Aristotle’s achievements
in the history and development of western thought are both stunning and unrivaled. More than just a philosopher, Aristotle (384-322 BC) was a
scientist, astronomer, political theorist and the inventor of what is now
called symbolic or formal logic. He wrote extensively on biology, psychology,
ethics, physics, metaphysics and politics and set the terms of debate in all
these areas right up to modern times. Indeed, his writings on justice are still
required reading for undergraduates reading Law.
After his death his works
were lost for some 200 years or so but fortunately rediscovered in Crete. Later
translated into Latin by Boethius around 500 AD, Aristotle’s influence spread
throughout Syria and Islam whilst Christian Europe ignored him in favour of
Plato. Not until Thomas Aquinas reconciled Aristotle’s work with Christian
doctrine in the 13th century did he become influential in Western
Europe. Aristotle received his education from age seventeen in Plato’s ‘Academy’,
where he stayed for some 20 years until Plato’s death. Later he founded his own
institution, ‘The Lyceum’, where he would expound a philosophy altogether
different both in method and content from that of his former teacher.
More than any other philosopher
before him, Aristotle made much of observation and strict classification of
data in his studies. For this reason he is often considered as the father of
empirical science and scientific method. Unlike his predecessor Plato, Aristotle
always undertook his investigations by considering the regarded opinions of
both experts and lay people, before detailing his own arguments, assuming that
some grain of truth is likely to be found in commonly held ideas. Aristotle’s
method was nothing if not rigorous and lacked the proselytising tone of many of
his predecessors.
In contradistinction to
both Plato and the Pre-Socratic, Aristotle rejected the idea that the many
diverse branches of human inquiry could, in principle, be subsumed under one
discipline based on some universal philosophic principle. Different sciences
require different axioms and admit of varying degrees of precision according to
their subject. Thus Aristotle denied there could be exact law of human nature,
whilst maintaining that certain metaphysical categories – such as quantity,
quality, substance and relation – were applicable to the description of all
phenomena.
If there is one common
thread to much of Aristotle’s work it lies in his conception of teleology, or
purpose. Perhaps as a result of his preoccupation with biological studies,
Aristotle was impressed by the idea that both
animate and inanimate behaviour is directed toward some final purpose (‘telos’)
or goal. It is common to explain the behaviour of people, institutions and
nations in terms of purposes and goals: for example, John is sitting the bar
exam to become a barrister; the school is holding a fete to raise funds for the
roof; the country is going to war to protect its territory. Similarly, modern
evolutionary biology makes use of purposive explanation to account for the behaviour
of, for instance, genes and genetic imperatives.
However, Aristotle thought
the concept of purpose could be invoked to explain the behaviour of everything
in the universe. His reasoning lay in the idea that everything has a natural
function and strives towards fulfilling or exhibiting that function, which is
its best and more natural state. It is by means of the concept of function that
Aristotle then ties his ethics to his physics, claiming that the natural function of man is to reason,
and to reason will is to reason in accordance with virtue.
Unlike the opposing
ethical theories of Kant and Mill, both of which view actions as the subject of
ethical judgements, Aristotle’s ethics focuses on the character of the agent as
that which is morally good or morally bad. This is so-called ‘virtue ethics’
was revived with much critical success by Alistair Macintyre in late 20th
century.
[Summarized from Philosophy 100 Essential Thinkers by Philip
Stokes, 2012]
Lord, Give
Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)
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