Though Aristotle wrote many treatises and dialogues for publication, only arounda third of his original output has survived, none of it intended for publication. Aristotle provided a complex synthesis of the various philosophies existing prior to him. His teachings and methods of inquiry have had a significant impact across the world, and remain a subject of contemporary philosophical discussion.
Aristotle was revered among medieval Muslim scholars as "The First Teacher", and among medieval Christians likeThomas Aquinas as simply "The Philosopher", while the poetDante called him "the master of those who know". He has been referred to as the firstscientist. His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic, and were studied by medieval scholars such asPeter Abelard andJean Buridan. His influence on logic continued well into the 19th century. In addition,his ethics, although always influential, has gained renewed interest with the modern advent ofvirtue ethics.
Life
In general, the details of Aristotle's life are not well-established. The biographies written in ancient times are often speculative and historians only agree on a few salient points.[C] Aristotle was born in 384 BC[D] inStagira,Chalcidice,[2] about 55 km (34 miles) east of modern-dayThessaloniki.[3][4] He was the son ofNicomachus, the personal physician ofKing Amyntas of Macedon,[5] and Phaestis, a woman with origins fromChalcis,Euboea.[6] Nicomachus was said to have belonged to the medical guild ofAsclepiadae and was likely responsible for Aristotle's early interest in biology and medicine.[7] Ancient tradition held that Aristotle's family descended from the legendary physicianAsclepius and his sonMachaon.[8] Both of Aristotle's parents died when he was still at a young age andProxenus of Atarneus became his guardian.[9] Although little information about Aristotle's childhood has survived, he probably spent some time in theMacedonian capital, making his first connections with theMacedonian monarchy.[10]
At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Aristotle moved toAthens to continue his education atPlato's Academy.[11] He became distinguished as a researcher and lecturer, earning for himself the nickname "mind of the school" by his tutorPlato.[12] In Athens, he probably experienced theEleusinian Mysteries as he wrote when describing the sights one viewed at the Mysteries, "to experience is to learn" (παθεĩν μαθεĩν).[13] Aristotle remained in Athens for nearly twenty years before leaving in 348/47 BC after Plato's death.[14] The traditional story about his departure records that he was disappointed with the academy's direction after control passed to Plato's nephewSpeusippus, although it is possible that the anti-Macedonian sentiments in Athens could have also influenced his decision.[15][16] Aristotle left withXenocrates toAssos inAsia Minor, where he was invited by his former fellow studentHermias of Atarneus; he stayed there for a few years and left around the time of Hermias' death.[E] While at Assos, Aristotle and his colleagueTheophrastus did extensive research inbotany andmarine biology, which they later continued at the near-by island ofLesbos.[17] During this time, Aristotle marriedPythias, Hermias's adoptive daughter and niece, and had a daughter whom they also named Pythias.[18]
In 343/42 BC, Aristotle was invited toPella byPhilip II of Macedon in order to become the tutor to his thirteen-year-old sonAlexander;[19] a choice perhaps influenced by the relationship of Aristotle's family with the Macedonian dynasty.[20] Aristotle taught Alexander at the private school ofMieza, in the gardens of theNymphs, the royal estate near Pella.[21] Alexander's education probably included a number of subjects, such asethics andpolitics,[22] as well as standard literary texts, likeEuripides andHomer.[23] It is likely that during Aristotle's time in the Macedonian court, other prominent nobles, likePtolemy andCassander, would have occasionally attended his lectures.[24] Aristotle encouraged Alexander toward eastern conquest, and his own attitude towardsPersia was stronglyethnocentric. In one famous example, he counsels Alexander to be "a leader to the Greeks and a despot to the barbarians".[25] Alexander's education under the guardianship of Aristotle likely lasted for only a few years, as at around the age of sixteen he returned to Pella and was appointed regent of Macedon by his father Philip.[26] During this time, Aristotle is said to have gifted Alexander an annotated copy of theIliad, which reportedly became one of Alexander's most prized possessions.[27] Scholars speculate that two of Aristotle's now lost works,On kingship andOn behalf of the Colonies, were composed by the philosopher for the young prince.[28] Aristotle returned to Athens for the second and final time a year after Philip II's assassination in 336 BC.[29]
As ametic, Aristotle could not own property in Athens and thus rented a building known as theLyceum (named after the sacredgrove ofApolloLykeios), in which he established his own school.[30] The building included agymnasium and acolonnade (peripatos), from which the school acquired the namePeripatetic.[31] Aristotle conducted courses and research at the school for the next twelve years. He often lectured small groups of distinguished students and, along with some of them, such asTheophrastus,Eudemus, andAristoxenus, Aristotle built a large library which included manuscripts, maps, and museum objects.[32] While in Athens, his wife Pythias died and Aristotle became involved withHerpyllis of Stagira. They had a son whom Aristotle named after his father,Nicomachus.[33] This period in Athens, between 335 and 323 BC, is when Aristotle is believed to have composed many of his philosophical works.[34] He wrote many dialogues, of which only fragments have survived. Those works that have survived are intreatise form and were not, for the most part, intended for widespread publication; they are generally thought to be lecture aids for his students. His most important treatises includePhysics,Metaphysics,Nicomachean Ethics,Politics,On the Soul andPoetics. Aristotle studied and made significant contributions to "logic, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, biology, botany, ethics, politics, agriculture, medicine, dance, and theatre."[35]
While Alexander deeply admired Aristotle, near the end of his life, the two men became estranged having diverging opinions over issues, like the optimal administration of city-states, the treatment of conquered populations, such as the Persians, and philosophical questions, like the definition of braveness.[36] A widespread speculation in antiquity suggested that Aristotle played a role in Alexander's death, but the only evidence of this is anunlikely claim made some six years after the death.[37] Following Alexander's death, anti-Macedonian sentiment in Athens was rekindled. In 322 BC, Demophilus andEurymedon the Hierophant reportedly denounced Aristotle for impiety,[38] prompting him to flee to his mother's family estate inChalcis, Euboea, at which occasion he was said to have stated "I will not allow the Athenians to sin twice against philosophy"[39] – a reference to Athens'strial and execution of Socrates.[15] He died in Chalcis, Euboea[40][41] of natural causes later that same year, having named his studentAntipater as his chiefexecutor and leaving awill in which he asked to be buried next to his wife.[42] Aristotle left his works to Theophrastus, his successor as the head of the Lyceum, who in turn passed them down toNeleus of Scepsis in Asia Minor. There, the papers remained hidden for protection until they were purchased by the collectorApellicon. In the meantime, many copies of Aristotle's major works had already begun to circulate and be used in the Lyceum of Athens,Alexandria, and later in Rome.[43]
With thePrior Analytics, Aristotle is credited with the earliest study of formal logic,[44] and his conception of it was the dominant form of Western logic until 19th-century advances inmathematical logic.[45]Kant stated in theCritique of Pure Reason that with Aristotle, logic reached its completion.[46]
Plato (left) and Aristotle inRaphael's 1509 fresco,The School of Athens. Aristotle holds hisNicomachean Ethics and gestures to the earth, representing his view in immanent realism, whilst Plato gestures to the heavens, indicating his Theory of Forms, and holds hisTimaeus.[47][48]
Most of Aristotle's work is probably not in its original form, because it was most likely edited by students and later lecturers. The logical works of Aristotle were compiled into a set of six books called theOrganon around 40 BC byAndronicus of Rhodes or others among his followers.[49] The books are:
The order of the books (or the teachings from which they are composed) is not certain, but this list was derived from analysis of Aristotle's writings. It goes from the basics, the analysis of simple terms in theCategories, the analysis of propositions and their elementary relations inOn Interpretation, to the study of more complex forms, namely, syllogisms (in theAnalytics)[50][51] and dialectics (in theTopics andSophistical Refutations). The first three treatises form the core of the logical theorystricto sensu: the grammar of the language of logic and the correct rules of reasoning. TheRhetoric is not conventionally included, but it states that it relies on theTopics.[52]
What is today calledAristotelian logic with itstypes of syllogism (methods of logical argument),[53] Aristotle himself would have labelled "analytics". The term "logic" he reserved to meandialectics.
The word "metaphysics" appears to have been coined by the first century AD editor who assembled various small selections of Aristotle's works to create the treatise we know by the nameMetaphysics.[55] Aristotle called it "first philosophy", and distinguished it from mathematics and natural science (physics) as the contemplative (theoretikē) philosophy which is "theological" and studies the divine. He wrote in hisMetaphysics (1026a16):
If there were no other independent things besides the composite natural ones, the study of nature would be the primary kind of knowledge; but if there is some motionless independent thing, the knowledge of this precedes it and is first philosophy, and it is universalin just this way, because it is first. And it belongs to this sort of philosophy to study being as being, both what it is and what belongs to it just by virtue of being.[56]
Aristotle examines the concepts ofsubstance (ousia) andessence (to ti ên einai, "the what it was to be") in hisMetaphysics (Book VII), and he concludes that a particular substance is a combination of both matter and form, a philosophical theory calledhylomorphism. In Book VIII, he distinguishes the matter of the substance as thesubstratum, or the stuff of which it is composed. For example, the matter of a house is the bricks, stones, timbers, etc., or whatever constitutes thepotential house, while the form of the substance is theactual house, namely 'covering for bodies and chattels' or any otherdifferentia that let us define something as a house. The formula that gives the components is the account of the matter, and the formula that gives the differentia is the account of the form.[57][55]
Plato'sforms exist asuniversals, like the ideal form of an apple. For Aristotle, both matter and form belong to the individual thing (hylomorphism).
Like his teacher Plato, Aristotle's philosophy aims at theuniversal. Aristotle'sontology places the universal (katholou) inparticulars (kath' hekaston), things in the world, whereas for Plato the universal is a separately existing form which actual things imitate. For Aristotle, "form" is still whatphenomena are based on, but is "instantiated" in a particular substance.[55]
Plato argued that all things have auniversal form, which could be either a property or a relation to other things. When one looks at an apple, for example, one sees an apple, and one can also analyse a form of an apple. In this distinction, there is a particular apple and a universal form of an apple. Moreover, one can place an apple next to a book, so that one can speak of both the book and apple as being next to each other. Plato argued that there are some universal forms that are not a part of particular things. For example, it is possible that there is no particular good in existence, but "good" is still a proper universal form. Aristotle disagreed with Plato on this point, arguing that all universals are instantiated at some period of time, and that there are no universals that are unattached to existing things. In addition, Aristotle disagreed with Plato about the location of universals. Where Plato spoke of the forms as existing separately from the things that participate in them, Aristotle maintained that universals exist within each thing on which each universal is predicated. So, according to Aristotle, the form of apple exists within each apple, rather than in the world of the forms.[55][58]
Potentiality and actuality
Concerning the nature of change (kinesis) and its causes, as he outlines in hisPhysics andOn Generation and Corruption (319b–320a), he distinguishes coming-to-be (genesis, also translated as 'generation') from:
growth and diminution, which is change in quantity;
locomotion, which is change in space; and
alteration, which is change in quality.
Aristotle argued that a capability like playing the flute could be acquired –the potential made actual – by learning.
Coming-to-be is a change where the substrate of the thing that has undergone the change has itself changed. In that particular change he introduces the concept of potentiality (dynamis) and actuality (entelecheia) in association with the matter and the form. Referring to potentiality, this is what a thing is capable of doing or being acted upon if the conditions are right and it is not prevented by something else. For example, the seed of a plant in the soil is potentially (dynamei) a plant, and if it is not prevented by something, it will become a plant. Potentially, beings can either 'act' (poiein) or 'be acted upon' (paschein), which can be either innate or learned. For example, the eyes possess the potentiality of sight (innate – being acted upon), while the capability of playing the flute can be possessed by learning (exercise – acting). Actuality is the fulfilment of the end of the potentiality. Because the end (telos) is the principle of every change, and potentiality exists for the sake of the end, actuality, accordingly, is the end. Referring then to the previous example, it can be said that an actuality is when a plant does one of the activities that plants do.[55]
For that for the sake of which (to hou heneka) a thing is, is its principle, and the becoming is for the sake of the end; and the actuality is the end, and it is for the sake of this that the potentiality is acquired. For animals do not see in order that they may have sight, but they have sight that they may see.[59]
In summary, the matter used to make a house has potentiality to be a house and both the activity of building and the form of the final house are actualities, which is also afinal cause or end. Then Aristotle proceeds and concludes that the actuality is prior to potentiality in formula, in time and in substantiality. With this definition of the particular substance (i.e., matter and form), Aristotle tries to solve the problem of the unity of the beings, for example, "what is it that makes a man one"? Since, according toPlato there are two Ideas: animal and biped, how then is man a unity? However, according to Aristotle, the potential being (matter) and the actual one (form) are one and the same.[55][60]
Epistemology
Aristotle's immanent realism means hisepistemology is based on the study of things that exist or happen in the world, and rises to knowledge of the universal, whereas for Plato epistemology begins with knowledge of universalForms (or ideas) and descends to knowledge of particular imitations of these.[52] Aristotle usesinduction from examples alongsidededuction, whereas Plato relies on deduction froma priori principles.[52]
Natural philosophy
Aristotle's "natural philosophy" spans a wide range of natural phenomena including those now covered by physics, biology and other natural sciences.[61] In Aristotle's terminology, "natural philosophy" is a branch of philosophy examining the phenomena of the natural world, and includes fields that would be regarded today as physics, biology and other natural sciences. Aristotle's work encompassed virtually all facets of intellectual inquiry. Aristotle makes philosophy in the broad sense coextensive with reasoning, which he also would describe as "science". However, his use of the termscience carries a different meaning than that covered by the term "scientific method". For Aristotle, "all science (dianoia) is either practical, poetical or theoretical" (Metaphysics 1025b25). His practical science includes ethics and politics; his poetical science means the study of fine arts including poetry; his theoretical science covers physics, mathematics and metaphysics.[61]
Physics
The fourclassical elements (fire, air, water, earth) ofEmpedocles and Aristotle illustrated with a burning log. The log releases all four elements as it is destroyed.
In hisOn Generation and Corruption, Aristotle related each of the four elements proposed earlier byEmpedocles,earth,water,air, andfire, to two of the four sensible qualities, hot, cold, wet, and dry. In the Empedoclean scheme, all matter was made of the four elements, in differing proportions. Aristotle's scheme added the heavenlyaether, the divine substance of theheavenly spheres, stars and planets.[62]
Aristotle describes two kinds of motion: "violent" or "unnatural motion", such as that of a thrown stone, in thePhysics (254b10), and "natural motion", such as of a falling object, inOn the Heavens (300a20). In violent motion, as soon as the agent stops causing it, the motion stops also: in other words, the natural state of an object is to be at rest,[63][I] since Aristotle does not addressfriction.[64] With this understanding, it can be observed that, as Aristotle stated, heavy objects (on the ground, say) require more force to make them move; and objects pushed with greater force move faster.[65][J] This would imply the equation[65]
Natural motion depends on the element concerned: the aether naturally moves in a circle around the heavens,[K] while the 4 Empedoclean elements move vertically up (like fire, as is observed) or down (like earth) towards their natural resting places.[66][64][L]
Aristotle's laws of motion. InPhysics he states that objects fall at a speed proportional to their weight and inversely proportional to the density of the fluid they are immersed in.[64] This is a correct approximation for objects in Earth's gravitational field moving in air or water.[66]
In thePhysics (215a25), Aristotle effectively states a quantitative law, that the speed, v, of a falling body is proportional (say, with constant c) to its weight, W, and inversely proportional to the density,[M] ρ, of the fluid in which it is falling:;[66][64]
Aristotle implies that in avacuum the speed of fall would become infinite, and concludes from this apparent absurdity that a vacuum is not possible.[66][64] Opinions have varied on whether Aristotle intended to state quantitative laws. Henri Carteron held the "extreme view"[64] that Aristotle's concept of force was basically qualitative,[67] but other authors reject this.[64]
Archimedes corrected Aristotle's theory that bodies move towards their natural resting places; metal boats can float if theydisplace enough water; floating depends in Archimedes' scheme on the mass and volume of the object, not, as Aristotle thought, its elementary composition.[66]
Aristotle's writings on motion remained influential until theEarly Modern period.John Philoponus (inLate antiquity) andGalileo (inEarly modern period) are said to have shown by experiment that Aristotle's claim that a heavier object falls faster than a lighter object is incorrect.[61] A contrary opinion is given byCarlo Rovelli, who argues that Aristotle's physics of motion is correct within its domain of validity, that of objects in theEarth's gravitational field immersed in a fluid such as air. In this system, heavy bodies in steady fall indeed travel faster than light ones (whether friction is ignored, or not[66]), and they do fall more slowly in a denser medium.[65][N]
Newton's "forced" motion corresponds to Aristotle's "violent" motion with its external agent, but Aristotle's assumption that the agent's effect stops immediately it stops acting (e.g., the ball leaves the thrower's hand) has awkward consequences: he has to suppose that surrounding fluid helps to push the ball along to make it continue to rise even though the hand is no longer acting on it, resulting in the Medievaltheory of impetus.[66]
Aristotle argued by analogy with woodwork that a thing takes its form fromfour causes: in the case of a table, the wood used (material cause), its design (formal cause), the tools and techniques used (efficient cause), and its decorative or practical purpose (final cause).[68]
Aristotle suggested that the reason for anything coming about can be attributed to four different types of simultaneously active factors. His termaitia is traditionally translated as "cause", but it does not always refer to temporal sequence; it might be better translated as "explanation", but the traditional rendering will be employed here.[69][70]
Material cause describes the material out of which something is composed. Thus the material cause of a table is wood. It is not about action. It does not mean that one domino knocks over another domino.[69]
Theformal cause is its form, i.e., the arrangement of that matter. It tells one what a thing is, that a thing is determined by the definition, form, pattern, essence, whole, synthesis or archetype. It embraces the account of causes in terms of fundamental principles or general laws, as the whole (i.e., macrostructure) is the cause of its parts, a relationship known as the whole-part causation. Plainly put, the formal cause is the idea in the mind of the sculptor that brings the sculpture into being. A simple example of the formal cause is the mental image or idea that allows an artist, architect, or engineer to create a drawing.[69]
Theefficient cause is "the primary source", or that from which the change under consideration proceeds. It identifies 'what makes of what is made and what causes change of what is changed' and so suggests all sorts of agents, non-living or living, acting as the sources of change or movement or rest. Representing the current understanding of causality as the relation of cause and effect, this covers the modern definitions of "cause" as either the agent or agency or particular events or states of affairs. In the case of two dominoes, when the first is knocked over it causes the second also to fall over.[69] In the case of animals, this agency is a combination ofhow it develops from the egg, andhow its body functions.[71]
Thefinal cause (telos) is its purpose, the reason why a thing exists or is done, including both purposeful and instrumental actions and activities. The final cause is the purpose or function that something is supposed to serve. This covers modern ideas of motivating causes, such as volition.[69] In the case of living things, it impliesadaptation to a particular way of life.[71]
Aristotle describes experiments inoptics using acamera obscura inProblems, book 15. The apparatus consisted of a dark chamber with a smallaperture that let light in. With it, he saw that whatever shape he made the hole, the sun's image always remained circular. He also noted that increasing the distance between the aperture and the image surface magnified the image.[72]
According to Aristotle, spontaneity and chance are causes of some things, distinguishable from other types of cause such as simple necessity. Chance as an incidental cause lies in the realm ofaccidental things, "from what is spontaneous". There is also more a specific kind of chance, which Aristotle names "luck", that only applies to people's moral choices.[73][74]
Inastronomy, Aristotle refutedDemocritus's claim that theMilky Way was made up of "those stars which are shaded by the earth from the sun's rays," pointing out partly correctly that if "the size of the sun is greater than that of the earth and the distance of the stars from the earth many times greater than that of the sun, then... the sun shines on all the stars and the earth screens none of them."[75] He also wrote descriptions of comets, including theGreat Comet of 371 BC.[76]
Aristotle was one of the first people to record anygeological observations. He stated thatgeological change was too slow to be observed in one person's lifetime.[77][78]The geologistCharles Lyell noted that Aristotle described such change, including "lakes that had dried up" and "deserts that had become watered by rivers", giving as examples the growth of theNile delta since the time ofHomer, and "the upheaving of one of theAeolian islands, previous to avolcanic eruption."'[79]
Meteorologica lends its name to the modern study of meteorology, but its modern usage diverges from the content of Aristotle's ancient treatise onmeteors. The ancient Greeks did use the term for a range of atmospheric phenomena, but also forearthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Aristotle proposed that the cause of earthquakes was a gas or vapor (anathymiaseis) that was trapped inside the earth and trying to escape, following other Greek authorsAnaxagoras,Empedocles andDemocritus.[80]
Aristotle also made many observations about the hydrologic cycle. For example, he made some of the earliest observations about desalination: he observed early – and correctly – that when seawater is heated, freshwater evaporates and that the oceans are then replenished by the cycle of rainfall and river runoff ("I have proved by experiment that salt water evaporated forms fresh and the vapor does not when it condenses condense into sea water again.")[81]
Among many pioneering zoological observations, Aristotle described the reproductivehectocotyl arm of theoctopus (bottom left).
Empirical research
Aristotle was the first person to study biology systematically,[82] and biology forms a large part of his writings. He spent two years observing and describing the zoology ofLesbos and the surrounding seas, including in particular the Pyrrha lagoon in the centre of Lesbos.[83][84] His data inHistory of Animals,Generation of Animals,Movement of Animals, andParts of Animals are assembled from his own observations,[85] statements given by people with specialized knowledge, such as beekeepers and fishermen, and less accurate accounts provided by travellers from overseas.[86] His apparent emphasis on animals rather than plants is a historical accident: his works onbotany have been lost, but two books on plants by his pupil Theophrastus have survived.[87]
Aristotle reports on the sea-life visible from observation on Lesbos and the catches of fishermen. He describes thecatfish,electric ray, andfrogfish in detail, as well ascephalopods such as theoctopus andpaper nautilus. His description of thehectocotyl arm of cephalopods, used in sexual reproduction, was widely disbelieved until the 19th century.[88] He gives accurate descriptions of the four-chambered fore-stomachs ofruminants,[89] and of theovoviviparous embryological development of thehound shark.[90]
He notes that an animal's structure is well matched to function so birds like theheron (which live in marshes with soft mud and live by catching fish) have a long neck, long legs, and a sharp spear-like beak, whereasducks that swim have short legs and webbed feet.[91]Darwin, too, noted these sorts of differences between similar kinds of animal, but unlike Aristotle used the data to come to the theory ofevolution.[92] Aristotle's writings can seem to modern readers close to implying evolution, but while Aristotle was aware that new mutations orhybridizations could occur, he saw these as rare accidents. For Aristotle, accidents, like heat waves in winter, must be considered distinct from natural causes. He was thus critical of Empedocles's materialist theory of a "survival of the fittest" origin of living things and their organs, and ridiculed the idea that accidents could lead to orderly results.[93] To put his views into modern terms, he nowhere says that different species can have acommon ancestor, or that one kind canchange into another, or that kinds can becomeextinct.[94]
Scientific style
Aristotle inferred growth laws from his observations on animals, including thatbrood size decreases with body mass, whereasgestation period increases. He was correct in these predictions, at least for mammals: data are shown for mouse and elephant.
Aristotle did not do experiments in the modern sense.[95] He used the ancient Greek termpepeiramenoi to mean observations, or at most investigative procedures like dissection.[96] InGeneration of Animals, he finds a fertilized hen's egg of a suitable stage and opens it to see the embryo's heart beating inside.[97][98]
Instead, he practiced a different style of science: systematically gathering data, discovering patterns common to whole groups of animals, and inferring possible causal explanations from these.[99][100] This style is common in modern biology when large amounts of data become available in a new field, such asgenomics. It does not result in the same certainty as experimental science, but it sets out testable hypotheses and constructs a narrative explanation of what is observed. In this sense,Aristotle's biology is scientific.[99]
From the data he collected and documented, Aristotle inferred quite a number ofrules relating the life-history features of the live-bearing tetrapods (terrestrial placental mammals) that he studied. Among these correct predictions are the following. Brood size decreases with (adult) body mass, so that an elephant has fewer young (usually just one) per brood than a mouse.Lifespan increases withgestation period, and also with body mass, so that elephants live longer than mice, have a longer period of gestation, and are heavier. As a final example,fecundity decreases with lifespan, so long-lived kinds like elephants have fewer young in total than short-lived kinds like mice.[101]
Aristotle recorded that theembryo (fetus pictured) ofa dogfish was attached by a cord to a kind of placenta (theyolk sac), like a higher animal; this formed an exception to the linear scale from highest to lowest.[102]
Aristotle distinguished about 500 species ofanimals,[103][104] arranging these in theHistory of Animals in a graded scale of perfection, a nonreligious version of thescala naturae, with man at the top. His system had eleven grades of animal, from highest potential to lowest, expressed in their form at birth: the highest gavelive birth to hot and wet creatures, the lowest laid cold, dry mineral-like eggs. Animals came aboveplants, and these in turn were above minerals.[105][106] He grouped what the modern zoologist would callvertebrates as the hotter "animals with blood", and below them the colderinvertebrates as "animals without blood". Those with blood were divided into the live-bearing (mammals), and the egg-laying (birds,reptiles,fish). Those without blood were insects, crustacea (non-shelled – cephalopods, andshelled) and the hard-shelledmolluscs (bivalves andgastropods). He recognised that animals did not exactly fit into a linear scale, and noted various exceptions, such as that sharks had aplacenta like the tetrapods. To a modern biologist, the explanation, not available to Aristotle, isconvergent evolution.[107] Philosophers of science have generally concluded that Aristotle was not interested in taxonomy,[108][109] but zoologists who studied this question in the early 21st century think otherwise.[110][111][112] He believed that purposive final causes guided all natural processes; thisteleological view justified his observed data as an expression of formal design.[113]
Aristotle proposed a three-partstructure for souls of plants, animals, and humans, making humans unique in having all three types of soul.
Aristotle'spsychology, given in his treatiseOn the Soul (peri psychēs), posits three kinds ofsoul (psyches): the vegetative soul, the sensitive soul, and the rational soul. Humans have all three. The vegetative soul is concerned with growth and nourishment. The sensitive soul experiences sensations and movement. The unique part of the human, rational soul is its ability to receive forms of other things and to compare them using thenous (intellect) andlogos (reason).[114]
For Aristotle, the soul is theform of a living being. Because all beings are composites of form and matter, the form of living beings is that which endows them with what is specific to living beings, e.g. the ability to initiate movement (or in the case of plants, growth and transformations, which Aristotle considers types of movement).[115] In contrast to earlier philosophers, but in accordance with the Egyptians, he placed the rational soul in the heart, rather than the brain.[116] Notable is Aristotle's division of sensation and thought, which generally differed from the concepts of previous philosophers, with the exception ofAlcmaeon.[117]
InOn the Soul, Aristotle famously criticizes Plato's theory of the soul and develops his own in response. The first criticism is against Plato's view of the soul in theTimaeus that the soul takes up space and is able to come into physical contact with bodies.[118] 20th-century scholarship overwhelmingly opposed Aristotle's interpretation of Plato and maintained that he had misunderstood him.[119] Today's scholars have tended to re-assess Aristotle's interpretation and been more positive about it.[120] Aristotle's other criticism is that Plato's view of reincarnation entails that it is possible for a soul and its body to be mis-matched; in principle, Aristotle alleges, any soul can go with any body, according to Plato's theory.[121] Aristotle's claim that the soul is the form of a living being eliminates that possibility and thus rules out reincarnation.[122]
Memory
According to Aristotle inOn the Soul, memory is the ability to hold a perceived experience in the mind and to distinguish between the internal "appearance" and an occurrence in the past.[123] In other words, a memory is a mental picture (phantasm) that can be recovered. Aristotle believed an impression is left on a semi-fluid bodily organ that undergoes several changes in order to make a memory. A memory occurs whenstimuli such as sights or sounds are so complex that the nervous system cannot receive all the impressions at once. These changes are the same as those involved in the operations of sensation, Aristotelian'common sense', and thinking.[124][125]
Aristotle uses the term 'memory' for the actual retaining of an experience in the impression that can develop from sensation, and for the intellectual anxiety that comes with the impression because it is formed at a particular time and processing specific contents. Memory is of the past, prediction is of the future, and sensation is of the present. Retrieval of impressions cannot be performed suddenly. A transitional channel is needed and located in past experiences, both for previous experience and present experience.[126]
Because Aristotle believes people receive all kinds of sense perceptions and perceive them as impressions, people are continually weaving together new impressions of experiences. To search for these impressions, people search the memory itself.[127] Within the memory, if one experience is offered instead of a specific memory, that person will reject this experience until they find what they are looking for. Recollection occurs when one retrieved experience naturally follows another. If the chain of "images" is needed, one memory will stimulate the next. When people recall experiences, they stimulate certain previous experiences until they reach the one that is needed.[128] Recollection is thus the self-directed activity of retrieving the information stored in a memory impression.[129] Only humans can remember impressions of intellectual activity, such as numbers and words. Animals that have perception of time can retrieve memories of their past observations. Remembering involves only perception of the things remembered and of the time passed.[130]
Senses, perception, memory, dreams, action in Aristotle's psychology. Impressions are stored in thesensorium (the heart), linked by hislaws of association (similarity, contrast, andcontiguity).
Aristotle believed the chain of thought, which ends in recollection of certain impressions, was connected systematically in relationships such as similarity, contrast, andcontiguity, described in hislaws of association. Aristotle believed that past experiences are hidden within the mind. A force operates to awaken the hidden material to bring up the actual experience. According to Aristotle, association is the power innate in a mental state, which operates upon the unexpressed remains of former experiences, allowing them to rise and be recalled.[131][132]
Aristotle describes sleep inOn Sleep and Wakefulness.[133] Sleep takes place as a result of overuse of the senses[134] or of digestion,[135] so it is vital to the body.[134] While a person is asleep, the critical activities, which include thinking, sensing, recalling and remembering, do not function as they do during wakefulness. Since a person cannot sense during sleep, they cannot have desire, which is the result of sensation. However, the senses are able to work during sleep,[136] albeit differently,[133] unless they are weary.[134]
Dreams do not involve actually sensing a stimulus. In dreams, sensation is still involved, but in an altered manner.[134] Aristotle explains that when a person stares at a moving stimulus such as the waves in a body of water, and then looks away, the next thing they look at appears to have a wavelike motion. When a person perceives a stimulus and the stimulus is no longer the focus of their attention, it leaves an impression.[133] When the body is awake and the senses are functioning properly, a person constantly encounters new stimuli to sense and so the impressions of previously perceived stimuli are ignored.[134] However, during sleep the impressions made throughout the day are noticed as there are no new distracting sensory experiences.[133] So, dreams result from these lasting impressions. Since impressions are all that are left and not the exact stimuli, dreams do not resemble the actual waking experience.[137] During sleep, a person is in an altered state of mind. Aristotle compares a sleeping person to a person who is overtaken by strong feelings toward a stimulus. For example, a person who has a strong infatuation with someone may begin to think they see that person everywhere because they are so overtaken by their feelings. Since a person sleeping is in a suggestible state and unable to make judgements, they become easily deceived by what appears in their dreams, like the infatuated person.[133] This leads the person to believe the dream is real, even when the dreams are absurd in nature.[133] InDe Anima iii 3, Aristotle ascribes the ability to create, to store, and to recall images in the absence of perception to the faculty of imagination,phantasia.[115]
One component of Aristotle's theory of dreams disagrees with previously held beliefs. He claimed that dreams are not foretelling and not sent by a divine being. Aristotle reasoned naturalistically that instances in which dreams do resemble future events are simply coincidences.[138] Aristotle claimed that a dream is first established by the fact that the person is asleep when they experience it. If a person had an image appear for a moment after waking up or if they see something in the dark it is not considered a dream because they were awake when it occurred. Secondly, any sensory experience that is perceived while a person is asleep does not qualify as part of a dream. For example, if, while a person is sleeping, a door shuts and in their dream they hear a door is shut, this sensory experience is not part of the dream. Lastly, the images of dreams must be a result of lasting impressions of waking sensory experiences.[137]
Aristotle considered ethics to be a practical rather than theoretical study, i.e., one aimed at becoming good and doing good rather than knowing for its own sake. He wrote several treatises on ethics, most notably including theNicomachean Ethics.[139]
Aristotle taught that virtue has to do with the proper function (ergon) of a thing. An eye is only a good eye in so much as it can see because the proper function of an eye is sight. Aristotle reasoned that humans must have a function specific to humans, and that this function must be an activity of thepsuchē (soul) in accordance with reason (logos). Aristotle identified such an optimum activity (the virtuous mean, between the accompanying vices of excess or deficiency[35]) of the soul as the aim of all human deliberate action,eudaimonia, generally translated as "happiness" or sometimes "well-being". To have the potential of ever being happy in this way necessarily requires a good character (ēthikēaretē), often translated as moral or ethical virtue or excellence.[140]
Aristotle taught that to achieve a virtuous and potentially happy character requires a first stage of having the fortune to be habituated not deliberately, but by teachers, and experience, leading to a later stage in which one consciously chooses to do the best things. When the best people come to live life this way their practical wisdom (phronesis) and their intellect (nous) can develop with each other towards the highest possible human virtue, the wisdom of an accomplished theoretical or speculative thinker, or in other words, a philosopher.[141]
In addition to his works on ethics, which address the individual, Aristotle addressed the city in his work titledPolitics. Aristotle considered the city to be a natural community. Moreover, he considered the city to be prior in importance to the family, which in turn is prior to the individual, "for the whole must of necessity be prior to the part".[142] He famously stated that "man is by nature a political animal" and argued that humanity's defining factor among others in the animal kingdom is its rationality.[143] Aristotle conceived of politics as being like an organism rather than like a machine, and as a collection of parts none of which can exist without the others. Aristotle's conception of the city is organic, and he is considered one of the first to conceive of the city in this manner.[144]
Aristotle's classifications of political constitutions
The common modern understanding of a political community as a modern state is quite different from Aristotle's understanding. Although he was aware of the existence and potential of larger empires, the natural community according to Aristotle was the city (polis) which functions as a political "community" or "partnership" (koinōnia). The aim of the city is not just to avoid injustice or for economic stability, but rather to allow at least some citizens the possibility to live a good life, and to perform beautiful acts: "The political partnership must be regarded, therefore, as being for the sake of noble actions, not for the sake of living together." This is distinguished from modern approaches, beginning withsocial contract theory, according to which individuals leave thestate of nature because of "fear of violent death" or its "inconveniences".[O]
For we all agree that the most excellent man should rule, i.e., the supreme by nature, and that the law rules and alone is authoritative; but the law is a kind of intelligence, i.e. a discourse based on intelligence. And again, what standard do we have, what criterion of good things, that is more precise than the intelligent man? For all that this man will choose, if the choice is based on his knowledge, are good things and their contraries are bad. And since everybody chooses most of all what conforms to their own proper dispositions (a just man choosing to live justly, a man with bravery to live bravely, likewise a self-controlled man to live with self-control), it is clear that the intelligent man will choose most of all to be intelligent; for this is the function of that capacity. Hence it's evident that, according to the most authoritative judgment, intelligence is supreme among goods.[145]
As Plato's disciple Aristotle was rather critical concerning democracy and, following the outline of certain ideas from Plato'sStatesman, he developed a coherent theory of integrating various forms of power into a so-called mixed state:
It is ... constitutional to take ... from oligarchy that offices are to be elected, and from democracy that this is not to be on a property-qualification. This then is the mode of the mixture; and the mark of a good mixture of democracy and oligarchy is when it is possible to speak of the same constitution as a democracy and as an oligarchy.
Aristotle made substantial contributions toeconomic thought, especially to thought in the Middle Ages.[146] InPolitics, Aristotle addresses the city,property, andtrade. His response to criticisms ofprivate property, inLionel Robbins's view, anticipated later proponents of private property among philosophers and economists, as it related to the overallutility of social arrangements.[146] Aristotle believed that although communal arrangements may seem beneficial to society, and that although private property is often blamed for social strife, such evils in fact come fromhuman nature. InPolitics, Aristotle offers one of the earliest accounts of the origin ofmoney.[146] Money came into use because people became dependent on one another, importing what they needed and exporting the surplus. For the sake of convenience, people then agreed to deal in something that is intrinsically useful and easily applicable, such as iron orsilver.[147]
Aristotle's discussions onretail andinterest was a major influence on economic thought in the Middle Ages. He had a low opinion of retail, believing that contrary to using money to procure things one needs in managing the household, retail trade seeks to make aprofit. It thus uses goods as a means to an end, rather than as an end unto itself. He believed that retail trade was in this way unnatural. Similarly, Aristotle considered making a profit through interest unnatural, as it makes a gain out of the money itself, and not from its use.[147]
Aristotle gave a summary of the function of money that was perhaps remarkably precocious for his time. He wrote that because it is impossible to determine the value of every good through a count of the number of other goods it is worth, the necessity arises of a single universal standard of measurement. Money thus allows for the association of different goods and makes them "commensurable".[147] He goes on to state that money is also useful for future exchange, making it a sort of security. That is, "if we do not want a thing now, we shall be able to get it when we do want it".[147]
Aristotle'sRhetoric proposes that a speaker can use three basic kinds of appeals to persuade his audience:ethos (an appeal to the speaker's character),pathos (an appeal to the audience's emotion), andlogos (an appeal to logical reasoning).[148] He also categorizes rhetoric into three genres:epideictic (ceremonial speeches dealing with praise or blame),forensic (judicial speeches over guilt or innocence), anddeliberative (speeches calling on an audience to decide on an issue).[149] Aristotle also outlines two kinds of rhetoricalproofs:enthymeme (proof bysyllogism) andparadeigma (proof by example).[150]
Aristotle writes in hisPoetics thatepic poetry, tragedy, comedy,dithyrambic poetry, painting, sculpture, music, and dance are all fundamentally acts ofmimesis ("imitation"), each varying in imitation by medium, object, and manner.[151][152] He applies the termmimesis both as a property of a work of art and also as the product of the artist's intention[151] and contends that the audience's realisation of themimesis is vital to understanding the work itself.[151] Aristotle states thatmimesis is a natural instinct of humanity that separates humans from animals[151][153] and that all human artistry "follows the pattern of nature".[151] Because of this, Aristotle believed that each of the mimetic arts possesses whatStephen Halliwell calls "highly structured procedures for the achievement of their purposes."[154] For example, music imitates with the media of rhythm and harmony, whereas dance imitates with rhythm alone, and poetry with language. The forms also differ in their object of imitation. Comedy, for instance, is a dramatic imitation of men worse than average; whereas tragedy imitates men slightly better than average. Lastly, the forms differ in their manner of imitation – through narrative or character, through change or no change, and through drama or no drama.[155]
The Blind Oedipus Commending his Children to the Gods (1784) byBénigne Gagneraux. In hisPoetics, Aristotle uses the tragedyOedipus Tyrannus bySophocles as an example of how the perfect tragedy should be structured, with a generally good protagonist who starts the play prosperous, but loses everything through somehamartia (fault).[156]
While it is believed that Aristotle'sPoetics originally comprised two books – one on comedy and one on tragedy – only the portion that focuses on tragedy has survived. Aristotle taught that tragedy is composed of six elements: plot-structure, character, style, thought, spectacle, and lyric poetry.[157] The characters in a tragedy are merely a means of driving the story; and the plot, not the characters, is the chief focus of tragedy. Tragedy is the imitation of action arousing pity and fear, and is meant to effect thecatharsis of those same emotions. Aristotle concludesPoetics with a discussion on which, if either, is superior: epic or tragic mimesis. He suggests that because tragedy possesses all the attributes of an epic, possibly possesses additional attributes such as spectacle and music, is more unified, and achieves the aim of its mimesis in shorter scope, it can be considered superior to epic.[158] Aristotle was a keen systematic collector of riddles, folklore, and proverbs; he and his school had a special interest in the riddles of theDelphic Oracle and studied the fables ofAesop.[159]
Gender and sexuality
Aristotle never wrote a specific work on women. However, he asserted the existence of differences between men and women throughout his biological, political, and ethical works.[160] For most female animals, including human women, Aristotle maintains that they are for the most part physically smaller and of a more cowardly constitution.[161]
From these comments in his biological works, he often connects the idea that women are inferior with their need to be ruled over by men.[162] Proponents offeminist philosophy question the extent to which Aristotle's philosophy relies on misogynistic and sexist tenets.[163][164] Within the same works, however, there is still concern for women's happiness[P] and participation within the city. For instance, women are meant to be consulted on household decisions, are praised for their tenderness to children, and expected to participate inreligious festivals.[160]
Aristotle, like other Greek philosophers such as Plato andXenophon, rejectedhomosexuality, believing that it could lead people to become immoral due to the fact that he believed it went against nature's purpose.[166][better source needed]
Preface toArgyropoulos's 15th century Latin translation of Aristotle'sPhysics
More than 2300 years after his death, Aristotle remains one of the most influential people who ever lived.[167][168][169] He contributed to almost every field of human knowledge then in existence, and he was the founder of many new fields. According to the philosopherBryan Magee, "it is doubtful whether any human being has ever known as much as he did".[170] Aristotle has been regarded as the firstscientist.[171][172]
Among countless other achievements, Aristotle was the founder offormal logic,[173] pioneered the study ofzoology, and left every future scientist and philosopher in his debt through his contributions to the scientific method.[40][174][175] Taneli Kukkonen, observes that his achievement in founding two sciences is unmatched, and his reach in influencing "every branch of intellectual enterprise" including Western ethical and political theory, theology, rhetoric, and literary analysis is equally long. As a result, Kukkonen argues, any analysis of reality today "will almost certainly carry Aristotelian overtones ... evidence of an exceptionally forceful mind."[175]Jonathan Barnes wrote that "an account of Aristotle's intellectual afterlife would be little less than a history of European thought".[176]
Aristotle has been called the father of logic, biology, political science, zoology, embryology, natural law, scientific method, rhetoric, psychology, realism, criticism, individualism, teleology, and meteorology.[178]
The scholar Taneli Kukkonen notes that "in the best 20th-century scholarship Aristotle comes alive as a thinker wrestling with the full weight of the Greek philosophical tradition."[175] What follows is an overview of the transmission and influence of his texts and ideas into the modern era.
Aristotle's pupil and successor,Theophrastus, wrote theHistory of Plants, a pioneering work in botany. Some of his technical terms remain in use, such ascarpel fromcarpos, fruit, andpericarp, frompericarpion, seed chamber.[179]Theophrastus was much less concerned with formal causes than Aristotle was, instead pragmatically describing how plants functioned.[180][181]
The immediate influence of Aristotle's work was felt as theLyceum grew into thePeripatetic school. Aristotle's students includedAristoxenus,Dicaearchus,Demetrius of Phalerum,Eudemos of Rhodes,Harpalus,Hephaestion,Mnason of Phocis,Nicomachus, and Theophrastus. Aristotle's influence overAlexander the Great is seen in the latter's bringing with him on his expedition a host of zoologists, botanists, and researchers. He had also learned a great deal aboutPersian customs and traditions from his teacher. Although his respect for Aristotle was diminished as his travels made it clear that much of Aristotle's geography was clearly wrong, when the old philosopher released his works to the public, Alexander complained "Thou hast not done well to publish thy acroamatic doctrines; for in what shall I surpass other men if those doctrines wherein I have been trained are to be all men's common property?"[182]
After Theophrastus, the Lyceum failed to produce any original work. Though interest in Aristotle's ideas survived, they were generally taken unquestioningly.[183] It is not until the age ofAlexandria under thePtolemies that advances in biology can be again found.
The first medical teacher at Alexandria,Herophilus of Chalcedon, corrected Aristotle, placing intelligence in the brain, and connected the nervous system to motion and sensation. Herophilus also distinguished betweenveins andarteries, noting that the latterpulse while the former do not.[184] Though a few ancientatomists such asLucretius challenged theteleological viewpoint of Aristotelian ideas about life,teleology (and after the rise of Christianity,natural theology) would remain central to biological thought essentially until the 18th and 19th centuries.Ernst Mayr states that there was "nothing of any real consequence in biology after Lucretius andGalen until the Renaissance."[185]
Revival
Following the decline of the Roman Empire, Aristotle's vast philosophical and scientific corpus lay largely dormant in the West. However, his works underwent a remarkable revival in the Abbasid Caliphate.[186] Translated into Arabic alongside other Greek classics, Aristotle's logic, ethics, and natural philosophy ignited the minds of early Islamic scholars.[187]
Through meticulous commentaries and critical engagements, figures likeAl-Farabi andIbn Sina (Avicenna) breathed new life into Aristotle's ideas. They harmonized his logic with Islamic theology, employed his scientific methodologies to explore the natural world, and even reinterpreted his ethics within the framework of Islamic morality. This revival was not mere imitation. Islamic thinkers embraced Aristotle's rigorous methods while simultaneously challenging his conclusions where they diverged from their own religious beliefs.[188]
Greek Christian scribes played a crucial role in the preservation of Aristotle by copying all the extant Greek language manuscripts of the corpus. The first Greek Christians to comment extensively on Aristotle were Philoponus, Elias, and David in the sixth century, andStephen of Alexandria in the early seventh century.[189]John Philoponus stands out for having attempted a fundamental critique of Aristotle's views on the eternity of the world, movement, and other elements of Aristotelian thought.[190] Philoponus questioned Aristotle's teaching of physics, noting its flaws and introducing thetheory of impetus to explain his observations.[191]
After a hiatus of several centuries, formal commentary by Eustratius andMichael of Ephesus reappeared in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, apparently sponsored byAnna Comnena.[192]
Aristotle is considered the most influential figure in the history of Arabic philosophy and was one of the most revered thinkers in earlyIslamic theology.[194] Most of the still extant works of Aristotle,[195] as well as a number of the original Greek commentaries, were translated into Arabic and studied by Muslim philosophers, scientists, and scholars.Averroes,Avicenna, andAlpharabius, who wrote on Aristotle in great depth, also influencedThomas Aquinas and other Western Christian scholastic philosophers.Alkindus greatly admired Aristotle's philosophy,[196] and Averroes spoke of Aristotle as the "exemplar" for all future philosophers.[197] Medieval Muslim scholars regularly described Aristotle as the "First Teacher".[195] The title was later used by Western philosophers (as in the famous poem ofDante) who were influenced by the tradition ofIslamic philosophy.[198]
After theScholastic Thomas Aquinas wrote hisSumma Theologica, working from Moerbeke's translations and calling Aristotle "The Philosopher",[200] the demand for Aristotle's writings grew, and theGreek manuscripts returned to the West, stimulating a revival of Aristotelianism in Europe that continued into theRenaissance.[201] These thinkers blended Aristotelian philosophy with Christianity, bringing the thought of Ancient Greece into the Middle Ages. Scholars such as Boethius,Peter Abelard, andJohn Buridan worked on Aristotelian logic.[202]
According to scholar Roger Theodore Lafferty,Dante built up the philosophy of theComedy with the works of Aristotle as a foundation, just as the scholastics used Aristotle as the basis for their thinking. Dante knew Aristotle directly from Latin translations of his works and indirectly through quotations in the works ofAlbert Magnus.[203] Dante even acknowledges Aristotle's influence explicitly in the poem, specifically when Virgil justifies the Inferno's structure by citing theNicomachean Ethics.[204] Dante famously refers to him as "he / Who is acknowledged Master of those who know".[205][206]
Medieval Judaism
Moses Maimonides (considered to be the foremost intellectual figure of medieval Judaism)[207] adopted Aristotelianism from the Islamic scholars and based hisGuide for the Perplexed on it and that became the basis of Jewishscholastic philosophy. Maimonides also considered Aristotle to be the greatest philosopher that ever lived, and styled him as the "chief of the philosophers".[208][209][210] Also, in his letter toSamuel ibn Tibbon, Maimonides observes that there is no need for Samuel to study the writings of philosophers who preceded Aristotle because the works of the latter are "sufficient by themselves and [superior] to all that were written before them. His intellect, Aristotle's is the extreme limit of human intellect, apart from him upon whom the divine emanation has flowed forth to such an extent that they reach the level of prophecy, there being no level higher".[211]
In theearly modern period, scientists such asWilliam Harvey in England andGalileo Galilei in Italy reacted against the theories of Aristotle and other classical era thinkers likeGalen, establishing new theories based to some degree on observation and experiment. Harvey demonstrated thecirculation of the blood, establishing that the heart functioned as a pump rather than being the seat of the soul and the controller of the body's heat, as Aristotle thought.[212] Galileo used more doubtful arguments to displace Aristotle's physics, proposing that bodies all fall at the same speed whatever their weight.[213]
18th and 19th-century science
The English mathematicianGeorge Boole fully accepted Aristotle's logic, but decided "to go under, over, and beyond" it with his system ofalgebraic logic in his 1854 bookThe Laws of Thought. This gives logic a mathematical foundation with equations, enables it to solve equations as well as checkvalidity, and allows it to handle a wider class of problems by expanding propositions of any number of terms, not just two.[214]
Charles Darwin regarded Aristotle as the most important contributor to the subject of biology. In an 1882 letter he wrote that "Linnaeus and Cuvier have been my two gods, though in very different ways, but they were mere schoolboys to old Aristotle".[215][216] Also, in later editions of the book "On the Origin of Species', Darwin traced evolutionary ideas as far back as Aristotle;[217] the text he cites is a summary by Aristotle of the ideas of the earlier Greek philosopherEmpedocles.[218]
Present science
The philosopherBertrand Russell claims that "almost every serious intellectual advance has had to begin with an attack on some Aristotelian doctrine". Russell calls Aristotle's ethics "repulsive", and labelled his logic "as definitely antiquated as Ptolemaic astronomy". Russell states that these errors make it difficult to do historical justice to Aristotle, until one remembers what an advance he made upon all of his predecessors.[219]
The Dutch historian of scienceEduard Jan Dijksterhuis writes that Aristotle and his predecessors showed the difficulty of science by "proceed[ing] so readily to frame a theory of such a general character" on limited evidence from their senses.[220] In 1985, the biologistPeter Medawar could still state in "pure seventeenth century"[221] tones that Aristotle had assembled "a strange and generally speaking rather tiresome farrago of hearsay, imperfect observation, wishful thinking and credulity amounting to downright gullibility".[221][222]
First page of a 1566 edition of theNicomachean Ethics in Greek and Latin
The works of Aristotle that have survived from antiquity through medieval manuscript transmission are collected in the Corpus Aristotelicum. These texts, as opposed to Aristotle's lost works, are technical philosophical treatises from within Aristotle's school.[236] Reference to them is made according to the organization ofImmanuel Bekker's Royal Prussian Academy edition (Aristotelis Opera edidit Academia Regia Borussica, Berlin, 1831–1870), which in turn is based on ancient classifications of these works.[237]
Aristotle wrote his works on papyrus scrolls, the common writing medium of that era.[Q] His writings are divisible into two groups: the "exoteric", intended for the public, and the "esoteric", for use within theLyceum school.[239][R][240] Aristotle's "lost" works stray considerably in characterization from the surviving Aristotelian corpus. Whereas the lost works appear to have been originally written with a view to subsequent publication, the surviving works mostly resemble lecture notes not intended for publication.[241][239]Cicero's description of Aristotle's literary style as "a river of gold" must have applied to the published works, not the surviving notes.[S] A major question in the history of Aristotle's works is how the exoteric writings were all lost, and how the ones now possessed came to be found.[243] The consensus is that Andronicus of Rhodes collected the esoteric works of Aristotle's school which existed in the form of smaller, separate works, distinguished them from those of Theophrastus and other Peripatetics, edited them, and finally compiled them into the more cohesive, larger works as they are known today.[244][245]
Some time later, theKingdom of Pergamon began conscripting books for a royal library, and the heirs of Neleus hid their collection in a cellar to prevent it from being seized for that purpose. The library was stored there for about a century and a half, in conditions that were not ideal for document preservation. On the death ofAttalus III, which also ended the royal library ambitions, the existence of Aristotelian library was disclosed, and it was purchased byApellicon and returned to Athensc. 100 BC.[247]: 5–6
Apellicon sought to recover the texts, many of which were seriously degraded at this point due to the conditions in which they were stored. He had them copied out into new manuscripts, and used his best guesswork to fill in the gaps where the originals were unreadable.[247]: 5–6
WhenSulla seized Athens in 86 BC, he seized the library and transferred it to Rome. There,Andronicus of Rhodes organized the texts into the first complete edition of Aristotle's works (and works attributed to him).[248] The Aristotelian texts we have today are based on these.[247]: 6–8
^That these dates (the first half of the Olympiad year 384/383 BC, and in 322 shortly before the death of Demosthenes) are correct was shown byAugust Boeckh (Kleine Schriften VI 195); for further discussion, seeFelix Jacoby onFGrHist 244 F 38. Ingemar Düring,Aristotle in the Ancient Biographical Tradition, Göteborg, 1957, p. 253
^Nussbaum & Osborne 2014, p. 73 write that Hermias died in 345 BC;Hazel 2013, p. 37 places Hermias' death in 342 BC, the same year as Aristotle's trip back to Macedon, whileNawotka 2009, p. 40 mentions that Hermias got arrested in 341 BC.
^M is the Middle (here, Men), S is the Subject (Greeks), P is the Predicate (mortal).[53]
^The first equation can be read as 'It is not true that there exists an x such that x is a man and that x is not mortal.'[54]
^Rhett Allain notes thatNewton's First Law is "essentially a direct reply to Aristotle, that the natural state isnot to change motion.[63]
^Leonard Susskind comments that Aristotle had clearly never goneice skating or he would have seen that it takes force to stop an object.[65]
^For heavenly bodies like the Sun, Moon, and stars, the observed motions are "to a very good approximation" circular around the Earth's centre, (for example, the apparent rotation of the sky because of the rotation of the Earth, and the rotation of the moon around the Earth) as Aristotle stated.[66]
^Drabkin quotes numerous passages fromPhysics andOn the Heavens (De Caelo) which state Aristotle's laws of motion.[64]
^Drabkin agrees that density is treated quantitatively in this passage, but without a sharp definition of density as weight per unit volume.[64]
^Philoponus and Galileo correctly objected that for the transient phase (still increasing in speed) with heavy objects falling a short distance, the law does not apply: Galileo used balls on a short incline to show this. Rovelli notes that "Two heavy balls with the same shape and different weight do fall at different speeds from an aeroplane, confirming Aristotle's theory, not Galileo's."[66]
^For a different reading of social and economic processes in theNicomachean Ethics andPolitics see Polanyi, Karl (1957) "Aristotle Discovers the Economy" inPrimitive, Archaic and Modern Economies: Essays of Karl Polanyi ed. G. Dalton, Boston 1971, 78–115.
^"Where, as among the Lacedaemonians, the state of women is bad, almost half of human life is spoilt."[165]
^"When the Roman dictator Sulla invaded Athens in 86 BC, he brought back to Rome a fantastic prize – Aristotle's library. Books then were papyrus rolls, from 10 to 20 feet long, and since Aristotle's death in 322 BC, worms and damp had done their worst. The rolls needed repairing, and the texts clarifying and copying on to new papyrus (imported from Egypt – Moses' bulrushes). The man in Rome who put Aristotle's library in order was a Greek scholar, Tyrannio."[238]
^Aristotle:Nicomachean Ethics 1102a26–27. Aristotle himself never uses the term "esoteric" or "acroamatic". For other passages where Aristotle speaks ofexōterikoi logoi, seeW.D. Ross,Aristotle's Metaphysics (1953), vol. 2 pp= 408–410. Ross defends an interpretation according to which the phrase, at least in Aristotle's own works, usually refers generally to "discussions not peculiar to thePeripatetic school", rather than to specific works of Aristotle's own.
^"veniet flumen orationis aureum fundens Aristoteles", (Google translation: "Aristotle will come pouring forth a golden stream of eloquence").[242]
^Compare the medieval tale of Phyllis and Alexander above.
^On the Soul I.3 406b26-407a10. For some scholarship, see Carter, Jason W. 2017. 'Aristotle's Criticism of Timaean Psychology'Rhizomata 5: 51–78 and Douglas R. Campbell. 2022. "Located in Space: Plato's Theory of Psychic Motion"Ancient Philosophy 42 (2): 419–442.
^For instance, W.D. Ross argued that Aristotle "may well be criticized as having taken [Plato's] myth as if it were sober prose." See Ross, William D. ed. 1961.Aristotle: De Anima. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The quotation is from page 189.
^See, e.g., Douglas R. Campbell, "Located in Space: Plato's Theory of Psychic Motion,"Ancient Philosophy 42 (2): 419–442. 2022.
^On the Soul I.3.407b14–27. Christopher Shields summarizes it thus: "We might think that an old leather-bound edition of Machiavelli'sThe Prince could come to bear the departed soul of Richard Nixon. Aristotle regards this sort of view as worthy of ridicule." See Shields, C. 2016.Aristotle: De Anima. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The quotation is from page 133.
^There's a large scholarly discussion of this dialectic between Plato and Aristotle here: Douglas R. Campbell, "The Soul's Tool: Plato on the Usefulness of the Body,"Elenchos 43 (1): 7–27. 2022.
^Freeland, Cynthia, ed. (1998).Feminist interpretations of Aristotle. Re-reading the canon. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.ISBN978-0-271-01730-3.
"the father of psychology": Margot Esther Borden, Psychology in the Light of the East, p. 4
"the father of realism": Russell L. Hamm, Philosophy and Education: Alternatives in Theory and Practice, p. 58
"the father of criticism": Nagendra Prasad, Personal Bias in Literary Criticism: Johnson, Matthew Arnold, T. S. Eliot, p. 70.Lord Henry Home Kames, Elements of Criticism, p. 237.
"the father of individualism": Allan Gotthelf, Gregory Salmieri, A Companion to Ayn Rand, p. 325.
"the father of teleology": Malcolm Owen Slavin, Daniel H. Kriegman, The Adaptive Design of the Human Psyche: Psychoanalysis, Evolutionary Biology, and the Therapeutic Process, p. 292.
^Gutas, Dimitri (1998).The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early 'Abbasaid Society (1stglish ed.). Harvard University Press.ISBN978-0-415-06133-9.
^Levi ben Gershom, The Wars of the Lord: Book one, Immortality of the soul, p. 35.
^Leon Simon, Aspects Of The Hebrew Genius: A Volume Of Essays On Jewish Literature And Thought (1910), p. 127.
^Herbert A. Davidson, Herbert A. |q (Herbert Alan) Davidson, Professor of Hebrew Emeritus Herbert Davidson, Moses Maimonides: The Man and His Works, p. 98.
^Menachem Kellner, Maimonides on Judaism and the Jewish People, p. 77.
^Ogilvie, Brian W. (2010). "Zoology". In Grafton, Anthony; Most, Glenn W.; Settis, Salvatore (eds.).The Classical Tradition.Harvard University Press. pp. 1000–1001.ISBN978-0-674-07227-5.
^Held, Lewis I. (February 2017).Deep Homology?: Uncanny Similarities of Humans and Flies Uncovered by Evo-Devo. Cambridge University Press. p. viii.ISBN978-1-316-60121-1.
Aristotle (1948). Monroe, Arthur E. (ed.).Politics-Ethics, In Early Economic Thought: Selections from Economic Literature Prior to Adam Smith. Harvard University Press.
Aristotle (2009) [1995].Politics. Translated by Ernest Barker and revised with introduction and notes by R. F. Stalley (1st ed.). Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-953873-7.
Aristotle (1999).Aristotle'sMetaphysics. Translated by Sachs, Joe. Green Lion Press.
Bobzien, Susanne (2015)."Ancient Logic". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.).The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University – via Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Lloyd, G. E. R. (1996). "Adversaries and Authorities: Investigations into ancient Greek and Chinese science".Causes and Correlations. Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-55695-8.
Sorabji, R. (2006).Aristotle on Memory (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 54.And this is exactly why we hunt for the successor, starting in our thoughts from the present or from something else, and from something similar, or opposite, or neighbouring. By this means recollection occurs...
Staley, Kevin (1989). "Al-Kindi on Creation: Aristotle's Challenge to Islam".Journal of the History of Ideas.50 (3):355–370.doi:10.2307/2709566.JSTOR2709566.
Stewart, Jessica (2019)."The Story Behind Raphael's Masterpiece 'The School of Athens'".My Modern Met. Retrieved29 March 2019.Plato's gesture toward the sky is thought to indicate his Theory of Forms. ... Conversely, Aristotle's hand is a visual representation of his belief that knowledge comes from experience. Empiricism, as it is known, theorizes that humans must have concrete evidence to support their ideas
Wu, Yuchen (2022). "The Relationship Between Aristotle and Alexander the Great".Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Public Art and Human Development ( ICPAHD 2021). Vol. 638. Paris, France: Atlantis Press.doi:10.2991/assehr.k.220110.015.ISBN978-94-6239-523-7.ISSN2352-5398.
Ammonius (1991). Cohen, S. Marc; Matthews, Gareth B. (eds.).On Aristotle's Categories. Cornell University Press.ISBN978-0-8014-2688-9.
Aristotle (1908–1952).The Works of Aristotle Translated into English Under the Editorship of W. D. Ross, 12 vols.Clarendon Press. These translations are available in several places online; see External links.
Bakalis, Nikolaos. (2005).Handbook of Greek Philosophy: From Thales to the Stoics Analysis and Fragments, Trafford Publishing,ISBN978-1-4120-4843-9.
Bocheński, I. M. (1951).Ancient Formal Logic. North-Holland.
Bolotin, David (1998).An Approach to Aristotle's Physics: With Particular Attention to the Role of His Manner of Writing. Albany: SUNY Press. A contribution to our understanding of how to read Aristotle's scientific works.
Burnyeat, Myles F.et al. (1979).Notes on Book Zeta of Aristotle's Metaphysics. Oxford: Sub-faculty of Philosophy.
Cantor, Norman F.; Klein, Peter L., eds. (1969).Ancient Thought: Plato and Aristotle. Monuments of Western Thought. Vol. 1. Blaisdell.
Chappell, V. (1973). "Aristotle's Conception of Matter".Journal of Philosophy.70 (19):679–696.doi:10.2307/2025076.JSTOR2025076.
Code, Alan (1995). Potentiality in Aristotle's Science and Metaphysics, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 76.
Cohen, S. Marc; Reeve, C. D. C. (21 November 2020)."Aristotle's Metaphysics".Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2020 ed.).
Kiernan, Thomas P., ed. (1962).Aristotle Dictionary. Philosophical Library.
Knight, Kelvin (2007).Aristotelian Philosophy: Ethics and Politics from Aristotle to MacIntyre, Polity Press.
Lewis, Frank A. (1991).Substance and Predication in Aristotle. Cambridge University Press.
Lord, Carnes (1984).Introduction toThe Politics, by Aristotle. Chicago University Press.
Loux, Michael J. (1991). Primary Ousia: An Essay on Aristotle's Metaphysics Ζ and Η. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Maso, Stefano (Ed.), Natali, Carlo (Ed.), Seel, Gerhard (Ed.) (2012)Reading Aristotle: Physics VII. 3:What is Alteration?Proceedings of the International ESAP-HYELE Conference, Parmenides Publishing.ISBN978-1-930972-73-5.
McKeon, Richard (1973).Introduction to Aristotle (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press.
Owen, G. E. L. (1965c). "The Platonism of Aristotle".Proceedings of the British Academy.50:125–150. [Reprinted in J. Barnes, M. Schofield, and R. R. K. Sorabji, eds.(1975).Articles on Aristotle Vol 1. Science. London: Duckworth 14–34.]
Veatch, Henry B. (1974).Aristotle: A Contemporary Appreciation. Indiana University Press.
Woods, M. J. (1991b). "Universals and Particular Forms in Aristotle's Metaphysics".Aristotle and the Later Tradition.Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy. Vol. Suppl. pp. 41–56.
.jpg)
.jpeg)
.jpg)
_Venenbild.jpg)
.jpg)
![Aristotle and Campaspe,[T] Alessandro Turchi (attrib.) Oil on canvas, 1713](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aTurchi-AristoteIMG_1713.JPG)
_Aristoteles.jpg)
_Aristide_-_Francesco_Hayez_-_gallerie_Accademia_Venice.jpg)
![By Charles Laplante [fr] "That most enduring of romantic images, Aristotle tutoring the future conqueror Alexander".[175] 1866](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aAlexander_and_Aristotle.jpg)
