Aristotle

Aristotle is a philosopher from the Socratic period as well. He was the disciple of Plato, and tried to be more systematic. He was responsible for:

  • Division of Philosophy into branches (eg Metaphysics and Physics)
  • Systematic casual explanations

Philosophy as love of wisdom must be consistent and scientific

Aristotle’s work was focused on the systematic reconstruction of philosophy, and the development of ethics.

He disliked the lack of scientific explanation in Plato’s philosophy, especially regarding forms/ideas. He denied the division between ideal and material.

Aristotle and Knowledge

Aristotle believed experience to be the basis of knowledge, and true knowledge could only be obtained after knowing reasons or causes for an occurence.

(That is, he was neither an rationalist nor an empiricist) *(in my opinion)

He classified science into four categories:

  1. Logic
  2. Theoretical Sciences - Abstract knowledge like chemistry
  3. Practical Sciecnes - means of conduct, ethics, politics
  4. Productive Sciences - aesthetics, poetics

Inherence of Forms

Forms are not apart from things, but are inherent in them. They are eternally together; and matter combines with form to constitute individual things.

Plato thought the phenomenal world to be a shadow of the ideal, real world. Aristotle on the other hand advocated that the phenomenal world was not a copy of the real world. Rather, it is the real world.

This take by Aristotle advocated Realism and led to the progression of Natural Science.

Hierarchy of Forms

Aristotle believed that plurality of individual substances exist in a hierarchial order, with matter at the bottom and Pure form/God at the top. He believed matter to be the primoridal stuff.

Every individual substance is a mixture of matter and form, and matter is responsible for giving an object its uniqueness and particularity.

Human reasoning can discern the form.

Explanation of Change

(Potentiality and Actuality)

Plato’s idea of forms does not tackle the concept of change as he believed form to be non-temporal. Aristotle’s ideas challenge this notion.

He believed there to be 4 reasons for a substance changing. Using clay for making a pot as an example, these reasons are:

  1. Material Cause: Clay is the basic, primordial stuff

  2. Efficient Cause: Agent bringing change to primordial stuff (potter)

  3. Formal Cause: Structure/Form of the pot
  4. Final Cause: Use of the pot

Formal and Final cause are closely interlinked with Teleology. Aristotle believed that the best way to understand why things are the way they are, is to understand the purpose that they fulfil.

Logic and Syllogism

Syllogism is demonstration in the form of deduction. It utilizes properly formed arguments to arrive at a conlclusion from premises reagrding a middle term.

Propositions being used in an argument are called as Premises. There are four kinds of propositions:

  1. Universal Affirmative (A) - “All X is Y” (distribute subject; X)

  2. Particular Affirmative (I) - “Some X is Y” (distribute none)

  3. Universal Negative (E) - “No X is Y” (distributes both subj and pred; X, Y)
  4. Particular Negative (O) - “Some X is not Y” (distribute pred only; Y)

Similarly, Major Premise is universal in nature and Minor Premise is particular in nature.

Structure of Syllogism

  • Terms
  • Propositions
  • Moods - Depends on the type of proposition
  • Figures - Depends on the position of the middle term
  • Rules

A proposition contains three terms: Subject, Predicate and the Copula(relates to both subject and predicate, “is/are”).

Consider the below argument.

All games are better than League of Legends

Some games are unfinished

Therefore, some unfinished games are better than League of Legends

The mood of the above argument is AII. The middle term appears as subject in both the premises, defining the Figure of the argument.

There are four relations between propositions:

  1. Contradictory: A/O, I/E (negations)
  2. Contrary: A/E (“hard opposites”)
  3. Sub-Contrary: I/O (“soft” opposites)
  4. Subaltern: A→I, E→O (Superset)

Rules

  1. The fallacy of the undistributed middle: Middle term must be distributed atleast once
  2. Illicit Major: Middle term not distributed in major premise
  3. Illicit Minor: Middle term not distributed in minor premise
  4. The fallacy of two exclusive premises: Two negative premises

 

Ethics and Aristotle

He believed ethics to be Anti-Hedonistic, and Intuitionsistic in nature. He justified anti-hedonism by making a distinction between the pleasure of mind and pleasure of the body.

Aristotle says that man is a combination of body and soul. The soul is an inorganic unit, and is responsible for moving the body and for perceiving information.

He stated the following parts of a soul:

  • Rational: Capable of rational thought (man has all three)
  • Sensible: Capable of sense (animal have sensible and nutritional)
  • Nutritional: Capable of nutrition (plants have only nutritional)

Aristotle believed mind to be higher than the soul. It is independant of substance, and is immortal. Mind is the power to think.

That is, the soul could die and decay alongwith the body but mind doesn’t do so.

He also talks about the nature of reason, and categorized reasons into different types. They are;

  1. Active Reason

    Arises in the course of soul’s development with the other psychic functions. This refers to thinking about the consequences of an action.

    This can be identified with universal reason. (is the action being performed desirable?) This is the divine mind coming to the soul.

  2. Creative Reason

    Here all concepts are actualized, and thoughts and objects are one. (How is a pot shaped from clay?)

    Creative reason is immortal, imperishable and is not bound to the body.

Eudaimonia

Aristotle aimed to answer Socrates’ answer of highest good. The “good-ness” of an object depends upon the realization of its specific nature. That is, a knife is good if it performs its duty of cutting stuff well.

Similarly, a human being can be good only upon the habitual exercise of the function which makes him a human being. That is, rational thinking and virtuous actions have to be exercised.

Pleasure usually accompanies virtuous activities. Pleasure can be included as the highest good, but is not the highest good itself. This indulgence with virtuous activities is known as Eudaimonia.

Virtue

Aristotle maintains that there are two types of virtue; intellectual and moral.

  • Intellectual Virtue is related to wisdom, knowledge and perfection
  • Moral Virtue is more emotional in nature, regarding doing the right thing
  • Phronesis is also considered, and it is the practical virtue

He stated that virtues are moderation between excess and deficiences. For example, modesty is a mean between bashfulness and shamelessness. This mean does differ from individual to individual. A virtuous man should be able to make this choice after assessing the situation.

Justice

Aristotle felt that self-realization does not include selfish individualism. He tried to be altruistic in nature, and said that a virtuous man must love goodness for its own sake.

Justice is altruistic by nature, as justice is doing good for the society. A just society is where lawfullness and fairness are emphasized. Justice should be inclusive of all virtues.

Justice is giving man his due.

He believed that the highest happiness is a scpeculative activity, an activity which takes the form of contemplation.