to "perfect", thus looking for differences that showed improvement or superiority.

Indirectly, Aristotle was beginning to understand the concepts of evolution, more than two millennia before Darwin published The Origin of Species.

5- Understanding of human memory

Aristotle, Francesco Hayez (1811)

The process of learning by association, which has become very popular today, owes many of its key aspects to the study of memory conducted by Aristotle more than 2,000 years ago. Aristotle wrote that memory was based on three principles:

Contiguity

This principle of memory refers to remembering an idea that was experienced at the same time together with another.

Likeness

It refers to the ease of remembering an idea the more similar it is to another, for example witnessing a sunrise may bring to mind another day in which a similar sunrise was witnessed.

Contrast

It refers to remembering the opposite of what is being experienced in the moment, such as thinking of a very cold day when experiencing a very hot day.

6- The Aristotelian concept of habits

Bust of Aristotle, by Internet Archive, via Wikimedia Commons

" We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act; It is a habit." Aristotle.

For Aristotle, the conception of habits in human behavior was more than just rigid actions and automata that were performed unconsciously.

Neuroscience has long used this rigid concept of habits that neglects many aspects of human nature. However, Aristotle had a different idea of ​​the concept of the conception and development of habits.

He used three categories to classify the conception of habits, and these categories are based first on knowing the characteristics of a certain thing or idea, then on prior knowledge about how to behave, and finally, on the ideas learned about how to do something.

These categories represent an acquired disposition and take into account cognitive aspects of human behavior.

This notion of human habit has been a great contribution to new concepts in neuroscience.

7- The importance of observation in nature

Aristotle, stone carving in Chartres Cathedral, Portail Royal

Aristotle was a great supporter of observation when trying to understand the workings of things and promoted the use of this practice as the main and primary part of reasoning.

In his lectures and classes at the Lyceum, Aristotle encouraged his students to observe observation as a method of learning and understanding, and he presented the study of human knowledge from the perspective of natural philosophy. This was key in the development of the scientific method.

8- One of the precursors of the scientific method

Statue of Aristotle at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. Source: Michael Schmalenstroer / Public domain

Aristotle is considered one of the first philosophers to present a systematic treatise on scientific research.

It is also considered one of the forerunners of the scientific method. At present, the scientific method is considered as the root for the consideration and study of new ideas and in the establishment of new theories.

While philosophers like Plato had played down the importance of observation as part of the reasoning to understand the natural world, Aristotle established it as a primary step for the collection and classification of empirical data with the aim of ordering and discovering the functioning and composition of things.

In addition, he taught that the way in which facts are displayed is fundamental to determining the method of successful scientific investigation and included logic as a system of reasoning in the scientific method. This gave way to new forms of publication and research.

9- The earth is a sphere

Aristotle was the first to argue and prove that the earth is shaped like a sphere. Before this, some other philosophers had already hinted at the idea of ​​the round shape of the earth, but it had not yet been established as a proven thing and the outdated ideas about a square shape still prevailed.

In the year 350 a. C., Aristotle used various reasoning to prove that the earth was round. First, he argued that the earth was a sphere due to the different constellations that can be seen in the sky as it moves further and further away from the equator along with the variation in their sizes.

Furthermore, without yet knowing the concept of gravity, he argued that the weight of all parts of the earth that tended to move downward, or in other words toward the center, would naturally give the earth a spherical shape.

He also noticed, like other philosophers, the outline of the earth's shadow on the moon during eclipses.

10- Physics concepts

Bust of Aristotle in the Altemps Palace, Rome. Source: Jastrow / Public domain

Aristotle extensively reviewed and documented his investigations and observations in the field of physics.

Despite not having the measurement tools that we now have and being unaware of invisible forces such as gravity, he made great arguments about motion, the nature of matter, space and time.

Through simple observations, Aristotle discovered and published fundamental truths that continue to be taught to this day. For example, he taught that inertia was the natural state of matter unless a force acted on it.

In addition, he came to understand to some degree the concept of friction that exists in an object falling into a fluid and the differences that exist depending on the weight of the object and the thickness of the fluid.

Conclusions

Some of Aristotle's contributions are so important that they were the forerunners for the future work of characters like Newton or Galileo.

There are dozens of contributions to culture and science for which Aristotle was responsible. Many think that his misconceptions delayed scientific advancement, as few dared to contradict his teachings after his death.

However, it is believed that his support for science and thought prompted many more to follow in his footsteps by researching and discovering new concepts.

Aristotle is certainly a name that cannot be overlooked when speaking about the contributions of the great Greek thinkers to the modern world.

Although many of his ideas and teachings were outdated or superseded during the Scientific Revolution, it could hardly be said that one or more of his contributions were unnecessary to scientific progress in general.

As one of the fathers of logic, Aristotle believed that all teaching and knowledge should be exposed to the test of questioning and reason, which included changes in thinking and theories as more and more factors were discovered and new and more reliable. research systems were available.

Aristotle's contributions will continue to be the subject of much study and research, and will continue to provide contributions that will serve for scientific advancement for many decades to come.

Articles of interest

Definition of philosophy according to Aristotle.

Aristotle phrases.

Aristotle's thought.

Contributions of Galileo Galilei.

Contributions of Descartes.

References

1. IEP. Aristotle (384-322 BCE). March 17, 2017, from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Website: iep.utm.edu.
2. Miller, F. (2011). Aristotle's Political Theory. March 17, 2017, from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Website: plato.stanford.edu.
3. Dunn, PM (2006). Aristotle (384–322 bc): philosopher and scientist of ancient Greece. March 17, 2017, from Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed., Website: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
4. Aristotle's Contribution to Learning & Behavior. March 17, 2017, from Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne, Website: users.ipfw.edu.
5. Bernacer, J. & Murillo J. (2014). The Aristotelian conception of habit and its contribution to human neuroscience. March 17, 2017, from Front Hum Neurosci. Website: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
6. Anderson H. & Hepburn B. (2015). Scientific Method. March 17, 2017, from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Website: plato.stanford.edu.
7. Aristotle. (335-323 BC). On the Heavens. Athens: Aristotle.
8. Aristotle. (335-323 BC). Physics. Athens: Aristotle.