Interesting Facts about the Aristotle – One of the greatest Greek philosophers

Updated on August 16, 2022 22:05 PM by Ella Bina

The great Greek philosopher Aristotle made a big and eternal contribution to almost all aspects of human knowledge, from biology to logic to aesthetics to ethics. Although in ancient times, Aristotle was looked over because of his teacher Plato. Aristotle became popular during the Enlightenment period when his surviving works were found to be incredibly influential. He was known as The First Teacher of Arabic philosophy and The Philosopher in the West.

Aristotle’s early life

Aristotle was born in Stagira, situated in northern Greece, in 384 BC. Both his parents were part of traditional medical families. His father, Nicomachus, was a physician in King Amyntus III of Macedonia's court. Aristotle's parents died when he was young, and he was probably brought up in Stagira itself. When he turned 17, he was sent to Athens to attend Plato's Academy. He stayed in the Academy both as a student and a teacher, emerging with great respect and criticism for his teacher and his theories. In his later works, Plato eased some of his earlier positions; this was most likely the result of continuous discussion with his most talented student.

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When Plato passed away in 347, the Academy's control went to Plato's nephew Speusippus. Aristotle immediately left Athens. The frustration probably triggered his leaving Athens he felt with the Academy or because of the political difficulties, he faced as his family had connections with Macedonia. Aristotle lived on the coast of Asia Minor for five years as a guest at Assos and Lesbos. It was here that he did his groundbreaking research in marine biology. The philosopher didn't only did his research here but also married his wife Pythias. The couple had a daughter. Her name was also Pythias.

The Macedonian King Philip II sent for Aristotle in 342 to teach his son, who became Alexander the Great.

Virtue Ethics

Aristotle made contributions to both – symbolic logic as well as scientific thinking in Western philosophy. His advancement in philosophy is called metaphysics. Aristotle moved away from Plato's idealism to a view of reality that was less mystical and more empirical. He was the first philosopher to propound a theory of Virtual Ethics seriously. This is among the three major schools of ethical thinking that most contemporary philosophers take seriously. Considering all these contributions, he can be regarded as the most important philosopher in entire history until the 18^th century at least.

Aristotle’s philosophy through history

Just like Plato, Aristotle's initial work is also lost. However, unlike Plato, Aristotle's actual works were never found. Rather, historians discovered the class notes of his students. These notes gave the entire world an idea of his thoughts and beliefs.

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Contemporary philosophers shunned Aristotle's works in the beginning during the Medieval period as it mainly concerned with theological questions. Plato and Plotinus' views were seen as more accommodating to Christianity than Aristotle's pagan and essentially scientific views. It changed when St. Thomas Aquinas incorporated views by Aristotle into his own Catholic theology. This reintroduced Aristotelian philosophy in front of the world, laying the foundation for the Enlightenment's scientific advancement.

Science, Metaphysics & Logic

Aristotle rejected the Theory of the Form, an idea his mentor Plato gave. This idea states that the idealized core of an object exists separately from that particular object. Plato felt that all the physical things were a symbol of idealized perfect forms which subsist on some other plane of reality. However, Aristotle believed that the core of an object lived with the object itself. In the same way, Aristotle rejected the perception of the soul that lives outside the physical body. Instead, he believed that human consciousness dwells fully with the physical form. According to him, the best means to get knowledge is with the help of natural philosophy – that's what we now call science.

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Despite this belief, Aristotle's many theories didn't stand the test of time and scientific advancement. The credit goes to him that science continuously studies hypotheses with experiments and eventually gets rid of the claims that do not hold true.

The Five Classical Elements and the Four Causes

In the beginning, Aristotle claimed that all things were made up of five elements – Earth, Fire, Air, Water, and Aether. He is popular for his four causes as well. These causes talk about an object's changing nature.

An object is made up of its material cause
An object is arranged as its formal cause
It came from its efficient cause
An object’s final cause is its purpose

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Regarding Biology, Aristotle said that all the life forms came from the sea, and complex life forms originated from a slow evolvement of less-complex life forms. Later, the same hypothesis was proved true by Charles Darwin and many experiments and biological experiments.

Axioms

Aristotle believed that while trying to conclude the basic nature of reality, the only place to start with is basic axioms. The principle of non-contradiction was one of the hypotheses; it stated that an object can't have a quality and simultaneously not have that quality. He used this concept as an essential starting point of natural philosophy and metaphysics and as the basis of symbolic logic – that he was the first to find. While a hypothesis can't be proved, it is still presumed to be true as it looks to be self-evident, which lets us go ahead in setting an argument.

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Logic

Aristotle's symbolic logic, it was the first attempt to examine validity in reasoning. For instance, if the first statement is 'all insects are invertebrates, and 'all invertebrates are animals' is our second statement, then the conclusion 'all insects are animals' is valid extracted from the given statements. This has nothing to do with how true the statements are. If we say 'all birds are invertebrates and the conclusion changes to 'all birds are animals, the logic is also valid, though the first statement is wrong. So, Aristotle proved that reasoning differs from the truthfulness of the given statements. A logical argument can have false statements but a true conclusion, but true statements will always have a true conclusion.

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Ethics

Aristotle and Plato's ethics are almost the same as agent-centered ethics. In their ethics, the moral agent decides the right moral action. According to Aristotle, neither any rules nor appeal to consequences can probably offer a person proper guidelines for responding in every situation. His ethical views were paid no attention to during Medieval times. During that time, it was believed that the basis of ethics was in the will of God. At the beginning of the early modern period, a more materialistic ethical view competed with religious concepts.

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Eudemonia and Virtues

Aristotle believed that people's aim in searching for happiness is to attain Eudemonia – a state of flourishing. He agreed with his teacher Plato that virtue may not always result in a better life. Contradicting his own belief, Aristotle believed that to achieve a real state of Eudemonia, aspiring for virtue is essential. Identifying virtue is nothing but a middle path between two vices in opposite directions. For example, Aristotle considered temperance as a virtue, and its definition means taking everything in moderation. Ethics have become a trend again, but the controversy is still on about the major key virtues. The virtues given by Aristotle are temperance, fortitude, liberality, magnanimity, magnificence, courage, and justice.

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Aristotle and the Lyceum

Aristotle came back to Athens in 335 BC. As he was an outsider, he couldn't buy any property there. So, he took a space in the Lyceum on rest. It was a former wrestling school located on the outskirts of the city. Like Plato's Academy, the Lyceum also attracted students from all over Greece. It developed a curriculum keeping in mind the teachings of its founder. Following Aristotle's principle of examining the works of others as being a part of the philosophical process, the Lyceum collected a collection of manuscripts that included one of the first great libraries in the world.

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Aristotle’s work

During his stay at Lyceum, Aristotle likely composed most of his around 200 works. Out of all his works, only 31 survived. His works are extremely dense and also jumbled. The surviving works are grouped into four categories.

The Organon is a collection of writings that offers a logical reference book to be used in any scientific or philosophical investigation. Next are Aristotle's theoretical works. A most popular one is his treatise on animals.

The third is his practical works. The most notable ones are Nicomachean Ethics and also Politics. The last one is Rhetoric and Poetics.

The Organon

The Organon is the Latin word for the instrument.