Question

Early Modern Science wanted to resist the aristotelianism of the Catholic church

This confused me because I thought that aristotelianism was the precursor to science.

I would define Aristotelianism as the belief that one could come to understand the universe by methods and observation. It was the precursor to analytic philosophy and empiricism. Aristotle's methods where an early version of the scientific method. So my answer to this question would be Yes, Aristotle was THE proto-empiricist.

Of course I'm basing this on actually having read Aristotle (and comparing him to Plato (idealist/anti-empiricist)) and don't actually have any knowledge of the history of Aristotelianism. Could someone help me out?

Answer 1

Aristotelianism was the precursor to science, but the Early Modern scientists wanted to resist the Aristotelianism of the Catholic Church. They embraced empiricism and sought to further develop the scientific method.

Step-by-step explanation:

Aristotelianism, which was based on the teachings of the Greek philosopher Aristotle, was indeed a precursor to science. Aristotle's methods of understanding the universe through observation and logical reasoning laid the foundation for the scientific method. However, during the Early Modern era, there was a resistance to the Aristotelianism of the Catholic Church. This was because the Catholic Church's adherence to Aristotelian principles had hindered the progress of scientific inquiry and limited the exploration of new ideas.

The Early Modern scientists sought to break free from the dogmatic approach of the Catholic Church and embraced empiricism, which emphasized the importance of experimentation and observation. While Aristotle can be considered a proto-empiricist, the Early Modern scientists wanted to further develop and refine the scientific method, incorporating new ideas and challenging longstanding beliefs.