The Science of Energy

This has some similarity to our current ideas about the origin of the Universe. Most scientists now believe that it started with a colossal explosion of energy, which has been called the big bang . For a while the Universe was pure energy, but after a time particles of matter formed out of it. These particles came together to produce all the matter in the Universe today. If you substitute nous for “energy” and seeds for “particles of matter” in those sentences, it sounds very similar to Anaxagoras’s idea, doesn’t it? Anaxagoras’s ideas were not very popular. In fact, he was put on trial for his beliefs. Later Greek thinkers, such as Aristotle (384–322 bce ), had a greater influence. He founded the Lyceum, a school of study in Athens, around 335 bce . Aristotle put the emphasis on collecting information and on sorting and classifying everything. Yet Aristotle did not believe in experiment, only in observation. He called his study physics. He believed that things had certain “causes.” The aim of Aristotle’s physics was to discover the nature of things. Everything had a “final cause,” which was the object’s purpose for existence. Because everything was seen as having a purpose the Universe came to be viewed as rather like a living thing. There was no point in looking for the force or energy that moved things; they were simply fulfilling their purpose. Aristotle did try to put together laws that would explain why things moved, but these simply came down to saying that, for example, objects fall because that is the natural thing for them to do. He never tried to back up his ideas by experiment. Aristotle’s view of the world dominated thinking for the next thousand years.

Aristotle believed that everything had a purpose, or “final cause,” and that an object would behave according to its purpose. He did not attempt to test his ideas by experiment, however.