希腊力学传统中的内在矛盾与自洽——以希罗对亚里士多德力学观的驳斥为例

The Inner Contradiction and Self Consistency in the Tradition of Greek Mechanics:A Case Study of Hero's Refutation of Aristotle's View of Mechanics

亚里士多德传统和亚历山大里亚传统是希腊力学的两个重要传统。亚里士多德在《物理学》中提出推动力必须大于它所移动的重量以及所有受迫运动都需要恒定的推动者,而且认为力学和物理学是完全对立的,导致了希腊力学的内在矛盾。希罗是亚历山大里亚传统的核心人物,在其《论机械》中运用天平充当解释的模型,将轮轴、杠杆、滑轮、楔形和螺旋等5种简单机械归结为同一本性,把所有机械的运作追溯到自然原理,消除了机械与自然、力学与物理学之间的对立。希罗还用天平和斜面对亚里士多德的物理假定进行了自洽式的论述,不仅消除了希腊力学传统的内在矛盾,而且在某种程度上巩固了这种传统。

The Aristotelian tradition and the Alexandrian tradition are two important ones in Greek mechanics. Aristotle has put forward that the driving force must be greater than the weight of its move- ment and all forced movements required constant promoters in Physics, and that mechanics and physics are completely opposite. That led to the inner contradiction in the tradition of Greek mechanics. Hero of Alexandria is the core of the Alexandrian tradition, and attributed five simple machines （wheel and the axle, lever, compound pulley, wedge and screw） to the same nature by using the balance as a model of interpretation in his book On Mechanics, eliminating the opposition between mechanics and nature, me- chanics and physics. Hero also self-consistently discussed the physical assumption of Aristotle by means of balance and the inclined plane, which not only eliminated the inherent contradictions of the traditional Greek mechanics, but also strengthened this tradition to a certain extent.