Transcript Aristotle

Aristotle
*Considered the father of life sciences.
*He was the tutor of Alexander the Great.
*Undertook the classification of animals
and plants at a large scale.
*His main discovery in embryology was
that the mother's contribution is as
important as the father's.
*Believed that the Earth was static and at
the center of the universe. He also
believed, erroneously, that motion was due
to the tendency of all objects to reach
there natural state.
*He discovered that free fall is an
accelerated form of motion, but also
believed that heavier objects fall faster
than lighter ones.
*He considered chemical elements, which
cannot be decomposed, to be the
constituents of all bodies
•Born: 384 B.C.
•Birthplace: Stagira, Macedonia (now Greece)
•Died: 322 B.C.
•Best Known As: The author of Ethics
Aristotle is one of the "big three" in ancient Greek philosophy,
along with Plato and Socrates. (Socrates taught Plato, who in turn
instructed Aristotle.) Aristotle spent nearly 20 years at Plato's
Academy, first as a student and then as a teacher. After Plato's
death he traveled widely and educated a famous pupil, Alexander
the Great, the Macedonian who nearly conquered the world. Later
Aristotle began his own school in Athens, known as the Lyceum.
Aristotle is known for his carefully detailed observations about
nature and the physical world, which laid the groundwork for the
modern study of biology. Among his works are the texts Physics,
Metaphysics, Rhetoric and Ethics. He was succeeded at the Lyceum
by his student Theophrastus.
Early Life
*Born at Stagira in northern Greece, Aristotle was the
most notable product of the educational program devised
by Plato; he spent twenty years of his life studying at the
Academy.
*When Plato died, Aristotle returned to his native
Macedonia, where he is supposed to have participated in
the education of Philip's son, Alexander (the Great).
*He came back to Athens with Alexander's approval in 335
and established his own school at the Lyceum, spending
most of the rest of his life engaged there in research,
teaching, and writing.
*His students acquired the name "peripatetics"
from the master's habit of strolling about as he
taught.
*Although the surviving works of Aristotle
probably represent only a fragment of the whole,
they include his investigations of an amazing range
of subjects, from logic, philosophy, and ethics to
physics, biology, psychology, politics, and rhetoric.
*Aristotle appears to have thought through his
views as he wrote, returning to significant issues at
different stages of his own development.
*The aim of Aristotle's logical essays was to develop
a universal method of reasoning by means of which
it would be possible to learn everything there is to
know about reality.
*Thus, the Categories proposes a scheme for the
description of particular things in terms of their
properties, states, and activities.
*On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, and Posterior
Analytics examine the nature of logical reading,
outlining the system of syllogistic reasoning from
true propositions that later came to be known as
categorical logic.
*Though not strictly one of the logical works, the
“Physics” contributes to the universal method by
distinguishing among the four causes which may be
used to explain everything, with special concern for
why things are the way they are and the apparent
role of chance in the operation of the world.
*In other essays, Aristotle applied this method,
with its characteristic emphasis on teleological
explanation, to astronomical and biological
explorations of the natural world.
*In “Metaphysics”, Aristotle tried to justify the
entire enterprise by grounding it all in an abstract
study of being. *Although Aristotle rejected the
Platonic theory of forms, he defended his own
vision of ultimate reality, including the eternal
existence of substance.
*On “The Soul” uses the notion of a hylomorphic
(identifies matter with the first cause of the
universe) composite to provide a detailed account
of the functions exhibited by living things—
vegetable, animal, and human—and explains the
use of sensation and reason to achieve genuine
knowledge.
Demonstrative Science
*In the “Prior Analytics and Posterior Analytics”, Aristotle
offered a detailed account of the demonstrative reasoning
required to substantiate theoretical knowledge.
*Using mathematics as a model, Aristotle presumed that
all such knowledge must be derived from what is already
known.
*Thus, the process of reasoning by syllogism employs a
formal definition of validity that permits the deduction of
new truths from established principles.
*The goal is to provide an account of why things happen
the way they do, based solely upon what we already
know.
*In order to achieve genuine necessity, this demonstrative
science must be focused on the essences rather than the
accidents of things, on what is "true of any case as such,"
rather than on what happens to be "true of each case in
fact."
*It's not enough to know that it rained today; we must be
able to figure out the general meteorological conditions
under which rain is inevitable.
*When we reason from necessary universal and
affirmative propositions about the essential features of
things while assuming as little as possible, the resulting
body of knowledge will truly deserve the name of science.
The Four Causes
Applying the principles developed in his logical
treatises, Aristotle offered a general account of the
operation of individual substances in the natural
world. He drew a significant distinction between
things of two sorts: those that move only when
moved by something else and those that are
capable of moving themselves. In separate
treatises, Aristotle not only proposed a proper
description of things of each sort but also
attempted to explain why they function as they do.
The Four Causes:
Aristotle proposed that we employ four very different
kinds of explanatory principle to the question of why a
thing is, the four causes:
1. The material cause is the basic stuff out of which the
thing is made. The material cause of a house, for example,
would include the wood, metal, glass, and other building
materials used in its construction. All of these things
belong in an explanation of the house because it could
not exist unless they were present in its composition.
2. The formal cause is the pattern or essence in
conformity with which these materials are
assembled. Thus, the formal cause of our
exemplary house would be the sort of thing that is
represented on a blueprint of its design. This, too,
is part of the explanation of the house, since its
materials would be only a pile of rubble (or a
different house) if they were not put together in
this way.
3. The efficient cause is the agent or force
immediately responsible for bringing this matter
and that form together in the production of the
thing. Thus, the efficient cause of the house would
include the carpenters, masons, plumbers, and
other workers who used these materials to build
the house in accordance with the blueprint for its
construction. Clearly the house would not be what
it is without their contribution.
4. Lastly, the final cause is the end or purpose for
which a thing exists, so the final cause of our house
would be to provide shelter for human beings. This
is part of the explanation of the house's existence
because it would never have been built unless
someone needed it as a place to live.
*Aristotle was one of the greatest thinkers of ancient
western civilization.
*He was a biologist, a zoologist, a political scientist, a
master of logic and rhetoric, an ethicist and a theoretician
in physics and metaphysics.
*Aristotle synthesized knowledge in many fields,
developing a coherent system of understanding.
*His mind was expansive and his writings prodigious. His
work was considered authoritative not only in ancient
times but through the medieval era as well.
*However even today, his thought has continued
to exert a strong influence, although admittedly
our knowledge and understanding, particularly in
the scientific realm, have advanced beyond his.
*Nevertheless, it remains a remarkable
achievement to have had such a prominent
presence over the course of 2500 years.
*Aristotle was meticulous in his scientific work. For example, he was
one of the first to collect plant specimens, classify them according to
observed characteristics and categorize them.
*His approach was so careful and methodical that it became the
standard for future scientific work. Perhaps more importantly,
Aristotle developed a philosophy of science. He gave us the
categories in which to think He attempted to find ground between
the position of Plato (who believed that the real world exists in the
realm of the Forms; this present world is but a shadowy copy of it)
and the atomists (who believed that real world was senseless
matter).
*Aristotle wanted us to discover the meaning of the good life in this
world - that it was real, that it was understandable by our senses and
that it was worth knowing.
Aristotle’s Quotes:
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance,
nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.
All men by nature desire knowledge.
All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.
Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the
right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for
the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within
everybody's power and is not easy.