Aristotle

=== Early Modern science ===
[[File:William Harvey ( 1578-1657) Venenbild.jpg| thumb | [[William Harvey]]'s ''[[Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus|De Motu Cordis]]'', 1628, showed that the [[circulation of the blood|blood circulated]], contrary to classical era thinking.]]

In the [[Early Modern]] period, scientists such as [[William Harvey]] in England and [[Galileo Galilei]] in Italy reacted against the theories of Aristotle and other classical era thinkers like [[Galen]], establishing new theories based to some degree on observation and experiment. Harvey demonstrated the [[circulation of the blood]], establishing that the heart functioned as a pump rather than being the seat of the soul and the controller of the body's heat, as Aristotle thought.{{sfn| Aird | 2011 | pp=118–29}} Galileo used more doubtful arguments to displace Aristotle's physics, proposing that bodies all fall at the same speed whatever their weight.{{sfn| Machamer | 2017}}