The Essence of Aristotle Life

By Isa Singh

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist, better known as the teacher of Alexander the Great. He was a student of Plato and is considered an important figure in Western Philosophy. Famous for his writings on physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology, he is considered much ahead of his time.
His intellectual knowledge ranged from every known field of science and arts of that era. His writing includes work in physics, chemistry, biology, zoology, botany, psychology, political theory, logic, metaphysics, history, literary theory, and rhetoric. One of his greatest achievements was formulating a finished system also known as Aristotelian syllogistic. His other significant contribution was towards the development of zoology. It is true that Aristotle’s zoology is now obsolete but his work and contribution was unchallenged till the 19th century. His contribution towards almost all subjects on earth and its influence makes him one of the most famous and top personalities of all time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mahesh Dutt Sharma
• Release date: May 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463138984

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The Essence of Aristotle Life

Isa Singh

Published by Mdsharma

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Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1. Aristotle: A Brief Biography

Chapter 2. Contributions to Philosophy

Chapter 3. Personal Life and Legacy

Chapter 4. Aristotle: Speaks: Accept, Acquire, Actions

Chapter 5. Corroboration, Courage, Critic1Q

Chapter 6, Goal, God, Good

Chapter 7. Life, Limit, Love

Chapter 8. Perfect Perform Person

Chapter 9. Soul, Source, Spectacle

Chapter 10. Value, Vice, View

Preface

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist, better known as the teacher of Alexander the Great. He was a student of Plato and is considered an important figure in Western Philosophy. Famous for his writings on physics, metaphysics, poetry, theatre, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology, he is considered much ahead of his time.

His intellectual knowledge ranged from every known field of science and arts of that era. His writing includes work in physics, chemistry, biology, zoology, botany, psychology, political theory, logic, metaphysics, history, literary theory, and rhetoric. One of his greatest achievements was formulating a finished system also known as Aristotelian syllogistic. His other significant contribution was towards the development of zoology. It is true that Aristotle’s Zoology is now obsolete, but his work and contribution was unchallenged till the 19th century. His contribution towards almost all subjects on earth and its influence makes him one of the most famous and top personalities of all time.

-Author

Chapter 1. Aristotle: A Brief Biography: Early Life

Aristotle was born in northern Greece in the city of Stagira around the year 384 BC. He grew up as part of the aristocracy as his father, Nicomachus, was the doctor to King Amyntas of Macedonia. It was at the king’s court that he met his son, Philip, who would later become king. His father named him Aristotle, which means the best purpose. His father served as a personal physician to King Amyntas of Macedon.

Growing up the son of a doctor, Aristotle became interested in nature and anatomy. He grew up putting a premium on education and the arts. As a youth, Aristotle likely had tutors who taught him about all sorts of subjects. He learned to read and write Greek. He also learned about the Greek gods, philosophy, and mathematics.

When Aristotle turned seventeen, he travelled to Athens to join Plato’s Academy. There he learned about philosophy and logical thinking from Plato. He stayed at the Academy for nearly 20 years, at first as a student and later as a teacher.

Aristotle’s Travels

After leaving the Academy in 347 BC, Aristotle travelled throughout Greece and Turkey. He got married and wrote several works including The Natural History of Animals, the Reproduction of Animals, and The Parts of Animals.

New Ideas

Aristotle had new ideas on how the world should be studied. He liked to make detailed observations of the world, taking notes and records of what he saw. He went so far as to dissect animals to learn more about their anatomy. This was very different from the other Greek philosophers and educators of the day. They did all their work in their mind, thinking about the world, but not observing it. In this way, Aristotle laid the foundation of science today.

Aristotle spent a lot of time learning about biology. He was the first to try and classify different types of animals into different groups. He made drawings of different animal parts and tried to determine the function of different organs. Aristotle made many discoveries and interesting observations.

Tutoring Alexander the Great

In 343 B.C after the death of Hermias, Philip II of Macedon invited him to become the tutor of his son, Alexander. Aristotle spent the next several years teaching Alexander a wide range of subjects including philosophy, logic, and mathematics. Alexander went on to conquer much of the civilized world and became known as Alexander the Great.

Aristotle became the head of royal academy of Macedon. Here he became a tutor not only to Alexander but gave lessons to two other future kings - Cassander and Ptolemy - as well. In his role as tutor to Alexander, he encouraged him to conquer east.

Aristotle’s School

In 335 B.C he returned to Athens where he established his school named Lyceum. For next twelve years, he taught various courses at his schools such as logic, physics, public speaking, politics, and philosophy. There came a time when the relationship between Alexander and Aristotle became estranged. This was probably due to Alexander’s relationship with Persia. Though there is little evidence, yet many believed that Aristotle played a role in Alexander’s death.

At this point in his career, Aristotle began to study logic and the process of thinking. Here are some of Aristotle’s most famous ideas:

Syllogism - Syllogism is a type of reasoning. Assuming you had three categories of things: A, B, and C. If all of the As are Bs and the entire Bs are Cs, then all of the As are Cs.

Five elements - At the time of Aristotle, people believed that everything was made of four elements: earth, water, air, and fire. Aristotle proposed that there was a fifth element called aether. He thought that aether is what heavenly bodies such as the stars and planets are made of.

Four causes - Aristotle felt that everything that happened could be explained by one of four causes: material cause, formal cause, efficient cause, and final cause.

Astronomy - Aristotle rightly determined that the Earth was round. However, he also thought that the Earth was stationary and the centre of the universe.

The mean - He believed that the best way for people to behave was to avoid any extremes. Today we call this doing everything in moderation.

Thoughts & Contributions

Aristotle is believed to have put together his thoughts during 335-323 B.C. He wrote a number of dialogues in this period, but unfortunately, only fragments of these pieces have survived which are in the form of a treatise. These were not intended for wide publication and were rather meant to be used for lectures to students. Poetics, Metaphysics, Politics, Physics, De Anima and Nicomachean Ethics, are considered to be his most important treatise.

He not only studied almost every subject but also made noteworthy contributions to many of them. Under physical science, Aristotle studied and wrote on astronomy, anatomy, embryology, geology, geography, meteorology, zoology and physics while in philosophy, he wrote on ethics, aesthetics government, politics, metaphysics, economics, rhetoric, psychology, and theology. In addition to all the above, he also studied literature, poetry, and customs of various countries.

Aristotle studied and wrote on numerous subjects and topics but unfortunately, only one-third of his original writings survived. The lost writings include poetry, letters, dialogues and essays all written in Platonic manner. Most of his literary works are known to the world by the writing of Diogenes Laertius and others.

He has been given credit for being the earliest one to study formal logic.

*****

Chapter 2. Contributions to Philosophy

Just like his teacher Plato, his philosophy also aims at the universe, but his ontology finds the universal in particular things. Thus his epistemology is based on the study of specific phenomena, and it rises to the knowledge of essence.

He also discussed how information could be drawn about objects through deduction and inferences. It was his theory of deduction that was shaped into Syllogism by modern philosophers. The pairs of propositions were termed as Contraries by him. The syllogism is a logical argument in which the inference of the conclusion is drawn from two or more other premises of a certain form. This was explained by him in his work Prior Analytics where he defined the main components of reasoning through exclusive and inclusive relationships. These were in later years shown through Venn Diagrams.

His philosophy not just provided us with a system of reasoning but it was also related to ethics. He had described a moral code of conduct what he referred to as good living in Nichomachean Ethics.

He also talked about Practical Philosophy where