Key Philosophical Concepts: From Aristotle to Modern Thought
Abstraction
Abstraction: The process by which the right ideas are formed from things. An operation that separates or isolates the understanding of reality. In philosophy, it has an Aristotelian sense, according to which abstraction is the process of forming universal intellectual concepts (tree, man, etc.) from individual beings (trees, men, etc.).
Accident
Accident: Literally, what happens. What may or may not occur, inherent in a substance. All non-essential features of a substance. Aristotle defined it as: a) all determinations that are predicated of one thing and are not part of its essence. Accidents of a thing can also be considered necessary properties (e.g., the property of a triangle that the sum of its angles is equivalent to two right angles). b) Strictly speaking, the predicates of a thing do not necessarily belong to it (e.g., being male does not necessarily mean being white: whiteness is, therefore, an accidental determination). This is the most common sense. The determination expressed by accidental predicates has no survival; they do not exist by themselves, but only in and through the substance of which they are determinations.
Act
Act: Means the action that a person does. It is also used in the Aristotelian sense, which expresses a quality or qualities to be manifested at a given time and, therefore, perfect. Act precludes power, which is the inherent possibility to be, but still not done and, therefore, imperfect, but can reach perfection and fulfillment. All entities are a mix of power and action. Aristotle used the notion of event (update) to explain and define movement. This is “the act of what is in power as such”, that is, as it is and remains in power: in effect, having reached full update, the motion ceases, in the absence of potential.
Animism
Animism: The doctrine that all entities that make up the universe are endowed with a soul, as this is conceived as a biological principle that encourages and gives shape or essence to natural beings.
Autarky
Autarky: Aristotle considered it the state in which a person has almost reached the rational end of happiness that ends their essence and allows them to live in society without needing or relying on others. It is supposed to have achieved self-sufficiency. It is considered an ideal to which we must focus our individual and collective efforts.
Category
Category: Etymologically, it means indictment, declaration, enunciation. In philosophy, it means a concept that serves as a principle of research or verbal expression of a quality or parcel of reality. In Aristotle, it signifies the form or manner in which a thing is said and, by extension, modes or kinds of being, that is, the ten genera or divisions in which the manifestations of being can be classified (substance, quality, quantity, relationship, time, location, position, action, passion, habit). The first category is fundamental: it expresses the entity or substance, while the remaining nine express accidents.
Empiricus
Empiricus: Means with respect to experience. Empiricism is derived from it, or the doctrine that all our knowledge comes from sensory experience.
Ente
Ente: It means what is or exists. It is the largest concept because it can be applied to anything: anything is, in effect, “something that is.” In Aristotle, the notion of “entity” has no unique significance, since the verb “to be” holds many meanings. So, it carries a different meaning for each of the categories. There are two fundamental ways that can be said of something: that it is this or that, rather than what is potentially in power, rather than what is currently in action. Aristotle conceived of a universal science whose purpose would be “what is, as something that is,” a science to be called Metaphysics (“ontology”), First Philosophy, or the Science of sciences.
Understanding
Understanding: The intellectual power of knowledge whose proper object is to abstract the essence of sensible things, judgments, and reasoning. It is the higher faculty of knowledge, which corresponds to the activity of thinking. Aristotle applied the basic theory of power and act to understanding, distinguishing two types of understanding: a passive one (potential) and an active one (act). The passive one is specific to each individual and is corruptible. The active one is incorruptible and immaterial. Of all the statements of Aristotle, it seems to imply that the understanding “in action” is not individual, but the same for all mankind.
Condition
Condition: A perfect natural community, where human beings can develop fully. It contains families and villages, important natural communities as to the safety and welfare of individuals. However, the city-state can ensure self-sufficiency as a happiness to which humans tend. In morality and politics, citizens culminate by carrying out their potential as rational beings who aspire to the common good, wisdom, virtue, justice, etc.
Eudaemonism
Eudaemonism: The doctrine that moral good is happiness, eudaimonia. Happiness, according to all, is the supreme good of man. Aristotle makes it consist in the acquisition of excellence of character, usually accompanied by a moderate amount of external goods and human affections.
Happiness
Happiness: The term applies to any ethical theory that considers happiness to be the good sought by nature in human beings. All ethics of classical antiquity share this characteristic, distinguishing when determining what constitutes happiness, which offer different views: fortune, pleasure, inner joy, moral rectitude, and wisdom. In Aristotle’s ethical theory, it is the ultimate good and ultimate end of human beings. The pursuit of happiness (the good life, happy life) is the result of human action, which can be accessed by the practice of ethical virtues (regulating conduct by the rule of average) and dianoetic virtues (of which prudence is part), which lead to wisdom, the ideal state of happiness.
Form
Form: Opposes matter and content. In the first case (form-matter), form is what determines a matter to be something, which is, and matter is what supports the determination. Eidos is the specific structure of the material elements with a view to actual operation. It is the constitutive principle, by the matter, of the substance of corporeal things. It is the determination of matter, which can be substantial or accidental. What is learned from the operation of knowing, substantially or accidentally, is the form, intellectually (abstraction), the substantial form. In the second case (form-content), which is logic, terms and propositions are subject to form, and how to structure and relate these elements. For Aristotle, matter and form are claimed as natural things (hylomorphism). Any substance or natural entity is composed of matter and form: matter is power, form is act. The form is the essence of each thing or substance and is expressed in its definition (“living rational animal” in the case of humans).