Aristotle’s Life, Works, and Philosophy
Early Life and Education
Aristotle (384-322 BC) was born in Stagira, Thrace. He is also known as the Stagirite. His father was a famous physician at the court of Philip II, King of Macedonia and father of Alexander (who would eventually become Alexander the Great). From childhood, Aristotle had a profound curiosity about nature and observed the things around him. When he was orphaned, he was sent to the Academy led by Plato, where he was a pupil for nearly 20 years. On the death of Plato, it is said that the main candidate to replace him would have been Aristotle, but eventually, the position was given to Plato’s nephew, Speusippus.
It is said that among the differences that arose was Speusippus’s intention of mathematizing ethics, a question that Aristotle considered absurd. The period of greatest intellectual fecundity for Aristotle was when he was at the Academy. There, he would have written many works on the most varied topics. Aristotle, unlike his teacher, was a systematic author, that is, able to develop a huge conceptual system that allowed him to address the problems that the Platonic doctrine brought with it. However, it is a fact that Aristotle’s doctrine grew and bore fruit under the influence of Plato’s thought.
The Writings
They are divided into two main types:
- a) Exoteric: Those that were for the general public. Everyone could understand them without much preamble. It is said that they were written in dialogue form (following the tradition of his teacher). None are preserved, just a few titles: The Grillo or Rhetoric, About Right, etc.
- b) Esoteric: Doctrine of higher density, written for his disciples. They are therefore drier and more in-depth than the exoteric. All are preserved. Aristotle dealt with an impressive array of issues. He even sketched a brief outline of communication theory that reduced to transmitter, receiver, and message.
Within the Aristotelian corpus, we can mention the following projects:
- Logical Works (He named them Analytical; the name Logic is likely to have come from Alexander of Aphrodisias): For Aristotle, logic is propaedeutic to science, that is, it is the first step to science. These works were grouped during the Middle Ages under the name of Organon. Includes: The Categories (or modes of being: they are the substance and nine accidents), On Interpretation, Topics, Prior Analytics, Posterior Analytics, and Sophistical Refutations (where fallacies are studied).
- Works of Philosophy of Nature: Physics (this can be understood today as a science analogous to biology, chemistry, etc.).
- Psychology Works: On the Soul.
- Science Works: The Weather and Sky, The Origin of Animals, Generation and Corruption.
- Ethical Works: Nicomachean Ethics, Eudemian Ethics, and Great Ethics.
- Construction Ethical-Political: Politics.
- Magnum Opus: The Metaphysics.
In fact, all works of Aristotle are great, as they represent the culmination of the thought of his time.
Division of Science According to Aristotle
He divided them into:
- a) Theoretical: Looking to know for the sake of knowing, they are useless, noble, selfless, and their object is truth. Examples of these sciences are: Metaphysics (object of study: the entity as an entity), the philosophy of nature (Object: the entity as a cell), and mathematics (The number).
Note that these three disciplines are about metaphysical realities, but the difference is that natural philosophy and mathematics (its objects) exist in this area or rather, require matter to exist. Instead, the object of Metaphysics (being as being) requires absolutely no matter to exist: The Entity.
- b) Practical: Its purpose is the Good. They are useful because their purpose is not theoretical, but ensuring the attainment of a good thing. Examples of these sciences are: ethics, politics, and financial considerations (economics today). In the case of the first, a definition is advanced: the philosophical practice of science that seeks to know to direct human acts in view of the good of mankind. In the case of politics, the object is not particularly good, but the common good. And the same goes for the economy; both politics and the economy are social ethics.
- c) Poietic: Looking for Beauty. Its purpose is the perfection of a work outside the subject. This fits all the arts: Rhetoric, poetry, sculpture, music, and more.
The Philosophy of Nature
The keywords are: matter, form, act, and potency. Do not understand them in the vulgar way but philosophically. I mean, the matter is a potential and indeterminate principle (similar to Plato’s chora) but which has a potentiality, that is, the ability to receive a perfection. This is called denial. Then there’s the way it is now beginning, perfection in the matter that is indeterminate, and is able to remove it from its state of indeterminacy, transforming it into something specific.
Thus, four cases are involved in the formation of a substance: Material, formal, efficient, and final. The first two are intrinsic to the substance and the second two extrinsic. The material would cause what’s done something formal, so acquired and under which I can say this is a sculpture. The efficient cause is the agent, that is, who performed the action that enabled this sculpture to be held (the craftsman), and the final cause (its purpose, sell, decorate, etc.).