Aristotle 384322 B'C'

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Aristotle 384-322 B.C.
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Early Life and Education

• Unlike Plato, Aristotle was not from an
  aristocratic family however, his father was the
  personal physician to the King of Macedon.
• At the age of 18, Aristotle went to Athens to
  study at Platos Academy. Plato was 61 years
  old.
• Aristotle was interested in the study of
  naturehe spent many years classifying the botany
  and zoology of the island of Lesbos.
• In 343 B.C. Aristotle became the tutor of
  Alexander the Great.

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Aristotle and Alexander

• Aristotle believed that the only thing that could
  justify a monarchy was if the virtue of the king
  was greater than the virtue of his people.
• Aristotle openly criticized Alexanders
  insistence that he was divine, and Alexander had
  Aristotles nephew Callisthenes executed for
  treason.
• Despite lack of evidence, it has been widely
  believed that Aristotle played a role in
  Alexanders death (although some now believe that
  Alexander died of an infection brought on by a
  spinal deformity.)
• Aristotle returned to Athens in 335 B.C. to
  establish his own school called the Lyceum.

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Aristotle Returns to Athens

• While in Athens, Aristotle used Socratess rules
  of logic to make sense of the natural world. One
  could say that Aristotle is the father of todays
  scientific method.
• Aristotle wanted to create order out of chaos (a
  Greek impulse) and spent much of his life
  classifying things in nature and society.
• Aristotles combined works on biology, ethics,
  education, government, metaphysics, geology,
  anatomy, astronomy, psychology, and rhetoric is a
  virtual encyclopedia of Greek knowledge.

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Aristotle Rejects Plato

• Remember Platos theory of Ideas? Aristotle
  agreed with Plato that a horse flows and that
  no horse lives forever. He also agreed that the
  actual form of the horse is eternal and
  immutable. But Aristotle did not believe that an
  idea horse existed in the world of ideas long
  before a horse existed in the natural world.
• Aristotle believed that the idea horse was made
  up of the horses characteristics and did not
  exist separately from the actual horse, so
  therefore the real horse and the idea horse are
  just as inseparable as body and soul.

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Aristotle Rejects Plato Some More

• Aristotle also disagreed with Platos assertion
  that the highest degree of reality is that which
  we think with our reason.
• Aristotle believed that the highest degree of
  reality is that which we perceive with our
  senses.
• While Plato believed that all the things we see
  in the natural world were purely reflections of
  things that existed in the higher reality of the
  world of ideas (we see these idea forms before
  we are born, when our soul existed in the world
  of ideas). Aristotle thought the opposite
  things that are in the human soul were purely
  reflections of natural objects.

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The Aim of Man

• Nichomachean Ethics Aristotles work on
  statecraft, political goals, and human ethical
  behavior
• Aristotle wrote Nichomachean Ethics for his son,
  Nichomachus
• It is believed that the political ideas outlined
  in this work were the same ideas Aristotle taught
  Alexander the Great

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Abstract Reason

• Thought to be the highest form of reason because
  it is independent of sensory experience
• Although Aristotle utilizes sensory perception in
  the study of scientific matters (biology,
  physics, botany, etc.), he makes use of abstract
  reason in the study of humankind.
• The highest good for humankind is found in
  statecrafta well ordered state is of such noble
  value to the Greeks that all other values must
  take a second place to it.

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Aristotle and Religion

• Unlike most contemporary religions, Aristotle
  does not place divinity or godliness first
• Aristotle is most concerned with the life humans
  know while they are on earth
• Aristotle does not point to happiness in heaven
  as a substitute for happiness on earth.

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Aristotles Philosophies on Man

• Aristotle did not just study natural causes.
  Like Plato and Socrates, Aristotle also had an
  interest in man and his place in society.
  Aristotle wanted to know how we as humans should
  live. What would it require to live a good life?
  According to Aristotle, man could only achieve
  happiness by using all of his abilities and
  capabilities.

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Aristotles Forms of Happiness

• Aristotle stated that there were three forms of
  happiness
• 1. a life of pleasure and enjoyment
• 2. a life as a free and responsible citizen
• 3. a life as a thinker and philosopher
• All three criteria must be present at the same
  time for man to find happiness and fulfillment.
  Like Plato, Aristotle believed that only by
  exercising balance and temperance will man
  achieve a happy or harmonious life.

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Aristotles Philosophies on Society

• Although Plato and Aristotle agreed that balance
  was the key to a happy life, the two philosophers
  disagreed when it came to the organization of a
  state. While Plato describes a philosophic
  state as an ideal state, Aristotle describes
  three good forms of constitution
• 1. A monarchy in which there is only one head of
  state
• 2. An aristocracy in which there is a larger or
  smaller group of leaders
• 3. A polity or democracy

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The Study of Ethics

• Excellence and justice, the things with which
  statecraft deals, involve so much disagreement
  and uncertainty that they come to be looked on as
  mere conventions, having no natural foundation
  (p. 653).