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Aristotle:
Logic, Physics,
and
Theory of
Knowledge:
Written
works
v
Dialogues in which his doctrines
were expounded in somewhat popular language.
v
Treatises on physics, metaphysics,
etc.
Biography
v
Born at Stagira, a Greek
colony, in 384 B.C.; died at Chalcis, in 322 B.C
v
Plato was his teacher: from
18 to 37, he studied in Athens with him
v
He was asked by King Philip
of Macedon to become the tutor of Alexander (the Great)
v
About 335: Aristotle returns
to Athens and opens a school of philosophy: the Lyceum (from
the location: i.e.: a gymnasium dedicated to Apollo Lyceios).
It was also called the Peripatetic School because it was the
master's custom to discuss problems of philosophy with his
pupils while walking up and down (peripateo) the shaded
walks (peripatoi) around the gymnasium.
v
Very interested in natural
sciences and in classifying plants and things from the natural
world
v
Regarded at Athens as a friend
of Alexander and a representative of the Macedonian dominion.
v
After Alexander's death,
Aristotle was obliged to share in the general unpopularity
of the Macedonians.
v
Charge of impiety.
v
He left Athens. He took up
his residence at his country house, at Chalcis, in Euboea,
and there he died the following year, 322 B.C. His death was
due to a disease from which he had long suffered.
Easy online sources:
-
Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy
-
Catholic encyclopedia at
New Advent
-
Wikipedia
some
features of Aristotle’s teaching
v
Starts with physics… with
the material world we grasp through our external senses;
v
Aristotelian Realism;
v
Methodology of the Endoxa;
v
Physics as the first science;
v
Systematic approach;
v
Complete approach…
Physics
v
Nature as an intrinsic, inner,
principle of motion;
v
Aristotle’s solution to the
Parmenides vs. Heraclitus debate;
v
Act and potency (potential);
v
Substantial and accidental
changes (1+ 9 categories);
v
Categories as kinds of beings
corresponding to the kinds of motions:
-
Substance;
-
Quantity;
-
Quality;
-
Relation;
-
Place;
-
Time;
-
Position;
-
State;
-
Action;
-
Passion.
v
The four causes/principles:
-
Material;
-
Formal;
-
Final;
-
Efficient;
v
Hylomorphism;
v
Unmoved Mover.
Theory
of knowledge
v
Sentient knowledge and intellectual
knowledge;
v
Theory of knowledge, some
basic principles:
-
Knowledge as possession of
a form;
-
Similarity between the knower
(of which the known object is part) and the thing known;
-
Not a destroying change in
the knower;
-
Simultaneous actuality of
the knowing faculty and the known thing;
-
The act of the known object
“as known” and of the act of the knower “as knowing it” are
one and the same act;
-
The act of the known object
“as known” and of the act of the knower “as knowing it” are
one and the same act;
-
This act exists in the knower:
i.e., it is an act(ion) of the knower;
-
Knowledge happens according
to the mode or essence of the knower;
v
The role of the active intellect.
Basic
notions in Aristotle’s Logics
v
Logic as the last science
(maybe not even a science): reducing arguments to their first
principles and checking if they have been correctly developed
from them;
v
Meaning of demonstrating
something: premise-conclusion structure;
v
Subject of logics: syllogism:
v
“A
syllogism is speech (logos) in which, certain things
having been supposed, something different from those supposed
results of necessity because of their being so.” (Prior
Analytics I.2, 24b18-20);
v
Major premise, minor premise,
conclusion: example “All men are mortal; Socrates is a man;
Socrates is mortal.”
v
Induction and deduction:
the need for first (self-evident) premises; |
