By: Yael Sulkin ARISTOTLE
Dec 16, 2015
By: Yael Sulkin
ARISTOTLE
384 BCAristotle is born in Stagira.
ARISTOTLE’S LIFE
347 BCLeaves Athens. Marries
Pythias and their daughter, Pythias is born.
343 BCIs invited to Macedonia to tutor Alexander the Great.
ARISTOTLE’S LIFE CONTINUED...
335 BCReturns to Athens and
founds his own school called the Lyceum.
322 BC Aristotle dies at age 62.
ARISTOTLE’S LIFE CONTINUED...
• Unlike Plato, Aristotle focused on examining the physical world and drawing connections between the sciences (physics, biology, etc.) and philosophy.─ When having knowledge of a fact, repeating it is not
enough—it is necessary to give reasons why the fact is true (a process Aristotle called demonstration)
• Aristotle perceived the physical world as the “real world” and he insisted that there is no “perfect realm” beyond.
• Aristotle was very logical, and he defined knowledge as categorizing, comparing and identifying different things that can be seen in the world. ─ Aristotle made 10 categories to differentiate between
physical aspects. (All of them are related, except for the first one)
SCHOOL OF THOUGHT
Categories Aristotle’s Term Greek Examples
Substance/Essence
“substance”“this”“what-it-is”
ousiatode titi esti
man, horse
Quantity How much poson four-foot, five-foot
Quality What sort poion white, literate
Relation related to what pros ti double, half, greater
Location Where pouin the Lyceum, in the marketplace
Time When pote yesterday, last year
Position Being situated keisthai lies, sits
Habit Having, possession echein is shod, is
armed
Action Doing poiein cuts, burns
Passion Undergoing paschein is cut, is burned
SCHOOL OF THOUGHT CONTINUED…
Inde
pend
ent
depe
nden
t
• Aristotle emphasized the importance of observation and he often pondered over the idea of “cause and effect” in nature, which was reflected in his theory of the four causes:
1. Material cause, or the elements out of which an object is created;
2. Efficient cause, or the means by which it is created;
3. Formal cause, or the expression of what it is;
4. Final cause, or the end for which it is.• He contributed to the development of the theory of the
four elements: earth, fire, air and water
SCHOOL OF THOUGHT CONTINUED…
His works discussed many subjects: Physics, metaphysics, poetry, theatre, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics,
government, ethics, biology and zoology. They can be categorized into types of works:
ARISTOTLE’S WRITINGS
Logic Physical
Works
Psychological works
Works on
Natural
History
Philosophical works
• Aristotle wrote many books, but one of his most prominent ones is called “Nicomachean Ethics”
• It consists of 10 books, in itself (numbered using roman numerals) that explore the idea of attaining happiness.
ETHICS
• In summary: all human activity strives for a positive end that we categorize as ‘good’
• The “supreme” good, is happiness, which comes hand-in-hand with being virtuous: Aristotle insists that a person
cannot be happy if they are not virtuous.• Aristotle states that people are “good” when they properly perform their functions, and that is how one
attains happiness. i.e. a baseball player—once they learn to pitch and play well, they have served their purpose,
making them “good”, and allowing them to attain happiness.
BOOK I
• Summary: There are two kinds of virtue:
1. Intellectual: learned by instruction
2. Moral: learned by habit and constant practice• i.e. when a baseball player learns how to pitch, they
learn virtue through practice not thinking about pitching. • Aristotle defines human virtue as the desirable middle
between two extremes (also known as the “golden mean”).
BOOK II
Vice of Deficiency Virtuous Mean Vice of Excess
Cowardice Courage Rashness
Insensibility Temperance Intemperance
Illiberality Liberality Prodigality
Pettiness Munificence Vulgarity
Humble-mindedness High-mindedness Vaingloriness
Want of Ambition Right Ambition Over-ambition
Spiritlessness Good Temper Irascibility
Surliness Friendly Civility Obsequiousness
Ironical Depreciation Sincerity Boastfulness
Boorishness Wittiness Buffoonery
Shamelessness Modesty Bashfulness
Callousness Just Resentment Spitefulness
BOOK II: THE GOLDEN MEAN
• Summary: A person’s actions depend on if they are: ─ Voluntary: a conscious decision to do something
─ Involuntary: not a conscious decision, but a person later recognizes their ignorance
─ Nonvoluntary: not a conscious decision, and the person never recognizes or suffers for their ignorance
• For example, if you’re playing basketball and you deliberately throw the ball at someone’s face, that is voluntary. Or, if you lack hand-eye coordination and accidentally throw the ball in someone’s face but feel remorse, that is involuntary. Finally, if you lack hand-eye coordination and throw the ball at someone’s face without realizing (you leave before you see the end result), then your action is non-voluntary.
BOOK III
• Ultimately, the choice between virtue and vice is in the hands of people.
• Side note:
Character
BOOK III
Ethics Actions
• For example, a religious person: they are characteristically devout to their faith and this is reflected in their ethics because they follow the ten commandments. This is also
reflected in their actions because they go to Church.
• He better explains the chart of vices and virtues (in more depth)
BOOK IV
• The role of laws: to encourage people to act virtuously. • Virtue (a person’s moral state) versus justice (relations
between people).• Two types of justice:
1. Distributive: a fair distribution of wealth that is proportional to a person’s merit. (this is the virtuous mean) i.e. good person receives more than a bad person.
2. Rectificatory: an unfair distribution of wealth (this is the vice) i.e. theft
BOOK V
• The question ‘How does one attain the golden mean?’ is answered.
Soul
BOOK VI
Rational part
Irrational part
Contemplative part: sciences
and mathemati
cs
Calculative part:
practical matters in day-to-day
life.• Aristotle states that the right reasoning leads to making the right decisions and thus attaining the virtuous mean.
Aristotle proposes four reasons for incontinence (lacking in restraint or control):
1. A person has the knowledge of what is wrong, but does not reflect on it: thus doing something wrong without realizing it.
2. Drawing wrong conclusions due to ignorance.
3. A person is mentally unstable.
4. Impulsiveness and desire for hasty success.
BOOK VII
Types of Friendship
BOOK VIII
Utility Pleasure:
drawn by wit, charm, good looks…
Goodness: admire one another’s goodness (and help maintain one another’s)
• Why friendships fall apart: i.e. a friendship of “utility” breaks apart when both parties no longer need each other, unjust treatment, people who initially misrepresent their true characters…
• Friendship is complicated and is often quite superficial. It is not always requited.
• Being independent allows a person to survive without friends, because they do not need them—but friendship is “good”, and without it one cannot attain happiness.
BOOK IX
• People can “amuse” themselves in many different ways, but this should not be confused with happiness.
• Happiness can be achieved through contemplation—only a god can spend all of their time only contemplating, but
people must strive to do as much contemplation as possible.
BOOK X
Can mastering mathematics and the sciences, as well as understanding the physical world help us attain the
virtuous mean? Is the virtuous mean even attainable?
Real Life situation:
The job description of a modern day scientist is to perform research in order to get a more comprehensive knowledge
of the human body, and because of this there have been many medical breakthroughs over the years (i.e. vaccines
for the flu, cancer treatment…). Ultimately, scientists strive to find ways to maintain human health, and as far as
Aristotle goes, this would be a virtuous mean.
KNOWLEDGE ISSUE
Aristotle believes that most of humanity (if not all) is not born virtuous, but virtue is something that we must strive
for. However, does attaining knowledge of the physical world truly promote the idea of the “golden mean”? After
all, being a scientist is a job, not a life-style. So in this case, the end result may appear to be a virtuous act (because
lives are being saved), but really, it is just superficial (it is a profession that earns money, not a charity).
COUNTER-ARGUMENT
I think that Aristotle would say that a scientist has still attained the ‘golden mean’. The ultimate purpose of it is to
attain happiness; whether a scientist chooses their profession because they want to help others, or simply for
monetary gain, they are left satisfied. So as long as they are successful with their research, scientists are able to attain
the virtuous mean.
WHAT WOULD ARISTOTLE SAY?
• Attaining the “virtuous mean” is the only way for people to attain happiness.
• The physical world holds many truths and people must strive to gain as much knowledge as possible in order to attain the “golden mean”.
Unresolved Question:• If, per say, our soul dies along with us and there is no
afterlife, what is the purpose for attaining happiness? Why should people go out of their way to be virtuous (since it is not in their nature)?
SYNTHESIS
"Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)." SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2013.Aristotle's Ethics (Nicomachean Ethics). New York: Sparknotes, 2003. Print."Aristotle's Ten Categories." Aristotle's Ten Categories. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013."Aristotle." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2013."Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy." Aristotle []. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.Isle, Mick. Aristotle Pioneering Philosopher and Founder of the Lyceum . New York: Rosen Group, 2006. Print.Parker, Steve, Juliet Duff, Eirik Newth, and Rachel Cooke. Aristoteles Og Vitenskapelig Tenkemate. Oslo: Bonnier Carlsen, 1994. Print.The Free Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.Thomson, J.A.K., trans. Aristotle Ethics. England: Penguin Group, 1976. Print."Two Differences Between the Philosophers Plato and Aristotle." Yahoo! Contributor Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.Whiting, Jim. The Life and Times of Aristotle. United States of America: Mitchell Lane, 2007. Print.
BIBLIOGRAPHY