Aristotle’s Philosophy: A Comprehensive Overview
Aristotle’s Philosophy
Life and Core Ideas
Aristotle was born in Stagira in 384 BC and died in Chalcis in 322 BC. His philosophy centers on the idea that the real is an intimate union between matter and idea. He rejects Plato’s theory of a separate world of ideas, asserting that the essences of things cannot be separated from the things themselves. This is known as hylomorphism.
According to Aristotle, matter is what something is made of, and form is what makes it what it is, its essence. All matter can be reduced to a single substance, called prime matter. There is also a second type of matter that is already formed. When matter ceases to exist, the form continues to exist in another individual or substance.
Movement and Change
Movement is the essential characteristic of individual beings. Aristotle distinguishes between two types of change:
- Substantial Change: This affects the intrinsic nature of reality, changing the essence while the matter remains. It involves the generation of a new substance.
- Accidental Change: This involves changes in nonessential aspects of a substance’s being. It can be quantitative, qualitative, or local.
Not all change is movement; only accidental change is considered movement. Aristotle believed that when there is change, something remains, something is lost, and something new appears. When change is substantial, what remains is prime matter. This matter is indeterminate, as it is not anything concrete in action, meaning that potentiality can exist in any substance. Matter, therefore, is potentiality.
If potentiality is not actualized, there is no change. Actuality is what something is now and its current characteristics. Potentiality is what something is not yet but can become. Nature is the beginning of the end, and the purpose of living beings is to develop their own nature. Form is what drives this development, acting as both the efficient cause and the final cause.
Aristotle believed that everything that moves is moved by something else (chain of movement). This leads to the question of what initiates movement. In his Metaphysics, Aristotle introduces the concept of the Unmoved Mover, a pure act that produces movement without itself moving. It is a being possessing all perfections and no potentiality, the perfect entity that attracts all of nature towards it. The Unmoved Mover moves all things as a final cause. Ideas are perfect, and thus all potentiality moves towards its own form.
Cosmology
Aristotle believed that the planets were made of a fifth element, an eternal element called ether. They were always in the sky, nearly immortal, and could not be composed of fire or air (as they would rise) or water or earth (as they would fall). He divided the universe into the sublunary world (from the Moon to the Earth) and the supralunar world (everything beyond the Moon). Everything was attracted to the Unmoved Mover.
Anthropology
Aristotle emphasized the importance of the soul, but unlike Plato, he saw it as the principle of life and rationality. He believed the soul is the substance, but not in the same way as Plato. For Aristotle, man is a substance, and the soul is the form of the body. Man is a composite of form and body. Unlike Plato, Aristotle did not believe in the pre-existence or subsistence of the soul; he believed it could not exist without the body. He also rejected the idea of reincarnation.
Aristotle identified three kinds of souls:
- Vegetative Soul: Responsible for nutrition, growth, and reproduction.
- Animal Soul: Responsible for sensation and movement.
- Human Soul: Responsible for reason.
He believed that essence differentiates us from other beings and from other individuals within our species, with individual differences arising from matter.
Ethics
Aristotle’s ethics is based on the principle of moderation in all things. The ultimate goal is happiness, and all actions are directed towards this end. It is a hedonistic ethic focused on living well and feeling good. Happiness is achieved by living virtuously, by doing good things.
Virtue, for Aristotle, is a mean between two extremes. For example, the virtue of intelligence is to act prudently. Ethics teaches us how to act prudently, to live well. Acting prudently allows us to achieve the highest good, which brings us closer to happiness. This involves developing our innate potential, our own nature.
Politics
Aristotle believed that humans, in order to develop their nature, must live with others because they are social beings. He argued that nothing in nature is made in vain, and humans are endowed with language, which is necessary for communication and reaching agreements on how to live and organize society. Therefore, man is a political animal, a citizen.
To live comfortably, it is necessary to establish institutions that promote the common good. Aristotle did not seek an ideal or utopian society, recognizing that people have different needs. He distinguished between different forms of government: rule by one (monarchy), rule by a few (aristocracy), and rule by many (polity).
These forms of government can become corrupt when they no longer seek the common good. Monarchy can devolve into tyranny, aristocracy into oligarchy, and polity into demagoguery. Aristotle favored a democracy of the middle class. He saw a problem with poorly educated, impoverished people coming to power, fearing they would seek revenge and not act for the common good.