Transcript aristotle
ARISTOTLE
ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.)
Founder of every science or domain of study
known to humans
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
Metaphysics
Metereology
Logic
Literary Criticism
Anthropology
Ethics
Political science
Psychology
Original contributions to
philosophy after Aristotle
Augustine – Theory of the Will
Thomas d’Aquino – Phil. of Human Nature
Hegel – Dialectic, elaboration of Aristotle
Marx – Political Economy & Social Psychology
– first major advance beyond Aristotle
- but based on Aristotle,
- called «the Aristotle of the 19th century»
Heidegger – Phenomenology – Aristotelian
psychology
Modernists reject Aristotle
Descartes – his skepticism became basis of
individualistic exploitation of community
Locke – skepticism leads to theory of
property rejecting Aristotle’s
understanding of individual within
community
Smith – complete rejection of Aristotle’s
theory of moral economy – Bush-style
free enterprise
ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.)
born Macedonia 15 yrs after d. of Socrates
student at Plato’s Academy at age 17
Collaborates with Plato on dialogues
- disagreed over essential realities of our world
- Forms vs. Substances (living organisms)
Leaves Academy after Plato’s death
pursues research in biology
Tutor of Alexander
Founds Lyceum in Athens (334 BC)
Raphael, The School at Athens.
Vatican museums.
Nicomachean Ethics
Reading next 2 weeks
The complete ‘good’
(NE i.7—key chapter)
- ‘what is intrinsically worth pursuing is more
complete than what is worth pursuing for
something else’
- the ‘intrinsically choiceworthy’
‘most chiceworthy of all things’
- ‘self-sufficient’
= Happiness (eudaimonia), but this is
‘commonplace’—what does it mean?
Happiness (eudaimonia)
Eudaimonia
‘living well,’ ‘doing well’
‘Not a state’ of mind (EN x.6), ‘an activity
rather than a state’
So Aristotle doesn’t mean the way you feel
eating ice cream or going shopping
Aristotle: Maybe, we can understand
happiness if we understand function of
human
Aristotle on function (ergon) in
general
‘Everything is defined by its ergon and
capacity’ (Politics, Bk.i, ch. 2.1253a23)
Ergon = function, work, product
Homonymous
E.g., function (ergon) of house builder is to
build houses (product= ergon) for other
members of the community: this is her/his
work (ergon).
Aristotle on function (ergon)—
cont.
E.g., a doctor is the ergon he actualizes:
it is easy, Aristotle says, to know various
remedies for illness, but how to dispense them
and to whom and when, ‘that much a function
(ergon) is what it is to be a doctor’ (NE
v.9.1137a16).
If something loses its function, ceases to be.
An eye that loses capacity to see no longer an
eye, except homonymously
What is function of human being?
(NE i.7)
Functions of craftsmen
Flute player, carpenter, doctor
Not function of individual parts, or function(s)
we share with animals or plants
Function of living thing involves activity
(energeia), the actuality of living
= activity of the soul or life-principal (psuche)
Since reason distinctive of humans, ‘function
of human involves activity in accord w.
reason’
Function performed well if performed in
accordance with virtue of the thing
E.g., knife, goat
Conclusion about happiness
‘the human good turns out to be activity of
soul in accord with virtue’
Let’s examine the parts of this statement:
‘Soul’ (Psuche)
‘Virtue’ (arete)
Psuche = ‘soul’ or ‘life-force’
Nothing to do with religion
Greek belief that all living things possess
some life principal or force
Plants, animals, humans – all have soul, but
differ in capacities
Ensouled things are substances.
Psuche is form of the thing
What does it mean to say soul is ‘form’?
Form and matter
Aristotle says everything that exists in our
world is a composite of form and matter
Form is nature or whatness of a thing
Example of bronze sphere, as teaching tool
to introduce more advanced case of form as
soul.
Form & matter II
The form sphere provides shape for bronze
scrap to be worked into bronze sphere.
Sphere is whatness of bronze sphere.
Soul understood by its capacities, i.e., what
organism can do.
Capacities of psuche
Nutritive – shared with plants & animals
Perceptual & locomotive – shared w animals
Intellective/rational – distinctly human
For happiness to be human, must involve
exercise of intellective/rational capacity
Aristotle says people who do not live by
intellect cannot be happy (EN x.9)
Intellective capacity
Activity (energeia) of Intellective capacity is form-
generating & form-perceiving.
Same forms that are nature or whatness of things
are forms in intellect by which we perceive those
things.
We acquire forms through experience with things
that embody them.
E.g., bronze sphere embodies form ‘sphere’.
Aristotle rejects skepticism
So, Aristotle argues that knowledge is based
on an identity between the knower and the
known.
That is one result of his theory that all things
are composites of form and matter.
Ergo, Aristotle rejects skepticism of
Descartes.
Virtue
Remember Aristotle’s definition of happiness:
‘activity/actuality of soul in accord with virtue’
He adds:
‘and if there are more virtues than one, then in
accord with best and most complete virtue’
(i.7)
Cf. list of virtues, right column last table
Best and most complete virtue is JUSTICE.
Justice
“Justice is the only virtue that seems to be
another person’s good, for it is related to
another, for it does what benefits another”
(EN 1130a3-4).
Justice not a matter of fairness, but rather of
helping another.
Justice in economic relations
Primary example of justice in Aristotle’s
theory of exchange:
a person wealthier or more powerful helps
another in their mutual exchange of goods,
s/he loses money to the other in the
transaction.
Conclusion: what is happiness?
Happiness is fulfillment of the human function
of activity of soul in accordance with the virtue
of justice to benefit others as much as I am
able.