Aristotle’s Philosophy: Society, Ethics, and Soul
Aristotle’s Social and Political Philosophy
Be social: Human beings tend to live in an organized society. Only animals and gods can live in isolation. Man is a social and political animal; he lives in the polis. That impulse leads him to join with others to form a family. The union of several families forms a village or town, and a meeting of several villages or towns forms the city-state. The human social needs to meet their needs and to perform its functions: the state. That state is a community of citizens, a set of men involved in the administration of justice and the government, and its end is happiness.
Aristotle’s Teleological Ethics
End: Present in anthropological theory and ethics of Aristotle. It is said that ethics is an ethics of the end, that is teleological, where happiness will be considered the ultimate aim of being human. The end of man is to achieve a good life. Any other end cannot be but an instrument. Politics should be the navel of man where the community is natural.
Aristotle’s Concept of Nature
Nature: It is a way of being of something internal. It is the principle governing the development of beings, the more the form, the ways that make things be. Every substance is a composite of matter and form. It is necessary to study the movement and change, which is known to nature.
Aristotle’s Critique of Plato
Critique of Plato: Reality is divided into two worlds: the sensible and the ideas. Plato not only has to explain this world but also the world of ideas; the essences of things are not separate things. Things mimic the ideas; the action is unnecessary. Aristotle is an empiricist; he gives merit to sensible observation. He thought nothing in the prior that does not pass through the senses, and soul and body are not separated, forming an indissoluble compound subject to corruption. He rejects the intellectualist ethics that identified wisdom with moral virtue. Virtue is a habit, practiced daily, that coincides with Plato in that science is universal but not only applicable to mathematics. One can also develop physics and biology.
Aristotle’s Theory of the Soul
Soul: The soul is the vital principle of the human being. Aristotle is going to apply his theory of hylomorphism, trying to retrieve the unit that Plato broke, considering that we are composed of two different substances. The soul and body shape is the act; it is not a being, nor is it a substance. What is a substance is man, composed of soul and body in form and matter. Hylomorphism involves rejecting the immortality of the soul affirmed by Plato and the Pythagoreans. Aristotle’s soul survives death; it is not eternal and does not reincarnate. He admits the existence of the soul in all living beings. Aristotle makes a distinction between the functions of the soul in relation to beings: the vegetative, the sensitive, and the intellective. Humans have a soul with three functions: vegetative, sensitive, and rational. In animals, the soul has two functions: sensory and vegetative. Plants have only the vegetative function.
Happiness in Aristotelian Ethics
Happiness: Aristotelian ethics is teleological, where happiness is seen as the ultimate end of human beings. The end of man cannot be other than happiness. Any other end cannot be but an instrument. Happiness is the only self-sufficient order. Some believe happiness is in riches, others believe it is to meet a shortage, and others think the above are positive because they contribute to another end. Aristotle identifies with the third option, as it is self-sufficient. Happiness is a way of life that is stable and durable.
Virtue in Aristotelian Ethics
Virtue: Virtue is a disposition of the soul to act virtuously. Besides knowing the virtues, one must also put them into practice in their daily lives to be happy. The virtuous man, to be happy, needs only to cover basic needs; that is, have the external goods needed to be happy. He elaborated a classification of the virtues, distinguishing ethical virtues (perfect will and are formed through repetition) and dianoetic virtues (refine understanding and form through instruction).