A while back, I had possibly the most interesting class in my entire year and a half at U of T. As somebody who has taken classes entitled “Public Nudity” and “The Fine Art of Murder” in my time, that’s saying something. What was the topic of that day’s class?
Aristotelian World Views.
Before you roll your eyes and ask me to reevaluate my perception of “interesting,” let me give you a little background knowledge. Aristotelian worldviews is basically the science that was accepted from the time of Aristotle in 4th century BC all the way throughout the medieval period to roughly 17th century AD. This was a system of ideas that included but were not limited to, astronomy, physics, astrology, cosmology, natural history, and more. The cool thing about the Aristotelian world view is that every science in this scientific mosaic, so to speak, revolved around the same principle: the universe is comprised of four elements: air, water, earth, and fire. We got ourselves some Avatar the Last Airbender ish going on here.
The lesson started off with a brief introduction to Aristotelian Physics. Physics in the time of Aristotle isn’t physics as we know it today, we have Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein to thank for that. The physics that we are taught today with mass, gravity, distance and so forth (heh.. revealing the full extent of my knowledge of physics – or lack thereof, right here), is actually the theory called Newtonian Physics which was adopted in late 17th century. Aristotelian Physics is an idea originating around 4th century BC that states the universe is only comprised of four elements, and each element has its specific nature.
Could you imagine how easy Chem class would be if we still went by the Aristotelian periodic table of elements?
Aristotle had a law called the Law of Natural motion, where each element was attributed a nature, or a “characteristic.” For example, earth and water are heavy elements while air and fire are light elements. The heaviest elements clump together at the center while the lighter elements surround it in layers. This partially explains the previously accepted geocentric model of the solar system where earth was at the center– after all, earth is the heaviest so it’s only natural that it “sink” through while the other elements “float” near the periphery of the terrestrial region. It was believed that other planets were made of an entirely different material than earth called aether, which is lighter than air and allows planets to float around above earth.
When characterizing the four elements, however, it did not merely stop at heavy or light. These four elements were all the Ancient Greeks and their later contemporaries had, so they were going to define the heck out of them. Not only did elements have weight properties, they also had “sensible” qualities. We don’t mean sensible like a nice pair of brown leather court shoes, we mean sensible as in literally feel with your senses.
We’re talking hot, dry, cold, and wet.
Fire is dry and hot, while earth is dry and cold; water is wet and cold, while air is wet and hot. Clearly this idea was not formulated in Canada, where everything is 90% wet and cold, 100% of the time. Unlike Canada, however, Ancient Greece and a majority of Europe did not have a perpetual winter, but rather enjoyed the presence of three other seasons.
Winter, Summer, Spring, and Fall.
Are you starting to see a pattern here? The different elements were given different sense-able qualities (this spelling will make it easier to differentiate between sensible and able to sense) and it just so happened that each sense-ability correlated with the four seasons.
All of a sudden, fire is not only dry and hot; it has become the embodiment of summer. Earth is not only dry and cold; it is the embodiment of fall, water – winter, and air – spring. Every element now has a weight property, a sense-able quality, and a season. We may have found the atomic structure and the number of atoms and neutrons in each element, but the Aristotelian scientists didn’t do too shabby themselves.
So what now, we have four elements that correspond to four seasons. Why is this important? This is important because it becomes the basis for a second branch of science: humoral medicine.
Photo Sources:
http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs32/f/2008/203/0/2/Avatar_Aang_by_Shira_chan…
http://www.mhhe.com/physsci/astronomy/fix/student/images/04f01.jpg