Any Aristotle Fans out There?

[fnord_too]

Showing that the speed of light is constant does not really impact Newton's concept of gravity in any obvious way, and I do not know if they showed that the speed of light is constant relative to a non accelerating frame of reference (in a vaccum nothing can accelerate to C, (though technically some things can be traveling faster than C at all times, theoretically), but outside of a vacuum objects can travel faster than the speed of light in that medium.)

The acceleration limit thing is pretty subtle, and as far as I know really only has an impact on special relativity, not general relativity. I don't know a lot about general relativity, so I cannot say, but it is the theory of general relativity that explains the differences between Newtonian predictions and observation of gravitational activity on a large scale, if memory serves.

I would argue, also, that thought experiments most certainly will not suffice. Aristotle had those, and used logic based on false assumptions, but never tested the predictions. It is very easy to say these things today, but for over a thousand years Aristotle's thoughts were considered absolutely correct in Europe. The smartest people of the times bought them, (though in fairness, not buying them meant going against the most powerful entity in that sphere).

As to the body of motion thing, I still don't see your point. Everything from his observation came to a rest unless something forced it to move, and moving things took continued energy. Maybe he could have looked up at the clouds and though "now just what the hell is moving those things? that is counter to my theory" or maybe he could have looked to the heavens and though "what moves all those stars around us?" Again, I am not trying to argue that he was incredibly smart or not, just that if his theories were consistent with the way he viewed and observed the world, then you cannot realy take the fact that he was wrong as evidence that he was not amongst the smartest.

Personally, I cannot forgive the whole falling faster thing, to me that is just lazy, but logic and math were more his thing. I think a lot of the Greek philosophers were crippled by an inate belief that there was a simple order to the world. Simple in that there was an order that man could by pure thought arrive at and understand. The proof that irrational numbers existed was a huge blow to this concept. Who knows how many people the knowledge of transcental numbers (i.e. non algebraic numbers, like e and pi) would have gotten murdered. (The proof that the square root of two was irrational, though accepted as quite correct, got the prover drowned for destroying the concept that all numbers were rational if the stories are true.)

I am sorry I misinterpretted your conceptual error bit. I read your statement to mean that if someone thought something out and published it that any material error was unacceptable.

At any rate, I'm tired of arguing the counter point here because I agree with your statement. I certainly would not call Aristotle a moron, I think as a mathematician he added a lot of value, but sadly his work on physics really held Europe back. (I think there was some surgeon in the middle ages who was quoted as saying something along the lines of "It is amazing all the things that stem from the brain. I would believe that it was the center of sensation if Aristotle did not tell us differently." UGH!)