ABSTRACT
The general approach to philosophy and the sciences taken by the followers of the ancient philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.). In the history of the Scientific Revolution, Aristotelianism usually stands as the ancien regime. From the preeminent place in science and philosophy he had held in the West since antiquity, after 1550 Aristotle generally fell sharply in influence and reputation. Once known as the “master of those who know,” Aristotle was first attacked, then dismissed, and finally neglected, while his followers were often characterized by contemporary humanists and scientists alike as slavish, dull, and pedantic. Yet, this judgment, too often taken up uncritically by historians of the Scientific Revolution, conceals the real historical place of the study and interpretation of Aristotle in the early-modern period and obscures the relation Aristotelianism bears to modern science. Aristotelianism in general was not so much what opposed the new science (though many Aristotelian positions were overturned by it) as the major intellectual circumstance of its emergence.
