Aristotle’s Philosophy: Metaphysics, Physics, and Ethics
Aristotle (384 – 322 BC)
Born in Macedonia, Greece, into a family with a medical dynasty, Aristotle was educated at Plato’s Academy, where he later taught rhetoric. He was forced to leave Athens during the rise of the anti-Macedonian party and during the political persecution of Aristotle following the Macedonian reaction to the death of Alexander the Great (who was his student and the son of Philip). Later, he founded the Lyceum.
1. Contexts
1.1. Historical
Athens was suffering the consequences of the Peloponnesian War and undergoing social change, becoming more cosmopolitan. Under the leadership of Alexander the Great, the political situation in Greece deteriorated as Alexander conquered the East.
Athens provoked a war between Thebes and Macedonia, which Macedonia won. In this situation, Aristotle was charged with impiety and had to leave Athens again to avoid his death.
1.2. Socio-cultural
The crisis of the Greek world and its decline in this century (since the Peloponnesian War) were represented in all spheres of culture and social thought, which became more cosmopolitan. In art, this was evident in the transition from classical art to Hellenism, with violent movements expressing human suffering, incorporating the new Oriental influence brought by Alexander’s conquests. The three architectural orders became more sophisticated. The society based its economy on agriculture and maritime trade and was quite poor.
1.3. Philosophical
Aristotle’s influences included the pre-Socratics, who sought the arche and reasoned about nature (Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, the pluralists, and the atomists), the Sophists, who were skeptical and relativist, and Socrates and Plato (who was his teacher). Aristotle knew the previous philosophers very well and synthesized their thoughts, critiquing them and trying to bring coherence and complement the insufficiency of their explanations about reality.
2. Theory of Metaphysics
Substance is a composite of matter and form. Substance is an independent and individual reality. Being is the primary substance.
Matter and form are not independent; they must exist together. Matter is what comprises a substance. The second substance and essence is what makes a thing what it is.
3. Theory of Physics (Motion)
Movement is the process of being in potentiality, which is what something may be but is not yet, to being in actuality, which is the mode of being or the current reality (what is). For change to occur, potentiality needs to be moved by something in actuality, because nothing moves itself. The world is a vast chain of changes facing the ultimate cause that is attached to the form of every being, which tends to act and be perfect. Nature, for Aristotle, is finalist or teleological.
3.1. Causes of Motion
- Material Cause (intrinsic): That of which something is composed.
- Formal Cause (intrinsic): The essence, what makes a thing be as it is.
- Efficient Cause (extrinsic): The agents of change/motion.
- Final Cause (extrinsic): The purpose of the movement (in humans, happiness).
3.2. Types of Change/Motion (Categories of Being)
- Substantial Change: The appearance or disappearance of a substance.
- Quantitative Change (accidental): An increase or decrease in the amount of a substance.
- Qualitative Change (accidental): Changes in the qualities of a substance.
- Local Change (accidental): Movement of a substance in space.
3.3. Unmoved Mover
Since things do not move by themselves, a prime mover is needed to explain movement. The prime mover is God, considered a force greater than nature. All that exists tends toward Him because He is perfect; thus, He is also a final cause.
4. Anthropological Theory
Following the hylomorphic theory, human beings are composed of body and soul, two elements that cannot be separated. There are three types of soul:
- Vegetative (plants): Functions include nutrition, growth, and reproduction.
- Sensitive (animals): Functions include nutrition, growth, reproduction, sensation, and movement.
- Rational (humans): Functions include nutrition, growth, reproduction, sensation, movement, and the power of rational knowledge.
5. Theory of Knowledge
For Aristotle, science is universal and necessary knowledge, and philosophy is superior knowledge because it addresses the ultimate reasons for things. It is the only state that allows for knowledge of reality and the aspirations of human knowledge, bringing happiness.
Aristotle establishes a classification of knowledge in degrees:
- Sensory Understanding: Allows us to reproduce perceived objects. We come to know through the experience of substances, and it is the source of all knowledge.
- Intellectual Understanding: The capacity to abstract the concept from sensory images.
6. Theory of Logic
Aristotle believed that the great philosophical problems are due to the lack of a method to name things correctly in reasoning. He identifies four types of judgments: affirmative, negative, universal, and particular.
7. Theory of Ethics
All beings have a proper goal, according to Aristotle. In humans, this is happiness, understood as a life dedicated to virtuous activity. Happiness is an activity or mode of living achieved by practicing virtue. The rational part of the soul has two kinds of virtue: dianoetic (intellectual) and ethical (moral).
8. Political Theory
Only in society can man find happiness. The most just society is that which favors the common good of its members. To this end, Aristotle proposed as the best form of government mixed regimes with a democratic base that combine the best of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, resulting in a large middle class without major economic differences.