Aristotle

Philosopher's view about

Aristotle
Thomas Aquinas: “The Philosopher”.

Arab Philosopher: “The first Teacher”.

Dante: Master of all those who know.

Plato: Mind of Academy.

Cicero: “If Plato’s prose was silver, Aristotle was a

flowing river of gold”
 Family
Aristotle was born in 384 B.C. in Stagira in
northern Greece. Non-Athenian called A
Metic (Foreigner)

His father Nicomachus, served as court physician to

King Amyntus III of Macedonia.(Biology interest).

Analytical approach and try to find evidence of

knowledge.

At age 17 he was sent to Athens to enroll in Plato’s

Academy. He spent 20 years as a student and teacher
at the school, emerging with both a great respect and a
good deal of criticism for his teacher’s theories.
 Aristotle and Alexander
• When Plato died in 347, control of the Academy
passed to his nephew. Aristotle left Athens soon after,
though it is not clear whether frustrations at the
Academy or political reasons of his family connection
with Alexender.
• When Alexander was thirteen, Macedonian king Philip
decided to choose a tutor for him. The result would
become one of the most famous mentors-student
relationships in history of “Pella”. Philip's reasons for
choosing Aristotle were not purely academic. There
was Aristotle's family connection: his father had
served as court physician to an earlier Macedonian
king.
 Relationship between Aristotle
and Alexander
• There are letters between them called forgeries
• Hegel thinks that “Alexander career shows the practical
usefulness of Philosophy”.
• A. W. Benn says “It would be un fortunate is philosophy
had no better testimonial to show than the character of
Alexander”.
• Some evidences show that Aristotle was a racist (but
typically Greek) about the inferiority of the "barbarians" (ie
non-Greeks) that he may have passed on, especially
about the Persians. He also believed the world ended at
the Hindu Kush, so Alexander may have been searching
for the edge of the world when he reached India - this
could have played a role in his continuous campaigning.
 Aristotle's Death
• After the death of Alexander the Great in 323
B.C., anti-Macedonian sentiment again forced
Aristotle to flee Athens. “I see no reason to
permit Athens to sin twice against Philosophy”.
• He died a little north of the city in 322, of a
digestive complaint. He asked to be buried next
to his wife, who had died some years before.
• Aristotle’s favored students took over the
Lyceum, but within a few decades the school’s
influence had faded in comparison to the rival
Academy.
 Aristotle's work.
• It was at the Lyceum that Aristotle probably composed most of
his approximately 200 works, of which only 31 survive. The
surviving works of Aristotle are grouped into four categories.
1. The “Organon” is a set of writings that provide a logical toolkit
for use in any philosophical or scientific investigation.
2. Next come Aristotle’s theoretical works, most famously his
treatises on animals, cosmology, the “Physics” (a basic inquiry
about the nature of matter and change) and the “Metaphysics”
(a quasi-theological investigation of existence itself).
3. Third “Nicomachean Ethics” and “Politics,” both deep
investigations into the nature of human flourishing on the
individual, familial and societal levels.
4. Finally, his “Rhetoric” and “Poetics” examine the finished
products of human productivity, including what makes for a
convincing argument and how a well-wrought tragedy can
instill cathartic fear and pity.
 Division of Knowledge

Aristotle called theoretical or natural sciences as

Knowledge for its own sake.

He called social sciences as practical sciences e.g ethics

and politics.

Crafts, art, music theatre and economics are called

productive sciences.
 Aristotle’s theory of Ideas
• Aristotle advances against theory of Ideas given by Plato
through argument of “Third man”. If a man is man because
he resembles to the ideal man, there must be still more
ideal man to whom both ordinary man and ideal man are
similar.
• He says that in ideal world and material world change
there must be a reality into change of divisions.
• There must be a reality behind the change of material
world. If the number of individual share a predicate, this
can not be a relation of same properties but more ideal.
• There must be a theory behind the change in material
world through which more ideas can be generated. This
theory has create controversy in later philosophy of
nominalists and realists.
 Aristotle theory of Nature
• Aristotle gave theory of nature in real world.
• He says we name things through common
properties but based on the knowledge of this
material world where we take the idea of things
through our perceptions.
• This knowledge of this material world is the soul
of that entity.
• Aristotle denies the innate knowledge of Plato
and says that man has no innate knowledge.
we make idea through perceptron of knowledge
in material world.
 Aristotle theory of substance
and Form
• Aristotle says that universal term is the name of
substance…..universal is common, since
universal is called which is such as to belong to
more than one thing.
• Substance is the origin of everything …
formless matter…of which all things are made
or take form e.g marble, stone, wood, plastic.
• Form is the idea and shape that substance
take. Substance take form through material
cause through which the thing is made e.g
chair, hamor,house, pen, table, statue.
• Aristotle’s “four causes,” which explain the nature of
change.
• A thing’s material cause is what it is actually made of.
(Seed).
• its formal cause is how that matter is arranged.(Seed
in its form of origin)
• its efficient cause is where it came from.(Water, air,
fertile to seed)
• And its final cause is its purpose.(In form of tree)
When it came to biology, Aristotle proposed life came
from a gradual development of less-complex life
forms. This hypothesis would later be proven true by
Charles Darwin and a huge number of biological
observations and experiments.
 Idea of Teleology
• There is a purpose behind everything in nature
and its purpose and mission can be identified
through its destination.(seed-tree).
• In human beings soul is the form of body…soul
is what makes body one thing, having unity of
purpose and characteristics that we associate
with the word “organism”.
• The purpose of an eye is to see, but when
parted from body, it cannot see. In fact it is soul
which can see.
 Aristotle’s Theology
According to Aristotle there are
three kinds of Substances.
Those that are sensible and perishable.(Include
plants and animals)

Those that are sensible and not

perishable.(Includes heavenly bodies)

Those that are neither sensible nor

perishable.(God).
 Cause and effect Theory
• Everything has its cause and effect…cause
must be more powerful than effect.
• The main argument for God is First cause and
unmoved mover as God must be eternal
substance, unmoved and the one originated
motion.
• God produces motion by being loved, whereas
every other cause of motion works by being
itself in motion.
• Cause movement in this way ,without
themselves being in motion.
 God as unmoved mover
• God is pure thought : for thought is what is best.
• Life is also belongs to God….God’s self
dependent actuality is life most good and
eternal. God is living being as eternal.
• God as substance is eternal, unmovable and
separate from sensible things.
• This substance cannot have magnitude but is
without parts and indivisible….but also is
impassive and unalterable; for all other changes
are posterior to change of place.
 Aristotle ‘s Logic-Laws of deductive
reasoning
• Syllogism argument of deductive reasoning
based on two or more propositions assumed to
be true.
• Law on non-Contradiction.
• The law of identity: A=A, Whatever is “is”
• Nothing can both be and not be.
2. Law of excluded middle: either “A” true or not
true….Everything must either be or not be.
Syllogism: Two premises-One is major premise,
Second is minor premise… conclusion.
 Syllogistic truth
• Major premise: All mammals are warm-blooded.
• Minor premise: All black dogs are mammals.
• Conclusion: Therefore, all black dogs are warm-blooded.
• "Among this country's enduring myths is that success is
virtuous, while the wealth by which we measure success is
incidental. We tell ourselves that money cannot buy happiness,
but what is incontrovertible is that money buys stuff, and if stuff
makes you happy, well, complete the syllogism.“
• Major premise: All books from that store are new.

Minor premise: These books are from that store.

Conclusion: Therefore, these books are new.

 Inductive reasoning
• Inductive reasoning is the opposite of deductive
reasoning. Inductive reasoning makes broad
generalizations from specific observations.
• In inductive inference, we go from the specific
to the general. We make many observations,
discern a pattern, make a generalization, and
infer an explanation or a theory.
• An example of inductive logic is, "The coin I
pulled from the bag is a penny. That coin is a
penny. A third coin from the bag is a penny.
Therefore, all the coins in the bag are pennies.“
• Black crow….Al Africans are black.
 Aristotle Method of learning
• Endoxa: Literature review
• Dialectics: Oppositional views
• Laws of Logic: a. Identity, b. Non-contradiction,
c. excluded middle.
• Syllogistic form: Major premises, Minor
premises and conclusion.
• Inductive evidence: specific to general.
• Aristotle applied this method on his theory of
nature.
 Idea of heavens
• The treatise on the Heavens set forth a pleasant and
simple theory.
• Things below moon are subjected to generation and
decay but from moon upwards, everything is
ungenerated and indestructible.
• Earth as spherical is center of the universe.
• In a sublunary sphere everything is composed of four
elements: earth, water, air and fire.
• But there is a fifth element ,of which heavenly bodies
are composed.
• Heaves are perfectly spherical and upper reigns are
more divine than lower. Stars and planets are not
composed of fire but of fifth element.
 Four elements theory

Four elements are

not eternal, but
generated out of
each other.

Earth is absolutely heavy.

Air is relatively light
Physics-Nature
 Aristotle’s Ethics
Being an entity of reason how man should live a good life according to Aristotle is to live
a happy life.

1. A life of pleasure and

enjoyment.

Happiness according to 2. As free and

Aristotle is of three types responsible citizen.
in human life:

3. Thinker and
philosopher’s life.

According to Aristotle human beings must take all types of happiness in to their
lives.
 The Golden Mean
Golden mean for Aristotle is balance and harmony in life.

Every virtue is a mean between two extremes each of which is a vice.

This is proved by the examination of many virtues e.g.

• Courage is between cowardice and rashness.
• Pride is between vanity an humility.
• Modesty between bashfulness and shamelessness.

Some virtue doesn’t fall into this scheme e.g truthfulness, but
according to Aristotle it’s a mean applies to truthfulness about oneself.
 Aristotle's Ethical Philosophy
• The highest good and the end toward which all human activity
is directed is happiness.
• One attains happiness by a virtuous life and the development of
reason and the faculty of theoretical wisdom. For this one
requires sufficient external goods to ensure health, leisure, and
the opportunity for virtuous action.
• Moral virtue is a relative mean between extremes of excess and
deficiency, and in general the moral life is one of moderation in
all things except virtue. Moral virtue is acquired by a
combination of knowledge, habituation, and self-discipline.
• Moral virtue cannot be achieved abstractly — it requires moral
action in a social environment. Ethics and politics are closely
related, for politics is the science of creating a society in which
men can live the good life and develop their full potential.
 Aristotle’s Politics
• Man is a political animal-Man is naturally social.
• Idea of Polis: City-state which is a human
nature product which is part of human nature
but it should be under natural law.
• There are some laws in nature.
• Under the city state there should not be more
than 10,000 citizens in total population because
if population exceeds from 10,000 than they
would deviate from natural law and anarchy can
be raised among citizens.
 Aristotle idea about Ideal state
• Plato’s model of state is based on three
classes…Guardian- Soldiers –workers.
• Where guardians and soldiers are very
importance because but producing class
or workers are ignored.
• Aristotle disagrees with Plato and focuses
the welfare of producing class as well.
• Aristotle also defends the private property
and family right of guardians.
• Unlike Plato’s ideal Republic Aristotle gave the
idea of evaluation of existing society and state.
• He studied the laws of all more than 150
existing states of that time.
• He found some city states have one ruler, some
has few rulers and some with many rulers.
• After evaluation of the whole systems and law
Aristotle gave the model of good and bad
governance with labeling them with different
terms.
Type of ruler Correct Deviant

One Ruler Kingship Tyranny

Few Rulers Aristocracy Oligarchy

Many Rulers Polity Democracy

 Teleological theory in state
• He has named the states according to teleological
theory of Purpose.
• End goal of state determines its character.
• If the purpose of state is welfare of the citizens than it
will be kingship, Aristocracy and Polity.
• If the purpose of state is to benefit one or few people
or class than it will be turned into tyranny, oligarchy
and democracy.
• Aristotle gives the Idea of good citizen and good
human being and difference between the two. Good
citizen can follow the law but good human being will
follow the good laws. A bad citizen can be a good
human being.
 Aristotle’s class analysis
• Aristotle understood class contradictions as the
foundation of Politics.
• Aristotle used term faction for class.
• Just like Plato Aristotle dislike the definition of
democracy of his time rather he gave different
definition of democracy.
• According to Aristotle “Democracy is when the
poor and not the men of property are rulers”.
• Because poor class or faction or more in
number than ruler or aristocratic class.
• “In a democracy the poor will have more power
than rich, because there are more of them, and
the will of majority is supreme”.
• Aristotle gave the idea of politics on the bases of
class system.
• Conflict between Athens and Sparta was also
shaped by class contradictions.
• Aristotle supported the aristocratic system.
• “The problem arises from the ides that those
who are equal under the law are equal in the all
other respects” .
• Ruler should be in form of aristocratic and
kingship.
• “In democracy people are easily misled, and
so fickle in their views the ballot should be
limited to the intelligent”.
• Aristotle wanted to create mixed political
system to prevent a democratic revolution.
• About woman Aristotle has the opinion that
“Woman is an unfinished Man.
• Man was the sower and woman the soil,
children inherit only male characteristics”
• “Male is by nature superior”.
• “Courage of man is seen in commanding and
that of woman in obeying”.
• “A society cannot be happy unless women are
happy too”
• According to Aristotle state should control
family life and members in population number
controlling.
• Slaves according to Aristotle are tools with
voice.
• “Men by nature are of two types, one rulers by
nature and one submitted by nature”.
 Philosophical Contribution
• Aristotle dominant human mind and thought for
more than two thousand years all over the
world.
• Muslim Philosophy was also influenced by the
Aristotle.
• Through Ibn-e-Rushd 1126-1198 during golden
period of Muslim thought Aristotle’s philosophy
influenced Muslim thought and after that
through Spain his philosophy influenced
Western thought.