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Greek philosopher, scientist, and physician, one of the greatest figures in the history of Western thought, born in Stagira, Macedonia. In 367 he went to Athens, where he was associated with Plato's Academy until Plato's death in 347 BC. He then spent time in Asia Minor and in Mytilene (on Lesbos). In 342 BC he was invited by Philip of Macedon to educate his son, Alexander (later, the Great). He returned to Athens (335 BC) and opened a school (the Lyceum); his followers were called Peripatetics, supposedly from his practice of walking up and down restlessly during his lectures. After Alexander's death (323 BC), there was strong anti-Macedonian sentiment in Athens; Aristotle was accused of impiety and, perhaps with Socrates' fate in mind, escaped to Chalcis in Euboea, where he died the next year.

Aristotle's writings represented an enormous, encyclopedic output over virtually every field of knowledge: logic, metaphysics, ethics, politics, rhetoric, poetry, biology, zoology, physics, and psychology. The bulk of the work that survives actually consists of unpublished material in the form of lecture notes or students' textbooks; but even this incomplete corpus is extraordinary for its range, originality, systematization, and sophistication, and his work exerted an enormous influence on mediaeval philosophy (especially through St Thomas Aquinas), Islamic philosophy (especially through Averroës), and indeed on the whole Western intellectual and scientific tradition. The works most read today include the Metaphysics (the book written ‘after the Physics’), Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, Poetics, De anima, and the Organon (treatises on logic).

era = Ancient philosophy
| birth = 384 BC
| death = March 7 322 BC
| school_tradition = Gave rise to Aristotelianism and the Peripatetic school
| main_interests = Ethics, Politics, Metaphysics, Science, Logic
| influences = Plato
| influenced = Almost all of western philosophy and science afterward
| notable_ideas = The Golden mean, Reason, Passion
}}

Aristotle (Greek: , Aristotél?s) (384 BC ? March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote books on diverse subjects, including physics, poetry, zoology, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, and biology, none of which survive in their entirety. Aristotle, along with Plato and Socrates, is generally considered one of the most influential of ancient Greek philosophers. They transformed Presocratic Greek philosophy into the foundations of Western philosophy as we know it. The writings of Plato and Aristotle founded two of the most important schools of Ancient philosophy.


Although Aristotle wrote dialogues early in his career, no more than fragments of these have survived. The works of Aristotle that exist today are in treatise form and were, for the most part, unpublished texts. Among the most important are Physics, Metaphysics (or Ontology), Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, De Anima (On the Soul) and Poetics.

Aristotle is known for being one of the few figures in history who studied almost every subject possible at the time, probably being one of the first polymaths. In science, Aristotle studied anatomy, astronomy, economics, embryology, geography, geology, meteorology, physics, and zoology. In philosophy, Aristotle wrote on aesthetics, ethics, government, metaphysics, politics, psychology, rhetoric and theology. He also dealt with education, foreign customs, literature and poetry. His combined works practically constitute an encyclopedia of Greek knowledge.

Biography

Early life and studies at the Academy

Aristotle was born in a colony of Andros on the Macedonian peninsula of Chalcidice in 384 BC. His father, who is named Nicomachus, was court physician to King Amyntas III of Macedon. It is known that she died early in Aristotle's life.
When Nicomachus also died, in Aristotle's tenth year, he was left an orphan and placed under the guardianship of his uncle, Proxenus of Atarneus.
He taught Aristotle Greek, rhetoric, and poetry (O'Connor et al., 2004). Aristotle also attend Plato's school for young Greek aristocracy, it is a well known fact that Aristotle was Plato's favourite student. when he went to Athens at the age of 18, he was likely already trained in the investigation of natural phenomena.

From the age of 18 to 37 Aristotle remained in Athens as a pupil of Plato and distinguished himself at the Academy. The relations between Plato and Aristotle have formed the subject of various legends, many of which depict Aristotle unfavourably. In fact, Aristotle's conduct after the death of Plato, his continued association with Xenocrates and other Platonists, and his allusions in his writings to Plato's doctrines prove that while there were conflicts of opinion between Plato and Aristotle, there was no lack of cordial appreciation or mutual forbearance. Besides this, the legends that reflect Aristotle unfavourably are allegedly traceable to the Epicureans, although some doubt remains of this charge. If such legends were circulated widely by patristic writers such as Justin Martyr and Gregory Nazianzen, the reason lies in the exaggerated esteem Aristotle was held in by the early Christian heretics. Aristotle then went with Xenocrates to the court of Hermias, ruler of Atarneus in Asia Minor, married his niece, Pythias, and with her had a daughter named Pythias after her mother. In 344 BC, Hermias was murdered in a rebellion, and Aristotle went with his family to Mytilene. It is also reported that he stopped on Lesbos and briefly conducted biological research. Then, one or two years later, he was summoned to Pella, the Macedonian capital, by King Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor of Alexander the Great, who was then 13.

Plutarch wrote that Aristotle not only imparted to Alexander a knowledge of ethics and politics, but also of the most profound secrets of philosophy. We have much proof that Alexander profited by contact with the philosopher, and that Aristotle made prudent and beneficial use of his influence over the young prince (although Bertrand Russell disputes this). Due to this influence, Alexander provided Aristotle with ample means for the acquisition of books and the pursuit of his scientific investigation.

It is possible that Aristotle also participated in the education of Alexander's boyhood friends, which may have included for example Hephaestion and Harpalus. Aristotle maintained a long correspondence with Hephaestion, eventually collected into a book, unfortunately now lost.

According to sources such as Plutarch and Diogenes, Philip had Aristotle's hometown of Stageira burned during the 340s BC, and Aristotle successfully requested that Alexander rebuild it. He may, as Aulus Gellius says, have conducted a school of rhetoric during his former residence in Athens; but now, following Plato's example, he gave regular instruction in philosophy in a gymnasium dedicated to Apollo Lyceios, from which his school has come to be known as the Lyceum. (It was also called the Peripatetic School because Aristotle preferred to discuss problems of philosophy with his pupils while walking around -- peripateo -- the shaded walks -- peripatoi -- around the gymnasium).

During the thirteen years (335 BC–322 BC) which he spent as teacher of the Lyceum, Aristotle composed most of his writings. He also composed the several treatises (which will be mentioned below) on physics, metaphysics, and so forth, in which the exposition is more didactic and the language more technical than in the Dialogues. Pliny the Elder claimed that Alexander placed under Aristotle's orders all the hunters, fishermen, and fowlers of the royal kingdom and all the overseers of the royal forests, lakes, ponds and cattle-ranges, and Aristotle's works on zoology make this statement more believable. Aristotle was fully informed about the doctrines of his predecessors, and Strabo asserted that he was the first to accumulate a great library.

During the last years of Aristotle's life the relations between him and Alexander became very strained, owing to the disgrace and punishment of Callisthenes, whom Aristotle had recommended to Alexander. Consequently, when Alexander's death became known in Athens, and the outbreak occurred which led to the Lamian war, Aristotle shared in the general unpopularity of the Macedonians. The charge of impiety, which had been brought against Anaxagoras and Socrates, was now brought against Aristotle. He took up residence at his country house at Chalcis, in Euboea, and there he died the following year, 322 BC. The story that his death was due to hemlock poisoning, as well as the legend that he threw himself into the sea "because he could not explain the tides," are without historical foundation.

Aristotle's legacy also had a profound influence on Islamic thought and philosophy during the Middle Ages. Muslim thinkers such as Avicenna, .

Methodology

Aristotle defines his philosophy in terms of essence, saying that philosophy is "the science of the universal essence of that which is actual". Plato had defined it as the "science of the idea", meaning by idea what we should call the unconditional basis of phenomena. Both pupil and master regard philosophy as concerned with the universal; Aristotle, however, finds the universal in particular things, and called it the essence of things, while Plato finds that the universal exists apart from particular things, and is related to them as their prototype or exemplar. For Aristotle, therefore, philosophic method implies the ascent from the study of particular phenomena to the knowledge of essences, while for Plato philosophic method means the descent from a knowledge of universal ideas to a contemplation of particular imitations of those ideas. In a certain sense, Aristotle's method is both inductive and deductive, while Plato's is essentially deductive from a priori principles.

In Aristotle's terminology, the term natural philosophy corresponds to the phenomena of the natural world, which include: motion, light, and the laws of physics. Many centuries later these subjects would become the basis of modern science, as studied through the scientific method. In contrast, in Aristotle's time and use philosophy was taken to encompass all facets of intellectual inquiry.

In the larger sense of the word, he makes philosophy coextensive with reasoning, which he also called "science". while by theoretical philosophy he means physics, mathematics, and metaphysics.

The last, philosophy in the stricter sense, he defines as "the knowledge of immaterial being", and calls it "first philosophy", "the theologic science" or of "being in the highest degree of abstraction". If logic, or, as Aristotle calls it, Analytic, be regarded as a study preliminary to philosophy, we have as divisions of Aristotelian philosophy (1) Logic; (2) Theoretical Philosophy, including Metaphysics, Physics, Mathematics, (3) Practical Philosophy;

Aristotle's epistemology

Logic

Aristotle's conception of logic was the dominant form of logic up until the advances in mathematical logic in the 19th century. However, Plato reports that syntax was thought of before him, by Prodikos of Keos, who was concerned by the right use of words. Logic seems to have emerged from dialectics; Although he had the idea of constructing a system for deduction, he was never able to construct one. Instead, he relied on his dialectic, which was a confusion between different sciences and methods (Boche?ski, 1951). Plato thought that deduction would simply follow from premises, so he focused on having good premises so that the conclusion would follow. The logical works of Aristotle were compiled into six books in about the early 1st century CE:

1. Categories
   
2. On Interpretation
   
3. Prior Analytics
   
4. Posterior Analytics
   
5. Topics
   
6. On Sophistical Refutations
   

The order of the books (or the teachings from which they are composed) is not certain, but this list was derived from analysis of Aristotle's writings. There is one volume of Aristotle's concerning logic not found in the Organon, namely the fourth book of Metaphysics. (Boche?ski, 1951).

Modal logic

Aristotle is also the creator of syllogisms with modalities (modal logic). The word modal refers to the word 'modes', explaining the fact that modal logic deals with the modes of truth. By the modern definition of the term, Aristotelian philosophy was not science, as this worldview did not attempt to probe how the world actually worked through experiment. Had he only made some observations, he would have discovered that this claim is false.

Rather, based on what one's senses told one, Aristotelian philosophy then depended upon the assumption that man's mind could elucidate all the laws of the universe, based on simple observation (without experimentation) through reason alone.

One of the reasons for this was that Aristotle held that physics was about changing objects with a reality of their own, whereas mathematics was about unchanging objects without a reality of their own. This is known as the scientific method.

Although Aristotle should be credited for an important step in the history of scientific method by founding logic as a formal science, he posited a flawed cosmology that we may discern in selections of the Metaphysics. From the 3rd century to the 1500s, the dominant view held that the Earth was the centre of the universe: at this late date it is uncontroversial that the Earth is not even the centre of our own solar system.

Later on, Galileo proved Aristotle's theory that the heavier object falls faster than a lighter object incorrect.

Aristotle's metaphysics

Causality

In Metaphysics and Posterior Assilistics, Aristotle argued that all causes of things are beginnings; As a consequence, the major kinds of causes come under the following divisions:

The Material Cause is that from which a thing comes into existence as from its parts, constituents, substratum or materials. This reduces the explanation of causes to the parts (factors, elements, constituents, ingredients) forming the whole (system, structure, compound, complex, composite, or combination) (the part-whole causation).

The Formal Cause tells us what a thing is, that any thing is determined by the definition, form, pattern, essence, whole, synthesis, or archetype. It embraces the account of causes in terms of fundamental principles or general laws, as the whole (macrostructure) is the cause of its parts (the whole-part causation).

The Efficient Cause is that from which the change or the ending of the change first starts. Representing the current understanding of causality as the relation of cause and effect, this covers the modern definitions of "cause" as either the agent or agency or particular events or states of affairs.

The Final Cause is that for the sake of which a thing exists or is done, including both purposeful and instrumental actions and activities. Also, Aristotle indicated that the same thing can be the cause of contrary effects, its presence and absence may result in different outcomes.

Aristotle marked two modes of causation: proper (prior) causation and accidental (chance) causation. Essentially, causality does not suggest a temporal relation between the cause and the effect.

All further investigations of causality will be consisting in imposing the favorite hierarchies on the order causes, like as final > efficient> material > formal (Thomas Aquinas), or in restricting all causality to the material and efficient causes or to the efficient causality (deterministic or chance) or just to regular sequences and correlations of natural phenomena (the natural sciences describing how things happen instead of explaining the whys and wherefores).

Substance, Potentiality and Actuality

Aristotle examines the concept of substance (ousia) in his Metaphysics, Book VII and he concludes that a particular substance is a combination of both matter and form. As he proceeds to the book VIII, he concludes that the matter of the substance is the substratum or the stuff of which is composed e.g. or any other differentia. The formula that gives the components is the account of the matter, and the formula that gives the differentia is the account of the form (Metaphysics VIII, 1043a 10-30).

With regard to the change (kinesis) and its causes now, as he defines in his Physics and On Generation and Corruption 319b-320a, he distinguishes the coming to be from 1. In that particular change he introduces the concept of potentiality (dynamis) and actuality (entelecheia) in association with the matter and the form.

Referring to potentiality, is what a thing is capable of doing, or being acted upon, if it is not prevented from something else.

Referring now to actuality, this is the fulfillment of the end of the potentiality. The Formal Cause (aitia) then of that change from potential to actual house, is the reason (logos) of the house builder and the Final Cause is the end, namely the house itself.

With this definition of the particular substance (matter and form) Aristotle tries to solve the problem of the unity of the beings; Since, according to Plato there are two Ideas: animal and biped, how then is man a unity? The heavenly element has perpetual circular motion.

Aristotle's ethics

Although Aristotle wrote several works on ethics, the major one was the Nicomachean Ethics, which is considered one of Aristotle's greatest works; it discusses virtues. The ten books which comprise it are based on notes from his lectures at the Lyceum and were either edited by or dedicated to Aristotle's son, Nicomachus.

Aristotle believed that ethical knowledge is not certain knowledge, like metaphysics and epistemology, but general knowledge. Also, as it is a practical discipline rather than a theoretical one; Depending on how well they did this, Aristotle said people belonged to one of four categories: the Virtuous, the Continent, the Incontinent and the Vicious.

Aristotle believed that every ethical virtue is an intermediate condition between excess and deficiency. He set certain emotions (e.g., hate, envy, jealousy, spite, etc.) and certain actions (e.g., adultery, theft, murder, etc.) as always wrong, regardless of the situation or the circumstances.

In the Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle often focused on finding the mean between two extremes of any particular subject;

• At times, the objections that Aristotle raises against the arguments of his own teacher, Plato, appear to rely on faulty interpretations of those arguments.
  
• Although Aristotle advised, against Plato, that knowledge of the world could only be obtained through experience, he frequently failed to take his own advice. Aristotle conducted projects of careful empirical investigation, but often drifted into abstract logical reasoning, with the result that his work was littered with conclusions that were not supported by empirical evidence: for example, his assertion that objects of different mass fall at different speeds under gravity, which was later refuted by John Philoponus (credit is often given to Galileo, even though Philoponus lived centuries earlier).
  
• In the Middle Ages, roughly from the 12th century to the 15th century, the philosophy of Aristotle became firmly established dogma. His works were wide-ranging and systematic so that they could give the impression that no significant matter had been left unsettled. He was also much less inclined to employ the skeptical methods of his predecessors, Socrates and Plato.
  
• Some academics have suggested that Aristotle was unaware of much of the current science of his own time.
  

Aristotle was called not a great philosopher, but "The Philosopher" by Scholastic thinkers. It required a repudiation of some Aristotelian principles for the sciences and the arts to free themselves for the discovery of modern scientific laws and empirical methods.

The loss of his works

Though we know that Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises (Cicero described his literary style as "a river of gold"), the originals have been lost in time. The story of the original manuscripts of his treatises is described by Strabo in his Geography and Plutarch in his "Parallel Lives, Sulla": The manuscripts were left from Aristotle to Theophrastus, from Theophrastus to Neleus of Scepsis, from Neleus to his heirs. Their descendants sold them to Apellicon of Teos. When Lucius Cornelius Sulla occupied Athens in 86 BC, he carried off the library of Appellicon to Rome, where they were first published in 60 BC from the grammarian Tyrranion of Amisus and then by philosopher Andronicus of Rhodes.

Bibliography

Note: Bekker numbers are often used to uniquely identify passages of Aristotle. Other works, such On Colours may have been products of Aristotle's successors at the Lyceum, e.g., Theophrastus and Straton. Still others acquired Aristotle's name through similarities in doctrine or content, such as the De Plantis, possibly by Nicolaus of Damascus. A final category, omitted here, includes medieval palmistries, astrological and magical texts whose connection to Aristotle is purely fanciful and self-promotional.

Logical writings

• Organon (collected works on logic):
  
  • (1a) Categories (or Categoriae)
    
  • (16a) On Interpretation (or De Interpretatione)
    
  • (24a) Prior Analytics (or Analytica Priora)
    
  • (71a) Posterior Analytics (or Analytica Posteriora)
    
  • (100b) Topics (or Topica)
    
  • (164a) On Sophistical Refutations (or De Sophisticis Elenchis)
    

Physical and scientific writings

• (184a) Physics (or Physica)
  
• (268a) On the Heavens (or De Caelo)
  
• (314a) On Generation and Corruption (or De Generatione et Corruptione)
  
• (338a) Meteorology (or Meteorologica)
  
• (391a) On the Cosmos (or De Mundo, or On the Universe) *
  
• (402a) On the Soul (or De Anima)
  
• (436a) Little Physical Treatises (or Parva Naturalia):
  
  • On Sense and the Sensible (or De Sensu et Sensibilibus)
    
  • On Memory and Reminiscence (or De Memoria et Reminiscentia)
    
  • On Sleep and Sleeplessness (or De Somno et Vigilia)
    
  • On Dreams (or De Insomniis) *
    
  • On Prophesying by Dreams (or De Divinatione per Somnum)
    
  • On Longevity and Shortness of Life (or De Longitudine et Brevitate Vitae)
    
  • On Youth and Old Age (On Life and Death) (or De Juventute et Senectute, De Vita et Morte)
    
  • On Breathing (or De Respiratione)
    
• (481a) On Breath (or De Spiritu) *
  
• (486a) History of Animals (or Historia Animalium, or On the History of Animals, or Description of Animals)
  
• (639a) On the Parts of Animals (or De Partibus Animalium)
  
• (698a) On the Gait of Animals (or De Motu Animalium, or On the Movement of Animals)
  
• (704a) On the Progression of Animals (or De Incessu Animalium)
  
• (715a) On the Generation of Animals (or De Generatione Animalium)
  
• (791a) On Colours (or De Coloribus) *
  
• (800a) De audibilibus
  
• (805a) Physiognomics (or Physiognomonica) *
  
• On Plants (or De Plantis) *
  
• (830a) On Marvellous Things Heard (or Mirabilibus Auscultationibus, or On Things Heard) *
  
• (847a) Mechanical Problems (or Mechanica) *
  
• (859a) Problems (or Problemata) *
  
• (968a) On Indivisible Lines (or De Lineis Insecabilibus) *
  
• (973a) Situations and Names of Winds (or Ventorum Situs) *
  
• (974a) On Melissus, Xenophanes and Gorgias (or MXG) * The section On Xenophanes starts at 977a13, the section On Gorgias starts at 979a11.
  

Metaphysical writings

• (980a) Metaphysics (or Metaphysica)
  

Ethical writings

• (1094a) Nicomachean Ethics (or Ethica Nicomachea, or The Ethics)
  
• (1181a) Great Ethics (or Magna Moralia) *
  
• (1214a) Eudemian Ethics (or Ethica Eudemia)
  
• (1249a) Virtues and Vices (or De Virtutibus et Vitiis Libellus, Libellus de virtutibus) *
  
• (1252a) Politics (or Politica)
  
• (1343a) Economics (or Oeconomica)
  

Aesthetic writings

• (1354a) Rhetoric (or Ars Rhetorica, or The Art of Rhetoric or Treatise on Rhetoric)
  
• Rhetoric to Alexander (or Rhetorica ad Alexandrum) *
  
• (1447a) Poetics (or Ars Poetica)
  

A work outside the Corpus Aristotelicum

• The Constitution of the Athenians (or Athenaion Politeia, or The Athenian Constitution)
  

Specific editions

• Princeton University Press: The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation (2 Volume Set; 2), edited by Jonathan Barnes ISBN 0-691-09950-2 (The most complete recent translation of Aristotle's extant works)
  
• Oxford University Press: Clarendon Aristotle Series. Scholarly edition
  
• Harvard University Press: Loeb Classical Library (hardbound; publishes in Greek, with English translations on facing pages)
  
• Oxford Classical Texts (hardbound; Greek only)
  

Named after Aristotle

• Aristoteles, a crater on the Moon.
  
• The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  
• Aristotelous Square
  

Notes

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Further reading

The secondary literature on Aristotle is vast. Indianapolis: Hackett.

• 
  
• An classic overview by one of Aristotle's most prominent English translators, in print since 1923.
  
• Scaltsas, T.