Aristotle’s Physics, Theology, Ethics, and Politics
Physics and Theology
Aristotle strives to specify the denomination, determining the object of his speech in two ways:
- Physics addresses a way of being that is affected by movement; that is the purpose and problematic phenomenon of natural things.
- Physics does not address the mode of being of those things in general, but specifically those that have in themselves the principle of rest; that is to say, to change or stop following its own internal principles of organization.
These two decisions by Aristotle serve to determine the areas of physics over other sciences:
- With respect to theology, objects are not subjected to movement.
Matter
Entities populate the sub-lunar field and are called substances, due to two different principles: their matter and form. This is why Aristotle’s perspective is referred to as hylomorphism. Matter is always qualitatively qualified. It is important not to confuse form with this figure. Although there is no doubt concerning the delimitation of bodies, it is related to what Plato designated as eidos. It is, therefore, what makes a thing what it is and is determined in the manner as specified.
Movement
Teachers of medieval scholasticism, who often appealed to the authority of Aristotle, used the formula (which in its literalness does not belong to Aristotle) to define movement: “the passage from potency to act.” Things themselves are susceptible to change; matter can change shape, and that “power to change” is what we call potency. Change is the “way to act” as one of those potencies. It is the own physical substance of all. The power to change is not having full possession of one’s being, having to move to achieve its purpose:
- The deprivation.
- We have to accept that in the process of change, there is something that remains unchanged.
The Causes of Motion and the First Motor
The Theory of Four Causes
- Material Cause: The existence of the bronze statue is the bronze itself, within the meaning that before pointing at it as passive power, the ability to become a sculpture.
- Formal Cause: The statue is just the eidos or form under which the sculptor transforms the block of metal into a figure.
- Efficient Cause: It is that which can materially affect it for the demands of form, the chisel or the hammer with which the sculptor shapes his work.
- Final Cause: The existence of the statues, the purpose or purposes for which they have decided to erect the statue.
The First Unmoved Mover
Aristotle formulates the principle of chance, “every beginning has a cause,” and reminds us that an indefinite regress from a mobile to their engines is not possible because if the regression were really unlimited, then there would be no first motor, and therefore, it would not have come to be a movement. The fact that there is movement is evidence there can be no question; therefore, there has to be a prime mover of the source of motion.
Ethics and Politics
They are, according to Aristotle, practical sciences, knowledge that investigates the correct way to behave for human agents able to decide freely on their own capacity. This free decision should not be provided by nature since natural man is subjected to the needs of survival and reproduction, and in that area, lacks decision-making power.
Polis and Politics
The order in which these primary needs are solved is that of what Aristotle calls oikos, the field of economics. But what Aristotle identifies as the most beneficial invention for the species is the formation of the polis, which starts just where men already have enough to survive and, therefore, to decide freely on the genre of life they want to live. This threshold is no longer that of survival but of the good life. This is why Aristotle acknowledges the absolute importance of politics among the political sciences.