The Makers of Science: V

The Makers of Science

By F. S. Harris, Ph. D., Director Experiment Station, Utah Agricultural

College

V — Aristotle

For twenty centuries Aristotle was the chief authority on

natural science. In him the science of the ancient world found

its culmination, and it was back to his writings that every ques-

tion was referred throughout medieval times and until modern

scientific workers began to study nature. The highest culture

of the ancient world was found among the Greeks. They gath-

ered learning from all lands and themselves made great advances

in science, literature, art, and philosophy. Science originated in

Egypt and Babylonia, but not until the superior intellect of the

Greeks was turned to it was any noteworthy advancement made.

Thales (640-546 B. C), the first of the Greek philosophers, was

also founder of Greek astronomy and geometry, but it was with

Aristotle that science reached its highest development.

Aristotle was born 384 B. C, at Stagira, a Greek colony on

the Macedonian peninsula Chalcidice, and lived to be sixty-two

years old. He came from a long line of physicians. His father

was physician to King Amyntas II of Macedonia, who was grand-

father of Alexander the Great. At eighteen Aristotle went to

Athens to study under Plato, the great Athenian teacher of the

time. Plato being absent at Syracuse, Aristotle spent three years

studying books till he returned, when a close friendship between

the two was formed. So brilliant was the pupil that Plato called

him the "intellect of the school."

Aristotle remained in Athens twenty years, during part of

which time he conducted a school of rhetoric. At the age of

forty-two he was invited by King Philip to Macedonia to educate

his son Alexander who was then only thirteen years old. He

remained as instructor of Alexander at least three years, and

must have been well liked by his pupil, since Alexander in

later years contributed 800 talents, equivalent *to about $200,000,

to help out his studies in natural history.

Almost every science traces its history back to Aristotle.

While his chief contributions were in the field of biology, his

great systematizing mind made its imprint on many branches,

among which may be mentioned, physical astronomy, physical

geography, meteorology, physics, chemistry, geology, botany, as-

THE MAKERS OF SCIENCE 335

tronomy, physiology, embryology, and zoology. His work in

these lines was greatly assisted by his pupil Theophrastus.

Aristotle strongly urged that facts should first be sought and

that the explanations should not be given till the facts were well

established. "We must not," he said, "accept a general prin-

ciple from logic only, but must prove its application to each

fact; for it is in facts that we must seek general principles, and

these must always accord with facts. Experiments furnish the

particular facts from which induction is the pathway to general

laws." In spite of this teaching, the scientific facts that he dis-

covered were often so intermingled with philosophy and logic

that it was difficult to tell where fact ended and theory began.

He had a rather sound knowledge of animals, plants, and

rocks. His works show a knowledge of over five hundred living

forms, and he dissected over fifty different species of animals.

He traced with considerable care the embryological development

of the chick during incubation. His knowledge of the propaga-

tion of animals was not sufficient, however, to make him reject

the belief in spontaneous generation from mud, sand, foam, and

dew. In several places in his works he gave evidence to show

that the earth is round, although it was at that time almost uni-

versally thought to be flat. In the field of botany he showed

considerable knowledge of plants, their mode of propagation,

nourishment, and relation to animals. He knew very little of

human anatomy, as the body was not thought to be a fit subject

of study. He held that the brain was bloodless and that the

arteries carried air instead of blood.

Without doubt some of his errors in physical science had a

retarding influence, since during the middle ages he was con-

sidered to be so infallible an authority. His statement that

bodies fall toward the earth at a speed proportional to their

weight was held by many to be correct even after Galileo had

demonstrated its falsity by actual experiment. He taught that

there were four elements : the hot, the cold, the wet, and the dry.

In spite of his mistakes he contributed much of value con-

cerning the natural world, and for the first time turned the at-

tention of students toward a systematic study of nature and her

laws. He held that even the lower things of nature are worth

consideration. He said. "We ought not with puerile fastidious-

ness to neglect the contemplation of more ignoble animals; for

in all animals there is something to admire, because in all there

is the natural and the beautiful." This point of view is decid-

edly wholesome even in modern times.

An attitude that places him definitely in the class of great

scientists is that expressed in the following words:

"I found no basis prepared; no models to copy ..... mine is

the first step, and therefore a small one, though worked out with much

336 IMPROVEMENT ERA

thought and hard labor. It must he looked at as a first step and judged

with indulgence. You, my readers, or hearers of my lectures, if you think.

I have done as much as can fairly be required for an initiatory start, as

compared with more advanced departments of theory, will acknowledge what

I have achieved and pardon what I have left for others to accomplish."

He realized the immensity of nature and that many workers

would be required to discover all her laws.

Logan, Utah