Aristotle: Life, Works, and Influence on Philosophy

Aristotle: The Encyclopedic Mind of Ancient Greece

Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) was a prominent Greek philosopher, a towering figure in the history of Western thought. His intellectual contributions spanned an astonishing range of disciplines, from philosophy and biology to mathematics and psychology. Aristotle’s profound insights shaped the understanding of his time and continue to resonate today.

The Last Man to Know Everything?

Aristotle’s insatiable curiosity led him to explore virtually every field of knowledge available in his era. He delved into the natural sciences, studying anatomy, astronomy, economics, embryology, geography, geology, meteorology, physics, and zoology. In philosophy, his writings encompassed aesthetics, ethics, government, metaphysics, politics, psychology, rhetoric, and theology. He also displayed a keen interest in education, foreign customs, literature, and poetry. His vast body of work constitutes a veritable encyclopedia of Greek knowledge, leading some to suggest that he was possibly the last person to possess a comprehensive understanding of all existing knowledge at that time.^[1]

Aristotle’s Philosophical Foundations

Aristotle diverged from his teacher, Plato, in his understanding of reality. While Plato posited a dualistic world of ideas and things, Aristotle asserted that the only true reality was the physical world we experience. He believed in a single, dynamic world of physical beings in constant transformation. Aristotle’s philosophy embraced all fields of knowledge, and his thinking has exerted a greater influence on the history of philosophy than any other author. Notably, Arabic scholars played a crucial role in reintroducing Aristotle’s works to Europe during the Middle Ages. Although Aristotle wrote dialogues, most of which are believed to be lost, Cicero described his elegant literary style as “a river of gold.”^[2] Only approximately a third of his original works have survived.

Thought and Work

Cosmology

According to Aristotle’s cosmology, the cosmos is finite, ordered, spherical, geocentric, and geostatic. It is divided into two distinct regions:

• Supralunar Region (Sky): Composed of concentric spheres of ether, an incorruptible and eternal matter, characterized by circular motion.
• Sublunar Region (Earth): Situated at the center of the universe, consisting of earth, water, air, and fire. This region is characterized by linear motion and corruptible matter subject to decay.

Epistemology

Aristotle believed that knowledge is acquired through a bottom-up process, starting with the perception of objects and progressing to the understanding of their causes. He distinguished two primary levels of knowledge: sensory and intellectual. While acknowledging Plato’s view that doxa, or common opinion, is flawed because it only reflects the appearance of truth, Aristotle considered endoxa as a reliable form of knowledge. Endoxa represents the common opinion validated by authority and public debate.

Intellectual knowledge is primarily transmitted through language and thought. Language refers to universal truths about the world and its ways of being, making it comprehensible to all human beings. While languages vary across cultures, they are all subject to conventions.

Ethics

Aristotle viewed ethics as a practical science, emphasizing action over mere reasoning. He believed that humans strive for happiness (eudaimonia), the ultimate good. Happiness, according to Aristotle, is not passively attained but achieved through acting in accordance with human nature. This involves acting rationally and striving for virtue, which lies in the mean between excess and deficiency. Aristotle’s ethical principles are elaborated in three major works: Nicomachean Ethics, Eudemian Ethics, and Magna Moralia.

Physics

• All motion requires a mover.
• If the cause ceases, the effect ceases.
• Nature is the principle of motion.
• There is no vacuum in nature.
• Motion in the supralunar region is circular.
• Motion in the sublunar region is linear and can be either natural or violent.

Logic

Logic, for Aristotle, was the essential tool for understanding science. He developed the syllogistic method of logical deduction, which allows for the derivation of true conclusions from true premises. The principles of logical deduction include:

• Axioms: Self-evident principles common to all knowledge that require no proof.
• Definitions: Principles specific to each science that define the object of study and must be learned.

Scientific knowledge, according to Aristotle, consists of necessary and universal truths about things, leading to the understanding of their essence. This essence is expressed in definitions and explained through the identification of causes. Knowledge is thus a demonstration that follows a gradual process involving categories, judgments, and reasoning.

• Concept: The simplest element of understanding, an immediate intuition of things that is always true.
• Judgment: The attribution of a predicate to a subject, which can be either true or false.
• Reasoning: The interrelation of judgments to deduce a new judgment or conclusion. The syllogism, consisting of three judgments (two premises and a conclusion), is a valid form of deductive reasoning.

Aristotle’s works on logic are collected in the Organon.

Metaphysics

Metaphysics, for Aristotle, is the science of being as being. It examines reality and the common characteristics of all things, namely, their existence. Key concepts in Aristotle’s metaphysics include:

• Categories of Being: Being is an analogical concept, meaning it has multiple senses or categories. These categories are all related to substance, which exists in itself. Accidents, on the other hand, accompany and determine substance but do not exist independently. The ten categories are:
  1. Substance
  2. Quantity
  3. Quality
  4. Relation
  5. Place
  6. Time
  7. Position
  8. State
  9. Action
  10. Affection
• Hylomorphic Theory: Substance is a composite of matter (hyle) and form (morphe). Matter is pure potentiality, while form determines what something is.
• Theory of Causality: Nothing comes into being by chance. Everything has a cause, which can be:
  • Material: The matter of which something is made.
  • Formal: The shape or structure it has.
  • Efficient: The agent that brings it about.
  • Final: The purpose for which it is made.
• Dynamism of Being: The form of something at a given time is its actuality (energeia), which activates the potentiality or capacity for change within the subject. All things contain within themselves the principles of their own development. Change involves motion and the passage of time.

Politics

Aristotle famously declared that man is a political animal. He believed that the good of the individual is inextricably linked to the good of the community. The purpose of politics is to organize the state to ensure the conditions necessary for a happy life. This requires a just government and an educational system that fosters the development of virtuous citizens. Aristotle distinguished between civic beings (humans) and non-civic beings (animals and gods). He identified three forms of good government: monarchy (rule by one with the consent of the people), aristocracy (rule by the best), and moderate democracy (which he considered the best form of government when it seeks the common good). He also identified negative forms of government: tyranny, oligarchy, and radical democracy (all characterized by the abuse of power and a disregard for the common good).

Psychology

In his study of living beings, Aristotle described them as hylomorphic composites of body (matter) and soul (form). The soul is the principle of life and activity in all living beings. It takes precedence over the body, but not all souls have the same functions:

• Vegetative Soul: Responsible for reproduction and nutrition, found in plants.
• Sensitive Soul: Responsible for sensory perception and movement, found in animals.
• Rational Soul: Responsible for intellectual functions and thinking, found in humans.