Fall and Rise of Aristotelian Metaphysics in the Philosophy of Science

The paper examines the fortunes of Aristotelian metaphysics in science and the philosophy of science. It considers the Enlightenment claim that such a metaphysics is fundamentally unscientific, and that its abandonment was essential to the scientific revolution. The history of the scientific revolution and the metaphysical debates involved in it is examined, and it is argued that the eclipse of Aristotelian views was neither complete, nor merited. The evolution of Humeian and positivist accounts of science is described, and it is shown how the severe problems with these accounts, together with a revival of Aristotelian concepts in philosophy, have led to the rebirth of broadly Aristotelian accounts of the metaphysics underlying science. 1 The Enlightenment Dismissal of Aristotelian Metaphysics, and its Neo-Aristotelian Opponents A certain picture of the history of science runs like this. Science, in the Western world, was first developed by the ancient Greeks. The science of antiquity fizzled out, however, and was extinguished during the Dark Ages and the anti-intellectual Middle Ages. With the Renaissance, ancient science was rediscovered, and was profoundly transformed by the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. This revolution established science as we know it, and this science brought along with it revolutionary change in human possibilities and our way of understanding the universe. The crucial positive features that made possible the scientific revolution were the notions of the mathematical description of nature as central to science, and the centrality of experiment in establishing and choosing between scientific theories. The crucial negative advance was the rejection of an Aristotelian understanding of the world, which involved a pseudo-scientific metaphysics that was incompatible with genuine science. This picture is an essential component of the larger picture of history promoted by the Enlightenment, in which Aristotelian notions are J. Lamont (&) Department of Theology, Catholic Institute of Sydney, Strathfield, NSW 2140, Australia e-mail: [email protected] 123 Sci & Educ (2009) 18:861–884 DOI 10.1007/s11191-007-9118-2