Aristotle’s Philosophy: Logic, Physics, Metaphysics, Ethics, and Politics
Aristotle’s Philosophy
Item 3: Aristotle
1. Logic and Ontology
In Aristotle’s logic, it is not a science but a set of observations “about the logos.” This means that logos is not an arbitrary action subject that makes up words, but the way things are in their truth and being. For Aristotle, there’s no separation between the organization of our thinking and the order of things, as logos relates to both areas. It should make a distinction between logic and ontology, since the logic is ontology.
1.1 The Classification of Knowledge
Aristotle classifies different kinds of knowledge:
- Productive knowledge: Technical and refers to the manufacture of useful things.
- Practical knowledge: Ethical-political and refers to free or elective action, seeking good action.
- Theoretical knowledge: Refers to the mode of being of things themselves.
This classification relates to Aristotle’s general conception:
- Productive sciences require the satisfaction of basic needs to sustain life, demanding productive activity.
- Practical knowledge relates to the possibility of a good life, not geared towards meeting needs but exercising liberty.
- Theoretical activity is the best possible life for the free man, as nothing can be exercised more properly than superior knowledge.
Theoretical sciences are “superior” as they investigate the laws of reality.
1.2 The Demarcation of the Knowable
1.2.1 The Genus and Species
Aristotle’s logic searches for “core stability” in experience, where it shows enough determination, clarity, or precision to be objects of knowledge. Genus (what experience is of universal, finite, defined) is the status of a certain knowledge object, allowing for scientific discourse. Research, for Aristotle, is surrendering to nature, whose species are transmitted to the soul. These species alone don’t constitute superior knowledge, but this happens when the intellect grasps what is universal in experience. Aristotle’s thesis doesn’t imply contempt for the individual, but indicates that only science (theoretical) belongs to a genre of things. What belongs to a genre is capable of definition. The definition says what the thing is, its essence. Therefore, a statement must identify the genre of the thing and note its specific difference within that genre.
1.2.2 The Upper and Lower Limits of Knowledge
For Aristotle, those genres not included in any other form the absolute limits of theoretical knowledge. This means there’s nothing more general than a genre, and their plurality is irreducible. But there’s a lower limit where knowledge loses its resolve, indicated by species containing no subspecies and can’t be divided further. In scientific discourse, the essence or definition is the starting point for an argument that can reach firm conclusions following the demonstrated procedure that Aristotle considered the hallmark of theoretical sciences.
1.3 Categories
The irreducible plurality of genres is responsible for Aristotle’s statement: “Being” is said in many ways. “Being is said in many ways” refers to the various meanings of “is” that links the subject and predicate in ‘S is P’. Aristotle called categories each of these different ways of saying something, to interpret the “is” of “S is P.” Aristotle doesn’t give a definitive list, but we accept the traditional one: substance, quality, quantity, relation, place, time, location, possession, action, and passion. There’s heterogeneity between the first category (substance) and the rest, as if the first didn’t exist, the others would lack meaning. With respect to substance, the other categories are accidents, where the substance-accident duality reiterates the ontological duality of subject and predicate in logic. Substance doesn’t encompass other categories: all categories other than substance imply or presuppose it, but not vice versa.
1.4 The Strongest Principle
In Aristotle’s Metaphysics, he announces the existence of a “science of being as being” that corresponds to what’s called ontology today. Ontological knowledge is chaired by the principle of contradiction: It’s impossible to attribute contrary predicates to the same subject simultaneously and in the same sense. For Aristotle, it can’t be a logical principle if it’s not the governing principle of all logos.
2. Physics and Theology
Aristotle determines the object of his speech in two ways:
- Physics deals with the form of being affected by motion, regarding natural or physical things. These things are subject to change, are what they are not, and are what they are.
- Physics doesn’t address the mode of mobile being of things, but specifically those with the principle of their movement and repose within themselves. They change or cease to do so by following their internal principles of organization.
Two clarifications narrow the field of physics:
- It’s not about mathematics or theology, whose objects aren’t subject to movement.
- Nor about technology, as technical supplies may be endowed with movement, but it’s not a movement with such entities as techniques, or their movement is forced or mechanical, not spontaneous.
Aristotelian astronomy divides the universe into areas: a “sublunary” or terrestrial area and a “supralunar” area. Physics occupies the “sublunary” field.
2.1 Matter and Form
Institutions in the sublunary sphere, called substances, are due to two principles: matter and form. This perception is referred to as hylomorphism. Matter is always qualified, and each body has a natural place where it rests when not in motion. Don’t confuse form with figure, as the term morphe relates to Plato’s eidos and is what makes the thing what it is. In physical things, it’s the beginning of their movement.
2.2 The Movement
Movement is defined as the passage from potency to act. This formula expresses that, for Aristotle, change is explained as a power upgrade, a “to be” preceding the change. Physical things are subject to change, and that which can change is power. Change is the pace of action by one of those powers. However, distinguish between active and passive power. All physical substances have the power to change, not possessing their being fully and having to move to reach their goal or completion. We view change as the acquisition of a new form of matter. Two instances:
- Deprivation: You can order the form of something, which way is now closed.
- In the process of change, there’s something that belongs and something changed.
What we know about change is always associated with form. What we can’t know as such is the matter that constitutes the substratum of change, often called raw material. Movement or change is a factor of imperfection in the physical, but also how that imperfection can be overcome. Time separates things from themselves and allows them to reach their full potential.
2.3 The Causes of Movement and the First Engine
2.3.1 The Theory of Four Causes
Aristotle distinguished between four kinds of causes or principles:
- Material cause: Materials are passive power, the ability to be converted.
- Formal cause: The cause by which materials are transformed.
- Efficient cause: That which can impact matter to make it meet the requirements of form.
- Final cause: The purpose and intended use.
2.3.2 The Prime Mover
Aristotle formulates the principle of causality: “Every beginning has a cause.” There must be a prime mover, the source of motion. To be truly first, this engine has to be stationary, as if it moved, it would require a prior engine, and the regression would begin again. The first mover must be fully what it is, without the potential to become something else. The unmoved mover must be a pure form without matter, which Aristotle called God. The Aristotelian God is not the creator of the world but performs activities for which the subject is not accurate: thinking thought. Aristotle said the prime mover is the final cause of motion, moving everything without moving itself. This is why, for Aristotle, happiness is the contemplative life.
3. Ethics and Politics
For Aristotle, ethics and politics are practical sciences, investigating the right way for humans to behave. The ability of free choice involved shouldn’t be supplied by nature, as natural man is subject to the needs of survival and reproduction and has no power of decision in this area.
3.1 The Polis and Politics
The order in which basic needs are solved is what Aristotle calls “home.” But he considers the polis the most beneficial invention for the species. It begins where men have enough to survive and can freely decide on their way of life. This threshold, which is no longer survival but the “good life” or “decent life,” points to what Aristotle meant by politics, a knowledge recognizing the absolute primacy among practical sciences. Aristotle indicates that the city, despite being chronologically later than other forms of human association (tribe or family), is beyond them as it fulfills man’s potential. To prove this, he distinguishes between men and animals:
- Animals have a voice: they can communicate pain and pleasure.
- Men have words to discourse about right and wrong, good and evil, desirable and undesirable.
Only men have a sense of moral and political interpretation, not just natural or economic.
3.2 Virtue
Virtue is a condition of the soul. In the soul are three kinds of conditions: power, passion, and habits:
- It’s inappropriate to consider virtue as power, as no one would call someone good or bad for having or lacking a faculty.
- Nor is it a passion, as no one is virtuous or vicious for feeling certain passions.
- Thus, virtue can only be a habit.
It’s the way to be in time for mortals, their conduct, and their language. Men can’t be good once and for all, but goodness in them, like evil, has to be one after another. For Aristotle, virtue is the habit of choosing the mean according to reason. It’s not good to be angry or not angry, but to be angry to the extent that it has to do with who should be angry and when.
3.3 Happiness
Aristotle is interested in the virtues of the rational part of the soul, especially the intellectual virtues that point to the knowledge of truth and can be acquired through instruction. For Aristotle, the practice of virtue must lead to happiness, as happiness is what we want as an end in itself. Happiness lies in being oneself and with others.