Study On Aristotle's Philosophy Of Physics

Aristotle is a comprehensive person in the ancient Greece philosophy. His academic fields contain Logic, Philosophy, Science, Politics, Ethics and so on. He has developed excellent academic performance in all subjects and plays a vital position in the whole history of western culture. Philosophy of physics is one model of philosophy of science.Although new fields of this subject keep appearing and its content becomes intensive and meticulous with the rapid development of modern physics, the traditional problem of time and space is still important. This paper mainly focuses on Aristotle's theory of time and space and its great significance for physical method on the basis of his metaphysical thoughts, in order to reveal the facet of Aristotle's philosophy of physics. Aristotle criticizes and inherits the theory of time of Plato and the ancient Greece philosophers before. He is the first man in history of physics to point out the right nature of time. He believes that time is not motion, but is the measure of motion and the duration of motion. On the problem of infinity of time, he thinks the general time of universe is infinite, but the time of concrete subject is limited. Furthermore, he proposes that motion should be the criterion of time and views uniform circular motion as unit of the measurement. Aristotle's theory of time contains the content of relativity and absoluteness, which benefits Newton's absolute view of space-time and Einstein's relative view of space-time, but by investigation of his works, this paper still prefer to believe his idea of absolute time that time exists independently of physical objects.On Aristotle's theory of space, we mainly discuss several topics as follows: nature of space, the relation of space and motion, the relation of space and universe, and vacuous space. He correctly shows the form of space and recognizes that space doesn't exist as an independent entity and must depend on objects and motion. He also denies the existence of vacuous space. Aristotle infers from permanence of motion and change of matters that time is infinite, but he merely notices the finiteness of space on the basis of finite universe by his"the first mover"and ignores the infinite space to the unlimited world of matter.Aristotle's philosophy of physics by the theory of time and space exhibits us his methodology of science, provides the basic tool to describe thing's motion in space and time for him and descendant, and lays a good theoretical foundation for the concept of space and time and classical mechanics in modern times, which has a lasting and profound impact on the development of science of Europe.