Iron Corselet with gold attachments from the tomb of Philip II of Macedon (died 336 B.C.) at Vergina
(ancient Aegae).
Aristotle's methods are, of course, unlike any in modern science (for which he has received rather
disproportionate criticism). Although interested philosophically in mathematics he does not apply it
systematically to the study of physical reality; qualitative change is basic in his physics and he makes no
attempt to give a more basic quantitative analysis of it. But he had no good reason for so doing; the
mathematical models of physics that he knew, from Plato and the Pythagoreans, were fanciful and
unrealistic. He does in fact apply mathematical models, especially geometrical ones, in particular areas
where this can illuminate; to analyse the colour spectrum or to reduce to essentials the patterns of animal
movement. Another frequent charge is that he does not employ experiment; certainly he shows no
interest in systematically varying the conditions under which a phenomenon is studied. But this is surely
due to an assumption not queried until fairly recently: that items display their real natures in their
customary environments in the actual world, not in artificially created ones. In fields such as physics and
chemistry, where this assumption has been found unfruitful, Aristotle's work has only museum status;
but it retains real interest in areas such as zoology and ethology, where a modern scientist still thinks that