Aristotle claimed heavy objects fell to the ground because they loved the noble positions and wanted to be close to it. He also said that heavy objects would fall faster.
This doesn’t really sound like Aristotle to me, I suspect it sounds a bit different in context—do you remember where he says this?
In Physica—I have missed a part there which I apologise for. Only objects which are made of earth fall toward the noble position of earth—as is their want to be with their own in their own noble position. Things made of air will seek out the heavens (which is why smoke rises), things made of water will seek out water (which is why rivers flow into the sea), and things made of fire will seek out fire. For Aristotle, heavy objects contained more of the element earth—so naturally they moved quickest to reach their natural position.
Why doesn’t this seem to you like a model grounded in empirical evidence?
Aristotle never tested it—never even wrote of the possibility of testing the model. Post-hoc reasoning is not science. It’s inventing plausible (to the time) sounding explanations for observations, and then just leaving it at that.
Which is why Aristotle (or any Aristotlean naturalist) never climbed up a cliff and dropped two balls—one made of lead the other of wood.
This doesn’t really sound like Aristotle to me, I suspect it sounds a bit different in context—do you remember where he says this?
In Physica—I have missed a part there which I apologise for. Only objects which are made of earth fall toward the noble position of earth—as is their want to be with their own in their own noble position. Things made of air will seek out the heavens (which is why smoke rises), things made of water will seek out water (which is why rivers flow into the sea), and things made of fire will seek out fire. For Aristotle, heavy objects contained more of the element earth—so naturally they moved quickest to reach their natural position.
It’s from his argument of natural motions.
Why doesn’t this seem to you like a model grounded in empirical evidence?
Aristotle never tested it—never even wrote of the possibility of testing the model. Post-hoc reasoning is not science. It’s inventing plausible (to the time) sounding explanations for observations, and then just leaving it at that.
Which is why Aristotle (or any Aristotlean naturalist) never climbed up a cliff and dropped two balls—one made of lead the other of wood.