Aristotle By Sarah, Lina, & Sufana
Aristotle: Occupation Greek philosopher whose writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. (Wikipedia)
Aristotle (384 322 BCE) Born in Stagira/Stagirus No longer called Stagira. It is now a nearby town. Nichomacus (father) was physician to King of Macedonia, Amynatas III. This began ties between Aristotle and the Macedonian court. Nichomocus died when aristotle was young and was raised by a guardian, Proxenus.
Stagira
Proxenus (guardian) sent Aristotle to Athens at age of 17, where he attended Plato s Academy. Considered one of the best students. Taught by Plato for 20 years. After his student life, he made researches and became a teacher. After leaving Plato s Academy, he was called on by the King of Macedonia to tutor his son, Alexander (later known as Alexander the Great). After teaching Alexander, Aristotle opened his own school, called The Lyceum. The Lyceum is known for its enormous library, which contains Aristotle s work and some student s research and papers.
Plato, Aristotle s teacher, was a great philosopher who was also taught by great philosopher Socrates. Socrates
First to classify knowledge into categories including mathematics, biology, and ethics. Still used today. Father of the field of logic Knowledge of Aristotle s logic taken from his six writings Organon. First to create an official system for reasoning. Suggested that for every idea, there is a proposition containing two terms such as man and mortal. It can propose that one term is affirmed or denied. A syllogism of his is All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates is mortal.
Aristotle was also very involved in physics The Physics is a series book which Aristotle wrote which includes his ideas, theories and perceptions about the anatomy of physics. The Physics is a series of eight books The series of books mainly contain the anatomy of both living and non-living things, and how they move and react with motion. The reason behind Aristotle s writing of these books was in order to figure out the reasons and causes of motion, and movement.
To the left is the first page of Aristotle s Physics in the Oxford edition (1837).
Metaphysics began with Aristotle s many pieces of writings which included his philosophical theories on numerous subjects. Historians whom viewed and analyzed Aristotle s work and philosophies named metaphysics. Aristotle s philosophy included his explanation and understanding of wisdom, and the anatomy of which knowledge and wisdom are based upon.
Aristotle wrote 8 books of politics. Wanted everyone to believe that Polis (the city state) is the best type of government. He wanted to divide labor: Stated that slavery is necessary in order for a society to function Classified six types of government: The three good ones, Constitutional government, aristocracy and monarchy Three bad ones: Democracy, oligarchy and tyranny. >Said that within a city government there are three functions; deliberative, executive and judicial.
He suggests that whoever happens to be in power should never fully exclude those who are not in power, because constitutions are typically changed as a result of a large number of unhappy people rising up against those in power. In order to avoid this and prevent this from happening, he suggests the policy of moderation: states that the way to avoid a conflict is to have balance between the rich and the poor, giving both groups equal power.
Believed that there is a core of politics in every individual.
Aristotle s meaning of Poetics is what we call drama today. Aristotle wrote a two part book called Poetics. Part one is about Tragedy. Part two is about Comedy, however, it has not survived, and we do not know its contents. Aristotle favored tragedy. Defined poetics as imitation Imitation has many ways of presentation including: Painting Writing Acting Dancing Music He categorized poetry into six subdivisions: Plot, characters, characters thoughts, speech, melody/chorus, and spectacles(props).
Rhetoric, is the art of persuasion. (the art of finding the best way to persuade a particular audience in a particular situation. He identified three appeals that can be used to convince and audience: Ethos: to establish the speaker's character and values Pathos : to stir emotions Logos: to show the audience the logic and truth of the argument. A well balanced argument gives attention to all three points: if one leans too much toward an audiences, you start to create a propaganda. if you put too much emphasis, you will seem egotistical.
Aristotle stayed at Lesbos, a Greek island, to do most of his research on marine life. Studied about 500 species (birds, fish, cephalopods) Some of his discoveries that contribute to our modern understanding include: a. Dolphins are not fish, but sea mammals. b. The difference between homologous and analogous parts. c. Sharks usually give birth to live young d. Some reef fish transform sex over time e. Presence of the eustachian tube in humans (connects ear to throat). f. Octupus s mating process Created a program explaining the process on making biological researches: 1) Observation 2) Explain body parts by their purpose (ex defense, reproduction)
Aristotle s classifications helped scientists to develop a better understanding on the subject they are researching. He categorized animals into two groups: Animals with blood; modernly known as vertebrates: Live-bearing (humans and mammals) Egg bearing (birds and fish) Animals without blood; modernly known as invertebrates Insects, crustacea, and testacea (mulloscs).
Aristotle is concerned by laying out a set of ethics. He doesn't give them a set of rules, he focuses on the type of people they could become. He argues the soul must be studied so that we know what it is to actually be morally good. a) Happiness is objective, not subjective. (Compare: those plants are really happy there. We don't mean that the plants are having pleasant experiences; we mean that they are doing well there, and whether they are doing well is an objective matter, not a matter of how they feel.) b) So happiness doesn t have much to do with feelings, e.g. of pleasure; rather has to do with whether you have your act together and with the thriving of the soul rather than the body c) Happiness is an activity rather than a state: "activity of the soul in accordance with virtues. Virtues are states of character conductive to happiness.
According to Aristotle a living creature is substance. Body = matter Soul = form The soul (psyche) is the structure of the body. For Aristotle the psyche controlls reproduction, movement and perception. He believed that the soul is the form of the body, and can sum total of the operations of a human being. He believed the body and soul are not two separate element but are one thing (one cannot exists without the other. the soul dies along with the body) Aristotle believed that there exists a hierarchy of living things 1. Plants only have a vegetative soul 2. animals are above plants because they have appetites 3. humans are above animals because it has the power of reason.
Historians believe that many of Aristotle s work and writings were lost But his main ideas were saved and still preserved till this very day. Aristotle influenced many scholars and philosophers, which included Greek philosophers all the way to Islamic theologians and Christian philosophers. Aristotle influenced many people from not only different time periods, but also different perspectives by contributing and becoming the founder of many fields of knowledge such as formal logic, and the study of zoology. Even though, many of Aristotle s work was beneficial and used as the essential core of many ideas, many people also disagreed with Aristotle. Hobbes, Newton, Descartes and Galileo disagreed and rejected Aristotle s view on physics. Based on many experiments by these numerous scientists, Aristotle s theories were rejected.