Aristotle (lat. Aristotle) (384 BC, Stagira, Halkidiki Peninsula, Northern Greece - 322 BC, Chalkis, Euboea Island, Central Greece), ancient Greek scientist, philosopher, founder of Lyceum, teacher of Alexander the Great.
Aristotle's father, Nicomachus, was a doctor at the court of the Macedonian kings. He managed to give his son a good home education, knowledge of ancient medicine. The influence of his father affected the scientific interests of Aristotle, his serious studies in anatomy. In 367, at the age of seventeen, Aristotle traveled to Athens, where he became a student of Plato's Academy. A few years later, Aristotle himself began to teach at the Academy, became a full member of the community of Platonic philosophers. For twenty years, Aristotle worked with Plato, but was an independent and independently thinking scientist, critical of the views of his teacher. After the death of Plato in 347, Aristotle leaves the Academy and moves to the city of Atarney (Asia Minor), which was ruled by Plato's student Hermias.
After the death of Hermias in 344, Aristotle lived on the island of Lesbos, and in 343 the Macedonian king Philip II invited the scientist to become the teacher of his son Alexander. After Alexander ascended the throne, Aristotle returned to Athens in 335, where he founded his own philosophical school. The place of the school was a gymnasium not far from the temple of Apollo of Lyceum, so the school of Aristotle was called the Lyceum. Aristotle loved to lecture, walking with his students along the paths of the garden. Thus, another name of the Lyceum appeared - the peripatetic school (from peripato - a walk). Representatives of the peripatetic school, in addition to philosophy, were also engaged in specific sciences (history, physics, astronomy, geography).
In 323 BC, after the death of Alexander the Great, an anti-Macedonian rebellion began in Athens. Aristotle, as a Macedonian, was not left alone. He was accused of religious disrespect, and he was forced to leave Athens. Aristotle spent the last months of his life on the island of Euboea.
The scientific productivity of Aristotle was unusually high, his works covered all branches of ancient science. He became the founder of formal logic, the creator of syllogistics, the doctrine of logical deduction. Aristotle's logic is not an independent science, but a method of judgment applicable to any science. The philosophy of Aristotle contains the doctrine of the basic principles of being: reality and possibility (act and potency), form and matter, active cause and purpose (see Entelechy). Aristotle's metaphysics is based on the doctrine of the principles and causes of the organization of being. As the beginning and root cause of all things, Aristotle put forward the concept of substantial reason. To classify the properties of being, Aristotle singled out ten predicates (essence, quantity, quality, relations, place, time, state, possession, action, suffering), which comprehensively determined the subject. Aristotle established four principles (conditions) of being: form, matter, cause and purpose. The main value is the ratio of form and matter.
In natural philosophy, Aristotle follows the following principles: The universe is finite; everything has its cause and purpose; it is impossible to comprehend nature by mathematics; physical laws are not universal; nature is built on a hierarchical ladder; one should not explain the world, but classify its components from a scientific point of view. Aristotle divided nature into the inorganic world, plants, animals and humans. Human beings are distinguished from animals by their intelligence. And since man is a social being, ethics is of great importance in the teachings of Aristotle. The basic principle of Aristotelian ethics is reasonable behavior, moderation (metriopathy).
In politics, Aristotle gave a classification of the forms of government, he attributed the best forms of monarchy, aristocracy and polity (moderate democracy), to the worst - tyranny, oligarchy, ochlocracy. In the doctrine of art, Aristotle argued that the essence of art is imitation (mimesis). He introduced the concept of catharsis (purification of the human spirit) as the goal of a theatrical tragedy, and proposed general principles for constructing a work of art.
Three books of the treatise "Rhetoric" Aristotle devoted to oratory. In this treatise, rhetoric acquired a coherent system, was linked to logic and dialectics. Aristotle created the theory of style and developed the basic principles of classical style.
The surviving works of Aristotle can be arranged into four main groups, according to the classification of sciences he proposed:
1. Works on logic that made up the "Organon" code (works "Categories", "On Interpretation", the first and second "Analytics", "Topeka");
2. Consolidated work on the principles of being, called "Metaphysics";
3. Natural science works (“Physics”, “On the sky”, “Meteorology”, “On the origin and destruction”, “History of animals”, “On the parts of animals”, “On the origin of animals”, “On the movement of animals”);
4. Works that deal with the problems of society, state, law, historical, political, ethical, aesthetic issues ("Ethics", "Politics", "Athenian Politia", "Poetics", "Rhetoric").
Aristotle's cosmology, with all its achievements (the reduction of the entire sum of visible celestial phenomena and the movements of the stars into a coherent theory), in some parts was backward in comparison with the cosmology of Democritus and Pythagoreanism. The influence of Aristotle's geocentric cosmology continued until Copernicus. Aristotle was guided by the planetary theory of Eudoxus of Cnidus, but attributed to the planetary spheres a real physical existence: the Universe consists of a series of concentric. spheres moving at different speeds and set in motion by the extreme sphere of fixed stars. The "sublunar" world, i.e., the region between the orbit of the Moon and the center of the Earth, is a region of chaotic uneven movements, and all bodies in this region consist of four lower elements: earth, water, air and fire. Earth, as the heaviest element, occupies a central place, above it are successively shells of water, air and fire. The "supralunar" world, that is, the region between the orbit of the Moon and the extreme sphere of the fixed stars, is the region of ever-uniform motions, and the stars themselves consist of the fifth, most perfect element, the ether.
In the field of biology, one of the merits of Aristotle is his doctrine of biological expediency, based on observations of the expedient structure of living organisms. Aristotle saw examples of expediency in nature in such facts as the development of organic structures from the seed, various manifestations of the expediently acting instinct of animals, the mutual adaptability of their organs, etc. In the biological works of Aristotle, which for a long time served as the main source of information on zoology, a classification and description of numerous animal species is given. The matter of life is the body, the form is the soul, which Aristotle called "entelechy". According to the three kinds of living beings (plants, animals, man), Aristotle distinguished three souls, or three parts of the soul: plant, animal (sensing) and rational.
In the ethics of Aristotle, the contemplative activity of the mind (“Diano-ethical” virtues) is placed above all else, which, in his opinion, contains in itself its own inherent pleasure, which enhances energy. This ideal was affected by the characteristic of slave-owning Greece of the 4th century. BC e. the separation of physical labor, which was the share of the slave, from mental labor, which was the privilege of the free. The moral ideal of Aristotle is God - the most perfect philosopher, or "self-thinking thinking." Ethical virtue, by which Aristotle understood the rational regulation of one's activities, he defined as the middle between two extremes (metriopathy). For example, generosity is the middle ground between stinginess and extravagance.
Aristotle considered art as a special kind of cognition based on imitation and set it as an activity depicting something that could be higher than historical cognition, which has as its object the reproduction of single individual events in their bare facticity. A look at art allowed Aristotle - in "Poetics" and "Rhetoric" - to develop a deep theory of art approaching realism, the doctrine of artistic activity and the genres of epic and drama.
Aristotle distinguished between three good and three bad forms of government. He considered good forms in which the possibility of selfish use of power is excluded, and the power itself serves the whole society; it is a monarchy, aristocracy and "polity" (power of the middle class), based on a mixture of oligarchy and democracy. On the contrary, Aristotle considered tyranny, pure oligarchy and extreme democracy to be bad, as if degenerate, types of these forms. Being the spokesman of the polis ideology, Aristotle was an opponent of large state formations. The theory of the state of Aristotle was based on the vast factual material studied by him and collected in his school about the Greek city-states. The teachings of Aristotle had a tremendous impact on the subsequent development of philosophical thought.
The entire scientific and spiritual experience of Ancient Greece was reflected in the works of Aristotle, he became the standard of wisdom, had an indelible influence on the development of human thought.
Literature
Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
Encyclopedic Dictionary. Brockhaus F.A., Efron I.A.
Aristotle (ancient Greek Ἀριστοτέλης; 384 BC, Stagira, Thrace - 322 BC, Chalkis, the island of Euboea) is an ancient Greek philosopher. Plato's student. From 343 BC e. - teacher of Alexander the Great.
In 335/4 BC. e. founded Lyceum (ancient Greek Λύκειο Lyceum, or peripatetic school). Naturalist of the classical period. The most influential of the dialecticians of antiquity; founder of formal logic. He created a conceptual apparatus that still permeates the philosophical lexicon and the very style of scientific thinking.
Aristotle was the first thinker who created a comprehensive system of philosophy, covering all areas of human development: sociology, philosophy, politics, logic, physics. His views on ontology had a serious influence on the subsequent development of human thought. The metaphysical teaching of Aristotle was adopted by Thomas Aquinas and developed by the scholastic method.
For nearly twenty years, Aristotle studied at the Academy and, apparently, taught there for some time. After leaving the Academy, Aristotle became an educator. As the founder of the Lyceum in Athens, which continued its activity for many centuries after his death, Aristotle made a significant contribution to the ancient system of education. He conceived and organized large-scale natural science research, which Alexander financed. These studies led to many fundamental discoveries, but the greatest achievements of Aristotle belong to the field of philosophy.
Aristotle's father Nicomachus was a doctor in the city of Stagira, as well as the court physician of Amyntas III, king of neighboring Macedonia. Early left without parents, the young man was brought up in Atarney by Proxen, his relative. At the age of eighteen he went to Athens and entered Plato's Academy, where he remained for about twenty years, until Plato's death c. 347 BC During this time, Aristotle studied the philosophy of Plato, as well as its Socratic and pre-Socratic sources, and many other disciplines. Apparently, Aristotle taught rhetoric and other subjects at the Academy. During this period, in defense of the Platonic doctrine, he wrote several dialogues of a popular nature. It is possible that works on logic, Physics and some sections of the treatise On the Soul belong to the same time.
The widespread legend of serious friction and even an open rupture between Aristotle and Plato during his lifetime has no basis. Even after Plato's death, Aristotle continued to consider himself a Platonist. In Nicomachean ethics, written much later, in the mature period of creativity, there is a touching digression in which the feeling of gratitude to the mentor who introduced us to philosophy is likened to the gratitude that we should feel in relation to the gods and parents.
However, ok. 348-347 BC Plato's successor at the Academy was Speusippus. Many members of the Academy, and among them Aristotle, were unhappy with this decision. Together with his friend Xenocrates, he left the Academy, entering a small circle of Platonists, gathered by Hermias, the ruler of Ass, a small city in Asia Minor. First here, and later in Mytilene on about. Lesbos Aristotle devoted himself to teaching and research. Criticizing Speusippus, Aristotle set about developing such an interpretation of the teachings of Plato, which, as it seemed to him, was closer to the philosophy of the teacher, and also better agreed with reality. By this time, their relationship with Hermias had become closer, and under his influence, Aristotle, following the fundamental orientation of Platonism to practice, linked his philosophy with politics.
Hermias was an ally of the Macedonian king Philip II, father of Alexander, so, perhaps, it was thanks to Hermias that Aristotle in 343 or 342 BC. received an invitation to take the post of mentor to the young heir to the throne, who was then 13 years old. Aristotle accepted the offer and moved to Pella, the Macedonian capital. Little is known about the personal relationship of the two great people. Judging by the reports that we have, Aristotle understood the need for a political unification of the small Greek policies, but he did not like Alexander's desire for world domination. When in 336 BC. Alexander ascended the throne, Aristotle returned to his homeland, to Stagira, and a year later returned to Athens.
Although Aristotle continued to consider himself a Platonist, the nature of his thinking and ideas now turned out to be different, which came into direct conflict with the views of Plato's successors in the Academy and some provisions of the teachings of Plato himself. This critical approach was expressed in the dialogue On Philosophy, as well as in the early sections of the works that have come down to us under the code names Metaphysics, Ethics and Politics. Feeling his ideological disagreement with the teachings prevailing in the Academy, Aristotle chose to found a new school, the Lyceum, in the northeastern suburb of Athens. The goal of the Lyceum, like the goal of the Academy, was not only teaching, but also independent research. Here Aristotle gathered around him a group of gifted students and assistants.
The joint activity proved to be extremely fruitful. Aristotle and his students made many significant observations and discoveries that left a noticeable mark on the history of many sciences and served as the foundation for further research. In this they were helped by samples and data collected on Alexander's long campaigns. However, the head of the school paid more and more attention to fundamental philosophical problems. Most of the philosophical works of Aristotle that have come down to us were written during this period.
After the sudden death of Alexander in 323 BC. a wave of anti-Macedonian speeches swept through Athens and other cities of Greece. Aristotle's position was threatened by his friendship with Philip and Alexander, as well as by his unequivocal political convictions, which came into conflict with the patriotic enthusiasm of the city-states. Under the threat of persecution, Aristotle left the city in order, as he said, to prevent the Athenians from committing a crime against philosophy a second time (the first was the execution of Socrates). He moved to Chalkis on the island of Euboea, where the estate inherited from his mother was located, where, after a short illness, he died in 322 BC.
The works of Aristotle fall into two groups. First, there are the popular or exoteric works, most of which were probably written in the form of a dialogue and intended for the general public. Basically, they were written while still at the Academy.
Now these works have been preserved in the form of fragments quoted by later authors, but even their titles indicate a close relationship with Platonism: Eudemus, or about the soul; dialogue about justice; Politician; Sophist; Menexen; Feast. In addition, in antiquity, Protrepticus (Greek, “incitement”) was widely known, inspiring the reader with the desire to engage in philosophy. It was written in imitation of some places in the Platonic Euthydemus and served as a model for the Ciceronian Hortensius, who, as St. Augustine, awakened him spiritually and, turning to philosophy, changed his whole life. A few fragments of a popular treatise On Philosophy, written later in Ass, have also survived. during the second period of Aristotle's work. All these works are written in simple language and carefully finished in terms of style. They were very popular in antiquity and cemented Aristotle's reputation as a Platonic writer of eloquence and liveliness. Such an assessment of Aristotle is practically inaccessible to our understanding. The fact is that his works, which were at our disposal, have a completely different character, since they were not intended for general reading. These compositions were to be listened to by Aristotle's students and assistants, initially a small circle of them in Assos, and later a larger group in the Athenian Lyceum. Historical science, and above all the research of W. Jaeger, found out that these works, in the form in which they have come down to us, cannot be considered philosophical or scientific "works" in the modern sense. Of course, it is impossible to definitively establish how these texts arose, but the following hypothesis seems to be the most probable.
Aristotle regularly lectured his students and assistants on a wide variety of subjects, and these courses were often repeated from year to year. Apparently, Aristotle used to compose a written version of a lecture and read it to a prepared audience, often commenting on the text impromptu. These written lectures were circulated in the school and were used for private lessons. What we now have as a single work on a particular subject is rather a collection of many lectures on that subject, often spanning a considerable period of time. Later publishers compiled single treatises from these variants. In some cases, it may well be assumed that the "single" text is a combination of various notes or is an original Aristotelian lecture, commented on and published by his students. Finally, the original texts were probably badly damaged during the era of civil wars in Rome and survived only by chance.
As a result, the reconstruction of the original text, which was undertaken by later ancient publishers, turned out to be a difficult task, accompanied by many errors and misunderstandings. Nevertheless, rigorous philosophical research made it possible to restore the foundations of Aristotle's teachings and the fundamental course of development of his thought.
The essays are divided into four main groups. First, these are works on logic, usually collectively referred to as the Organon. This includes Categories; About interpretation; First Analytics and Second Analytics; Topeka.
Secondly, Aristotle owns natural science works. Here the most important works are On the emergence and destruction; About the sky; Physics; Animal history; On the Parts of Animals and a Treatise on Human Nature On the Soul. Aristotle did not write a treatise on plants, but the corresponding work was compiled by his student Theophrastus.
Thirdly, we have a body of texts called Metaphysics, which is a series of lectures compiled by Aristotle in the late period of the development of his thought - in Assos and in the final period in Athens.
Fourthly, there are works on ethics and politics, which also include Poetics and Rhetoric. The most important are the Eudemic Ethics composed in the second period, referring to the last Athenian period, the Nicomachean Ethics, consisting of many lectures Politics, Rhetoric and partially preserved Poetics written in different periods. The huge work of Aristotle on the state structure of various city-states has been completely lost, almost the complete text of the Athenian polity that was part of it was miraculously found. Lost and several treatises on historical topics.
Aristotle nowhere says that logic is part of philosophy proper. He perceives it rather as a methodological tool of all sciences and philosophy, and not as an independent philosophical doctrine. Therefore, it is quite possible that the later concept of logic as a “tool” (Greek “organon”), although Aristotle himself did not call it that, corresponds to his own ideas. It is clear that logic must precede philosophy. Aristotle divides philosophy itself into two parts - theoretical, which strives to achieve truth, independent of anyone's desire, and practical, occupied by the mind and human aspirations, which, by joint efforts, try to understand the essence of human good and achieve it. In turn, theoretical philosophy is divided into three parts: the study of a changing being (physics and natural science, including the science of man); study of the existence of abstract mathematical objects (various branches of mathematics); the first philosophy, the study of being as such (what we call metaphysics).
Aristotle's special works on number and figure have not been preserved, and below we will consider four aspects of his teaching: logic, i.e. methods of rational thinking; physics, i.e. theoretical study of changing being; first philosophy; finally, practical philosophy.
Aristotelian logic studies:
1) the main types of being that fall under separate concepts and definitions;
2) the combination and separation of these types of being, which are expressed in a judgment;
3) the ways in which the mind, by means of reasoning, can pass from the truth known to the truth unknown. According to Aristotle, thinking is not the construction or creation of some new entity by the mind, but rather the assimilation in the act of thinking to something outside. A concept is an identification of the mind with some kind of being, and a judgment is an expression of the combination of such kinds of being in reality. Finally, the rules of inference, the laws of contradiction and the excluded middle, direct science to correct conclusions, since all being is subject to these principles.
The main types of being and the corresponding kinds of concepts are listed in the Categories and Topic. There are ten in total:
1) entity, for example, "man" or "horse";
2) quantity, for example, "three meters long";
3) quality, for example, "white";
4) relation, for example, "more";
5) a place, for example, "in the Lyceum";
6) time, for example, "yesterday";
7) state, for example, "walking";
8) possession, for example, "to be armed";
9) action, for example, "cut" or "burn";
10) enduring, for example, "to be cut" or "to be burned."
However, in the Second Analytics and other works, "state" and "possession" are absent, and the number of categories is reduced to eight.
Things outside the mind really exist precisely as entities, quantities, qualities, relationships, and so on. In the basic concepts listed here, each of the types of being is comprehended exactly as it is, however, in abstraction or abstraction from others with which it is necessary to be connected in nature. Therefore, in itself, no concept is true or false. It is simply a kind of being, taken in abstraction, existing separately from the mind.
Only statements or judgments can be true or false, not isolated concepts. To link or separate two categorical concepts, the judgment uses the logical structure of the subject and the predicate. If the given kinds of being are really connected or separated in this way, the statement is true; if not, it is false. Since the laws of contradiction and the excluded middle apply to everything that exists, any two kinds of being must either be related or not related to each other, and in relation to any given subject, any given predicate must be truly affirmed or truly denied.
Science as such is universal, but it arises through induction starting from the data of the sense perception of an individual essence and its individual properties. In experience, we sometimes perceive the connection of two types of being, but we cannot see any necessity for this connection. A judgment that expresses such an accidental connection in a general form is nothing more than a probable truth. The dialectical methods by which such probable judgments can be extended to other areas, criticized or defended, are discussed in Topeka. Science in the strict sense of the word has nothing to do with this. It is discussed in the Second Analytics.
Once certain subjects and predicates derived from experience by induction are clearly grasped, the mind is able to notice that they are necessarily related to each other. This applies, for example, to the law of contradiction, which states that a given thing cannot both exist and not exist at the same time and in the same respect. As soon as we clearly comprehend being and non-being, we see that they are necessarily mutually exclusive. So the premises of science in the strict sense of the word are self-evident and need no proof. The first step in the justification of any true science is the discovery of such necessary connections, which are not just accidental, but are expressed in necessary judgments. Further knowledge can be deduced from these obvious principles by syllogistic reasoning.
This process is described and analyzed in the First Analytics. Deduction, or inference, is the way in which the mind passes from the already known to the unknown. This is possible only through the discovery of some middle term. Let's say we want to prove that x is z, which is not self-evident. The only way to do this is to identify two premises, x is y and y is z, which are already known to be either self-evident or can be deduced from self-evident premises. We can draw the desired conclusion if we have two such premises, including the decisive middle term y. Thus, if we know that Socrates is a man and all men are mortal, we can prove that Socrates is mortal by using the middle term "man." The mind does not rest until it is convinced that certain things are necessary in the sense that they cannot be otherwise. Therefore, the goal of any science is the acquisition of such necessary knowledge.
The first step is a careful inductive study of the vague objects of experience around us and a clear understanding and definition of the types of being that interest us. The next step is to discover the necessary relationships between these entities. The final stage is the deduction of new truths. If we find only random connections, they, of course, can also be asserted and subjected to the procedure of deductive inference. However, they will give only probable conclusions, for there will be no more force in such conclusions than in the premises from which they are derived. At the heart of science is the discovery of obvious premises that do not need proof.
The whole world of nature is characterized by infinite fluidity or change, and Aristotle's natural philosophy takes as its basis the analysis of the process of change. Every change breaks the continuity. It begins with the absence of something acquired in the process of change. Thus, the construction of a house begins with something formless, and ends with an ordered structure, or form. So the original deprivation and the final form are necessarily present in any change.
However, change is also continuous, since something never comes from nothing. In order to explain continuity, Aristotle, contrary to Plato, argues the need to recognize the existence of a third moment underlying the transition from deprivation to form. He calls it substratum (Greek "hypokeimenon"), matter. In the case of building a house, the matter is wood and other building materials. In the case of the manufacture of a statue, this is bronze, which is present here at first in a state of deprivation, and then is preserved as the basis of the finished form.
Aristotle distinguishes four types of change. The most fundamental is the one in which a new entity arises, capable of independent existence. This can only happen as a result of the destruction of some previous entity. At the basis of such a change lies one pure potency of matter. However, any material entity, as soon as it has arisen, acquires the ability to further change its attributes or accidents. These accidental changes fall into three types: 1) by quantity, 2) by quality, 3) by place. The latter takes part in all other types of change. Any transformation is also measured by time, i.e. change number. Such a time measure requires the presence of a mind that is able to remember the past, foresee the future, divide the corresponding time intervals into segments and compare them with each other.
Every natural entity that has arisen as a result of processes of change has two inherent causes, on which its existence in nature necessarily depends. It is the original matter (like the bronze from which the statue is made) from which this natural entity has arisen, and that specific form or structure which makes it the kind of being it is (like the form of the finished statue). In addition to these internal causes, matter and form, there must be some external, effective cause (for example, the actions of a sculptor) that gives form to matter. Finally, there must be an end goal (the idea of a statue in the sculptor's mind) that directs the efficient cause(s) in some well-defined direction.
Change is the actualization of that which is in potency; therefore, nothing that moves can move itself. Every mobile being needs some external active cause, which explains its origin and further existence. This is true of the entire physical universe, which, as Aristotle believed, is in perpetual motion. To explain this movement, it is necessary to recognize the existence of the first, immobile engine (the first engine), which is not subject to change. When the necessary effects of two or more independent causes converge in the same matter, random and unpredictable events occur, but the events in nature are generally characterized by order, which makes natural science possible. The order and harmony that permeates almost the entire natural world also leads to the conclusion that there is an unchanging and reasonable first cause.
Naturally, in his astronomical views, Aristotle was influenced by contemporary science. He believed that the Earth is the center of the universe. The movement of the planets is explained by the rotation of the spheres surrounding the Earth. The outer sphere is the sphere of the fixed stars. It appeals by ascending directly to the immovable first cause, which, being devoid of all material potentiality and imperfection, is completely immaterial and immovable. Even the celestial bodies move, thereby revealing their materiality, but they consist of a purer matter than that which exists in the sublunar world.
In the sublunar world, however, we find material entities of various levels. First, these are the main elements and their combinations that form the realm of the inanimate. They are driven solely by external causes. Next come living organisms, first plants, which have organically differentiated parts capable of influencing each other. Thus, plants do not simply increase and are generated by external causes, but grow and multiply on their own.
Animals have the same vegetative functions, but they are also endowed with sense organs that allow them to take into account the things of the world around them, striving for what promotes their activities and avoiding everything that is harmful. Complex organisms are built on the basis of simple ones and, perhaps, arise from them as a result of gradual changes, but Aristotle does not express himself in any definite way on this issue.
The highest earthly being is man, and treatise on the soul entirely devoted to the study of its nature. Aristotle states unequivocally that man is a material being, undoubtedly a part of nature. As in all natural objects, a person has a material substrate from which he arises (the human body), and a certain form or structure that animates this body (the human soul). As in the case of any other natural object, this form and this matter are not simply superimposed on each other, but are the constituent parts of a single individual, each of which exists due to the other. So, the gold of the ring and its ring shape are not two different things, but one golden ring. Similarly, the human soul and the human body are two essential, internally necessary causes of a single natural being, man.
The human soul, i.e. human form, consists of three connected parts. First, it has a plant part that allows a person to eat, grow and multiply. The animal component allows him to feel, to strive for sensual objects and move from place to place like other animals. Finally, the first two parts are crowned by the rational part - the pinnacle of human nature, thanks to which man has those wonderful and special properties that distinguish him from all other animals. Each part develops, of necessity, essential accidents or faculties in order to begin to act. Thus, under the jurisdiction of the plant soul are various organs and abilities of nutrition, growth and reproduction; the animal soul is responsible for the organs and abilities of sensation and locomotion; the rational soul is in charge of the immaterial mental faculties and rational choice or will.
Knowledge should be distinguished from activity. It does not include the construction of something new, but rather it is the comprehension, with the help of noesis (reasonable ability), of something that already exists in the physical world, and exactly as it is. Forms exist in the physical sense in individual matter, binding them to a specific place and time. It is in this way that the human form exists in the matter of every individual human body. However, thanks to his cognitive abilities, a human being can comprehend the forms of things without their matter. This means that a person, being different from other things in the material sense, can noetically, mentally unite with them in a non-material way, become a microcosm, reflecting the nature of all things in the mental mirror inside his mortal being.
Sensation is limited to a definite, finite series of forms and comprehends them only in the mutual mixing that occurs in the course of a concrete physical interaction. But the mind does not know such restrictions, it is able to comprehend any form and free its essence from everything with which it is connected in sensory experience. However, this act of rational comprehension or abstraction cannot be carried out without the preliminary activity of sensation and imagination.
When the imagination calls to life a particular sensory experience, the active mind can illuminate that experience with its light and reveal some nature present in it, freeing the experience from everything that does not belong to its essential nature. The mind can illuminate all the other real elements of a thing by imprinting in the perceiving mind, which every person has, its pure, abstract image. Then, by means of judgments which connect these natures according to the way they are connected in reality, the mind can build up a complex concept of the whole essence as a whole, reproducing it exactly as it is. This ability of the mind not only makes it possible to acquire a theoretical understanding of all things as a result, but also influences human aspirations, helping a person to improve his nature through activity. And in fact, without a reasonable guidance of aspirations, human nature is generally incapable of improvement. The study of this process of improvement belongs to the realm of practical philosophy.
First philosophy. The first philosophy is the study of the first causes of things. The most fundamental reality is being itself, of which all other things are concrete definitions. All categories are limited kinds of being, and therefore Aristotle defines the first philosophy as the study of being as such. Physical science considers things insofar as they are perceived by the senses and change, but such limitations are unacceptable for being. Mathematical science considers things from the point of view of quantity, but being is not necessarily quantitative, and therefore the first philosophy is not limited to any such limited object. She sees things as they are. Therefore, all things in general are subject to its jurisdiction, whether they are changing or unchanging, quantitative or not related to quantity. Only on this basis can we come to the clearest possible understanding of the most fundamental structure of the world.
The followers of Plato argued (sometimes Plato himself did) that the original causes of all things are in some ideas, or abstract entities that exist separately from the changing things of the natural world. Aristotle subjected this view to extensive criticism and finally rejected it, wondering why there should be a world of this kind. This would only be a worthless doubling of the world of individual entities, and the idea that such isolated universals are known to science leads to skepticism, since in this case science will not know the individual objects of this world, and it is them that we should know. As a consequence, and also for some other reasons, Aristotle rejects the Platonic view that, in addition to individual people or individual houses, there is a person as such and a house as such, existing separately from their particular cases. But this criticism is not limited to pure denial. Aristotle, like Plato, continues to advocate the existence of formal structures. However, instead of filling their own separate world, they materially exist, according to Aristotle, in those single things that determine. The form, or essence, of a thing dwells in the thing itself as its inner nature, which brings the thing out of its potency into a definite actual state.
What exists, the basis of real existence, is therefore not an abstract entity, but an individual substance, for example, this particular tree or this particular person. Such a substance is the main subject of the treatise Metaphysics, books VII, VIII and IX. The individual, or primary substance, is a single whole, consisting of matter and form, each of which makes its own contribution to this individual integrity. Matter acts as a substratum that gives things a place in fluid nature. Form determines and actualizes matter, making it an object of a certain kind. In the abstract comprehension of the mind, the form turns out to be the definition, or essence, of the substance and can be made a predicate of the primary substance. All other categories, such as place, time, action, quantity, quality and relation, belong to the primary substance as its accidents. They cannot exist by themselves, but only in the substance that supports them.
The word "being" has many meanings. There is a being that things possess as objects that are forthcoming to the mind. There is a being that things possess by virtue of their existence in nature, but this being, in turn, has its varieties, and the most important thing here is potential being in opposition to actual being. Before a thing acquires actual existence, it exists as a potentiality in its various causes. This "power" (Greek "dunamis"), or the ability to exist, is not nothing, it is an incomplete or incomplete state, potency. Even when the causes lead to the appearance in the world of some material entity, it is still in an incomplete, or imperfect state, in potency. However, the formal reason that determines this essence makes it strive for complete completion and implementation. Any nature strives for perfection and seeks perfection. Any, with the exception of the highest nature of the motionless mover, God. Book XII of Metaphysics is devoted to the analysis of this root cause of all finite existence.
The prime mover of the cosmos must be fully actualized and devoid of any potency, otherwise it would turn out that it was actualized by something that preceded it. Since change is the actualization of potency, the prime mover must be unchanging, eternal and devoid of matter, which is a kind of potency. Therefore, such an immaterial being must be a mind that contemplates its own perfection and does not depend on extraneous objects that would become the objects of its reflection. Without striving for any goal outside of itself, it maintains an eternal activity within itself and is therefore capable of serving the highest goal towards which all imperfect beings strive. This fully active and perfect being is the pinnacle and key moment of Aristotelian metaphysics. Imperfect objects of the world have a real existence only to the extent that they, each in accordance with their limitations, participate in this perfection.
Theoretical philosophy and science strive for truth for its own sake. Practical philosophy seeks truth in order to give direction to human activity. The latter can be of three types: 1) a transitive activity that goes beyond the limits of the actor and is directed to some external object, which it transforms or improves; 2) the immanent activity of the human individual, with the help of which he seeks to improve himself; and 3) immanent activity in which human individuals cooperate with each other to improve themselves within the human community. Aristotle devoted special treatises to each of these activities.
Rhetoric- this is the art of influencing other people with the help of speeches and reasoning, giving rise to beliefs and beliefs in them. Aristotle's rhetoric is devoted to this art, which, in fact, is part of Politics.
In defining what we would call "the fine arts" as imitation, Aristotle follows Plato. However, the purpose of art is not to copy some individual reality; rather, it reveals universal and essential moments in this reality, subordinating, as far as possible, everything accidental to this goal. At the same time, the artist is not a scientist, his goal is not just to discover the truth, but also to give the viewer a special pleasure from comprehending the truth in a suitable material image, doing this in order to purify feelings, primarily pity and fear, in order to endow the viewer with a powerful tool for his moral education. These subjects are discussed in Aristotle's Poetics, important sections of which have been lost.
All other arts are subject to activity, since their works are not created for their own sake, but only for use in real life, the determination of the proper direction of which is the task of individual ethics. Aristotle initially addresses this topic in the Eudemic Ethics, and a more thorough and detailed analysis is contained in the Nicomachean Ethics.
Like any material substance, the individual person is endowed with a complex nature, originally aimed at achieving completeness and perfection. However, unlike other material substances, human nature does not contain immutable tendencies that would automatically lead him to the goal. Instead, human nature is endowed with rationality, which is able to correctly determine the final goal and direct a person towards it. The individual human being must use reason for himself and train his various aspirations to obey reason. Man can do this because nature has endowed him with the means to independently discover his goal and freely go towards it.
The collective name for this goal, as all people more or less distinctly recognize, is happiness. Happiness is the full realization of all components of human nature throughout the human life. Such a life will require certain material things as instruments of action, but even more so it will require that all our primary impulses to react and act are tempered by the guiding influence of the mind, which must permeate our behavior in all its moments. Finally, this life will include pleasure as the crown of all activity, good or bad, but first of all, rational or good activity, in accordance with human nature, leads to pleasure.
To achieve happiness, it is most important to master the basic moral virtues, and a large part of the Nicomachean ethics is devoted to this. Moral virtue is the sensible habit or firm intention to will and act in accordance with common sense. If such sensible habits are not acquired at all stages of life, sane deeds will become a rare success. The first impulse to acquire such habits must come from outside. For example, parents can start by punishing their child for selfish behavior and rewarding generosity. However, the child will not learn true generosity until he understands why this act should be done, until he does it for his own sake, and until, finally, he begins to derive pleasure from doing such an act. Only then will the mind become so familiar with this area of behavior that a rational act, without needing external support, will spontaneously arise from within the very human character. Moral education cannot be considered complete until all natural types of reactions and actions are subjected to this kind of “reasoning”.
Our passive reactions fall into three groups. First, they are caused by our own internal states. Thus, we are all naturally inclined to strive for what gives us pleasure. This reaction must be moderated and weakened through reflection and analysis until the virtue of moderation is achieved. Moreover, we are naturally inclined to resist what hinders and hinders our activity, and this tendency should be encouraged and strengthened until courage becomes a habit. Secondly, external objects excite in us the desire to take possession of them or to keep them; this inclination must be weakened by the reasonable virtue of generosity. We are equally aroused by praise or condemnation from other people, and this tendency must be further aroused and strengthened until we acquire not only the respect of others, but also self-respect, which is much more difficult. Finally, we are all affected by the feelings that other people have for us, as well as the actions they do towards us, and these social inclinations must be imbued with reason and purified in order to become the virtue of friendliness.
After the passive reactions or passions are under the control of the mind, we can enter into a society where we treat other people in such a way that everyone, including ourselves, is given exactly what the mind requires. This is the virtue of justice, which directs all social activity, ours and others, towards the common good, without making any unreasonable exceptions and without seeking privileges for itself. The activity of two individuals who treat each other justly may, if they have much in common, eventually crown friendship, the greatest natural good that man can possess; for when your thoughts and deeds are also the thoughts and deeds of a friend, your thinking is enriched and your strength increased. A man loves a friend as himself, and not for the sake of any special good that a friend can give him, and not for the pleasure that can be received from him, but for the sake of this person himself and the real virtue contained in him.
By restraining one's passions with the help of reason and the virtues of temperance, courage, generosity, self-respect and friendship, by subordinating one's social behavior to the virtue of justice, and by having sufficient external means for activity and success in making friends, one can live a happy life. However, the main thing in achieving happiness is pure thinking and contemplation. Only they can comprehend the true goal of human life and the resulting mode of behavior, for without a clear understanding of the nature of the true goal, we will achieve the worse result, the more dexterously and zealously we take up the matter. Therefore, the rational virtues of contemplation and prayer underlie all others. They least of all need material support; every person is able to adhere to them quite consistently and regardless of anything. These virtues are crowned with the purest pleasures and have the greatest intrinsic value. They are the expression of what most distinguishes our human nature and at the same time is its most valuable, divine side.
Man by nature is a political animal, in order to approach the highest perfection available to him, he needs cooperation with other people. A happy life can only be achieved together with other people, in the course of joint, complementary activities aimed at the common good. This common good as a whole must be preferred to the individual good which is part of it. Politics should be above individual morality. The proper goal of politics is to achieve a state of happiness, and hence the virtuous behavior of all citizens. The focus on military conquest or the acquisition of material wealth is based on a misunderstanding of human nature. Economics, the art of acquiring and producing material goods, has its rightful subordinate place in life, but it should never be made an end in itself or given too much importance to it; the pursuit of goods that exceed reasonable needs is a mistake. A perversion is, for example, usury, which produces nothing.
In addition to the ideal state considered by Aristotle in the VIII and X books of Politics, he distinguishes six main types of political organization: monarchy, aristocracy, polity and their three perversions - tyranny, oligarchy and democracy. Monarchy, the rule of one man, distinguished by virtue, and aristocracy, the rule of many, endowed with high virtue, are, where they exist, sound forms of government, only they are rare. On the other hand, it is not uncommon to mix aristocracy with oligarchy (the rule of the rich) and oligarchy with democracy. This kind of compromise, mixed forms of social organization can be considered relatively healthy.
Tyranny, the worst of social perversions, occurs when a king, who should rule for the common good, uses power for his own personal gain. A pure oligarchy is another example of a selfish, one-sided form of government where the rulers use their position to further enrich themselves. The oligarchs, because they are superior in wealth, are confident in their superiority and in other, more significant ways, which leads them to mistakes and collapse. In a democracy, all citizens are equally free. Democrats conclude from this that they are equal in every other respect; but this is wrong, and leads to unreason and disorder. However, of the three unilateral and distorted forms of government - tyranny, oligarchy, democracy - the latter is the least perverted and dangerous.
In such bad states it is impossible to be a good man and a good citizen at the same time. In a healthy state, be it a monarchy, an aristocracy, or a polity, one can be a good and useful citizen without being a good person, since the key role in politics belongs to the minority. However, in an ideal state, the community of citizens exercises rule over itself, and for this it is necessary that everyone possess not only special civic virtues, but also universal human virtues. This requires the creation of a more perfect system of education for all citizens, capable of instilling in them mental and moral virtues.
The ultimate goal of politics should be to approach this ideal social order, which allows all citizens to participate in the rule of law and reason. However, within the framework of those distorted forms that really exist in the history of mankind, the politician should strive to avoid extreme perversions, judiciously mixing oligarchy with democracy and thus achieving relative stability, when peace and order make possible the further education of citizens and the progress of society.
Rhetoric is an instrument of political art, and therefore Aristotle's treatise Rhetoric should be placed on a par with Politics. Rhetoric is the art of persuasion, which takes two distinct forms. In one case, nothing is required from the listener, except for a penchant for theory, and therefore the speech must be of a reasoned nature. In the second case, the speech is addressed to the listener, from whom we would like to achieve a decision. Such practical speech is divided, in turn, into two varieties: firstly, one can single out a judicial speech about some past event that is subject to consideration in court; secondly, a political speech about future affairs. In a particular situation, its own rules and methods of rhetorical art are required.
Aristotle's thinking was guided by a keen sense of a reality that exists independently of human opinions and desires, and a deep faith in the ability of the human mind, properly applied, to know this reality as it is. Together, these two beliefs gave rise to an unparalleled willingness to follow empirical facts wherever they lead, and an extraordinary ability to penetrate into the essential structure that lies behind them. Aristotle erected a majestic building of theoretical and practical teaching, which survived the fierce attacks of adherents of other views and periods of complete oblivion and indifference.
Read about the life of ARISTOTLE, the biography of the great philosopher, the teachings of the sage:
ARISTOTLE
(384-322 BC)
Ancient Greek philosopher. Studied with Plato in Athens; in 335 BC. e. founded the Lyceum, or Peripatetic school. Educator of Alexander the Great. Aristotle's writings cover all branches of knowledge of that time. Founder of formal logic, creator of syllogistic. "First Philosophy" (later called metaphysics) contains the doctrine of the basic principles of being. He vacillated between materialism and idealism. Main works: logical code "Organon" ("Categories", "On Interpretation", "Analysts" 1st and 2nd, "Topeka"), "Metaphysics", "Physics", "On the Origin of Animals", "On soul", "Ethics", "Politics", "Rhetoric", "Politics". Aristotle was born in Stageira, a Greek colony located on the northwestern coast of the Aegean Sea. Cut off from Hellas, Stagir and its neighboring policies (sovereign city-states, including the lands adjacent to them) surrounded the Illyrian and Thracian tribes, who were then still at the tribal stage of social development. Aristotle's father, Nicomachus, was a court physician under Amyntas III, king of Macedon; Nicomachus came from a family of hereditary doctors. He was Aristotle's first mentor and passed on his knowledge of natural science and medicine to him. Aristotle spent his childhood at the court, communicating with his peer - Amynta's son Philip, the future Macedonian king. Subsequently, Aristotle was the tutor of his son - Alexander the Great.
In 369 BC. e. fifteen-year-old Aristotle lost his parents, and his guardian, Proxenus, took care of him. Aristotle inherited significant funds from his father, this gave him the opportunity to continue his education under the guidance of Proxenus. Books were then very expensive, but Proxenus bought him even the rarest ones, so Aristotle became addicted to reading in his youth. Aristotle always warmly remembered Proxen, and after the death of his guardian, he took care of his widow, adopted his son Nikanor, loved the boy as his own, and subsequently married his daughter Pythiades to him. Under the guidance of Proxenus, he studied plants and animals. Many historians argue that Aristotle inherited from his father not only material resources, but also many writings that captured observations of organic and inorganic nature.
Both in Macedonia and in Stageira, Aristotle heard stories about the Athenian sages, about Socrates and Plato. But he did not want to come to Athens poorly educated, unprepared, he postponed his departure until Proxenus had conveyed to him all his wisdom. In 367 BC. e. he went to improve his education in the center of the cultural life of Hellas - Athens. And he arrived there at the time when Plato left for three years in Sicily. One can imagine the surprise and chagrin of Aristotle. However, it also had positive consequences. He got acquainted not only with the philosophy of Plato, but also with other currents. By the arrival of Plato, Aristotle had already well studied the main provisions of his philosophy and could treat them critically. The results would have been different if he had first learned about Plato's teachings from himself and would have completely surrendered to the charm of his personality. Aristotle was not accustomed to deprivation and embarrassment, he had habits that sometimes did not agree with the code of the Greek philosopher. Aristotle did not tolerate being told how to eat, drink and dress. He loved women, although he did not value them highly, and, contrary to custom, did not find it necessary to hide the former. Thus, Aristotle set against himself the Athenians, who did not want to recognize him as a true philosopher. Meanwhile, Plato highly valued Aristotle and called him "mind". Comparing him with another of his students, Plato said that "one (Xenocrates) needs spurs, the other (Aristotle) needs a bridle."
The free way of life of Aristotle gave rise to various rumors. It was said that he lost his fortune in revelry and, in order to earn a living, chose the profession of a drogist. In reality, Aristotle, who did not suffer restraints, never indulged in excesses; he knew medicine and in Athens provided medical assistance when he was asked for it. But at that time every physician made and sold medicines to his patients; hence the absurd rumor. Aristotle spent seventeen years in Plato's company. There is reason to believe that Plato loved his brilliant and recalcitrant student and not only gave him all his knowledge, but poured his whole soul into him. A close friendship developed between the teacher and the student, with all its attributes - temporary quarrels, hot reconciliation, etc. Aristotle was often accused of ingratitude towards Plato, but the best refutation of this is the words of Aristotle himself about his attitude towards Plato. In one of three surviving poems, he wrote that a bad person does not even have the right to praise Plato, who was the first to show, both by his way of life and by his teaching, that to be good and to be happy are two sides of the same desire. In the "Ethics of Nicomachus" he, as always, laconicly, reports how hard it is for him, for the sake of truth, to speak against Plato. Indeed, in polemics with the creator of ideas, he always spoke in a restrained and deeply respectful tone. Until the death of Plato, Aristotle did not open his own school, although his philosophical views had long been developed. Despite this, he only taught rhetoric. In his lectures, he argued with the sophist Isocrates, striking him with ridicule. Isocrates was about eighty years old at the time. Actually, it was not worth fighting with him, but Aristotle in his person beat all the sophists. Among the disciples of Aristotle was Hermias, the slave of the Atarnean tyrant; afterwards, by virtue of his friendship with his master and his education, he became his successor.
So, Aristotle studied at Plato's Academy for about twenty years. He had little interest in political life. In 355 BC. e. Aristotle's position in Athens, where he, as a non-resident, did not have political and civil rights, was somewhat strengthened in connection with the coming to power of the pro-Macedonian party. However, Aristotle and Xenocrates decided to leave Athens. They were prompted to this by their unwillingness to remain in the Academy under the command of Plato's nephew Speusippus, who became a scholar not due to his superiority, but only because the property of the Academy passed to him as Plato's heir.
Leaving the great city, Aristotle, together with Xenocrates, went to Central Asia and accepted the invitation of his beloved student Hermias, the tyrant of the Asia Minor city of Atarney, to stay with him in coastal Assos. Brought up in Athens and devoted to philosophy, the ardent Hermias cherished the dream of freeing all the Greek cities of Asia Minor from the Persian yoke. Desires Hermias could not but share Aristotle; probably, the great philosopher played an important role in this matter, because it was not for nothing that Aristotle's journey at that time was given the character of a diplomatic mission. But Diogenes Laertes was still wrong when he said that the Athenians sent Aristotle as an ambassador to the Macedonian king.
Hermia suffered a tragic fate. The exact date of his death is not known. The following happened to him. Unwillingly connected with the Persians, Hermias, however, negotiated with Philip II, who was already plotting an all-Hellenic war with the Persian monarchy of the Achaemenids. The fugitive Greek Mentor, who was in the service of the Persian king, involved Hermias in a conspiracy and then betrayed him to Artaxerxes, who ordered the tyrant Atarney to be killed. Before his death, Hermias asked to be told to his philosopher friends that he did nothing that would be unworthy of philosophy.
The death of Hermias deeply saddened Aristotle, perhaps even more because he died for an idea that had matured in the mind of the philosopher himself. Aristotle poured out his grief in two poems that have come down to us. The first is a hymn to virtue. Here is its beginning:
“O virtue that makes people conquer their nature, you are the first of the treasures that a person should try to win for himself. For your sake, Greece, happy in her suffering, invariably endures endless grief. For your holy beauty, a noble and pure maiden, she sees the death of her sons "So beautiful is the eternal fruit with which you captivate the souls of heroes. The Greeks prefer this fruit to nobility of origin, gold and sweet peace."
Another poem is a quatrain representing the inscription on the monument erected by Aristotle to Hermias in the Temple of Delphi:
"One Persian king, an opponent of all laws, killed the one who is depicted here. A magnanimous enemy would try to defeat him openly with weapons; a traitor betrayed him, entangling him with networks of false friendship."
Aristotle acted like a true Greek: his friend died, whom he undoubtedly considered a model of virtue; and he does not mourn the loss in his poems, does not express his feelings, but sings a hymn of virtue in his honor. This hymn served as the motive of Horace for one of his best odes. Aristotle was an enemy of the Persians, whose yoke he considered the greatest evil for Greece. What brought him closer to the Macedonian king was a general hatred for them, for barbarism, and not for deep cosmopolitanism, as some suggested.
Aristotle spent three years in this city (348 (347) -345 BC), here he found himself, here his own worldview was determined Aristotle married the younger sister of Hermias, Pythiades; the girl was left after the death of her brother without protection and without any means of subsistence. Aristotle took a brotherly part in her fate, and then they were brought together by a common grief.
The anger of the Persian king was so great that Aristotle had to save the life of a young girl and his own. For the next three years, the thinker lived in the city of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, neighboring Assos, where he was invited by Theophrastus, a friend and assistant, a native of those places. Xenocrates returned to Athens.
Pythiades lived with Aristotle for a long time, she felt completely happy with him; dying, she bequeathed that her remains be placed in the grave of her beloved husband. Having survived his wife, Aristotle in his will mentioned this desire of hers. From Pythiades, Aristotle had a daughter, Pythias the Younger.
During his stay on the island of Lesvos, Aristotle received an invitation from the Macedonian king Philip to come to Macedonia and become the tutor of his son Alexander.
Tradition says that in the year of the birth of the heir to the throne, Philip wrote a letter to Aristotle with the following content: "The King of Macedon welcomes Aristotle. I inform you that my son was born; but I thank the gods not so much for giving me a son, but for his birth in the time of Aristotle; because I hope that your instructions will make him worthy to succeed me and command the Macedonians."
At the end of the 340s BC. e. Aristotle arrived in the new capital of Macedonia - the city of Pella. Aristotle devoted three years to the upbringing of Alexander. It is difficult to say what was Aristotle's method of education and how much he managed to ennoble the character of the future "conqueror of the world", distinguished by reckless courage, irascibility, stubbornness and boundless ambition. But, of course, Aristotle did not seek to make a philosopher out of Alexander and did not torment him with geometry, but found the main means of education in poetry, and especially in Homer's epic. They say that Aristotle "published" Homer's Iliad especially for his pupil, thanks to which he found his ideal in Achilles. Subsequently, Alexander allegedly said: "I honor Aristotle on a par with my father, because if I owe my life to my father, then Aristotle - that gives her a price." Alexander's education ended when the latter became co-ruler of Macedonia.
During his eight years' stay in Macedonia, Aristotle was chiefly concerned with the observation of nature; this can be attributed partly to the influence of memories, partly to the fact that the too varied court life interfered with occupations that required great concentration and mental exertion. Philip, and then Alexander, spared nothing to provide Aristotle with the opportunity to study the sciences. Alexander, himself prone to science, gave Aristotle a substantial amount of money, more than a thousand people were obliged to deliver him rare animals, plants, etc. The death of Philip found Aristotle still in Macedonia, he spent the first years of his reign with his pupil, but when Alexander went on a campaign to Asia, Aristotle left for Athens, leaving Alexandra instead of his nephew and student, the philosopher Callisthenes. Aristotle was fifty at the time. Some historians claim that Aristotle accompanied Alexander on the first campaigns to distant countries, and cite Aristotle's observations of the life of animals that were not easy to transport to Macedonia to confirm their guesses. It is only known for certain that at the beginning of the reign, Alexander was connected with his former teacher by common interests, while the philosopher Callisthenes served as a living connection between them. Aristotle returned to his homeland - to Stagira, destroyed by Philip II in the war against Athens. There he spent three years (339-336 BC). At this time (338 BC), a decisive event for the whole of Hellas took place - the battle of Chaeronea (in Boeotia), in which Philip II defeated the united Greek army and became the ruler of all Hellas. The era of classical Greece as a set of policies ends here. Having come to power, Alexander, out of respect for his teacher, restored the destroyed Stagir. Grateful compatriots erected a magnificent building in honor of the thinker, where he could teach his philosophy, surrounded by love and honor, but Aristotle decided to return to Athens.
In 335 BC. e. the philosopher arrived there with his wife Pythiades, with his daughter and pupil Nicanor. In the Academy at that time, the head of the Platonic school was Xenocrates Aristotle, with the support of the Macedonians, and, first of all, his friend Antipater, whom Alexander, who had gone on a campaign against the Persians, left as governor in the Balkans, opened his own school. True, as a nonresident, he was allowed to open a school only outside the city - to the east of the city border of Athens, in Lyceum. Previously, the Lyceum was one of the Athenian gymnasiums (a place for gymnastic exercises). It was located next to the place of Apollo Lyceum, which gave the name to both the gymnasium and the school of Aristotle.
On the territory of the school there was a shady grove and a garden with covered galleries for walking. Since "walk" and "covered gallery around the courtyard" in ancient Greek "peripatos", the school of Aristotle received a second name - "peripathic". True, there is another version of the origin of this name. Aristotle taught while walking along the shady alleys. Diogenes Laertes says that this habit developed as a result of Aristotle's concern for Alexander, whom he forbade much to sit. From this habit the school got its name.
Soon after the relocation of Aristotle to Athens, his wife Pythiades died, Aristotle bitterly mourned his loss and erected a mausoleum for her. Two years after her death, however, he married his slave Harpymides, from whom his son Nicomachus was born.
Aristotle taught classes twice a day - in the morning and in the evening, in the mornings he talked about difficult subjects with students familiar with the beginnings of philosophy, and in the evenings he taught beginners. Xenocrates, having many students, established a certain discipline for them, appointed archons in turn and arranged banquets for them. This pleased Aristotle, and he introduced the same tradition in his school, adding a new rule that students should appear at banquets only in clean clothes. This characterizes Aristotle and betrays the slovenliness of other philosophers of his time.
Aristotle began to study early and began to teach late, this is his advantage. With the exception of the years devoted to Alexander the Great, he devoted his whole life to obtaining knowledge and independent work of thought. Aristotle argued that after fifty years of mental strength weakens, this is the time when you need to reap what you sowed before.
Most of his writing was written in Athens during the last thirteen years of his life. Such work was able to absorb all the time. In those years when Aristotle wrote his writings and patiently explained to his students the features of his philosophy, Athens was a real volcano, ready to erupt. Hatred of the Macedonians seethed in the hearts of the Athenians and threatened to produce devastating devastation. The second Athenian period coincides entirely with the period of the campaigns of Alexander the Great, in other words, with the "epoch of Alexander." Aristotle tried to instill in Alexander the idea of a fundamental difference between Greeks and non-Greeks. His open letter to Alexander "On colonization" was not successful with the king. The latter led a completely different policy in the Middle East; he prevented the mixing of the alien, Greek, and local population. In addition, he imagined himself as an oriental demigod despot and demanded appropriate honors from his friends and associates.
Aristotle's nephew Callisthenes, who was Alexander's historiographer, refused to recognize the transformation of the Macedonian monarch into a pharaoh and was executed, which led to a cooling of relations between the former pupil and the former educator. The unexpected death of thirty-three-year-old Alexander in Babylon (which he intended to make the capital of his state) on June 13, 323 BC. e. caused an anti-Macedonian uprising in Athens, during which representatives of the pro-Macedonian party were subjected to repression.
Although Aristotle kept aloof and behaved like a true sage, his position became dangerous every day. Having no good reason for his exile, the Athenians accused him of disrespect for the gods. The high priest of the Eleusinian mysteries charged him with the stereotypical accusation of blasphemy. The reason for this was Aristotle's poem on the death of Hermias. It qualified as a paean - a hymn in honor of God, which was not befitting a mortal, and therefore was considered blasphemy. Without waiting for the trial, Aristotle handed over the management of the Lyceum to Theophrastus and left the city so that the Athenians would not again commit a crime against philosophy, he meant the death of Socrates.
Perhaps the thinker hastened to flee, his friend Antipater soon crushed the uprising in Athens and the power of the pro-Macedonian party was restored. Aristotle left Athens for Chalkis, where he died two months later in 322 BC. e. from a stomach disease, he suffered from it all his life, it was a hereditary disease in his family.
Slander haunted Aristotle all his life, although he died of natural causes, a rumor spread that Aristotle killed himself, not wanting to stand trial before the Areopagus. But Aristotle was always against suicide. His actions never ran counter to his convictions. Some Church Fathers subsequently claimed that Aristotle drowned by throwing himself into the strait separating the island of Euboea from Greece. This was explained by the philosopher's despair due to the inability to comprehend at that time the phenomenon of ebb and flow. Such a fiction, however, deserves attention because it testifies to the passionate curiosity of Aristotle. The said strait is really one of the few places in the Mediterranean Sea in which the phenomenon of ebb and flow is especially noticeable.
Diogenes Laertes preserved the testament of Aristotle, the authenticity of which we have no reason to doubt, such is the opinion of many authorities about him. Aristotle appointed Antipater, the commander of Alexander the Great, as the executor of his last will. “In the event of my death,” says Aristotle, “let Antipater take over the execution of my last will. As long as Nicanor is able to take control of my property, let Aristomenes, Timarchus, Hipparchus and Theophrastus take care of him, the same refers to my children and Herpyllis.
When my daughter grows up, let her be given to Nikanor, if she dies before marriage or leaves no children, Nikanor will inherit all my wealth and become the master of all my slaves. Nicanor is obliged to take care of my daughter and my son Nikomachus, so that they do not suffer a lack of anything, he must replace their father and brother with them. If Nicanor dies before his marriage or leaves no children, his orders must be carried out. In this case, if Theophrastus wants to take my daughter to himself, then all the rights granted by me to Nicanor will belong to him, but if Theophrastus does not wish to marry my daughter, then let the guardians of Antipater decide the fate of my children.
I ask my guardians and Nicanor to remember me and not to forget the affection Herpyllis had for me. If she wants to marry after my death, the guardians must see to it that she does not choose a person inferior to me by birth. In case of marriage, give her, in addition to everything she received from me, a talent of silver and three servants, if she wishes to take the latter. If she wants to live in Chalkis, then give her a room adjacent to the garden, but if Stagira prefers, let her occupy the house of my ancestors.
I give freedom to Ambracida and assign her a dowry of five hundred drachmas and one slave a Fala in addition to the plot of land that I bought her, one young slave and a thousand drachmas. Tikhon will get his freedom after my daughter's marriage. Then release Philo and Olympia with her son. Not to sell the children of my servants, but to give them into the service of my heirs until they come of age, and then, if they prove worthy, release them. I also ask you to finish and put in place the statues I ordered (in honor of Prokuren and his wife). Place the remains of Nifiada in my grave, as she herself wished. I also bequeath to fulfill the vow given by me for the preservation of the life of Nikanor - to erect statues of animals made of stone in Stagira in honor of Zeus and Athena the Saviors.
The body of Aristotle was transported from Chalkis to Stagira, where his fellow citizens erected a luxurious mausoleum for him, it existed for quite a long time, but has not survived to this day. Probably, the above passage is only part of the will, we do not find in it any instructions regarding the library, which, as we know, was denied to Theophrastus, the disciple and successor of Aristotle.
His concern for people close to him speaks of true affection and even tenderness, which Aristotle himself considered an adornment of a man, he said if a man wants to be captivating, he should take grace and tenderness from women, and if a woman wants to win hearts, she must have a certain share courage. One should also pay attention to the attitude of Aristotle towards his slaves, Aristotle is considered to be a zealous defender of slavery. From his will it is clear that in his heart he could not but recognize in them the same people, he cared about their fate after his death, just as about the members of his own family. Aristotle's son Nicomachus, who took part in the publication of the written heritage left from his father, died young. The daughter, Pythiades the Younger, was married three times and had three sons, the youngest of whom (from her third husband, the physicist Metrodorus) was the namesake of his great grandfather and teacher, after his death he took the post of head of the Lyceum, he took care of raising the grandchildren of Aristotle. The brainchild of Aristotle - his philosophical school Lyceum - lasted until the end of the ancient world.
The "children" of Stagirite were his writings. The legacy of the thinker is enormous. Ancient catalogs numbered several hundred of his works. Only a small part of them has come down to us.
It remains for us to say a few words about Aristotle's attitude towards his contemporaries, towards that party of demagogues that forced him to retire from Athens. He spoke little in this respect during his lifetime, it was not safe for him to speak and even write, Aristotle observed the manifestations of passions with the calmness with which he noted the phenomena of storms and the direction of the winds. One of the oldest writers speaks of this." In the days of Solomon, wisdom raised its voice in the marketplaces, but was not heard.
This continues to this day. There is no room for wisdom in the squares. Wisdom requires calm reflection, but in the squares there is always noise and bustle. Aristotle is imbued with contempt for the crowd, and the crowd, in turn, has an instinctive contempt for Aristotle. Extreme opinions, expressed in harsh language, are most popular among the crowd. "Aristotle did not believe in unlimited democracy, noting sarcastically that although the Athenians discovered two useful things - wheat and freedom, they knew how to use only the first, and the other was used for a short time, and then in order to abuse it.Aristotle, as a universal thinker, not only possessed the entire body of knowledge of his time, but also laid the foundations for essentially new sciences, such as physics, biology, psychology, as well as logic and ethics. ceased to worry about the question of what, in fact, does philosophy itself do and what is its place among other sciences?Earlier Greek thinkers investigated the nature of things and were called "physiologists", since at that time philosophy had not yet separated from science as a study of nature.Socrates and Plato opposed the former “physiologists” with the principle “know thyself.” In turn, Aristotle synthesized these extreme points of view, according to having shown that human thinking and the surrounding world in their essence coincide, they are one and the same. Those forms in which human thinking and its object are one and the same are the main object of philosophy from the point of view of its classical tradition.
Aristotle, however, continued to call "philosophy" the totality of scientific and theoretical knowledge about reality. At the same time, he introduced the names "first philosophy" and "second philosophy", which he also called "physics". As for the "first philosophy", then later it will be called "metaphysics". Moreover, the term "metaphysics" was not used by Aristotle himself. It began to be used by a student of Aristotle and a systematizer of his works, Andronicus of Rhodes. By this term, he called the work that Aristotle followed after "Physics". Literally, "metaphysics" is translated as "that which is after physics." But in essence it is the science of the intelligible, that is, of what is beyond our experience, beyond the limits of visible nature.
Rejecting the Platonic doctrine of "ideas" as the incorporeal essences of everything, Aristotle put forward a theory according to which everything that exists occurs and consists of two main principles - "form" and "matter" The active and leading principle in this pair in Aristotle is the form, it is with it it binds the solution to the problem of the universal.
God, according to Aristotle, is the source of creative activity. It is God who endows all existing bodies with their specificity, that is, with a special form. But God in Aristotle is also the goal towards which all things strive.
Medieval thinkers paid special attention to Aristotle's doctrine of the soul, set forth in the treatise of the same name. Aristotle begins by saying that not only man has a soul. Plants and animals also have it. The plant soul, according to Aristotle, has the ability to grow, nourish and reproduce. The animal soul is distinguished by the fact that it has feeling. The human soul is a rational soul.
Another important property of the soul, according to Aristotle, is its incorporeality. He consistently and reasonably argues that the soul cannot be a body, because it is, as Aristotle puts it, meaning and form. Moreover, the soul as a form of a living body is not an external form, it is an internal form of a living body, which Aristotle calls entelechy. At the same time, objecting to the Pythagoreans and his teacher Plato, Aristotle insists that the soul is inseparable from the body, and therefore the transmigration of souls is impossible. This is especially true of vegetable and animal souls. As for the human soul, Aristotle allowed himself various judgments about its immortality, which gave rise to disputes among his followers in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The legacy of Aristotle is so extensive that it is impossible to characterize all of its sections. It is important to note that the main directions of his thought significantly determined the further development of European philosophy. Unlike Plato, Aristotle sees in God the highest instance not so much of the social as of the natural order. God in Aristotle is not the Platonic Supreme Good, which Christian theology will then emphasize, but the ultimate foundation of the universe. As a "form of forms" and prime mover, God is by no means outside our world. God and primary matter, as it were, set and define the boundaries of the world. And this is the originality of the dualistic philosophy of Aristotle.
The "first philosophy", or metaphysics, is only interested in what exists always and everywhere and cannot be otherwise. Such concepts Aristotle calls "categories". He refers to them essence, quality, quantity, relation, place, time, position, possession, action, suffering. At the same time, he most often speaks of categories as forms of "saying" about the world. And he took the term "category" from grammar.
In his political views, Aristotle proceeds from the understanding of man as a "social animal", the sphere of life of which is the family, society, state. Aristotle considers the state (as well as the economy) very realistically, a statesman cannot wait until ideal political conditions come, but must, based on the possibilities, manage people in the best possible way - as they are, and above all take care of the physical and moral condition of young people. The best state forms are monarchy, aristocracy, moderate democracy, the reverse side of which, that is, the worst state forms, are tyranny, oligarchy, ochlocracy (dominance of the mob).
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Copyright: life biography teaching
other Greek Ἀριστοτέλης
famous ancient Greek scientist and philosopher; student of Plato; from 343 BC e. - teacher of Alexander the Great; in 335/4 BC. e. founded Lyceum (ancient Greek Λύκειον Lyceum, or peripatetic school); naturalist of the classical period; the most influential of the philosophers of antiquity; founder of formal logic; created a conceptual apparatus that still permeates the philosophical lexicon and style of scientific thinking; was the first thinker to create a comprehensive system of philosophy, covering all areas of human development: sociology, philosophy, politics, logic, physics
384 - 322 BC e.
short biography
Aristotle- the famous ancient Greek scientist, philosopher, founder of the peripatetic school, one of the favorite students of Plato, educator of Alexander the Great - is often called Stagirite, because in 322 BC. e. he was born in the city of Stagira, a Greek colony in Chalkis. He happened to be born into a family of people of noble birth. Aristotle's father was a hereditary physician, served as a doctor at the royal court, and it was from him that his son learned the basics of philosophy and the art of healing. Aristotle's childhood years passed at the court, he was well acquainted with his peer, the son of King Aminta III - Philip, who years later himself became the ruler and father of Alexander the Great.
In 369 BC. e. Aristotle became an orphan. His relative Proksen took care of the teenager. The guardian encouraged the curiosity of the pupil, contributed to his education, did not spare money for the purchase of books, which at that time were very expensive pleasure - the blessing, the state left from the parents allowed this. The mind of the young man was captivated by the stories about the sages Plato and Socrates that had reached their locality, and the young Aristotle worked diligently so that, once in Athens, he would not be considered ignorant.
In 367 or 366 B.C. e. Aristotle arrived in Athens, but, to his great disappointment, did not find Plato there: he left for Sicily for three years. The young philosopher did not waste time, but plunged into the study of his works, simultaneously getting acquainted with other areas. Perhaps it was this circumstance that influenced the formation of views that were different from the views of the mentor. Stay at the Academy of Plato lasted almost two decades. Aristotle turned out to be an extremely talented student, the mentor highly appreciated his mental merits, although the reputation of his ward was ambiguous and did not quite correspond to the Athenians' idea of true philosophers. Aristotle did not deprive himself of earthly pleasures, did not tolerate restrictions, and Plato used to say that he must be "kept in check."
Aristotle was for him one of his favorite students, one of those in whom they put their soul; there were friendly relations between them. Many accusations of black ingratitude sounded against Aristotle. However, arguing with a friend-mentor, he always spoke of Plato with exceptional respect. Deep reverence can also be evidenced by the fact that, having a formed, integral system of views, and hence the prerequisites for opening his own school, Aristotle did not do this during Plato's lifetime, limiting himself to teaching rhetoric.
Around 347 BC. e. the great mentor died, and his nephew, heir to the estate Speusipus, took the place of the head of the Academy. Being among the dissatisfied, Aristotle left Athens and went to Asia Minor, the city of Assos: he was invited to stay there by the tyrant Hermias, also a student of the Platonic Academy. In 345 BC. e. Hermias, who actively opposed the Persian yoke, was betrayed and killed, and Aristotle had to hastily leave Assos. Together with him, a young relative of Hermia, Pythiades, was also saved, whom he soon married. They found refuge on the island of Lesbos, in the city of Mytilene: the couple got there thanks to the assistant and friend of the philosopher. It was there that Aristotle was caught by an event from which a new stage began in his biography - the Macedonian king Philip offered him to become a mentor, educator of his son Alexander, then a 13-year-old teenager.
Aristotle carried out this mission approximately in the period from 343 - 340 BC. e., and its influence on the way of thinking, the character of a person who became famous throughout the world, was enormous. Alexander the Great is credited with the following statement: "I honor Aristotle on an equal footing with my father, because if I owe my life to my father, then Aristotle - that gives her a price." After the young king ascended the throne, his former mentor stayed with him for several years. There are versions that the philosopher was his companion in the first distant campaigns.
In 335 BC. e. 50-year-old Aristotle, leaving with Alexander Callisthenes - nephew, philosopher, went to Athens, where he founded the Lyceum - his own school. It received the name "peripatetic" from the word "peripatos", which meant a covered gallery around the courtyard or a walk. Thus, it characterized either the place of study, or the manner of the mentor to present information, walking back and forth. In the morning, a narrow circle of initiates studied the sciences with him, and in the afternoon everyone, novices, could listen to the philosopher. The Lycean period is an extremely important stage in the biography of Aristotle: it was then that most of the works were written, the results of research were discoveries that largely determined the development of world science.
Immersed in the world of science, Aristotle was very far from politics, but in 323 BC. e., after the death of Alexander the Great, a wave of anti-Macedonian repression swept through the country, and clouds gathered over the philosopher. Having found a fairly formal reason, he was charged with blasphemy, disrespect for the gods. Realizing that the upcoming judgment would not be objective, Aristotle in 322 BC. e. leaves the Lyceum and departs with a group of students for Chalkis. The island of Euboea becomes his last refuge: a hereditary stomach disease interrupted the life of a 62-year-old philosopher.
His most famous works are "Metaphysics", "Physics", "Politics", "Poetics", etc. - the legacy of Aristotle Stagirite is very extensive. He is ranked among the most influential dialecticians of the ancient world, considered the founder of formal logic. The philosophical system of Aristotle affected the most diverse aspects of the development of mankind, in many respects influenced the further development of scientific thinking; the conceptual apparatus created by him has not lost its relevance to this day.
Biography from Wikipedia
Plato and Aristotle (reversed), 15th century by Luca Della Robbia
Aristotle was born in Stagira (therefore he received the nickname stagirite), a Greek colony in Halkidiki, not far from Mount Athos, between July and October 384/383 BC, according to the ancient chronology, in the first year of the 99th Olympiad. In ancient Greek, the city of Aristotle is transmitted in different ways. In the sources, Stageira is mentioned in different grammatical categories of gender and number: in the neuter gender, plural. h. - τὰ Στάγειρα, in the feminine singular. h. - ἡ Στάγειρος or ἡ Στάγειρα.
Some researchers believed that Stagira belonged to Macedonia, and Aristotle himself was a Macedonian by origin. Based on this, they concluded that Aristotle's nationality helped him impartially consider and analyze the variety of Greek political systems. However, this is not entirely true, since Stagira came under the rule of Macedonia only with the beginning of the expansion of Philip II, who invaded Halkidiki in the late forties of the 4th century BC. e. At this time, around 349-348 BC. e., he captured and destroyed Stagira and some other cities. Aristotle, meanwhile, was in Athens at the school of Plato, and the founder of the academy was already close to death. Subsequently, Aristotle will ask Philip to restore Stageira and write laws for her citizens. We meet Stagira's belonging to Macedonia in Stephen of Byzantium in his "Ethnic", where he writes: "Στάγειρα, πόλις Μακεδονίας" that is, "Stagira is the city of Macedonia."
According to some other sources, Stagira was in Thrace. Hesychius of Meletus in his Compendium of Philosophers' Biographies writes that Aristotle is "ἐκ Σταγείρων πόλεως τῆς Θρᾷκης" i.e. "from Stagira of the city of Thrace". The word in the Word is mentioned in the Byzantine court of the courts of the X century: "ἀἀςςςςςΛςς ἱὸςἱὸς νιχοςάάάυυ κὶὶ φαιςιάδος ἐἐ σταγείρων όἐλεως τῆς θρᾴκης" That is, "Aristotle Son Nikomakh and festifies from Stagir's city of Frakia."
Aristotle's father, Nicomachus, was from the island of Andros. Mother Festida came from Chalkis of Euboea (this is where Aristotle will go during his exile from Athens, most likely he had family ties there). It turns out that Aristotle was a pure Greek by father and mother. Nicomachus, the father of Aristotle, was a hereditary Asclepiad and traced his lineage to the Homeric hero Machaon, the son of Asclepius. The philosopher's father was a court physician and friend of Amyntas III, father of Philip II and grandfather of Alexander the Great. According to Suda's dictionary, Aristotle's father was the author of six books on medicine and one on natural philosophy. He was Aristotle's first tutor, as the Asclepiads had a tradition of teaching their children from a young age, and so it is possible that Aristotle helped his father when he was still a boy. Apparently, this was the beginning of his interest in biology.
However, Aristotle's parents died when he was not yet of age. Therefore, Proxenus, the husband of the elder sister of the philosopher, Arimnesta, who came from Atarnei, a city of Asia Minor, took him up for education. Proxen took care of the education of his ward.
In 367/6, at the age of seventeen, Aristotle came to Athens. However, at the time of his arrival, Plato was not at the Academy. According to some sources, before the academy, Aristotle studied oratory with the rhetorician Isocrates. This version is supported by the fact that Aristotle had a special interest in rhetoric, which would later be embodied in such works as Rhetoric, Topeka, First Analytics, Second Analytics, On Interpretation. In them, the philosopher considers not only the types of speeches and social positions “rhetor - audience”, but also the “beginnings” of speech, namely: sound, syllable, verb, etc. He laid the foundation for the first logical principles of reasoning and formulated the rules for compiling syllogical figures . Therefore, Aristotle could well devote the first years of his Athenian studies to the rhetorical school of Isocrates. Aristotle stayed at the Academy of Plato for 20 years, until the death of his teacher. In their relationship, both positive and negative points stand out. Among the latter, Aristotle's biographers narrate not the most successful domestic scenes. Elian left the following evidence:
“Once, when Xenocrates left Athens for a while to visit his hometown, Aristotle, accompanied by his students, the Phocian Mnason and others, approached Plato and began to push him. Speusippus was ill that day and could not accompany the teacher, an octogenarian old man with a memory already weakened by age. Aristotle attacked him in anger and arrogantly began to ask questions, wanting to somehow expose, and behaved boldly and very disrespectfully. From that time on, Plato stopped going outside his garden and walked with his students only in his fence. After three months, Xenocrates returned and found Aristotle walking around where Plato used to walk. Noticing that after a walk he and his companions were not going to Plato's house, but to the city, he asked one of Aristotle's interlocutors where Plato was, for he thought that he did not go out because of indisposition. “He is healthy,” was the answer, “but, since Aristotle offended him, he stopped walking here and talks with his students in his garden.” Hearing this, Xenocrates immediately went to Plato and found him in the circle of listeners (there were a lot of them, and all people were worthy and famous). At the end of the conversation, Plato greeted Xenocrates with his usual cordiality, and he greeted him no less; at this meeting, both did not say a word about what had happened. Then Xenocrates gathered the Platonic disciples and began to angrily reprimand Speusippus for giving up their usual place of walking, then he attacked Aristotle and acted so decisively that he drove him away and returned to Plato the place where he used to teach.
Elian, "Colorful stories" III, 19.
However, despite domestic disagreements, Aristotle remained in the school of Plato until the latter's death and became close to Xenocrates, who treated his teacher with respect. In addition, Aristotle, although in many ways he did not agree with the teachings of Plato, however, spoke positively about him. In the Ethics of Nicomachus, Aristotle writes about Plato: "The doctrine of ideas was introduced by people close to us." The original uses the word "φίλοι", which can also be translated as "friends".
Coming to the glorious land of Cekropia piously
Inscription attributed to Aristotle on the Philia (Friendship) altar erected in honor of Plato
established an altar of holy friendship for a husband whose bad and
it is not proper to praise; he is the only one, or at any rate
the first of mortals showed clearly both by his life and
words that a good person is at the same time
blessed; but now no one will ever be able to do this
understand
After the death of Plato (347 BC), Aristotle, together with Xenocrates, Erast and Korisk (the last two Plato mentions in the VI letter and recommends that they make peace with the tyrant Hermias, the ruler of Atarnea and Assos, where they were from), goes to Assos , a coastal city of Asia Minor, located opposite about. Lesvos. During his stay in Assos, Aristotle became close to Hermias. The tyrant respected the philosopher and was a listener of his lectures. Proximity contributed to the fact that Aristotle married his adopted daughter and niece Pythiades, who bore him a girl who received the name of her mother. Pythiades was not the only woman of Aristotle. After her death, he illegally married the maid Herpellid, from whom he had a son, named, according to ancient Greek tradition, in honor of the father of Nicomachus.
After a three-year stay in Assos, Aristotle, on the advice of his student Theophrastus, went to the island of Lesbos and stopped in the city of Mytelene, where he taught until 343/2 BC. e. until he received an invitation from Philip II to become the tutor of the royal son Alexander. The reason for choosing Aristotle for this position could be the close relationship between Hermias and Philip.
Aristotle began teaching Alexander when he was 14 (or 13) years old. The learning process took place in Pella, and then in the city of Miez in the sanctuary of the nymphs - Nympheion (other Greek Νυμφαῖον). Aristotle taught Alexander a variety of sciences, including medicine. The philosopher instilled in the prince a love for Homeric poetry, so that in the future, the list of the Iliad, which Aristotle compiled for Alexander, the king would keep under his pillow along with the dagger.
At this time, Aristotle learns of the death of Hermias. The city of Hermia Atarnei was besieged by Mentor, a Greek commander who served Darius III. The mentor lured Hermias out of the city by cunning, took him to Susa, tortured him for a long time in the hope of obtaining information about plans with Philip, and as a result crucified him on the cross.
In 335/334, Aristotle suspended the upbringing of Alexander, due to the fact that the latter's father was killed and the young prince had to take power into his own hands. At this time, Aristotle decided to go to Athens, where he founded his school in the north-east of the city near the temple of Apollo of Lyceum. From the name of the temple, the area received the name Lyceum, which, in turn, moved to a new philosophical school. In addition, the school of Aristotle was called peripatetic - this name is also present in Diogenes Laertes, who claimed that the school of Aristotle received such a name because of regular walks during philosophical conversations (other Greek περιπατέω - to walk, walk). And although many philosophers practiced walking while teaching, the name “peripatetics” was assigned to the followers of Aristotle.
Lyceum of Aristotle in Athens
After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. e. in Athens, an anti-Macedonian uprising began. The Athenian National Assembly proclaimed the beginning of the liberation movement for independence from the Macedonian authorities. The rebellious democrats issued a decree demanding the expulsion of the enemy garrisons from Greece. At this time, the hierophant of the Eleusinian Mysteries Eurymedon and the rhetorician from the school of Isocrates Demophilus accused Aristotle of godlessness. The reason for such a high-profile accusation was the hymn "Virtue" twenty years ago, which Aristotle wrote in honor of the tyrant Hermias. The accusers argued that the poems were written in the style of hymns to Apollo, and the tyrant Atarnei was not worthy of such reverence. However, most likely Aristotle's hymn served only as a pretext for inciting political persecution against the philosopher, but in fact the main reason was the philosopher's close ties with Alexander the Great. In addition, Aristotle was a metecus, and therefore did not have Athenian citizenship and full political rights. Legally, he did not even own the Lyceum (Aristotle does not mention it in his will). Ultimately, Aristotle decided not to repeat the fate of Socrates and left for Chalkis of Euboea. There he lived in his mother's house with his second wife Herpelis and their two children Nicomachus and Pythiades.
In 322 BC. e., according to ancient Greek reckoning, in the 3rd year of the 114th Olympiad (a year after the death of Alexander the Great), Aristotle died of a stomach disease (according to another version, he was poisoned by aconite). His body was transferred to Stageira, where grateful fellow citizens erected a crypt for the philosopher. In honor of Aristotle, festivities were established, bearing the names "Aristotle", and the month in which they were held was called "Aristotle".
Philosophical doctrine of Aristotle
Sculpture of the head of Aristotle - a copy of the work of Lysippus, Louvre
Aristotle divides the sciences into theoretical, the purpose of which is knowledge for the sake of knowledge, practical and "poetic" (creative). The theoretical sciences include physics, mathematics and the "first philosophy" (it is also theological philosophy, it was later called metaphysics). To the practical sciences - ethics and politics (it is also the science of the state). One of the central teachings of Aristotle's "first philosophy" is the doctrine of four causes, or principles.
The doctrine of the four causes
In "Metaphysics" and other works, Aristotle develops the doctrine of the causes and principles of all things. These reasons are:
- Matter(Greek ΰλη, Greek ὑποκείμενον) - "that from which". The variety of things that exist objectively; matter is eternal, uncreated and indestructible; it cannot arise from nothing, increase or decrease in its quantity; it is inert and passive. Formless matter is nothingness. Primarily formed matter is expressed in the form of five primary elements (elements): air, water, earth, fire and ether (heavenly substance).
- Form(Greek μορφή, Greek tò τί ἧν εἶναι) - "what". Essence, stimulus, purpose, and also the reason for the formation of diverse things from monotonous matter. God (or mind-prime mover) creates forms of various things from matter. Aristotle approaches the idea of a single being of a thing, a phenomenon: it is a fusion of matter and form.
- Efficient or producing cause(Greek τὸ διὰ τί) - "that from where". It characterizes the moment of time from which the existence of a thing begins. The beginning of all beginnings is God. There is a causal dependence of the phenomenon of existence: there is an active cause - this is an energy force that generates something at rest of the universal interaction of the phenomena of existence, not only matter and form, act and potency, but also the generating energy-cause, which, along with the active principle, also has a target meaning.
- Target, or ultimate cause(Greek τὸ οὖ ἕνεκα) - "that for which". Every thing has its own particular purpose. The highest goal is the Good.
Act and potency
With his analysis of potency and act, Aristotle introduced the principle of development into philosophy, which was a response to the aporia of the Eleans, according to which a being can arise either from a being or from a non-existent. Aristotle, on the other hand, said that both are impossible, firstly, because the existent already exists, and secondly, nothing can arise from nothing, which means that emergence and becoming are impossible at all.
Act and potency (reality and possibility):
- act - the active implementation of something;
- potency is a force capable of such an exercise.
Categories of philosophy
Categories are the most general and fundamental concepts of philosophy, expressing the essential, universal properties and relations of the phenomena of reality and cognition. The categories were formed as a result of the generalization of the historical development of knowledge.
Aristotle developed a hierarchical system of categories, in which the main one was "essence", or "substance", and the rest were considered its features. He created a classification of the properties of being, comprehensively defining the subject - 9 predicates.
Category comes first entities with the selection of the first entity - individual being, and the second entity - existence of species and genera. Other categories disclose properties and states of being: quantity, quality, relation, place, time, possession, position, action, suffering.
In an effort to simplify the categorical system, Aristotle then recognized only three of the main nine categories - time, place, position (or essence, state, relation).
From Aristotle, the basic concepts of space and time begin to take shape:
- substantial - considers space and time as independent entities, the beginning of the world.
- relational - (from lat. Relativus - relative). According to this concept, space and time are not independent entities, but systems of relations formed by interacting material objects.
The categories of space and time act as a "method" and a number of motion, that is, as a sequence of real and mental events and states, and therefore are organically linked with the principle of development.
Aristotle saw the concrete embodiment of Beauty as the principle of the world order in the Idea or Mind.
Aristotle created hierarchy of levels of everything(from matter as a possibility to the formation of individual forms of being and beyond):
- inorganic formations (inorganic world).
- world of plants and living beings.
- world of different kinds of animals.
- Human.
History of philosophy
Aristotle argued that philosophy appears on the basis of "episteme" - knowledge that goes beyond the senses, skills and experience. So empirical knowledge in the field of calculus, human health, natural properties of objects were not only the beginnings of the sciences, but also the theoretical prerequisites for the emergence of philosophy. Aristotle derives philosophy from the beginnings of the sciences.
Philosophy is a system of scientific knowledge.
God as the prime mover, as the absolute beginning of all beginnings
According to Aristotle, the world movement is an integral process: all its moments are mutually conditioned, which implies the presence of a single engine. Further, starting from the concept of causality, he comes to the concept of the first cause. And this is the so-called cosmological proof of the existence of God. God is the first cause of movement, the beginning of all beginnings, since there cannot be an infinite series of causes or without beginning. There is a self-causing cause: the cause of all causes.
The absolute beginning of any movement is the deity as a global supersensible substance. Aristotle substantiated the existence of a deity by considering the principle of the beautification of the Cosmos. According to Aristotle, the deity serves as the subject of the highest and most perfect knowledge, since all knowledge is directed to form and essence, and God is pure form and the first essence.
soul idea
Aristotle believed that the soul, which has integrity, is nothing more than its organizing principle, inseparable from the body, the source and method of regulating the body, its objectively observable behavior. The soul is the entelechy of the body. The soul is inseparable from the body, but is itself immaterial, incorporeal. That by which we live, feel and think is the soul. “The soul is the cause, as that from where the movement comes from, as the goal and as the essence of animated bodies.”
Thus, the soul is a certain meaning and form, and not matter, not a substratum.
The body has a vital state that forms its orderliness and harmony. This is the soul, that is, a reflection of the actual reality of the universal and eternal Mind. Aristotle gave an analysis of the various parts of the soul: memory, emotions, the transition from sensations to general perception, and from it to a generalized idea; from opinion through the concept to knowledge, and from directly felt desire to rational will.
“The soul distinguishes and cognizes things, but it itself spends a lot of “time in mistakes.” “Achieving something reliable in all respects about the soul is, of course, the most difficult thing.”
Theory of knowledge and logic
For Aristotle, knowledge has being as its object. The basis of experience is sensation, memory and habit. Any knowledge begins with sensations: it is that which is able to take the form of sensually perceived objects without their matter; reason sees the general in the particular.
However, it is impossible to acquire scientific knowledge with the help of sensations and perceptions alone, because all things have a changeable and transitory character. The forms of truly scientific knowledge are concepts that comprehend the essence of a thing.
Having analyzed the theory of knowledge in detail and deeply, Aristotle created a work on logic, which retains its enduring significance to this day. Here he developed a theory of thinking and its forms, concepts, judgments and conclusions.
Aristotle is also the founder of logic.
The task of knowledge is to ascend from simple sensory perception to the heights of abstraction. Scientific knowledge is the most reliable, logically provable and necessary knowledge.
In the doctrine of knowledge and its types, Aristotle distinguished between "dialectical" and "apodictic" knowledge. The area of the first is “opinion” obtained from experience, the second is reliable knowledge. Although an opinion can receive a very high degree of probability in its content, experience is not, according to Aristotle, the final instance of the reliability of knowledge, because the highest principles of knowledge are contemplated by the mind directly.
The starting point of knowledge is the sensations obtained as a result of the influence of the external world on the sense organs; without sensations there is no knowledge. Defending this epistemological basic position, "Aristotle comes close to materialism." Aristotle considered sensations to be reliable, reliable evidence of things, but adding a reservation that sensations in themselves determine only the first and lowest level of knowledge, and a person rises to the highest level thanks to generalization in thinking of social practice.
Aristotle saw the goal of science in a complete definition of the subject, achieved only by combining deduction and induction:
1) knowledge about each individual property must be acquired from experience;
2) the conviction that this property is essential must be proved by an inference of a special logical form - a categorical syllogism.
The basic principle of the syllogism expresses the connection between the genus, species and single thing. These three terms were understood by Aristotle as a reflection of the connection between the effect, the cause and the bearer of the cause.
The system of scientific knowledge cannot be reduced to a single system of concepts, because there is no such concept that could be the predicate of all other concepts: therefore, for Aristotle, it turned out to be necessary to indicate all the higher genera, namely the categories to which the rest of the genera of beings are reduced.
Reflecting on the categories and operating on them in the analysis of philosophical problems, Aristotle considered both the operations of the mind and its logic, including the logic of propositions. Aristotle developed and problems dialogue deepening the ideas of Socrates.
He formulated the laws of logic:
- the law of identity - the concept must be used in the same meaning in the course of reasoning;
- the law of contradiction - "do not contradict yourself";
- the law of the excluded middle - "A or not-A is true, there is no third."
Aristotle developed the doctrine of syllogisms, which deals with all kinds of inferences in the process of reasoning.
ethical views
To designate the totality of the virtues of a person’s character as a special subject area of knowledge and to highlight this very knowledge of science, Aristotle introduced the term “ethics.” Starting from the word “ethos” (other Greek ethos), Aristotle formed the adjective “ethical” in order to designate a special a class of human qualities, which he called ethical virtues. Ethical virtues are properties of the character of a person's temperament, they are also called spiritual qualities.
The doctrine of the virtues
Aristotle divides all virtues into moral, or ethical, and mental, or rational, or dianoetic. Ethical virtues represent the middle between extremes - excess and lack - and include: meekness, courage, moderation, generosity, magnanimity, magnanimity, ambition, evenness, truthfulness, courtesy, friendliness, justice, practical wisdom, just indignation. Regarding moral virtue, Aristotle states that it is "the ability to do the best in everything that concerns pleasure and pain, and depravity is its opposite." Moral, or ethical, virtues (virtues of character) are born from habits-mores: a person acts, gains experience, and on the basis of this, his character traits are formed. Reasonable virtues (virtues of the mind) develop in a person through training.
Virtue is the inner order or constitution of the soul; order is acquired by man in a conscious and purposeful effort.
Aristotle, like Plato, divided the soul into three forces: rational (logical), passionate (fumoid) and desiring (epiphumic). Aristotle endows each of the forces of the soul with its inherent virtue: logical - with rationality; passionate - meekness and courage; wishing - temperance and chastity. In general, the soul, according to Aristotle, has the following virtues: justice, nobility and generosity
Internal conflict
Every situation of choice is fraught with conflict. However, the choice is often experienced much softer - as a choice between various kinds of goods (knowing virtue, you can lead a vicious life).
Aristotle tried to show the possibility of resolving this moral difficulty.
The word "know" is used in two senses:
1) “knows” refers to someone who only has knowledge;
2) about who applies knowledge in practice.
Aristotle went on to clarify that, strictly speaking, only those who can apply it should be considered as possessing knowledge. So, if a person knows one thing, but acts differently, then he does not know, then he does not have knowledge, but an opinion, and he should achieve true knowledge that can stand the test in practical activity.
Virtue as rationality is acquired by a person in the process of understanding his own duality and resolving an internal conflict (at least as far as it is in the power of the person himself).
Person
For Aristotle, a person is, first of all, a social or political being (“a political animal”), gifted with speech and capable of understanding such concepts as good and evil, justice and injustice, that is, possessing moral qualities.
In "Nicomachean Ethics" Aristotle noted that "man is by nature a social being", and in "Politics" - a political being. He also put forward the position that a person is born a political being and carries an instinctive desire for a life together. Congenital inequality of abilities is the reason for the unification of people into groups, hence the difference in the functions and place of people in society.
There are two principles in man: biological and social. Already from the moment of his birth, a person is not left alone with himself; he joins in all the accomplishments of the past and present, in the thoughts and feelings of all mankind. Human life outside of society is impossible.
Cosmology of Aristotle
Aristotle, following Eudoxus, taught that the Earth, which is the center of the universe, is spherical. Aristotle saw proof of the sphericity of the Earth in the nature of lunar eclipses, in which the shadow cast by the Earth on the Moon has a rounded shape at the edges, which can only be if the Earth is spherical. Referring to the statements of a number of ancient mathematicians, Aristotle considered the circumference of the Earth to be 400,000 stadia (approx. 71,200 km). Aristotle was also the first to prove the sphericity of the Moon based on the study of its phases. His work "Meteorology" was one of the first works on physical geography.
The influence of Aristotle's geocentric cosmology continued until Copernicus. Aristotle was guided by the planetary theory of Eudoxus of Cnidus, but attributed a real physical existence to the planetary spheres: the Universe consists of a number of concentric spheres moving at different speeds and set in motion by the extreme sphere of fixed stars.
The vault of heaven and all heavenly bodies are spherical. However, Aristotle proved this idea incorrectly, based on a teleological idealistic concept. Aristotle deduced the sphericity of the heavenly bodies from the false view that the so-called "sphere" is the most perfect form.
Aristotle's idealism gets into it doctrine of the worlds final layout:
The “sublunar world”, that is, the region between the orbit of the Moon and the center of the Earth, is a region of chaotic uneven movements, and all bodies in this region consist of four lower elements: earth, water, air and fire. Earth, as the heaviest element, occupies a central place. Above it are successively shells of water, air and fire.
The "supralunar world", that is, the region between the orbit of the Moon and the extreme sphere of the fixed stars, is the region of ever-uniform movements, and the stars themselves consist of the fifth, most perfect element - ether.
Ether (the fifth element or quinta essentia) is part of the stars and the sky. It is divine, incorruptible and completely unlike the other four elements.
The stars, according to Aristotle, are motionless fixed in the sky and circulate with it, and the "wandering luminaries" (planets) move in seven concentric circles.
The cause of the heavenly movement is God.
Doctrine of the State
Aristotle criticized Plato's doctrine of a perfect state and preferred to talk about such a political system that most states can have. He believed that the community of property, wives and children proposed by Plato would lead to the destruction of the state. Aristotle was a staunch defender of the rights of the individual, private property and the monogamous family, as well as a supporter of slavery.
However, Aristotle did not recognize the conversion of prisoners of war into slavery as justified, in his opinion, those who, having physical strength, do not have reason, should be slaves - “All those who differ from other people to such a strong degree, in which the soul differs from the body, and man from animal… those people are by nature slaves; ... a slave by nature is one who can belong to another (that's why he belongs to another) and who is involved in reason to such an extent that he is able to understand his orders, but he himself does not possess reason.
Having carried out a grandiose generalization of the social and political experience of the Hellenes, Aristotle developed an original socio-political doctrine. In the study of socio-political life, he proceeded from the principle: "As elsewhere, the best way of theoretical construction is to consider the primary formation of objects." Such an "education" he considered the natural desire of people to live together and to political communication.
According to Aristotle, a person is a political being, that is, a social one, and he carries within himself an instinctive desire for "joint cohabitation."
Aristotle considered the formation of a family as the first result of social life - husband and wife, parents and children ... The need for mutual exchange led to communication between families and villages. This is how the state was born. The state is created not in order to live in general, but to live, mostly, happily.
According to Aristotle, the state arises only when communication is created for the sake of a good life between families and clans, for the sake of a perfect and sufficient life for itself.
The nature of the state stands "ahead" of the family and the individual. Thus, the perfection of a citizen is determined by the qualities of the society to which he belongs - whoever wants to create perfect people must create perfect citizens, and whoever wants to create perfect citizens must create a perfect state.
Having identified society with the state, Aristotle was forced to search for the goals, interests and nature of people's activities from their property status and used this criterion when characterizing various strata of society. He singled out three main layers of citizens: the very wealthy, the middle, and the extremely poor. According to Aristotle, the poor and the rich "turn out to be elements in the state that are diametrically opposed to each other, that depending on the preponderance of one or another of the elements, the corresponding form of the state system is established."
The best state is that society which is achieved through the mediation of the middle element (that is, the "middle" element between slave owners and slaves), and those states have the best system where the middle element is represented in greater numbers, where it has greater importance compared to both extremes. elements. Aristotle noted that when in a state many people are deprived of political rights, when there are many poor people in it, then in such a state there are inevitably hostile elements.
The main general rule, according to Aristotle, should be the following: no citizen should be given the opportunity to excessively increase his political power beyond the proper measure.
Politician and politics
Aristotle, relying on the results of Platonic political philosophy, singled out a special scientific study of a certain area of social relations into an independent science of politics.
According to Aristotle, people can only live in society, under the conditions of a political system, since "man is by nature a political being." In order to properly arrange social life, people need politics.
Politics is a science, knowledge of how best to organize the joint life of people in a state.
Politics is the art and skill of public administration.
The essence of politics is revealed through its goal, which, according to Aristotle, is to give citizens high moral qualities, to make them people who act fairly. That is, the goal of politics is a just (common) good. Achieving this goal is not easy. A politician must take into account that people have not only virtues, but also vices. Therefore, the task of politics is not the education of morally perfect people, but the education of virtues in citizens. The virtue of a citizen consists in the ability to fulfill his civic duty and in the ability to obey the authorities and laws. Therefore, the politician must look for the best, that is, the most appropriate state structure for the specified goal.
The state is a product of natural development, but at the same time the highest form of communication. Man by nature is a political being, and in the state (political intercourse) the process of this political nature of man is completed.
Depending on the goals set by the rulers of the state, Aristotle distinguished correct and wrong state devices:
Righteous system - a system in which the common good is pursued, regardless of whether one, few or many rules:
- Monarchy (Greek monarchia - autocracy) - a form of government in which all supreme power belongs to the monarch.
- Aristocracy (Greek aristokratia - the power of the best) is a form of government in which the supreme power belongs to the inheritance of the tribal nobility, the privileged class. The power of the few, but more than one.
- Politia - Aristotle considered this form to be the best. It occurs extremely "rarely and in a few." In particular, when discussing the possibility of establishing a polity in contemporary Greece, Aristotle came to the conclusion that such a possibility was not great. In the polity, the majority governs in the interests of the common good. Politia is the “middle” form of the state, and the “middle” element here dominates everything: in morals - moderation, in property - average prosperity, in ruling - the middle stratum. "A state consisting of average people will also have the best political system."
Wrong system - a system in which the private goals of the rulers are pursued:
- Tyranny is a monarchical power, meaning the benefits of one ruler.
- Oligarchy - respects the benefits of wealthy citizens. A system in which power is in the hands of people of rich and noble birth and who form a minority.
- Democracy - the benefits of the poor, among the irregular forms of the state, Aristotle preferred it, considering it the most tolerable. A democracy should be considered such a system when the freeborn and the have-nots, constituting the majority, have the supreme power in their hands.
deviation from the monarchy gives tyranny,
deviation from the aristocracy - the oligarchy,
deviation from polity - democracy.
deviation from democracy - ochlocracy.
At the heart of all social upheavals lies property inequality. According to Aristotle, oligarchy and democracy base their claim to power in the state on the fact that property is the lot of a few, and all citizens enjoy freedom. The oligarchy protects the interests of the propertied classes. None of them are of general use.
In any form of government, it should be a general rule that no citizen should be allowed to exaggerate his political power beyond the proper measure. Aristotle advised to watch the ruling persons, so that they do not turn public office into a source of personal enrichment.
Departure from law means a departure from civilized forms of government to despotic violence and the degeneration of law into a means of despotism. “Dominion cannot be a matter of law, not only by law, but also contrary to law: the desire for forcible submission, of course, contradicts the idea of law.”
The main thing in the state is a citizen, that is, one who participates in court and administration, performs military service and performs priestly functions. Slaves were excluded from the political community, although they should have been, according to Aristotle, the majority of the population.
Aristotle undertook a gigantic study of the "constitution" - the political structure of 158 states (of which only one has survived - the "Athenian polity").
Aristotle and the natural sciences
Although Aristotle's early philosophical writings were largely speculative, his later writings show a deep understanding of empiricism, basic biology, and the diversity of life forms. Aristotle did not conduct experiments, believing that things more accurately manifest their true nature in a natural environment than in an artificially created one. Whereas in physics and chemistry such an approach was recognized as non-functional, in zoology and ethology the works of Aristotle "are of real interest." He made numerous descriptions of nature, especially the habitats and properties of various plants and animals, which he included in his catalog. In total, Aristotle classified 540 varieties of animals and studied the internal structure of at least fifty species.
Aristotle believed that all natural processes are guided by intellectual goals, formal causes. Such teleological views gave Aristotle reason to present the information he collected as an expression of formal design. For example, he assumed that Nature had not in vain endowed some animals with horns and others with tusks, thereby giving them the minimum set of means necessary for survival. Aristotle believed that all living beings can be arranged in order on a special scale - scala naturae or the Great Chain of Being - at the very bottom of which there will be plants, and at the top - a person. .
Aristotle was of the opinion that the more perfect the creation, the more perfect its form, but the form does not determine the content. Another aspect of his biological theory was to identify three types of souls: the plant soul, responsible for reproduction and growth; the sentient soul responsible for mobility and feeling; and a rational soul capable of thinking and reasoning. He attributed the presence of the first soul to plants, the first and second to animals, and all three to man. Aristotle, unlike other early philosophers, and following the Egyptians, believed that the place of the rational soul is in the heart, and not in the brain. Interestingly, Aristotle was one of the first to separate feeling and thought. Theophrastus, a follower of Aristotle from the Lyceum, wrote a series of books "History of Plants", which is the most important contribution of ancient science to botany, he remained unsurpassed until the Middle Ages.
Many of the names coined by Theophrastus survive today, such as carpos for a fruit and pericarpion for a seed pod. Instead of relying on the theory of formal causes, as Aristotle did, Theophrastus proposed a mechanistic scheme, drawing analogies between natural and artificial processes, relying on Aristotle's concept of "motive cause". Theophrastus also recognized the role of sex in the reproduction of some higher plants, although this knowledge was later lost. The contribution of the biological and teleological ideas of Aristotle and Theophrastus to Western medicine cannot be underestimated.
Compositions
Numerous writings of Aristotle cover almost the entire field of then available knowledge, which in his writings received a deeper philosophical justification, was brought into a strict, systematic order, and its empirical basis grew significantly. Some of these works were not published by him during his lifetime, and many others were falsely attributed to him later. But even some passages of those writings that undoubtedly belong to him can be called into question, and already the ancients tried to explain this incompleteness and fragmentation to themselves by the vicissitudes of the fate of Aristotle's manuscripts. According to the tradition preserved by Strabo and Plutarch, Aristotle bequeathed his writings to Theophrastus, from whom they passed to Nelius of Scepsis. The heirs of Nelius hid the precious manuscripts from the greed of the Pergamon kings in a cellar, where they suffered greatly from dampness and mold. In the 1st century BC e. they were sold at a high price to the rich and bookish Apellicon in the most miserable condition, and he tried to restore the damaged parts of the manuscripts with his own additions, but not always successfully. Subsequently, under Sulla, they came among other booty to Rome, where Tyrannian and Andronicus of Rhodes published them in their present form.
Of the writings of Aristotle, the Dialogues, written in a generally accessible form (exoteric), for example, have not come down to us, although the distinction between exoteric and esoteric writings accepted by the ancients was not so strictly carried out by Aristotle himself and in any case did not mean a difference in content. The writings of Aristotle that have come down to us are far from identical in their literary merits: in the same work, some sections give the impression of texts thoroughly processed and prepared for publication, others more or less detailed sketches. Finally, there are some that suggest that they were only teacher's notes for upcoming lectures, and some places, like perhaps his "Eudemic Ethics", seem to owe their origin to the notes of students, or at least reworked. on these notes.
In the fifth book of Historia animalium, Aristotle mentioned his Doctrine of Plants, which has survived only in a small number of fragments. These fragments were collected and published in 1838 by the German botanist H. Wimmer. From them it can be seen that Aristotle recognized the existence of two kingdoms in the surrounding world: inanimate and living nature. Plants he attributed to animated, living nature. According to Aristotle, plants have a lower stage of soul development compared to animals and humans. Aristotle noted in the nature of plants and animals some common properties. He wrote, for example, that in relation to some inhabitants of the sea it is difficult to decide whether they are plants or animals.
Aristotelian corpus
The Aristotelian Corpus (lat. Corpus Aristotelicum) traditionally includes works expounding the teachings of Aristotle, belonging to Aristotle himself.
Logic (Organon)
- Categories/ Κατηγοριῶν / Categoriae
- About interpretation/ Περὶ ἑρμηνείας / De interpretatione
- First analytics/ ἀναλυτικά πρότερα / Analytica priora
- Second analytics/ ἀναλυτικά ὑστερα / Analytica posteriora
- Topeka/ Τοπικῶν / Topica
- On sophistical rebuttals/ Περὶ τῶν σοφιστικῶν ἐλέγχων / De sophisticis elenchis
About nature
- Physics/ Φυσικὴ ἀκρόασις / Physica
- About the sky/ Περὶ οὐρανοῦ / De caelo
- On Creation and Destruction/ Περὶ γενέσεως καὶ φθορᾶς / De generatione et corruptione
- meteorology/ Τα μετεωρολογικά / Meteorologica
- About the soul/ Περὶ ψυχῆς / De anima
- Parva naturalia ("Small essays on nature", a cycle of 7 small works) On Perception and the Perceived, other translation - On sensory perception / Περὶ αἰσθήσεως καὶ αἰσθητῶν / De sensu et sensibilibus On memory and remembrance/ Περὶ μνήμης καὶ ἀναμνήσεως / De memoria et reminiscentia About sleep and wakefulness/ Περὶ ὗπνου καὶ ὶγρηγορήσεως / De somno et vigilia About a dream/ Περὶ ἐνυπνίου / De insomniis On the interpretation of dreams / Περὶ τῆς καθ΄ ὕπνον μαντικῆς / De divinatione per somnumOn the length and shortness of life / Περὶ μακροβιότητος καὶ βραχυβιότητος / De longitudine et brevitate vitaeAbout youth and old age, about life and death and about breathing / Περὶ νεότητος καὶ γήρως καὶ ζωῆς καὶ θανάτου / De juventute et senectute, de vita et morte et de respiratione
- animal history / Περὶ τὰ ζὼα ἱστορίαι / Historia animalium
- About parts of animals / Περὶ ζῴων μορίων / De partibus animalium
- About the movement of animals / Περὶ ζῴων κινήσεως / De motu animalium
- About the ways of movement of animals / Περὶ ζῴων πορείας / De incessu animalium
- About the origin of animals / Περὶ ζῴων γενέσεως / De generatione animalium
- About the world/ Περὶ κόσμου / De mundo
- About breathing / Περὶ πνεύματος / De spiritu
- About colors / Περὶ χρωμάτων / De coloribus
- About what you hear / Περὶ ἀκουστῶν / De audibilibus
- Physiognomy / Φυσιογνωμικά / Physiognomonica
- About plants / Περὶ φυτών / De plantis
- About wonderful rumors / Περὶ θαυμάσιων ἀκουσμάτων / De mirabilibus auscultationibus
- Mechanics / Μηχανικά / Mechanica
- Problems / Προβλήματα / Problemata
- About indivisible lines / Περὶ ατόμων γραμμών / De lineis insecabilibus
- About the directions and names of the winds / Ἀνέμων θέσεις καὶ προσηγορίαι / Ventorum situs et cognomina
- About Xenophanes, Zeno, Gorgias / Περὶ Ξενοφάνους, περὶ Ζήνωνος, περὶ Γοργίου / De Xenophane, de Zenone, de Gorgia
Metaphysics
- Metaphysics/ Μετὰ τὰ φυσικά / Metaphysica
Ethics and Politics
- Nicomachean ethics/ Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια / Ethica Nicomachea
- Eudemic ethics/ Ἠθικὰ Εὐδήμεια / Ethica Eudemia
- Politics/ Πολιτικά / Politica
- Athenian polity / Ἀθηναίων πολιτεία /
- Great ethics/ Ἠθικὰ μεγάλα / Magna moralia
- About virtues and vices/ Περὶ ἀρετῶν καὶ κακιῶν / De virtutibus et vitiis libellus
- Economy/ Οἰκονομικά / Oeconomica
Rhetoric and poetics
- Rhetoric/ Ῥητορικὴ τέχνη / Ars rhetorica
- Poetics/ Περὶ ποιητικῆς / Ars poetica
- Rhetoric to Alexander/ Ῥητορικὴ πρὸς Ἀλέξανδρον / Rhetorica ad Alexandrum (Anaximenes of Lampsacus is believed to be the author)
reception
Appearance and habits
According to Greek biographers, Aristotle suffered from speech defects, was "short-legged, with small eyes, wore elegant clothes and a trimmed beard." According to Aelian, Plato did not approve of either Aristotle's lifestyle or his manner of dressing: he wore lush clothes and elegant shoes, trimmed his beard and was drawn with many rings on his hands. “And there was some kind of mockery on his face, inappropriate talkativeness also testified to his character.”
Ancient Russian sources echo the late antique reception, describing Aristotle as follows:
The image was of an average age. His head is not large, his voice is thin, his eyes are small, his legs are thin. And he walked in a multi-colored and good attire. And he was willing to wear rings and gold chains ... but he washed himself in a vessel with warm wooden oilThe Legend of the Hellenic Philosopher and the Wise Aristotle
It also tells how Aristotle, in order not to sleep too long, went to bed with a bronze ball in his hand, which, falling into a metal basin, woke up the philosopher.
Editions
The first complete edition in Latin, with comments by the Arab philosopher Averroes, appeared in Venice in 1489, and the first Greek edition was made by Aldus Manutius (5 vols., Venice, 1495-98). This was followed by a new edition revised by Erasmus of Rotterdam (Basel, 1531), then another revised by Silburg (Frankf., 1584) and many others. At the end of the 18th century, Boulet made a new Greek and Latin edition (5 vols., Zweibrück and Strasb., 1791-1800). In the 19th century, at the expense of the Berlin Academy, a five-volume complete edition of essays, commentaries, scholia and fragments (Berlin, 1831-71) was prepared, which also served as a guide for the French edition of Didot in Paris (5 vols., 1848-74).
Aristotle translators into Russian
Note. The list includes translators of the authentic works of Aristotle and his inauthentic works (Corpus Aristotelicum)
- Alymova, Elena Valentinovna
- Afonasin, Evgeny Vasilievich
- Appelrot, Vladimir Germanovich
- Braginskaya, Nina Vladimirovna
- Voden A. M.
- Gasparov, Mikhail Leonovich
- Zhebelev, Sergei Alexandrovich
- Zakharov V.I.
- Itkin M.I.
- Kazansky A.P.
- Karpov, Vladimir Porfiryevich
- Kastorsky M.N.
- Kubitsky, Alexander Vladislavovich
- Lange, Nikolai Nikolaevich
- Lebedev Andrey Valentinovich
- Losev, Alexei Fyodorovich
- Makhankov I. I.
- Miller, Tatyana Adolfovna
- Novosadsky, Nikolai Ivanovich
- Ordynsky B.I.
- Pervov, Pavel Dmitrievich
- Platonova, Nadezhda Nikolaevna
- Popov P.S.
- Radlov, Ernest Leopoldovich
- Rozanov, Vasily Vasilievich Influential naturalists of antiquity
ARISTOTLE (Aristoteles) Stagirsky
384 - 322 BC e.
Aristotle of Stagirsky, one of the greatest philosophers of ancient Greece, was born in 384 BC. e. in Stagira, a Greek colony in Thrace, near Mount Athos. From the name of the city, the name Stagirite is derived, which was often given to Aristotle. Aristotle's father Nicomachus and mother Thetis were of noble birth. Nicomachus, the court physician of the Macedonian king Amyntas III, proposed his son for the same position and, probably, he himself initially taught the boy the art of medicine and philosophy, which at that time was inseparable from medicine.
Having lost his parents early, Aristotle went first to Atarney, in Asia Minor, and then, in 367, to Athens. There Aristotle became a student of Plato and for 20 years was a member of the Platonic Academy. In 343, Aristotle was invited by Philip (king of Macedonia) to raise his son, 13-year-old Alexander. In 335, Aristotle returned to Athens and created his own school there (the Lyceum, or peripatetic school). After the death of Alexander, Aristotle was accused of godlessness and left Athens in order, as he said, clearly alluding to the death of Socrates, to save the Athenians from a new crime against philosophy. Aristotle moved to Chalkis on Euboea, where he was followed by a crowd of students and where a few months later he died of a stomach ailment.
The works of Aristotle that have come down to us are divided according to their content into 7 groups:
– Logical treatises united in the Organon: Categories, On Interpretation, Analysts One and Two, Topeka.
- Physical treatises: "Physics", "On the origin and destruction", "On the sky", "On meteorological issues".
– Biological treatises: “The History of Animals”, “On the Parts of Animals”, “On the Origin of Animals”, “On the Movement of Animals”, as well as the treatise “On the Soul”.
- Works on the "first philosophy", considering the existent as such and later called "Metaphysics".
– Ethical writings: so-called. "Nicomachean Ethics" (dedicated to Nicomacheus, son of Aristotle) and "Eudemic Ethics" (dedicated to Eudemus, Aristotle's disciple).
- Socio-political and historical works: "Politics", "Athenian polity".
- Works on art, poetry and rhetoric: "Rhetoric" and "Poetics", which has not completely come down.
Aristotle covered almost all branches of knowledge available for his time. In his "first philosophy" ("metaphysics"), Aristotle criticized Plato's doctrine of ideas and gave a solution to the question of the relationship in the being of the general and the individual. The singular is that which exists only "somewhere" and "now", it is sensually perceived. General - that which exists in any place and at any time ("everywhere" and "always"), manifesting itself under certain conditions in the individual, through which it is known. The general is the subject of science and is comprehended by the mind. To explain what exists, Aristotle accepted 4 reasons: the essence and essence of being, by virtue of which every thing is the way it is (formal reason); matter and subject (substrate) - that from which something arises (material cause); driving cause, beginning of movement; A goal is something for which something is done. Although Aristotle recognized matter as one of the first causes and considered it to be some essence, he saw in it only a passive beginning (the ability to become something), he attributed all activity to the other three causes, and the essence of being - form - attributed eternity and immutability, and the source of any movement, he considered the immovable, but the moving principle - God. Aristotle's God is the "prime mover" of the world, the highest goal of all forms and formations developing according to their own laws. Aristotle's doctrine of "form" is the doctrine of objective idealism. Movement, according to Aristotle, is the transition of something from possibility to reality. Aristotle distinguished 4 kinds of movement: qualitative, or change; quantitative - increase and decrease; movement - spaces, movement; arising and annihilation, reducible to the first two kinds.
According to Aristotle, every really existing single thing is the unity of “matter” and “form”, and “form” is the “form” inherent in the substance itself, taken by it. The same object of feelings. of the world can be considered both as "matter" and as "form". Copper is "matter" in relation to the ball ("form"), which is cast from copper. But the same copper is a "form" in relation to the physical elements, the combination of which, according to Aristotle, is the substance of copper. All reality turned out to be, therefore, a sequence of transitions from "matter" to "form" and from "form" to "matter".
In the doctrine of knowledge and its types, Aristotle distinguished between "dialectical" and "apodictic" knowledge. The area of the first is “opinion” obtained from experience, the second is reliable knowledge. Although an opinion can receive a very high degree of probability in its content, experience is not, according to Aristotle, the final instance of the reliability of knowledge, because the highest principles of knowledge are contemplated by the mind directly. Aristotle saw the goal of science in a complete definition of the subject, achieved only by combining deduction and induction: 1) knowledge about each individual property must be acquired from experience; 2) the conviction that this property is essential must be proved by the conclusion of a special logical form - a category, a syllogism. The study of categorical syllogism, carried out by Aristotle in the Analyst, became, along with the doctrine of proof, the central part of his logical doctrine. Aristotle understood the connection of the three terms of the syllogism as a reflection of the connection between the effect, the cause and the carrier of the cause. The basic principle of the syllogism expresses the connection between the genus, species and single thing. The totality of scientific knowledge cannot be reduced to a single system of concepts, because there is no such concept that could be a predicate of all other concepts: therefore, for Aristotle, it turned out to be necessary to indicate all the higher genera - categories to which the rest of the genera of beings are reduced.
Aristotle's cosmology, with all its achievements (the reduction of the entire sum of visible celestial phenomena and the movements of the stars into a coherent theory), in some parts was backward in comparison with the cosmology of Democritus and Pythagoreanism. The influence of Aristotle's geocentric cosmology continued until Copernicus. Aristotle was guided by the planetary theory of Eudoxus of Cnidus, but attributed to the planetary spheres a real physical existence: the Universe consists of a series of concentric. spheres moving at different speeds and set in motion by the extreme sphere of fixed stars. The "sublunar" world, i.e., the region between the orbit of the Moon and the center of the Earth, is a region of chaotic uneven movements, and all bodies in this region consist of four lower elements: earth, water, air and fire. Earth, as the heaviest element, occupies a central place, above it are successively shells of water, air and fire. The "supra-lunar" world, that is, the region between the orbit of the Moon and the extreme sphere of the fixed stars, is the region of ever-uniform motions, and the stars themselves consist of the fifth, most perfect element, the ether.
In the field of biology, one of the merits of Aristotle is his doctrine of biological expediency, based on observations of the expedient structure of living organisms. Aristotle saw examples of expediency in nature in such facts as the development of organic structures from the seed, various manifestations of the expediently acting instinct of animals, the mutual adaptability of their organs, etc. In the biological works of Aristotle, which for a long time served as the main source of information on zoology, a classification and description of numerous animal species is given. The matter of life is the body, the form is the soul, which Aristotle called "entelechy". According to the three kinds of living beings (plants, animals, man), Aristotle distinguished three souls, or three parts of the soul: plant, animal (sensing) and rational.
In the ethics of Aristotle, the contemplative activity of the mind (“Diano-ethical” virtues) is placed above all else, which, in his opinion, contains in itself its own inherent pleasure, which enhances energy. This ideal was affected by the characteristic of slave-owning Greece of the 4th century. BC e. the separation of physical labor, which was the share of the slave, from mental labor, which was the privilege of the free. The moral ideal of Aristotle is God - the most perfect philosopher, or "self-thinking thinking." Ethical virtue, by which Aristotle understood the rational regulation of one's activities, he defined as the middle between two extremes (metriopathy). For example, generosity is the middle ground between stinginess and extravagance.
Aristotle considered art as a special kind of cognition based on imitation and set it as an activity depicting something that could be higher than historical cognition, which has as its object the reproduction of single individual events in their bare facticity. A look at art allowed Aristotle - in "Poetics" and "Rhetoric" - to develop a deep theory of art approaching realism, the doctrine of artistic activity and the genres of epic and drama.
Aristotle distinguished between three good and three bad forms of government. He considered good forms in which the possibility of selfish use of power is excluded, and the power itself serves the whole society; it is a monarchy, aristocracy and "polity" (power of the middle class), based on a mixture of oligarchy and democracy. On the contrary, Aristotle considered tyranny, pure oligarchy and extreme democracy to be bad, as if degenerate, types of these forms. Being the spokesman of the polis ideology, Aristotle was an opponent of large state formations. The theory of the state of Aristotle was based on the vast factual material studied by him and collected in his school about the Greek city-states. The teachings of Aristotle had a tremendous impact on the subsequent development of philosophical thought.
Sources:
1. Great Soviet Encyclopedia. In 30 vols.
2. Encyclopedic dictionary. Brockhaus F.A., Efron I.A. In 86 vols.
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