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Aristotle and his philosophy

aristotleAristotle (384 BC – 322 BC), one of the most famous philosophers and scientists of the Ancient Greece was born in Stageira, Thrace, where his father was the royal physician. When he was 17, Aristotle moved to Athens, where he studied at Plato’s Academy. He was to remain there for 20 years, and also became a teacher at the Academy.

After Plato’s death in 347 BC Aristotle left Athens, but could not go home since Stageira had been sacked by the Macedonians. Instead he moved to Assos in Asia Minor, where his friend Hermias was king.

He married the kings’ niece and adopted daughter Phytias, and became the kings councellor. Whe king Hermias was killed by the Persians in 345 BC, Aristotle moved to the Macedonian capital Pella where Philip II was king. He became the king’s son Alexander’s (the Great) tutor, but moved back to Athens when Alexander came to the throne ten years later.

There, he founded his own school, Lyceum. It was also called the Peripatetic (“walking”) school because the teacher and students often walked around on the grounds
while discussing. At Lyceum, Aristotle would give advanced lessons to a private circle in the morning, and in the afternoons he would hold more popular speeches to a larger crowd. From these two kinds of teachings, the words esoteric and exoteric are derived.

When Alexander the Great died in 323 BC, there was such an anti-Macedonian atmosphere in Athens that Aristotle left. He spent his last year in a family estate in Euboea and was succeeded at the Lyceum by his friend and disciple Theophrastus.

Aristotle is said to have written over 170 texts. Like Plato, he wrote philosophical dialogues, which are only known through other ancient texts. He wrote works on other philosophers, and also wrote texts on varied subjects, such as music, optics and proverbs.

He would separate the many subjects by name: logic, psychology, physics, zoology, social science etc. Most of these categories have remained in many languages and as subjects. His discussions at the Lyceum were collected and published by later editors like Andronicus of Rhodes, the last teacher at the Lyceum, 200 years later. On these editions most of the Western philosophy has been based.

One of these collections was the “Organon” (“Tool”, “Instrument”) wich was on logic. Another was on nature, where principles to explain the natural world were set. Aristotle also wrote studies on the anatomy of animals, natural processes of generation and corruption, astronomy and meterology.

In the “Meta ta Physica” (“After the Normal, or Physical”), from which the term Metaphysics have come, he studied the philosophy of being.
He also wrote a work on ethics, dedicated to his son Nicomachus, known as the Nicomachean Ethics. Other texts were the Rhetoric, the Poetics and the Politics.

Aristotle was convinced one can understand the surrounding world. Humans are not born with this capability, but must obtain it through perception. The essence of human beings must be understood if the surrounding world is to be understood. Aristotle also believed it is important to study and understand previous thinkers and their ideas.

By studying different opinions, all who partly contain some truth, one can come to a broader conclusion of the truth.

In the natural world, everything is subject to change – birth, growth, development and decay, and Aristotle denied the world was a historical creation or the result of evolution. According to him, every thing existing in nature has an internal dynamic priciple responsible for each individual development based on two principles – matter and form. The matter is what the plant or animal is made of, the the form is what makes the development. This can be seen as a theological part of the explanation.

Aristotle further believed the universe is a sphere with Earth in its centre. The centre is made up of four elements – earth, air, fire and water. Earth moves in a straight, linear, line according to the four elements, and rests in that position. The heavens are made of aither, or ether, and move in a circular way and are never subject to any other change than the circular movement.

Aristotle also believed that heavy bodies of a given material fall faster than light ones when their shapes where the same, something only disproved much later by Galileo. In biology Aristotle stated that all species reproduce its own type, except worms and flies that are generated spontaniously from rotting fruit or manure. These species are everything from simple or complex, but evolution is not possible.

Aristotle also studied psychology – the study of the soul. He believed that the soul was associated with the body, as a controlling function, which was against Pythagoras thesis that the soul was a spiritual entity imprisoned in the body or Platos description of the soul as a separate, non-physical entity. Thus, according to Aristotle, the soul is not separate from the body.The soul is responsible for the moral and intellectual aspects of the human being. The highest kind of insight can not be reduched to a mechanical physical process. This is also called empiricism – knowlege that comes from sense experience.

In his work about Ethics, Aristotle wrote that all human beings are formed by their habits, which in their turn come from the culture we live in and the personal choices we make. Everybody wants to achieve happiness, something that can be obtained in many ways. The human being has two kinds of virtues: moral and intellectual. Moral is the personal choices based on habits, and the moral virtue is always a mean between two less desirable extremes. For example, courage is the mean between cowardice and thoughtlessness, generosity between extravagance and meanness.

Intellectual virtues are different. Full excellence can only be realized by mature upper class men, but not by lower classes, women, children or barbarians.
This can be reflected in Aristotles opinions that there should not be voting rights and that slavery is ok, but not if the masters abuse their authority.Aristotles logic consisted of syllogistic rules or propositions that would give a new conclusions. For example: All human beings are mortal. All Greeks are human beings.

Thus, all Greeks are mortal. In his metaphysics, Aristotle was convinced that a divine being existed, the Prime Mover. He is responsible for the unity and purposefulness of nature. God is perfect and all things want to be like him since all things want to reach perfection.

There are also other Prime Movers, 47 or 55 by number, and they are the intelligent movers of the stars and the planets.
The Prime Mover is not really a religious being since he takes no interest in what goes on in the world and he did not create it.

“…credit must be given to observation raher than theories, and to theories only in so far as they are confirmed by the observed facts.”
Aristotle, On Generation of the Animals

 Aristotle writes in a way reminiscent of the current way of writing philosophy; in fact, he is the one who first establishes the scientific treatise as a vehicle for the transmission of philosophy. In Aristotelian texts, the dominant factor is not the author or his literary figures, but the problems discussed and the positions presented.

At the starting point of every Aristotelian treatise is a specific problem. Before proceeding to the exposition of his own positions, Aristotle cites the views of other philosophers (many times, and the popular perceptions of ordinary people), proceeds to analyze and criticize them, in order to arrive at certain fundamental questions – philosophical and scientific dilemmas.

His own contribution now typically takes the form of an evidentiary process: first is the formulation of the general propositions, the “first principles” or axioms of each discipline, and then is the derivation of conclusions from these first principles in a rigorously logical manner.

In reading Aristotle’s writings, we follow a researcher who opens up a theoretical debate with his predecessors and contemporaries, who clearly states his sources and influences, and who claims for himself a new rigorous philosophical method.

The range of his interests now is truly impressive. If one excludes pure mathematics and practical medicine, in all other cognitive fields Aristotle has a decisive contribution.

In philosophy he attempts the successful combination of Platonic moral and political philosophy with the natural philosophy of the Presocratics and inaugurates the branch of Logic. In the sciences it lays the foundations for physics, chemistry and meteorology and highlights the importance and centrality of biology.

He systematizes the practice of rhetoric, establishes the theory of literature (Poetics), and begins a program of systematic recording of the cultures of Greek cities. Aristotelian writings represent the encyclopedia of knowledge of the 4th century BC, but also constitute a treasure of knowledge for the following centuries.

Concepts and substance

Logic or analysis, as Aristotle himself called it, the most versatile and methodical mind of the ancient world, is his own creation. For him, logic was not a branch of philosophy, but a pre-educational knowledge of the rules of thought, an “instrument” of philosophy.

With his syllogism, i.e. the general theory of reasoning, Aristotle pointed out the constituent elements of thought and their functional relationships during the processes that the human mind performs in its attempt to understand reality.

In his theory of knowledge, Aristotle was neither only empiricist nor only logocratic. That is, he believed that our impressions are always shaped by the properties of things and that our mistakes are due either to faulty connections or to faulty consequences.

Relatedly, Aristotle identified the difficulty in ascertaining error in the complexity of things and the polysemy of the words that define them. Thus Aristotle taught that logical categories normally correspond to things and that concepts denote the essence of things.

That is why he considered as real the knowledge based on the concepts and with conditions that are of course found in the senses. Aristotle then divided knowledge into direct, which we acquire intuitively, and indirect, which we acquire through observation, experience and abstraction.

Aristotle did not accept pre-existing ideas in the world, like Plato, but only the general quality of the human spirit to create concepts and with them to recognize reality. Relatedly, Aristotle explained the knowledge of the first concepts as a combination of experience and abstraction and graded knowledge from the “confused” initially to the “knowable” to us and the “knowable” in general.

Critique of the theory of ideas: matter and form. Theory of knowledge

In the problem of essence, Aristotle started from the criticism of the Platonic theory of ideas. Aristotle observed that Plato’s initiative to explain sensible reality as an imprint of an intelligible reality had the disadvantage of dividing reality into two levels and that, instead of solving the problem of substance as such, it transferred it to another level, which should also be explained by a third party and so on. to infinity. Thus Aristotle, seeing the futility of such an attempt, preferred to return to tangible reality and seek the essence of beings within concrete objects.

Based on his knowledge of the natural philosophy of the pre-Socratics and his findings from personal physical and biological research, Aristotle analyzed the genesis of beings and came to the conclusion that every being has matter and form as constituent elements.

Form, according to Aristotle, is the unborn essence of being and the only, truly, object of science. However, it does not identify with the Platonic idea: while Plato accepts that there are ideas that also correspond to abstract concepts (moral values, mathematical symbols), Aristotle denies that there is a form (i.e. substance) in concepts without a direct relation to tangible reality.

And while Plato accepts the idea as a transcendental principle, i.e. as a principle clearly separated from the sensible beings, of which it is the cause of existence, Aristotle argues that form cannot be understood as something detached from matter but as something inherent in it : If e.g. Socrates exists as a being, this is because in the material element of his existence the human form is realized and exists.

Thus Aristotle understood the existence of each being precisely as a link of matter and form and explained reality as a complex unity. Based on the generally accepted teaching of earlier philosophy about birth and death as the composition and dissolution of beings into their constituents, which as such are regarded as eternal and unchanging, Aristotle also regarded matter and form as eternal and unchanging constituents of beings.

Aristotle recognized in this way that in every genesis, i.e. in everything that takes form either from nature or from the hand of man, there is always some material as a basis, without which genesis is inconceivable. Material – matter without form – is in a “potential” state.

On the contrary, we have a state of “energy” when form is realized in matter. Thus Aristotle came to the conclusion that what is done each time with the genesis of a being, natural or artificial, is neither matter nor form, but only the specific conjunction of matter and form.

Studying the problem of essence, Aristotle was not satisfied with his more general morphological considerations, but also dealt particularly with “poetry” as a general morphoplastic ability of man, evident in his works from the humblest constructions to the monumental works of art.

Thus Aristotle observed that with “poetry” man creates on two levels, the technological and the artistic: on the technological level, man constructs objects that are not made by nature and that tend to complement it (utensils, instruments, etc.); at the artistic level man creates things that imitate objects, phenomena and events that exist in nature and that tend to explain it (works of art).

Nature and man. The teleological criterion. The foundation of biology. Labeling of biological principles. Supremacy of man

In the study of the natural world Aristotle, as he was next, was guided by his basic ontological position that the essence of things is composed of matter and form. In his natural philosophy,

Aristotle supplemented this position with his teleological criterion, that is to say that nature, always intentionally and always on a permanently defined scale of species from the most imperfect to the most perfect, creates beings that each have within themselves the purpose of their self-actualization (“entelecheia”).

But this self-realization is essentially the connection of form with matter. This connection creates the perfection of a being. But since perfection is made possible thanks to the effect of form, form and purpose are identical.

Natural philosophy

In natural philosophy, Aristotle had the object of his study of natural things and what happens to them, i.e. genesis, change, movement, etc. So he was first interested in clarifying basic concepts of physics, such as infinity, mass and vacuum, the continuous, space and time, movement and change.

With his achievements in special problems of natural knowledge of his time, Aristotle succeeded in thematically and methodologically founding biology and many other related branches of science, such as botany, zoology, ecology, entomology, embryology, animal psychology, etc. .

Thus Aristotle first proposed methods of classifying species, examined the causes of the differentiation of the genus, hereditary and acquired properties, polygony and oligogony, polygyny and the duration of gestation in various animals, the spread of certain species and the effect of natural environment for the “ethos” of animals, their mental manifestations, their habits, weather effects and their diseases.

For his biological investigations Aristotle discovered and applied three criteria: the scale of life (nutritional, aesthetic, intellectual), intrinsic heat (the more warm-blooded, the more advanced the animal) and the complexity of the structure (the more complex the organs, the more perfect the organism).

In summary we can say that Aristotle pointed out the following biological principles that modern science has discovered and re-formulated, without Aristotle’s specific knowledge:

1) Nature is simple; it solves every problem in the simplest possible way and creates nothing in vain and unnecessary.

2) Nature creates a counterweight to every excessive force and thus smooths out inequalities and contrasts.

3) Nature limits the seeds, where richer growth is observed.

4) The particular character of the species within the individual is the last step in the process of embryogenesis.

5) The instruments are specialized.

6) The organs, in addition to their main function, also perform secondary functions. 7) Some organs are shaped like this, so as to promote the perpetuation of the species.

8) The organs where they are in pairs, have a symmetrical arrangement.

Without losing sight of the common features between man and other animals, Aristotle recognized in man a unique place in the world. Aristotle pointed out the superiority of man basically in his upright posture and upright gait, in the construction of the hand, in written speech and in conscious thought.

As an interest from the natural factors of the supremacy of man as a whole, Aristotle observed a series of qualities and passions, which characterize only man.
Thus, according to Aristotle, only man has the concept of time, the ability to measure time and everything else, to remember himself and think about things that concern him, to choose among many possibilities his own way of to act, laugh and his heart beats from psycho-spiritual causes.

Finally, Aristotle, without disputing the finding of the older Sophists that many animals are superior in strength, endurance and senses, observed that with his spirit man possesses inexhaustible ingenuity, which opens avenues for him to realize his every purpose.

In reference to man as a whole, not individually, Aristotle also saw the problem of the soul. Aristotle studied the soul not only from a general philosophical point of view but also from a biological, epistemological and ethical point of view, paying more attention, being the first in ancient society, to psychophysical and biological phenomena alongside mental ones.

This shows how much Aristotle expanded the concept of the soul in his time. Aristotle defined the soul with these words: “The soul is the first end in itself of a physical body, which has life in it” (The soul is the essence of the first body that has life by natural power).

According to Aristotle, the soul is to the body what form is to matter. The soul is a form not of any body but of the living body, i.e. that which fulfills the functions of life. So if functionality exists only in the living body and not in a corpse, it is because, precisely, the living body has a soul. According to his biological and teleological criteria, Aristotle distinguished three types of soul: the nutritive (of the plant), the aesthetic (of the animal) and the intellectual (of the human).

The act and the policy. The problem of the soul. Supremacy of action over knowledge. Happiness. Ethics and politics

Anthropologically, Aristotle also founded his ethics, ie his teaching about good and happiness, virtue and action.
Thus, in this area of ​​​​philosophy, Aristotle distanced himself not only from religion, which had founded ethics theocratically, but also from Socrates and Plato, who, believing in absolute good and evil, had sought to establish ethics metaphysically.

Aristotle considered man “principle and begetter of actions as well as of children”. And, going even further than Plato, Aristotle emphasized that the purpose of ethics is not so much the knowledge of good and virtue as a condition for morally recognized action, as the action itself, because happiness directly depends on the action, while it depends indirectly on knowledge .

Thus Aristotle taught that man has the ability to be happy by his own means, because he has the ability to control his actions, therefore to master virtue, which leads to happiness.

Aristotle attributed happiness to the energy of the soul that is consistent with virtue, which of course is based on wisdom, and he explained that the life of man with his morally recognized activity is full of pleasure, because the acts of virtue have pleasure in them .

Regarding Aristotle, who believed that pleasure is a natural need for all living organisms without exception and that for this reason it cannot be overlooked as a component of happiness, he distinguished sensual and spiritual pleasure and he explained that the first is common to all animals, while the second is the privilege of man, is experienced in his spiritual activity and is harmless, stable and more intense than the sensual.

Pointing out that happiness is found in activity consistent with virtue, Aristotle certainly did not overlook the fact that all actions, regardless of their results, aim at happiness. He also did not deny that life, and therefore man’s happiness, also depends on luck, that is, on certain external goods; however, he emphasized that of all the factors of happiness, which in themselves are unstable, only the responsible act of man, the one with virtue, he has safety and duration in the pursuit of happiness.

In his moral philosophy, Aristotle, like all the classical philosophers of the ancient world, did not limit himself to the individual level, but also progressed to the social level. Thus he sought the moral perfection of man in organized group life and studied all forms of communication, giving top importance to friendship which, with particular zeal and personal fervor, he investigated as a moral phenomenon in every aspect of individual and social life, from more coincidental meetings of the passengers of a ship as the most permanent bonds of the members of a family, even as “philautia” , as he himself called the harmonious relationship of the individual with himself.

With his political philosophy, Aristotle completed his ethics, mainly in its social dimension. Aristotle defined politics as the art of the organized group life of people and he is the one who characterized man as a “political animal by nature” .

Thus he taught that man can only achieve his moral consummation in a political society and that the ends of the individual and the whole are identified in organized society and are realized in the best possible way within it.

Up to this point, Aristotle does not seem to have strayed far from Plato’s political philosophy. From what follows, however, it becomes clear that Aristotle thought with different criteria.

Thus, Aristotle divided the citizens first based on economic activity into farmers, artisans and merchants and then based on social composition into rich, poor and middle class.

On the basis of this division, Aristotle taught that the relations formed each time between these social classes give the polity its particular form and that the goals of the whole are pursued with the polity and with education.

Main forms of politics. The “Middle State”

The fact that the state presents various forms in the history of human society, Aristotle attributed it to the way power is shared between the constituent elements of the state and mainly to the difference that exists between the usually few rich and many poor citizens.
Aristotle saw that polity can be presented in three main forms and three deviations from them: the three main forms are kingship, aristocracy and democracy and the corresponding deviations from these are tyranny of kingship, oligarchy of aristocracy and democracy or mob rule.

Relatedly Aristotle explained that in the first form of polity power is in the hands of one, in the second it is in the hands of a few and in the third it is in the hands of many.Ultimately, however, Aristotle, like Plato before him, tends to believe that the state, as things show, can only be presented in two forms: in the first of these the measure is given by the common good and in the second the lord’s interest .

Personally, Aristotle turned with particular sympathy to the “Middle State” , as he himself called a basic form of bourgeois democracy.
Believing this form of polity to be the “best”, Aristotle pointed out that in it the poor and the rich are equal before the law, that the middle class ensures the required balance between rich and poor, indeed in the best way if is stronger than the other two classes, or at least than each of them.

If a conflict between the extreme classes is threatened, the middle holds the center of gravity in the middle, and that, where the middle class prevails, social and class hatred does not develop, because in terms of ownership, large differences are limited and thus the risks of overturning are minimal.

As a conclusion, let’s note the fact that Aristotle was the first to formulate and propose two basic principles, which apply today in politics on a global scale: the separation of powers and the principle of the majority.