A History of Political

Philosophy
Lecture 10: Aristotle
- 30 June 2015

Logic
Politics: Study of constitutions
Definition of terms
Ethics: Golden Mean
Induction

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10.1 Aristotle

Biography
384 BC 322 BC
Stagira (Greece)
Wrote about 31 works
Formed the Lyceum
Relationship with Plato
Joined Platos academy at age of 17. Studied under Plato for 20 years. Left when Plato
died. Turned Plato on his head. Creating the greatest debate in the history of
philosophy.
Aristotle has kicked me just as a colt kicks it mother - Plato
Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth - Aristotle
Alexander
Teacher of Alexander.
After Alexanders death, Aristotle feared for his safety and left Athens.
Remarked I see no reason to permit Athens to sin twice against philosophy.
Natural & Social Scientist

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Botany, biology, logic, music, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, cosmology, physics,

the history of philosophy, metaphysics, psychology, ethics, theology, rhetoric, political
history, government and political theory, rhetoric, and the arts.
Regarded as the most influential philosopher of all time.
"Aristotle was the first genuine scientist in history.... Every scientist is in his debt
Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Political ideas contained in the complementary books Ethics and Politics

How did he do it?

The key lies in his method of study.
Was the first to study logical reasoning
Aristotle is the great systematiser & classifier of knowledge. Inventor of terms: Many
of the terms we use today in natural and social sciences were invented by Aristotle.
Begin any study with
Endoxa (Lit Review)
Dialectics (oppositional view)
Epistemology - Logic
Tools (Organon)
Categories
On Interpretation
Prior Analytics
Posterior Analytics
Topics
Sophistical Refutations
Divides Science into 3 Categories
1. Theoretical Sciences (natural science)
2. Practical Sciences (ethics politics)
3. Productive Sciences (polytechnics)
1. Theoretical Sciences - Knowledge for its own sake
Physics
Generation and Corruption
On the Heavens
Metaphysics
On the Soul
Brief Natural Treatises
History of Animals
Parts of Animals
Movement of Animals
Meteorology
Progression of Animals

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Generation of Animals

2. Practical Sciences - Conduct and goodness

Nicomachean Ethics
Eudemian Ethics
Magna Moralia [Great Ethics]
Politics
3. Productive Sciences - Creation of beautiful / useful objects
Ship-building
Agriculture
Medicine
Rhetoric
Arts of music
Theatre
Dance
Rhetoric
Poetics
Problem of Universals
Heraclitus: flux refuted the law of non-contradiction. How then can one have
knowledge.
Parmenides: change is an illusion. How then can one explain sense-perception.
Plato: Theory of forms -ideal world was without change, material world was a world
of change.
Criticism of Plato
Third Man Argument
The properties that the forms have (eternal, unchanging, transcendent, etc.) are all
incompatible with material objects
Hence, the resemblance between objects and form must also be explained in terms of
another form. What form does an object and the form both copy to account for their
similarity or dissimilarity? This leads to infinite regress, negating the notion that
forms are few.
Materialism: Plato on his head
Senses give us accurate information about reality.
The idea horse was simply a concept that we humans had formed after seeing a
certain number of horses.
By form horse, Aristotle meant that which is common to all horses.
Forms were in the things, because they were the particular characteristics of these
things.
The real object and the form of the object are just as inseparable as body and soul.

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Senses are basis of knowledge

Things that are in the human soul purely reflections of natural objects.
Nature is the real world.
Nothing exists in consciousness that has not first been experienced by the senses.
The mind has the innate faculty of organising all sensory impressions into categories
and classes.
Man has no innate ideas.
Substance & Form
Substance
What things are made of
that changes
Heraclitus
Essence
Each things specific characteristics
that stays the same
Paremenides
Substance contains the potentiality to realize a specific form. Every change in nature
is a transformation of substance from the potential into the actual.
Four Causes of Change
Material cause - the matter of which it is composed
Formal cause - the law that determines its development
Efficient cause - the agent or initiator of the process
Final cause - its end result
Teleology: Purpose behind everything in nature.
Everything is changing but basic goal of everything is permanence. Since everything
is trying to reach unchangeability there must be a final goal that everything is trying
to achieve.
Physical objects fall to the ground. Man seeks permanence by conceiving of pure
forms. The cosmos has a final cause and an ultimate Good towards which everything
is drawn.
The final cause is essence of the object. Hence, essence is not in an ideal world but
within the thing itself.
Teleology is not the nature of scientific reasoning today. Food and water are necessary
conditions of life but it is not the purpose of water or oranges to be for us
Unmoved Mover
There could be no motion unless there is an initiator of movement that is itself
unmoved.
The ultimate formal, efficient and final cause of the universe is an "Unmoved Mover".
Aristotle's "Unmoved Mover" is eternal, intelligent and non-material.

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This is pure form thinking about itself. This is actuality without potentiality. This is
perfection. This is God.
But not a god that intervenes in the affairs of nature, which always follow their
natural course. This is a god unmoved by both earthly and cosmic events.

Syllogism
Major premise = all As are Bs.
Minor premise = all Bs are Cs.
Conclusion = hence, all As are Cs.
The structure of the argument is true.
The conclusion may be false if the premises are untrue.
Laws of Deductive Logic
Law of Identity:
A is A
Law of Non-contradiction:
A cannot be simultaneously equal and unequal to A (a ~a). A is not, not-A
Law of Excluded Middle:
among two contradictory propositions one must be true, and the other false (P P).
Either A is true or not A is true.
Induction
Aristotle also developed induction
particular, particular, particular = universal.
Induction is not demonstrative, hence it is secondary.
The example of white crow
Nature
All things = Living and Nonliving
Nonliving- can only change through external influence.
Living things- have the potentiality for change
Living things = Plants & Creatures
Creatures
Animals and Humans
No sharp boundaries in the natural world.
Gradual transition from simple growths to more complicated plants, from simple
animals to more complicated animals.
Man Has a Spark of Divine Reason
The movement of the stars and the planets guide all movement on earth. The
movement of the stars and planets was caused by the 1st mover or God.

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The 1st mover is itself addressed but it is the formal cause of the movement of the
heavenly bodies and thus of all movement in nature.

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