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Dr Robert A. Hatch - University of Florida
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| The Aristotelian
System was a geocentric (earth-centered) geostatic (earth-stationary) model
of the finite Cosmos. Cosmos signaled something more than a planetary
model but something quite different from a modern Universe. Unlike
the concept of Universe (infinite, quantitative and homogeneous) where
space, time, matter, and cause were absolute and uniform, the Cosmos was
finite, qualitative, and hierarchically differentiated. In the Cosmos
there was no space (only place), time was eternal, matter was composed
of elements (derived from real qualities in nature: hot, cold, wet,
dry), change was based on the Four Causes (Material, Formal, Efficient,
Final). The basic principles of things were Potentiality and Actuality,
Generation and Corruption. However alien to the modern mind, Aristotle's
Cosmos was a brilliantly integrated whole. Here Matter and Form were
never separate (substantiated form), here Being and Knowing were inseparably
linked, here Aristotle combined the Microcosm (Theory of Matter, the parts
of all things) and the Macrocosm (Cosmology, the structure of all things).
Aristotle's Cosmos holistically linked Matter, Place, Motion, Cause, and
Value. The relations between Man, Nature, and God were never in doubt.
Everything was connected and reinforcing. All Becoming (Matter, Motion,
Change) was explained by means of the Great Chain of Being and by Being
itself (God, the Unmoved Mover). For all that, Aristotle's most important
categories were not those of the 17th century. The extraordinary
coherence of his Cosmos helps to explain why it dominated Western thinking
for nearly 2000 years, why Copernicus' innocent suggestion raised such
furor.
The above illustration of Aristotle's Cosmos appeared in Boulliau's Philolaus (Amsterdam 1639). For other illustrations and applications of the Geocentric Model Click Here. |
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Dr Robert A. Hatch - All rights reserved