What Keeps the Earth in Its Place? The Concept of Stability in Plato and Aristotle

Abstract

Symmetry as it is applied today is a modern concept; hence it is implausible to ascribe this concept to classical thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle. How then should one interpret discussions in antiquity on the stability of the Earth? In this paper we analyze the arguments in order to see how they ‘work’. While both Plato and Aristotle invoked the concept of likeness, Plato also depended on the concept of equal balance, whereas Aristotle depended on the concept of natural place. But in neither case did they appeal to symmetry.