Christopher A. Decaen
Christopher A. Decaen | |
|---|---|
| Known for | Aristotelian-Thomistic defense of aether |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Philosophy of nature |
| Institutions | Thomas Aquinas College |
Christopher A. Decaen is an American philosopher and a tutor (faculty member) at Thomas Aquinas College, where his work centers on Aristotelian and Thomistic natural philosophy. He is listed in The Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists.
Work
Decaen is best known in this context for his article "Aristotle's Aether and Contemporary Science," published in The Thomist (Vol. 68, 2004, pp. 375–429). In it he argues that Aristotle's concept of aether should be reconsidered in light of modern physics, contending that some form of aether is essential and that the Michelson–Morley experiment, rather than disproving aether, is consistent with an aether that "does not share the accidents of common material being" and is immutable. His argument is a philosophical position drawn from Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas and stands outside the mainstream physical interpretation, which treats the Michelson–Morley result as evidence against a luminiferous aether. He has also published on Aristotelian-Thomistic topics such as color realism and elemental virtual presence.