This reading assignment is a combination of primary and secondary sources about
Aristotle.
By almost any measure, Aristotle is the most successful scientist who has ever
lived. In addition, the number of fields of science in which he excelled or
set on a productive footing is astonishing. Not to mention that he was a student
of Plato's, who was a student of Socrates... and, oh yes, he was the teacher
of Alexander the Great. Imagine what it would have been like to be a contemporary
of Aristotle and to meet him yourself...
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, particular things are real, and their essential natures are
abstractions.
-
T
or F? Aristotle
is often called the philosopher of common sense because of his emphasis
on ordinary observations.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, “demonstrated knowledge” is based on experiment rather than
logic.
-
T
or F? In his
scientific investigations, Aristotle employed a variety of methods, including
observation, experiment, dissection and vivisection.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, everything is composed of four elements.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, rocks fall toward the center of the universe because every
element seeks a natural place.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, an arrow in flight moves upward because it is seeking its
natural place.
-
T
or F? Plato
taught Socrates who in turn taught Aristotle.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, the Earth is flat.
-
T
or F? Socrates
taught Aristotle who in turn taught Alexander the Great.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, an individual, particular dog we can experience with our senses
is real; the ideal “Dog” is an abstraction that does not exist independently
of physical dogs.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, true knowledge begins with sensory experience.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, the nature of a thing causes it to change in an orderly fashion.
-
T
or F? To understand
the nature of a thing according to Aristotle, one must understand its four
causes.
-
T
or F? Aristotle’s
“final” cause refers to the ultimate material elements from which a thing
is made.
-
T
or F? Aristotle’s
“efficient” cause refers to the aim or goal or purpose of the change.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, the heavens are made of ether, a fifth element (or quintessence).
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, the region below the Moon is the only realm where generation
and corruption occur.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, the elements are made from the regular solids.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, atoms move through empty space.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, projectile motion is a case of violent motion.
-
T
or F? Aristotle
adapted the models of Eudoxus to explain the motions of the planets in terms
of concentric rotating spheres.
-
T
or F? Aristotle
described the placenta of the dogfish on the basis of first-hand knowledge.
-
T
or F? Aristotle
argued that astronomy is the science that is most accessible to us.
-
T
or F? Aristotle
felt that the study of worms and lower animals is an ignoble pursuit, best
left to hired servants rather than undertaken by philosophers.
-
T
or F? For Aristotle,
a knowledge of causes gives a sense of pleasure and wonder, regardless of
the nature of the subject that is being studied.
-
T
or F? Aristotle
emphasized that one must study the form of the human body, not just its
materials.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, the natural motion of earth is around the center, neither
straight up nor straight down.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, water has levity.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, fire has gravity.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, the circular motion of the heavens is well-suited to their
perfection and permanence, because circular motion never requires moving
to a different place and coming to an end.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, all motion is natural.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, the celestial spheres, made of the fifth element, are neither
heavy nor light.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, his ideas of the fifth element disproved the existence of
the divine.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, a scientific demonstration is a logical argument.
- T or F?
According to Aristotle,
a scientific demonstration is a necessary argument.
- T or F?
According to Aristotle,
scientific knowledge is causal knowledge.
-
T
or F? A quia
syllogism, or knowledge of the fact, begins with an effect and reasons to
a cause.
- T or F?
A propter
quid syllogism, or demonstration of the reason why, is less desirable
because it suffers from the problem of induction.
- T or F?
According to Aristotle,
the chief mechanism underlying geological change is sudden episodes of crustal
collapse.
- T or F?
According to Aristotle,
the center of the Earth is comprised of a watery body known as Tartarus.
- T or F?
According to Aristotle,
the Earth was once covered entirely by sea, in a primordial globe in which
there was no dry land.
-
T
or F? According
to Aristotle, all natural things contain within themselves the causes of
their own natural changes or motions.
