Abstract
Aristotle himself notes in the previous reading that the complexity of the planetary motions do not seem to follow a rational pattern. One might expect—based on the divine simplicity of the motion of the outermost sphere of fixed stars and the chaotic motion of bodies here on Earth—that the complexity of the planetary motions would increase gradually as their distances from the outermost sphere of fixed stars is increased. This, however, is not the case. Since the planets are all spherical in shape—and therefore lack the ability to move themselves—Aristotle is at pains to explain the source of their movement.
Let us now turn to our final reading selection by Aristotle. Herein, he considers the position, shape and motion of the earth in relation to the surrounding heavens. In so doing, he carefully recounts, and attempts to refute, the opinions of other thinkers such as the Pythagoreans, the Platonists and the atomists. Do you find Aristotle’s arguments convincing?
Any body endowed with weight, of whatever size, moves toward the center.
—Aristotle
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Notes
- 1.
The constellations which make up the zodiac are described in more detail in Bede’s The Reckoning of Time. See Chap. 8 of the present volume.
- 2.
A great circle on a sphere is formed when a plane surface bisects the sphere. A small circle, by contrast, is formed when the plane does not cut through the exact center point of the sphere. Both the ecliptic and the celestial equator are thus great circles. For more information on spherical geometry, see Waldseemüller’s Introduction to Cosmography, included in Chap. 9 of the present volume.
- 3.
To familiarize yourself with the arrangement of some constellations, do Ex. 5.3.
- 4.
To observe the motion of the planets and the moon through the zodiac for yourself, do Exercises 3.2 and 8.4.
- 5.
Aristotle based his onion-like model of the heavenly spheres on the previous astronomical work of Eudoxus and Callippus. For a detailed account of the development of his model, see Simplicius’ commentary in Mueller, I. (Ed.), Simplicius On Aristotle’s “On the Heavens 2.10-14”, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2005, pp. 33–50. Kepler summarizes Aristotle’s mechanistic model of the celestial spheres in his section entitled Concerning the causes of movement of the planets, which can be found in Part II of Book IV of his Epitome of Copernican Astronomy. This section is included in Chap. 16 of the present volume.
- 6.
Figure 4.2 is from Neugebauer, O., A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy, Springer-Verlag, New York, Heidelberg, Berlin, 1975, p. 1360.
- 7.
- 8.
For an exposition of Pythagorean cosmology, see “The Development of the Pythagorean Doctrine,” by Theodor Gomperz, reprinted in Munitz, M. K. (Ed.), Theories of the Universe, The Free Press of Glencoe, 1957.—\scriptsize[K.K.]
- 9.
Diels, Vorsokratiker 3, II A 47 (53, 38 ff.), B 28 (63, 8). Ritter and Preller, 103 b. Cf. Burnet, E.G.P.3 § 60.
- 10.
Diels, Vors. 3 21 B 39 (241, 16). Ritter and Preller, 103 b. Burnet, E.G.P.3 p. 212.
- 11.
I. 2–4.
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Kuehn, K. (2015). Earth at the Center of the World. In: A Student's Guide Through the Great Physics Texts. Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1360-2_4
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