''On the Heavens'' (Greek: ''Περὶ οὐρανοῦ''; Latin: ''De Caelo'' or ''De Caelo et Mundo'') is

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

's chief

cosmological Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

treatise: written in 350 BCE, it contains his astronomical theory and his ideas on the concrete workings of the terrestrial world. It should not be confused with the spurious work ''

On the Universe ''On the Universe'' (; ) is a theological and scientific treatise included in the Corpus Aristotelicum but usually regarded as Pseudo-Aristotle, spurious. It was likely published between the and the . The work discusses cosmological, geological, ...

'' (''De Mundo'', also known as ''On the Cosmos''). This work is significant as one of the defining pillars of the Aristotelian worldview, a school of philosophy that dominated intellectual thinking for almost two millennia. Similarly, this work and others by

were important seminal works from which much of

scholasticism Scholasticism was a medieval European philosophical movement or methodology that was the predominant education in Europe from about 1100 to 1700. It is known for employing logically precise analyses and reconciling classical philosophy and Ca ...

was derived.

Argument

According to Aristotle in ''De Caelo'', the heavenly bodies are the most perfect realities, (or "substances"), whose motions are ruled by principles other than those of bodies in the

sublunary sphere In Aristotelian physics and Greek astronomy, the sublunary sphere is the region of the geocentric cosmos below the Moon, consisting of the four classical elements: earth, water, air, and fire. The sublunary sphere was the realm of changing natu ...

. The latter are composed of one or all of the four

classical element The classical elements typically refer to Earth (classical element), earth, Water (classical element), water, Air (classical element), air, Fire (classical element), fire, and (later) Aether (classical element), aether which were proposed to ...

s (

earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

air An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a fuel in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. Flames, the most visible portion of the fire, are produced in the combustion re ...

) and are perishable; but the matter of which the heavens are made is imperishable aether, so they are not subject to generation and corruption. Hence their motions are eternal and perfect, and the perfect motion is the circular one, which, unlike the earthly up-and down-ward locomotions, can last eternally selfsame – an early predecessor to Newton's first law of motion. Aristotle theorized that aether did not exist anywhere on Earth, but that it was an element exclusive to the heavens. As substances, celestial bodies have matter (aether) and form (a given period of uniform rotation). Sometimes Aristotle seems to regard them as living beings with a rational soul as their form (see also ''

Metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...

'', bk. XII). Aristotle proposed a geocentric model of the universe in ''De Caelo''. The Earth is the center of motion of the universe, with circular motion being perfect because Earth was at the center of it. There can be only one center of the universe, and as a result there are no other inhabited worlds within it besides Earth. As such the Earth is unique and alone in this regard. Aristotle theorized that beyond the sublunary sphere and the heavens is an external spiritual space that mankind cannot fathom directly. Aristotle also argued for the view that the following six directions exist as human-independent realities, not just relative to us: left, right, up, down, front, and back. This is an important part of his theory that the heavens move always in one direction and with no irregularities. Much of ''De Caelo'' is concerned with refuting the views of his predecessors. For example, Aristotle sets his eyes multiple times on the analyses of weight given by the Pythagoreans and Plato in the ''Timaeus''.

Historical connections

Aristotelian philosophy and cosmology were influential in the Islamic world, where his ideas were taken up by the

Falsafa Islamic philosophy is philosophy that emerges from the Islamic tradition. Two terms traditionally used in the Islamic world are sometimes translated as philosophy—''falsafa'' (), which refers to philosophy as well as logic, mathematics, and p ...

school of philosophy throughout the later half of the first millennia AD. Of these, philosophers

Averroes Ibn Rushd (14 April 112611 December 1198), archaically Latinization of names, Latinized as Averroes, was an Arab Muslim polymath and Faqīh, jurist from Al-Andalus who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astron ...

and

Avicenna Ibn Sina ( – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna ( ), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian peoples, Iranian ...

are especially notable. Averroes in particular wrote extensively about ''De Caelo'', trying for some time to reconcile the various themes of Aristotelian philosophy, such as natural movement of the elements and the concept of planetary spheres centered on the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

, with the mathematics of

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

. These ideas would remain central to philosophical thought in the Islamic world well into the pre-modern period, and its influences can be found in both the theological and mystical tradition, including in the writings of

al-Ghazali Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111), archaically Latinized as Algazelus, was a Shafi'i Sunni Muslim scholar and polymath. He is known as one of the most prominent and influential jurisconsults, legal theoreticians, muftis, philosophers, the ...

and

Fakhr al-Din al-Razi Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī () or Fakhruddin Razi () (1149 or 1150 – 1209), often known by the sobriquet Sultan of the Theologians, was an influential Iranian and Muslim polymath, scientist and one of the pioneers of inductive logic. He wrote var ...

European philosophers had a similarly complex relationship with ''De Caelo'', attempting to reconcile church doctrine with the mathematics of

and the structure of Aristotle. A particularly cogent example of this is in the work of

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...

, theologian, philosopher and writer of the 13th century. Known today as St. Thomas of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, Aquinas worked to synthesize Aristotle's cosmology as presented in ''De Caelo'' with Christian doctrine, an endeavor that led him to reclassify Aristotle's

unmoved mover The unmoved mover () or prime mover () is a concept advanced by Aristotle as a primary cause (or first uncaused cause) or " mover" of all the motion in the universe. As is implicit in the name, the moves other things, but is not itself moved by ...

s as angels and attributing the 'first cause' of motion in the celestial spheres to them. Otherwise, Aquinas accepted Aristotle's explanation of the physical world, including his cosmology and physics. The 14th-century French philosopher

Nicole Oresme Nicole Oresme (; ; 1 January 1325 – 11 July 1382), also known as Nicolas Oresme, Nicholas Oresme, or Nicolas d'Oresme, was a French philosopher of the later Middle Ages. He wrote influential works on economics, mathematics, physics, astrology, ...

translated and commented on ''De Caelo'' in his role as adviser to King Charles V of France, on two occasions, once early on in life, and again near the end of it. These versions were a traditional Latin transcription and a more comprehensive French version that synthesized his views on cosmological philosophy in its entirety, ''Questiones Super de Celo'' and ''Livre du ciel et du monde'' respectively. ''Livre du ciel et du monde'' was written at the command of King Charles V, though for what purpose remains of some debate. Some speculate that, having already had Oresme translate Aristotelian works on ethics and politics in the hope of educating his courtiers, doing the same with ''De Caelo'' may be of some value to the king.Grant, E. (n.d). Nicole Oresme, Aristotle's 'On the heavens', and the court of Charles V. Texts And Contexts In Ancient And Medieval Science : Studies On The Occasion Of John E, 187–207.

Translations

(In reverse chronological order) * C. D. C. Reeve, ''De Caelo'' (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2020). . * Stuart Leggatt, ''On the Heavens I and II'' (Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1995). . *

William Keith Chambers Guthrie William Keith Chambers Guthrie (1August 190617May 1981) was a Scottish classical scholar, best known for his ''History of Greek Philosophy'', published in six volumes between 1962 and his death. He served as Laurence Professor of Ancient Philos ...

, ''Aristotle On the Heavens'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press "Loeb Classical Library", 1939). * John Leofric Stocks, ''On the Heavens'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922). *
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*

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(Translated by John Leofric Stocks) * Thomas Taylor, ''The Treatises of Aristotle, On the Heavens, On Generation & Corruption, and On Meteors'' (Somerset, England: The Prometheus Trust, 2004, 1807). .

References

External links

* ''On the Heavens'' in Greek is found in the 2nd volume of the 11-volume 1837 Bekker edition of ''Aristotle's Works'' in Greek
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in The Internet Classics Archive. * {{DEFAULTSORT:On The Heavens Ancient Greek astronomical works Astrological texts Astronomy books Classical elements Early scientific cosmologies Works by Aristotle

Argument

Historical connections

Translations

See also

References

Further reading

External links