Essay - Aristotle This Paper Discusses Aristotle's Astronomy Besides Giving a Brief...

Aristotle

This paper discusses Aristotle's Astronomy besides giving a brief overview of Aristotle's life and accomplishments.

Life and Accomplishments

***** (384-322 BCE) is one ***** the three most famous ancient philosophers whose work have left an indelible mark on ***** Western Civilization. Aristotle was born in Macedonia where his father was a physician ***** the royal court. He went to study in Plato's Academy at the age of 17 ***** he stayed for 20 years and was Plato's ***** dist*****guished pupil. After Plato died in 347 BC, he moved to Assos, a city in Asia Minor, and married ***** ruler (Hermias)'s adopted daughter. After Hermias' was captured and killed by the Persians a few years later, Aris*****tle was invited by the King ***** Macedonia to his court. There, he became a tutor to the King's son Alex*****er—who ***** later to earn fame in *****tory as Alexander the Great. In 335 BC, when Alexander ***** king, Aristotle returned to Athens and established his own school, the Lyceum. It was during the 13 years at ***** that most of *****'s works were written. When Alex*****er ***** Great died in 325 BC, anti-*****n feelings in Athens forced Aris*****tle to retreat to a family estate ***** Euboea, where he died the following year.

The majority of Aristotle's works ***** been lost. The *****'s that have survived, consisting mainly ***** his lecture notes, reveal that Aristotle had stu***** in depth and written about almost every subject that was ***** existence at the time including anatomy, astronomy, physics, geology, zoology, aesthetics, rhetoric, logic, ethics, metaphysics, psychology ***** literature. His ***** in such a wide range of subjects are astonishing. After the fall of Rome, ***** works were almost lost to the Western world. He was studied ***** the Islamic scholars in ***** 9th to 12th centuries when Aristotelian works were translated into Arabic. Aristotle was rediscovered by the Western world in the 13th century and his thoughts were held in such high esteem during ***** Middle Ages that his philosophy attained the status of dogma. His work is relevant to theology, education, literary criticism, the analysis ***** human action, and political ***** ***** has helped ***** shape modern language and common sense. (*****, "Wickipedia" para on Biography; "Aristotle," Encarta Article)

*****'s Astr*****omy

Although Aristotle was the first per***** to introduce elements of empiricism in his philosophical works, he did not always follow ***** scientific principle ***** observation and experiment in all of his works. For example, some of his theories on astronomy in his works such as "Metaphysics," "Physics," ***** "On the *****avens," are based on ***** speculati***** ra*****r than on empirical observations. It is due to t***** reason perhaps ***** his basic ***** on ***** were la*****er proved wrong by more "*****" observations by Galileo and Isaac Newton. In fact, some writers have harshly criticized *****'s theories on astronomy, holding them responsible for retarding progress in the field since Aristotle's writings were considered as authority ***** many centuries. A. Berry in his book "A Short