Aristotle: The Philosopher as Scientist
The Complete History of Science
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Aristotle's Theory of Matter
Aristotle's theory wasn't fully original to Aristotle, but had been developed from the work of another earlier philosopher, Empedocles. He considered all matter which we observe to be some combination or mixture of these four underlying substances. Each element also has two corresponding properties, being either hot or cold, and wet or dry. These properties aren't immutable and can undergo change. For example, if you heat water, it goes from cold to hot and hence becomes air. This gives us one of the earliest attempts to explain a change of state.
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