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[[Image:Aristotle.jpg|thumb|300 px|center|Aristotle]]
'''Aristotle and Natural Philosophy'''

Aristotle(384 BC – 322 BC) was the greatest philosopher of ancient Greece.He had discussed almost all the branches of knowledge.Studying ''Nature'' was essentially one of his principal interest.''Knowledge of nature'' or ''natural philosophy'' is ''physis'' in Greek from which the word ''Physics'' derived.Aristotle covered this in his several works such as ''Physics, On The Heavens, Meteorology'' etc.He set the principles of ''natural philosophy'' in ''Metaphysics.''

Aristotle proposed four ''elements'' of which all natural objects on ''earth'' consist of.They are ''Air, Water, Earth and Fire.''He also proposed that the ''heavenly bodies'' or objects in the sky(stars, planets, moon etc.) are completely independent of earth and they are made of another completely different thing called ''quintessence''.''Quintessence'' itself and objects made of it do not change with time or any other cause.

Aristotle assumed ''earth'' as the center of the universe, according to him all objects in the universe rotates around ''earth''.

According to Aristotle every ''event'' is lead by a ''cause'' and principal objective of ''natural philosophy'' is to find ''causes'' behind events.

According to Aristotle's dynamics the natural state of all body is ''static,'' everything tends to be static.Some ''force'' applied on an object makes it ''moving'' or an object gains ''velocity'' if force is applied.When the force is withdrawn objects eventually return to their natural state or become ''static.''Mathematically Aristotle says force('''F''') is proportional to velocity('''v''') or <math>F \propto v</math> which is completely contradictory to the modern view that force('''F''') is proportional to acceleration('''a''') or <math>F \propto a</math>

But ''Natural Philosophy'' was gradually proving unable to describe nature. Some doctrines (like Copernicus` ''Heliocentric Model'' of the solar system) against it was growing outside universities.

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