Aristotle. Aristotle was an ancient Greek Philosopher who made contributions to logic, physics, the

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1 Johnson!1 Jenni Johnson Howard Ritz Intro to Debate 9 March 2017 Aristotle Aristotle was an ancient Greek Philosopher who made contributions to logic, physics, the arts, as well as an incalculable amount of other concepts and topics. He was also a prolific writer and polymath who dramatically transformed every field of work he touched. But Aristotle's work has been disregarded in modern day classrooms, despite his massive impact on today's society. Aristotle was born circa 384 B.C. in the Macedonian region of northeastern Greece in Stagira. His father, Nicomachus, was a court physician to the Macedonian king Amyntas II. Nicomachus died when Aristotle was young, but Aristotle remained closely affiliated with the Macedonian court for the rest of his life. Little is known about Aristotle's mother, Phaestis; she is also believed to have died when Aristotle was young. Proxenus, who was married to Aristotle's older sister, Arimneste, became his guardian until he came of age. (1) When Aristotle was seventeen, he was sent to Athens, the academic center of the universe at the time, to study at Plato's academy. Aristotle studied at Plato's Academy for twenty years, but after Plato's death in 347 B.C., he left for Assos, located in Asia minor. He is said to have left the academy because he was dissatisfied with the academy's leadership after the death of Plato. Although Aristotle was Plato's most promising student, he did not succeed Plato as head of the academy because of their opposing views on several fundamental philosophical issues, specifi-

2 Johnson!2 cally regarding Plato's theory of ideas. Aristotle was more concerned with the actual material world, while Plato was not. (1) While in Assos, he continued the philosophical activity he had begun in Plato's Academy. After living in Assos for three years, he moved to Lesbos and worked with Theophrastus, a former student of Plato's Academy. Living in Lesbos, he met and married Pythias and conceived a daughter, whom they named Pythias after her mother. In 343 B.C., upon the request of King Philip of Macedon, Aristotle left Lesbos for the capital, Pella, in order to tutor the king's thirteen-year-old son Alexander- who would eventually become Alexander the Great. Aristotle tutored Alexander for seven years until King Philip's assassination, which called for Alexander's rise to the throne. He also taught Ptolemy, the founder of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt, and Cassander, the future King of Macedon. In 335 B.C., Aristotle returned to Athens and founded his own school called the Lyceum, which soon became a rival to Plato's Academy. He was known to walk around the school grounds while teaching, so his students were called "Peripatetics", meaning "people who travel about". After the death of his wife, Aristotle had romantic relations with a woman called Herpyllis, who bore him a son, named Nicomachus after Aristotle's father. He is said to have named his most famous, best-known writing on ethics, the Nicomachean Ethics, after his son. When Alexander the Great died suddenly in 323 B.C., the pro-macedonian government was overthrown. Aristotle was charged with impiety for his association with his former student, Alexander, and the Macedonian court. To avoid being prosecuted and executed, Aristotle left Athens and fled to Chalcis on the island of Euboea. After fleeing from Athens, Aristotle died in

3 Johnson!3 Chalcis from digestive problems. He requested to be buried next to his first wife, Pythias; and so he was. Twenty four centuries ago, Aristotle laid the foundations of the western culture, and their ideas and insights still dictate essential features of our world today. He is known as the Father of Western Science because he wrote the first books on nearly every field. Whether it be biology and physics, astronomy and psychology, even technology and the paragon of logical linear thinking; there seemed to be no limit to the knowledge he could achieve and master. He made contributions to a range of physical science such as zoology, anatomy, and geography. While he was in Athens, Aristotle wrote dialogues and treatises on physics, metaphysics, politics, and more. He also wrote on theology, rhetoric, psychology, and economics. Aristotle said the light of truth is found here in the material world, and our job is to understand and find our place in it. Aristotle is also the Father of the Internet, entrepreneurial start-ups, and e-commerce. According to his book on politics, he believes that the purpose of society is to enable each person "to attain a higher and better life by the mutual exchange of their different services." This stands in sharp contrast with the modern view of politics that man is not "by nature" politically; rather, man choose to create political associations for the sake of securing the protection of his life and property. Many political theorists have begun to express doubts about this modern view, calling for a return to Aristotle's vision of politics that is deeply moral. In his school, the Lyceum, Aristotle placed great emphasis on the direct observation of nature, and in science he taught that theory must follow fact. He considered philosophy to be the discerning of the self-evident, changeless first principles that form the basis of all knowledge. He introduced the notion of category into logic and taught that reality could be classified according

4 Johnson!4 to several categories substance (the primary category), quality, quantity, relation, determination in time and space, action, passion or passivity, position, and condition. (6) Aristotle also taught that knowledge of an object, beyond its classification and description, requires an explanation of causality, or why it is. He posed four causes or principles of explanation: the material cause (the substance of which the thing is made), the formal cause (its design), the efficient cause (its maker or builder), and the final cause (its purpose or function). In modern thought the efficient cause is generally considered the central explanation of an object, but for Aristotle the final cause had primacy. (6) He used this account of causes to examine the relation of form to matter, and in his conclusions differed greatly from those of Plato, his former teacher. Aristotle believed that a form, with the exception God, had no separate existence, but rather was immanent in matter. Thus, in the Aristotelian system, form and matter together create concrete individual realities; the Platonic system holds that a concrete reality joins a form (the ideal) but does not embody it. Aristotle believed that form caused matter to move and defined motion as the process by which the potentiality of matter (the thing itself) became the actuality of form (motion itself). He held that God alone was pure form and as the "unmoved mover", and final cause was the goal of all motion. (6) Aristotle's ethical theory reflects his metaphysics. Following Plato, he argued that the goodness or virtue of a thing lay in the realization of its specific nature. The highest good for humans is the complete and habitual exercise of the specifically human function- rationality. Rationality is exercised through the practice of two kinds of virtue, moral and intellectual. Aristotle emphasized the traditional Greek notion of moral virtue as the mean between extremes. Well-being (eudaemonia) is the pursuit not of pleasure (hedonism) but rather of the good, a composite

5 Johnson!5 ideal, consisting of contemplation (the intellectual life) and engagement in politics (the moral life). In the Politics, Aristotle holds that, by nature, humans form political associations, and he explores the best forms these may take. (6) Thinkers like Avicenna, Averroes, and Maimondoes revitalized Aristotle's logical and scientific precepts. In the thirteenth century, Aristotle was reintroduced to the west through the work of Alberto's Magnus and especially Thomas Aquinas. Aristotle's universal influence increased during the Renaissance and Reformation as religious and scientific reformers questioned the way the Catholic Church had subsumed his precepts. Thomas Aquinas's brilliant synthesis of Aristotelian and Christian thought provided a bedrock for late medieval a Catholic philosophy theology and science. He also became well-known in the Islamic world after the fall of Rome. Aristotle's works are sometimes divided into exoteric and esoteric. His exoteric works refer to those that were intended for the public, while his esoteric works were used mostly within his schools. Even today, all of Aristotle's work, whether public or private, remains a significant starting point for any argument in the field of logic, aesthetics, political theory, and ethics. Aristotle studies extended from nearly every region one could imagine. It is difficult to grasp the entirety of philosophical views. He made significant and lasting contributions to nearly every aspect of human knowledge, from logic to biology to ethics and aesthetics. In Arabic philosophy, he is known as The First Teacher ; in the West, he is simply known as The Philosopher. His works have revolutionized our modern way of life today and can be applied in our everyday lives. Aristotle may be gone in the physical sense, but he lives on through his legacy and works he has left behind for the utilization and examination of generations to come.

6 Johnson!6 Work Cited 1. Campbell, John. "Aristotle." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 07 Nov Web. 01 Mar Herman, Arthur. "5 Reasons Why Plato and Aristotle Still Matter Today." PublishersWeekly.com. N.p., 6 Dec Web. 03 Mar History.com Staff. "Aristotle." History.com. A&E Television Networks, Web. 01 Mar Miller, Pamela. "Philosophers.co.uk." Aristotle. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb Shields, Christopher. "Aristotle." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, 25 Sept Web. 27 Feb Smith, Daniel. "Aristotle." Infoplease. Infoplease, Web. 09 Mar