Would Aristotle have been surprised by modern science? Would that have in any way change his argument? Or is he still mostly concerned with what is “naturally” perceived only ?
Excellent questions. Anyone else? Aristotle did have experience of things he did regard as being in “perpetual motion,” namely the movements of the heavens; but this was at the macro level and closely associated in the ancient mind with the power of the gods (the “heavenly host”). I’m inclined to think that if he knew that there was similar perpetual movement on the very small scale, he would have been highly interested, and it would have resulted in some changes to his system. Whether it would have changed the details of his arguments seems likely–but which arguments, and how? That is a harder question, and for that we’d have to look into the details of individual arguments. It is very clear that he is not just concerned with what appears to our senses, because infinite divisibility plays a very important role in his analysis of space and time.
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