Christian Thomas Kohl The Metaphysical Foundations of Buddhism and Modern Science

Among living things on this planet, so far as direct evidence reaches,
Science and Philosophy belong to men alone. They are both concerned
with the understanding of individual facts as illustrations of general
principles. The principles are understood in the abstract, and the facts
are understood in respect to their embodiment of the principles.
For example, animals seem quite familiar with the habit of bodies to fall
down. They show no surprise at such occurrence, and they often knock
things over. But quite early in the history of modern European science we
find Aristotle formulating the law that there is a tendency for material
bodies to seek the centre of the Earth. This law was almost certainly not
a discovery of Aristotle's. It was a reigning commonplace of Greek
thought, although not accepted unanimously. But it is plainly set forth in
his writings, and it is beside our point to indulge further in archaeological
conjectures. This scientific law seems rather antiquated to us, and in
fact not quite true. It is over special, and yet requires severe limitation
before the quantitative measurements bear out its statements with any
exactness. We shall find that the subsequent history of this law and of
its successive modifications throw great light upon the relative functions
of Science and Philosophy.
But let us first examine Aristotle's Law, which is one of the earlier
doctrines of that Western Science whose history stretches from Thales