ARISTOTLE

Facts:

Student of Plato
Born in Macedonia
Founded his own school after failing to take over Plato's
Became the tutor of Alexander the Great
Aristotle's Philosophies are Unplatonic

Rationalist: Require knowledge before and without the need of sense experience
(eg. Plato)
Empiricist: The intellect works on knowledge acquired by the senses (eg. Aristotle)
Three types of Knowledge (later evolved into sciences):
1. Practical (Regards conduct and goodness in action, both on a social and on an
individual level)
a. Example: Ethics, Politics
b. Praxis (the aim of Practical Knowledge) has to do with the doing of an
action.
c. Needs Arete (virtue)
2. Theoretical (Knowledge sought for its own sake, no further aim. You simply
want to know to have the knowledge)
a. Physics (deals with moving and physical objects)
b. Mathematics (deals with unmoving and physical objects)
c. Metaphysics (deals with unmoving and abstract objects)
i. Literally: "After Physics"
ii. Came to mean: "Beyond the Physical"
iii. Discusses topics such as God and Immortality of the Soul
3. Productive (Aims at the creation of beautiful and useful objects)
a. Needs Teche (skill)
b. Productive knowledge is Poiesis (to make, produce, create)
Note:
- Praxis has to do with the doing of an action, Poiesis has to do with the
making of an object.
Aristotle's Analysis of Change
Note:
- Aristotle believed in change, contrary to the Eleatics.
Four types of Change:
1. Substance
a. When something comes to be or dies away. Includes a change in
physical form
Epistemology: Study of Knowledge
Onthology: Study of Reality and Existence

2. Quality
a. When something gains or loses a property
3. Quantity
a. When something changes in size and/or quantity
4. Place
a. When something moves location
Aristotle distinguished between potency and act:
If X changes into Y, it is because X is already X, but potentially Y
Eg: A seed is already a seed, but potentially a tree.
Therefore, between Nothingness and Being, there is Potentiality.
Four causes of change:
1. Material Cause
a. That from which something is generated and out of which it is made
b. Example: Statue -> Marble
2. Formal Cause
a. That in terms of which matter comes to be determined (structure)
b. Example: Statue -> The fact that it represents the President
3. Efficient Cause
a. The agent responsible for giving a form to matter (informing matter)
b. Example: Statue -> Sculptor
4. Final Cause
a. The purpose or goal of the change or compound of form and matter
b. Example: Statue -> Created to honour the President
Note:
- In the Physics, Aristotle says that these foure causes are necessary
and sufficient for an adequate explanation of change.
-- Necessary: Need to refer to all of them
-- Sufficient: No need for a 5th Cause
- Aristotle says that no philosopher before him gave a FULL systematic
account of change
-- Plato: Formal, Material
-- Empedocles: Efficient, Material
The Categories
Categories of Existence: Ways in which things exist and in which we think or talk
about things
A thing can exist in different ways (eg. Particular)
A thing can exist as a quality (eg. Colour)
A thing has relations to place, time, other things, etc
Epistemology: Study of Knowledge
Onthology: Study of Reality and Existence

Epistemological Realist: The way things are in reality correspond to the way we
think about these things, the idea is a copy of reality (eg. Aristotle)
Epistemological Idealist: The mind places these categories on the world to make
sense of the way things are, the idea imposes itself on reality (eg. Kant)
Note:
- For Aristotle, reality is made up of particulars and not universals, as
opposed to Plato's method of thinking.
Aristotle distinguishes between Substance and Accidents. Substance is necessary
(Onthologically Fundamental), Accidents are not. Substance is the thing itself,
Accidents are the qualities that belong to it. Things that depend on something to
exist are less real than that something they depend on. A substance can never take
the role of a predicate (eg. Tall is the predicate in John is Tall, Tall can change, John
cannot)

Substance: "That which is neither said of a subject, nor in a subject."

Accidents: "Is in something, not as a part, and cannot exist seperately from what it
is in."
Taken from The
Categories

What is Being?
Aristotle points out that being has manifold meanings, it is not univocal (one
meaning). To study Being, Aristotle first looks at the concept of Health, which also
has several meanings (eg. Healthy diet, Healthy lifestyle, etc). All these meanings of
Health are related to the single central concept of the Healthy Organism (a diet is
healthy if it helps the organism to be healthy). The same can be applied to Being,
which is always used in relation to Substance (we can speak of quantity because
there is a substance that has that quantity).
Hylomorphic Thesis: A substance is always a compound of Form and Matter. 'Hylo'
means matter, 'Morphic' means form. Matter and Form are always together. Form is
the structure of Matter.
Is Essence Subjective or Objective?
The term essence is derived from essentia (Latin), and means 'what is', or that
which makes the object what it is. For example, the essence of the chair is its form,
the way it is structured to become something determined.
Epistemology: Study of Knowledge
Onthology: Study of Reality and Existence

For Aristotle: The mind abstracts the form by observing a number of particulars and
extrapolating a concept of that particular containing its conceptual form. Particulars
to Universals.
Therefore, Aristotle says that the forms have an objective bases, even though
seperation of form and matter is purely conceptual. It is not subjective because we
do not create the form before we abstract it; we do not create the form, we derive it
from the observation of real particulars.
Aristotle's Concept of God
Aristotle showed that the existence of a God is necessary:
1. Motion (change) is infinite
2. Assuming that motion can only be started by another motion:
a. If X represents the motion that began all motion (beginning of motion)
b. Then X must have had a motion before it, and so on and so forth
c. Therefore Motion has no beginning
3. Since there is no chronological beginning, there was no God before the
beginning
4. However, we still need a supreme mover to give this motion synchronous
cause
a. Therefore, this supreme mover must be an unmoved mover
b. Since he is unmoved, there is no cause to his effect, so there's nothing
before him
5. However, how can God move the universe if he cannot move?
a. Since God cannot be an efficient cause since that requires something
to start it
b. Therefore God must be the final cause, the goal of all movement
c. Thus, God causes movement by attraction without moving himself
Example: A seed becomes a flower by maximising its potential and moving towards
God.
From this we can conclude that God is pure act, no potentiality, since he is the final
of everything. God has no knowledge and end outside himself. The state of God is a
state of thinking, because thought is the highest state. He is not a personal God, as
he thinks only of himself, so you can have no relationship with God.
The Soul & Scale of Being
The soul is that in virtue of which something is alive -> The principle of animation
and life (that which gives life to an object)
This relation is like that between Matter and Form: No Dualism
-> The soul is the form of the body, and because we have a form, we are alive
Epistemology: Study of Knowledge
Onthology: Study of Reality and Existence

The soul is a particular form that animates matter.

The formal cause is interrelated to the final cause (eg. The form of the knife enables
it to perform its final cause, slicing up shizz)
The soul is also the source of movement -> we can grow and move because we
have a form that allows us
Therefore, the soul is:
The Formal Cause
The Final Cause
Source of Movement
Three different types of souls:
Nutritive Soul
o Ability to assimilate and reproduce
o Plants only have this soul
Sensitive Soul
o Ability of sense perception, desire, and locomotion
o Animals have this and nutritive
Rational Soul
o Ability of Scientific Thought (understand and categorize the world) and
Deliberation (deliberate before you act)
Scientific Thought -> Aim of Truth
Deliberation -> Aim of Practical Life
o Humans have this, sensitive, and nutritive
Hierarchy of Being -> Aim of humans is to develop our rationality, which
distinguishes us from animals.
Aristotle's Ethics
Ethics -> Matters to do with character, the development/realisation of one's
potential.
Focus of Moral Virtues (excellence of character) -> self development as a human
being
Compares a 'Good Man' to a 'Lyre Player':
Good lyre player -> someone who performs well in the tasks for lyre players
Good man -> someone who performs well in the tasks for men
Goal of lyre player -> play the lyre well, good player if he achieves this goal
Epistemology: Study of Knowledge
Onthology: Study of Reality and Existence

Goal of man -> achieve the goal of humanity, good man if he achieves this goal

Epistemology: Study of Knowledge

Onthology: Study of Reality and Existence

Goal of Humanity:
The goal of humanity is to reach eudaimonia (self fulfilment). So
eudaimonia is purpose, related to actions that realize or fulfil the actor. It
is not a mental state, but a process, the attainment of self fulfilment.
Fulfil your potential -> Develop your rationality -> Human is to be rational on two
levels:
1. Practical - To act rationally
a. Act in accordance with a mean (average)
i. Excellence lies between excess and defect, too much and too
little
b. Excellence depends on situation (situational ethics)
i. Charging Army Example:
1. Run if your army walks -> Excess
2. Stay behind your army -> Defect
3. Walk along with your army -> Excellence
2. Theoretical - To engage in rational thought
a. Highest form is contemplation -> appreciation of the truth, not a
search for it
b. The highest object of contemplation is God
Aristotle's Politics
Political is a continuation and realization of the ethical. Eudaimonia is only possible
within the polis.
Ethics -> How to flourish
Politics -> The state needed to flourish
"The polis comes into being for the sake of living, but it remains in existence for the
sake of living well."
Taken from The Politics

Typology of Political Legitness (achievement of human flourishing):

Legit
Illegit
ONE RULER
Kingship
Tyranny
FEW RULERS
Aristocracy
Oligarchy
MANY RULERS
Polity
Democracy
Aristotle's Justice
Distributive Justice -> The just allocation of good -> Equal claims should be treated
equally, and different claims differently -> Meritocratic (What you gain is based on
merit/ability)
Disagrees with:
Epistemology: Study of Knowledge
Onthology: Study of Reality and Existence

Oligarchs: Because they favour the Rich

Democrats: Because they believe that everyone deserves freedom
irrespective of merit
The ideal constitution is the best qualities of the constitutions combined together.
But we have to be content with what we can reasonably attain.
Democracy -> Illegit Government -> Best constitution we can reasonably hope to
achieve
Ideal State -> Kingship where you have one leader who is so wise that he can lead
the people perfectly.

Epistemology: Study of Knowledge

Onthology: Study of Reality and Existence