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Aristotle |
Aristotle can be called "the teacher of humanity", because many people had his philosophical theory as a model of science. He dealt with all the sciences and funded many more. He overcame the idealism of Plato and showed how the specific object can be perceived as a unity with the idea and the perceptible reality. His philosophy does not ignore the experience but it is turned to the things. It is characteristic that Aristotle has written for every area that today is science. His close relationship with Alexander the Great, to whom he was the teacher, has as a result for Alexander to become conquer and for Aristotle to receive from Alexander's campaigns many rare objects for his research. |
Biography Aristotle was born in Stageira in Chalcidice in the northern Greece. His father was notable doctor, among his patients was the King of Macedonia, Amyntas. At the age of 17 Aristotle went to Athens to study at Plato's Academy. There Aristotle stayed for 20 years and became Plato's most famous pupil, and indeed turned out to become one of the greatest philosophers of all time. Unlike Plato, whose writings were published for a public audience, the works of Aristotle consist mainly of lecture notes written for either himself or members of his circle. We are therefore left with very complex and at times rough texts. It is possible to follow Aristotle's inventions of - and in - logic from his early work and forth. |
This is indeed valuable for the modern logician and philosophers of today. Surely we have a lot to learn in general from him. Aristotle himself had a famous pupil, Alexander the Great. Most likely due to his macedonian connections Aristotle were forced to flee Athens in 322 - or as he is said to have expressed: "in order that the Athenians might not commit a second crime against philosophy"... alluding to the Athenians trial and sentence of death of Socrates. He died at his mother's family estate in Chalcis, on the island of Euboea within the same year. |
Works The works known in his lifetime include dialogs modelled on those of Plato, but these are now lost. It is also known that he accumulated an immense collection of natural and historical observations during his headship if the Lyceum, but these too are mainly lost. The extant corpus is nearly all preserved through the edition of Andronicus of Rhodes, made in the 1st century BC. Important works are: On Logic On Physics Categories Physics On Intepretation On The Heavens Prior Analytics On Generation and Corruption Posterior Analytics Topics Sophistical Refutations On psychology and natural history On ethics On The Soul Nicomachean Ethics On The Parts Of AnimalsEudemian Ethics On The Motion Of Animals Magna Moralia On The History Of Animals Politics On The Gait Of AnimalsRhetoric Poetics On The Generation Of Animals Other works General investigation of the things Meteorology Metaphysics On Dreams On Longevity and Shortness Of Life On Memory and Reminiscence On Prophesying by Dreams On Sense and The Sensible On Sleep and Sleeplessness On Youth and Old Age, On Life And Death, On Breathing The Athenian Constitution |
You can find books about the life and the works of Aristotle at : |
What do you want to read about Aristotle? Choose your subject : |
"Being is said in many ways" is a standard formulation of Aristotle. It sounds rather superfluous and straightforward to state this, but this is actually due to Aristotle and this fact makes Aristotle very interesting to study. You and I have height, colour, a certain number of arms, legs, fingers, ears etc.. We have different ways of behavior, taste, interests and so on. We are said to be different and equal in various aspects. From Plato we learn that a man is good, due to his participation in The Good (in greek, to anypothon). Aristotle rejected the theory of forms (eidos) as known from Plato. In Aristotle's ontology there is only concrete substances (this horse, that cup, this vase etc.) and in talking of the particular substances we use concepts, but the things - substances - is prior to the concepts or forms which we ascribe to them. Plato worked the other way around. For Plato the forms (eidos) were prior and necessary conditions which formed a intelligible realm in contrast the phenomenal realm. The more exact theory of Plato is highly ingenious and much of Aristotle's critique were probably addressed to other students of Plato (for a further discussion, Jonathan Barnes "Metaphysics" in Cambridge Companion to Aristotle). In his formulation of his own theory Aristotle developed his own terminology, invented grammatical forms and a system of classification (primary substance, secondary substance; the categories). In addition Aristotle invented and created the classical logic as we know it today. The logical, semantical and metaphysical aspects is closely connected in Aristotle's way of expressing being. |
Aristotle was indeed gifted and talented in various areas. The most central theoretical theme in his philosophy is metaphysics, the study of beings qua being. This involved, as we saw earlier, logic, semantics and metaphysics. In his practical philosophy ethics and philosophy of politics is the main themes. In addition Aristotle were concerned with, and wrote on, epistemology, physics, biology, meteorology, dynamics, mathematics, psychology, rhetoric, dialectic and aesthetics. Aristotle by some ridiculed for his view and works and on physics and highly celebrated for his works on biology. Other defend his views on physics, since they are meant to be concerned with possibility of the science, not the actual observations in physics. |
