Aristotle (384 BC – March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher. Along
with Plato, he is often considered to be one of the two most influential
philosophers in Western thought. He wrote many books about physics, poetry,
zoology, government, and biology.
Introduction
The three greatest ancient Greek philosophers were Aristotle, Plato (a teacher of
Aristotle) and Socrates (c. 470-399 BC), whose thinking deeply influenced Plato.
Among them they transformed early (now presocratic) Greek philosophy into the
foundations of Western philosophy as we know it. Socrates did not leave any
writings, possibly as a result of the reasons articulated against writing
philosophy attributed to him in Plato's dialogue Phaedrus. His ideas are therefore
known to us only indirectly, through Plato and a few other writers. The writings
of Plato and Aristotle form the core of Ancient philosophy.
Their works, although connected in many fundamental ways, are very different in
both style and substance. Plato mainly wrote philosophical dialogues, that is
arguments in the form of conversations, usually with Socrates as a participant.
Though the early dialogues are concerned mainly with methods of acquiring
knowledge and most of the last ones with justice and practical ethics, his most
famous works expressed a synoptic view of ethics, metaphysics, reason,
knowledge and human life. The fundamental idea is that knowledge gained
through the senses is always confused and impure, true knowledge being
acquired by the contemplative soul that turns away from the world. The soul
alone can have knowledge of the Forms, the real essences of things, of which
the world we see is but an imperfect copy. Such knowledge has ethical as
well as scientific importance. Plato can be called, with qualification, an
idealist and a rationalist.
Aristotle, by contrast, placed much more value on knowledge gained from the
senses and would correspondingly be better classed among modern empiricists.
He set the stage for what would eventually develop into the scientific method
centuries later. Although he wrote dialogues early in his career, no more than
fragments of these have survived. The works of Aristotle that still exist today
are in treatise form and were, for the most part, unpublished texts. These were
probably lecture notes or texts used by his students, and were almost certainly
revised repeatedly over the course of years. As a result, these works tend to be
eclectic, dense and difficult to read. Among the most important ones are
Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, De Anima (On the Soul)
and Poetics.
Aristotle is known for being one of the few figures in history who studied
almost every subject possible at the time. In science, Aristotle studied
anatomy, astronomy, embryology, geography, geology, meteorology, physics,and
zoology. In philosophy, Aristotle wrote on aesthetics, economics, ethics,
government, metaphysics, politics, psychology, rhetoric and theology. He also
dealt with education, foreign customs, literature and poetry. His combined
works practically comprise an encyclopedia of Greek knowledge.
History and influence of Aristotle's work
The history of Aristotle's works from the time of his death until the 1st
century BC is obscure. Legend has it that Aristotle's personal library,
including the manuscripts of his works, was left to his successor
Theophrastus and was later hidden to avoid confiscation or destruction;
finally the manuscripts were rediscovered in 70 BC. Andronicus of Rhodes
then edited and published the works. In the interim, however, the works
could hardly have been forgotten, since Aristotle's school, the Lyceum,
was in operation the whole time.
The majority of Aristotle's work has been lost, some since Classical times.
There is a glimpse of what we have lost in the praise given by Cicero to
the eloquence of Aristotle's dialogues. The surviving works are known and
respected for a plain and unadorned (though not easy) style; not one is
a dialogue. Some lost works of Aristotle may have survived in
hard-to-restore carbonised form at the Villa of the Papyri in
Herculaneum, currently under excavation.
In late antiquity Aristotle fell nearly out of sight. Early Christian
writers such as Tertullian rejected philosophy altogether as a pagan
study that was made obsolete by the Gospels. In the 5th century Saint
Augustine used Platonic and Neo-Platonic philosophy in his theology,
but had no use for Aristotle. At the end of the century, however,
Boethius undertook to translate the works of Aristotle and other Greeks
into Latin, as the teaching of Greek was being lost in the West; his
translations and commentaries were nearly all that was known of Greek
philosophy in the West for several centuries. They were little missed,
as the hostility of early Christianity to pagan philosophy continued.
Aristotle's works were read during the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates,
however, and the Islamic philosopher Averroes commented extensively
on it and attempted to fuse it with Islamic theology. Maimonides also
tried this with Judaism. By the 12th century there was a great revival
of interest in Aristotle in Christian Europe, and the great translator
William of Moerbeke worked from both Greek and Arabic manuscripts to
produce Latin translations. Aristotle's works were commented on by
Thomas Aquinas and became the standard philosophical approach of the
high and later middle ages. Aristotle's works were held in such
esteem that he was known as The Philosopher. Dante calls Aristotle
the “master knower” and places him in Limbo with the Good Pagans such
as Socrates and Plato in the Divine Comedy (Canto IV).
Indeed, the views of Aristotle became the dogma of scholastic
philosophy. It was this dogma that was rejected by the philosophers
of the early modern period, such as Galileo and Descartes.
Aristotle's theories about drama, in particular the idea of the
dramatic unities, also influenced later playwrights, especially in
France. He claimed to be describing the Greek theater, but his work
was taken as prescriptive. In more recent times there has been a new
revival of interest in Aristotle. His ethical views in particular
remain influential.
