Blog - /Quotes
A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.
— Aristotle, Politics
Aristotle may have been wrong on quite a few of his theories about the way the world works, but at least he got this one right.
![[FSF Associate Member]](http://mwolson.org/static/logos/fsf-member.png)
|
|
|
Posted by jrcapa at Sat Sep 22 19:22:16 2007
you got to be kidding me when you say "at least he got this one right"...this guy lived 2k years ago and invented most sciences we have today.
he is the founder of western philosophy and culture...
i know, you are under the impression of paul graham last article...
Posted by Michael Olson at Sat Sep 22 19:36:44 2007
I have no idea what you're talking about w.r.t. Paul Graham. I'm not even aware of whether he wrote on this subject, because I don't track what he writes much anymore.Aristotle was wrong on several counts:
- Cosmology
- Erroneously tried to refute Democritus w.r.t. Milky Way being composed of many stars
- Erroneously thought that other stars were not suns
- "Massive object falls faster than less massive object"
- Theory of the natural slave
Posted by Phil at Mon Sep 24 13:42:01 2007
Those three incorrect ideas basically amount to a rounding error compared to the huge wealth of correct ideas he's contributed to philosophy and science.Add a comment