Aristotle I INTRODUCTION Aristotle (384-322 BC), Greek philosopher and scientist, who shares with Plato and Socrates the distinction of being the most famous of ancient philosophers.

« succession of individuals.

These processes are therefore intermediate between the changeless circles of the heavens and the simple linear movements of the terrestrialelements.

The species form a scale from simple (worms and flies at the bottom) to complex (human beings at the top), but evolution is not possible. C Aristotelian Psychology For Aristotle, psychology was a study of the soul.

Insisting that form (the essence, or unchanging characteristic element in an object) and matter (the commonundifferentiated substratum of things) always exist together, Aristotle defined a soul as a “kind of functioning of a body organized so that it can support vital functions.”In considering the soul as essentially associated with the body, he challenged the Pythagorean doctrine that the soul is a spiritual entity imprisoned in the body.Aristotle's doctrine is a synthesis of the earlier notion that the soul does not exist apart from the body and of the Platonic notion of a soul as a separate, nonphysicalentity.

Whether any part of the human soul is immortal, and, if so, whether its immortality is personal, are not entirely clear in his treatise On the Soul. Through the functioning of the soul, the moral and intellectual aspects of humanity are developed.

Aristotle argued that human insight in its highest form ( nous poetikos, “active mind”) is not reducible to a mechanical physical process.

Such insight, however, presupposes an individual “passive mind” that does not appear to transcend physical nature.

Aristotle clearly stated the relationship between human insight and the senses in what has become a slogan of empiricism—the view thatknowledge is grounded in sense experience.

“There is nothing in the intellect,” he wrote, “that was not first in the senses.” D Ethics It seemed to Aristotle that the individual's freedom of choice made an absolutely accurate analysis of human affairs impossible.

“Practical science,” then, such as politicsor ethics, was called science only by courtesy and analogy.

The inherent limitations on practical science are made clear in Aristotle's concepts of human nature and self-realization.

Human nature certainly involves, for everyone, a capacity for forming habits; but the habits that a particular individual forms depend on that individual'sculture and repeated personal choices.

All human beings want “happiness,” an active, engaged realization of their innate capacities, but this goal can be achieved in amultiplicity of ways. Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is an analysis of character and intelligence as they relate to happiness.

Aristotle distinguished two kinds of “virtue,” or human excellence: moral and intellectual.

Moral virtue is an expression of character, formed by habits reflecting repeated choices.

A moral virtue is always a mean between two lessdesirable extremes.

Courage, for example, is a mean between cowardice and thoughtless rashness; generosity, between extravagance and parsimony.

Intellectualvirtues are not subject to this doctrine of the mean.

Aristotle argued for an elitist ethics: Full excellence can be realized only by the mature male adult of the upperclass, not by women, or children, or barbarians (non-Greeks), or salaried “mechanics” (manual workers) for whom, indeed, Aristotle did not want to allow voting rights. In politics, many forms of human association can obviously be found; which one is suitable depends on circumstances, such as the natural resources, cultural traditions,industry, and literacy of each community.

Aristotle did not regard politics as a study of ideal states in some abstract form, but rather as an examination of the way inwhich ideals, laws, customs, and property interrelate in actual cases.

He thus approved the contemporary institution of slavery but tempered his acceptance by insistingthat masters should not abuse their authority, since the interests of master and slave are the same.

The Lyceum library contained a collection of 158 constitutions ofthe Greek and other states.

Aristotle himself wrote the Constitution of Athens as part of the collection, and after being lost, this description was rediscovered in a papyrus copy in 1890.

Historians have found the work of great value in reconstructing many phases of the history of Athens. E Logic In logic, Aristotle developed rules for chains of reasoning that would, if followed, never lead from true premises to false conclusions (validity rules).

In reasoning, thebasic links are syllogisms: pairs of propositions that, taken together, give a new conclusion.

For example, “All humans are mortal” and “All Greeks are humans” yield thevalid conclusion “All Greeks are mortal.” Science results from constructing more complex systems of reasoning.

In his logic, Aristotle distinguished between dialectic andanalytic.

Dialectic, he held, only tests opinions for their logical consistency; analytic works deductively from principles resting on experience and precise observation.

Thisis clearly an intended break with Plato's Academy, where dialectic was supposed to be the only proper method for science and philosophy alike. F Metaphysics In his metaphysics, Aristotle argued for the existence of a divine being, described as the Prime Mover, who is responsible for the unity and purposefulness of nature.God is perfect and therefore the aspiration of all things in the world, because all things desire to share perfection.

Other movers exist as well—the intelligent movers ofthe planets and stars (Aristotle suggested that the number of these is “either 55 or 47”).

The Prime Mover, or God, described by Aristotle is not very suitable forreligious purposes, as many later philosophers and theologians have observed.

Aristotle limited his “theology,” however, to what he believed science requires and canestablish. V INFLUENCE Aristotle's works were lost in the West after the decline of Rome.

During the 9th century AD, Arab scholars introduced Aristotle, in Arabic translation, to the Islamic world (see Islam).

The 12th-century Spanish-Arab philosopher Averroës is the best known of the Arabic scholars who studied and commented on Aristotle.

In the 13th century, the Latin West renewed its interest in Aristotle's work, and Saint Thomas Aquinas found in it a philosophical foundation for Christian thought.

Church officials atfirst questioned Aquinas's use of Aristotle; in the early stages of its rediscovery, Aristotle's philosophy was regarded with some suspicion, largely because his teachingswere thought to lead to a materialistic view of the world.

Nevertheless, the work of Aquinas was accepted, and the later philosophy of scholasticism continued thephilosophical tradition based on Aquinas's adaptation of Aristotelian thought. The influence of Aristotle's philosophy has been pervasive; it has even helped to shape modern language and common sense.

His doctrine of the Prime Mover as finalcause played an important role in theology.

Until the 20th century, logic meant Aristotle's logic.

Until the Renaissance, and even later, astronomers and poets alikeadmired his concept of the universe.

Zoology rested on Aristotle's work until British scientist Charles Darwin modified the doctrine of the changelessness of species inthe 19th century.

In the 20th century a new appreciation has developed of Aristotle's method and its relevance to education, literary criticism, the analysis of humanaction, and political analysis. Not only the discipline of zoology, but also the world of learning as a whole, seems to amply justify Darwin's remark that the intellectual heroes of his own time “weremere schoolboys compared to old Aristotle.” For a discussion of the Poetics , see Drama and Dramatic Arts.

See also Logic; Metaphysics; Philosophy. Contributed By:. »