Science Stuff: The Nature of Science
Note: I think for now, I am going to start each section of this online book with “science stuff:” — just so you know where I’m going.
Aristotle and Reasoning
It’s always fun to start talking about science with the Greek philosopher, Aristotle. It seems certain that there were other humans in the past that had very interesting ideas, but for one reason or another we end up with Aristotle’s works.
You see, Aristotle is a great place to start our discussion of science because Aristotle wasn’t a scientist. I know, that seems crazy — but it’s true. Although I never got a chance to hang out with Aristotle (I mean, he lived over 2000 years ago), I can still pretend what he would do. We can then look at how he thought about stuff compared to other humans that ARE scientists.
Take a box that’s sitting on the floor and then push it. What happens and why? For Aristotle, he starts with the following assumptions:
- If you push a box, it moves.
- If you push harder, it moves faster.
- If you stop pushing the box, it stops.
Once he had these starting assumptions, he could produce the following conclusion:
The natural state of an object is to be at rest. If you leave it alone, it will stop.
