Aristotle’s Philosophy: Ethics, Politics, and Metaphysics
Aristotle’s Philosophy: Key Concepts
Sophia (wisdom) is virtue; it is the union of episteme (scientific knowledge) and nous (intuitive intellect). A sage not only knows the true principles but can also demonstrate their consequences. Sophia deals with unchanging objects; it is knowing the entirety of being.
Anthropology
Man is a natural substance composed of matter and form. Man is a substantial union of body and soul, contrary to Plato. The soul is the principle of natural things in life; it is what maintains the body’s shape.
Key aspects of Aristotle’s anthropology:
- Vegetative Soul: Responsible for growth, reproduction, and nutrition.
- Sensitive Soul: Governs locomotion, sensory perception, memory, appetite, and desire.
- Rational Soul: Encompasses intellect (passive and active) and will.
There are two types of knowledge regarding the origin and principle of all human knowledge. Intellectual knowledge is based on sensitive knowledge. The materials provided by sensitive knowledge will serve to develop intellectual knowledge.
Context
Aristotle (384-322 BC) received empirical and practical training that marked his rhetoric. He taught philosophical activity and was called to educate Alexander the Great. He established a secondary school and was accused of impiety.
The ethical writings attributed to Aristotle are the Nicomachean Ethics, the Eudemian Ethics, and the Magna Moralia (Great Ethics). The Nicomachean Ethics represents the maturation of Aristotle’s moral thinking. It has features of esoteric writings and is divided into ten books:
- Books 1 & 2: Aristotle begins to explore the links between good and happiness, distinguishing two types of virtue: intellectual and moral.
- Book 3: Begins with an analysis of specific moral virtues.
- Book 4: Is devoted to the study of other virtues.
- Book 5: Is devoted entirely to moral virtues.
- Book 6: Examines the intellectual virtues.
- Book 7: Addresses issues relating to pleasure and intemperance.
- Books 8 & 9: Studies friendship.
- Book 10: The final book discusses pleasure and happiness. Happiness is a desirable activity in itself, a self-sufficient activity in accordance with reason.
Esoteric writings are notes of the lessons the teacher gave to high school students. Exoteric writings and dialogues have an entertaining and informative character.
Aristotle’s Philosophical System
Aristotle sees his philosophy as building upon Plato and Democritus. It is a response to the problem of motion, which had been denied by Parmenides. Contrary to Democritus, Aristotle shows that the vacuum does not exist. He departs from Plato’s idealism, denying the world of Ideas and stating that the real world is made of sensitive beings (physis) characterized by motion. He collapses the unity between philosophy and politics and diminishes dialectics as a method of ascending to the Idea of Goodness. He begins the process of knowing through the senses. His theory of motion transitions from potency to act.
Plato’s influence is enormous: “Any operation seeks an end or telos.” Aristotle emphasizes the conception of science as knowledge of essences. He continues the line of metaphysics, leaning towards a realist-empiricist view; there is only one reality. Any substance is a composite of matter and form. Matter is pure potentiality. Things are inseparable compounds; when separated, it leads to the destruction of being. This is known as hylomorphism.
Virtue (arete) for Aristotle is sometimes teachable and sometimes not. The human being is a “political animal” (zoon politikon), a social being. The isolated individual is not fully human; a man outside the polis would be either more than a man or less than a man. A man alone cannot fully develop. The best community is the most moderate. Aristotle presents the choice between realism and idealism, immanence and transcendence, spirituality and materialism. He puts the beginning of knowledge in sense data. Empiricists and positivists are indebted to him, as he rejected the existence of innate ideas. He replaced the Platonic-Pythagorean mathematical model of reality with a natural, biological model. The intellect itself is capable of knowing the truth.