Aristotle’s Philosophy: From Experience to Universal Concepts
Aristotle
Stagira
Aristotle was a pupil of Plato in his Academy, so this influenced him enough in his conception of thought at first. However, Aristotle criticized very hard the extremely idealistic perception of his teacher, proposing a diametrically opposite perception.
Aristotle followed Plato in considering abstract knowledge more than anyone else, but he disagreed about the appropriate method to achieve it. Aristotle maintained that almost all knowledge is derived from experience. Knowledge is acquired either by a direct route, with the abstraction of the characteristics that define a species, or indirectly, deducing new information from those already known, according to the rules of logic. Careful observation and systematic use of logic, which was given by Aristotle for the first time, would lead man to the knowledge of reality.
Aristotle believed that the immobile, the fixed, and immutable reality of things was the substance, subject to changes and mutations, accidents. In turn, the substance consists of matter and form (hilemorfismo). Matter is the power, it is the essence of reality that remains in all the changes, it is the purpose that everything has to be. In a process of motion, matter (or power) comes to the form or act, which is the very end of reality. For example, a watch has the power of telling time, and when that arises, it is because it is an act. This responds to this scheme:
- Form Subject
- Power Act
As an epistemology based on the purpose of objects, it is considered a teleological philosophy. For Aristotle, understanding reality is knowledge of the purpose that an object has, understanding its power. This makes everything knowable from the moment we say that everything has matter and form, as they have intelligibility and knowability. The process of knowledge begins with the feeling for the pure abstraction of the senses, making us remove the quota (which is not and can be). Secondly, we use the intellect (reason) to find the universal (the fixed, unchanging, necessary, and essential). Finally, we turn to science to discover what is necessary. Science leads us to discover the substance of things. For this question, what is it, and responds to the essence, why?, and reveals the causes, what is it necessary?, and tells us what has to be so and not otherwise, and finally, what is the universal?, and indicates the fixed, immutable, and necessary. The sciences are divided by Aristotle into several categories:
Theoretical Sciences
Based on abstract thinking. These are Physics, Mathematics, and Theology.
Practical Sciences
These are Politics, Economics, and Ethics.
Productive Sciences
These are of the least scientific value. Stand Medicine, Gymnastics, Dialectic, Rhetoric, and so on.
Through this process, it leads to the formation of universal concepts. To get the feeling of the universal concept, Aristotle was based on two approaches: abstraction and induction. Abstraction is the ability to isolate mentally or separately consider the qualities of an object; it is considered an object in its essence. For this, the abstraction used to extract a proper mechanism to stop accidents and universals. Accidents are those features of objects that are not required to reach an intrinsic concept of that object. However, accidents give us a greater understanding of the object, since you define, set it apart from other realities, and make it unique. In turn, the universal concepts have a greater extent than the accidental, since they have characteristics common to many simultaneous realities, and are, therefore, the essence of that object. Respond to this scheme:
UNIVERSAL
- Max. Understanding Extension Min
- Being Alive
- Animal
- Human Being
- Male
- Adolescent
- David (I)
- Min Length Max. Comprehension
ACCIDENTS
Induction forms concepts from the common characteristics of the objects prized by means of sensory perception. These perceptions are stored in memory, and repetition of the same or similar feelings born of experience. Despite this, the experience does not separate accidents, and experiences should be reduced to a single concept that encompasses all of the incidental to reach a universal concept with the previous one. An example of induction is: I see a cat, a dog, an elephant, and a man. If you observe, analyze their characteristics, they all have similarities that have no other, so introduce them in all mammals. Respond to this scheme:
- “A cat is a mammal.”
- “A dog is a mammal.”
- “An elephant is a mammal.”
- “A man is a mammal.”
- “All animals that suck, have hair, are born from the womb, and so on., are mammals.”
Conclusion Experiences