Aristotle

1. Aristotle “Mine is the first step and therefore a small one, though worked out with much thought and hard labor. You, my readers or hearers of my lectures, if you think I have done as much as can fairly be expected of an initial start. . . will acknowledge what I have achieved and will pardon what I have left for others to accomplish.”

2. A Founding Father in Western Philosophy • Aristotle is considered to be a Founding Father of Western Philosophy, aside from being one of the greatest philosophers the world has ever known. • Aristotle was taught in Plato’s academy for twenty years. • Although he was Plato’s most gifted pupil, Aristotle opposed many of Plato’s views on several fundamental issues • His philosophy can be divided into four main areas: 1) Logic; 2) Theoretical Philosophy, including Metaphysics, Physics and Mathematics; 3) Practical Philosophy, such as Ethics and Politics; and 4) Poetical Philosophy, covering the study of poetry and the fine arts.

3. Aristotle’s history •  Born in 384 B.C.E. in the Macedonian region of northeastern Greece in the small city of Stagira, Aristotle was sent to Athens at about the age of seventeen to study in Plato's Academy, the heart of the intellectual world at the time. • Once in Athens, Aristotle remained a student of the Academy until Plato's death twenty years later. • Although Aristotle was Plato’s most promising student, he was not appointed head of the academy upon Plato’s death due to their opposing views. • Unlike Plato Aristotle was more concerned with the actual material world, and did not believe that the only thing that mattered is the realm of ideas and perfect forms. • In 338 B.C., Aristotle went home to Macedonia to start tutoring King Phillip II’s son, the then 13-year-old Alexander the Great. n 335 B.C., after Alexander had succeeded his father as king and conquered Athens, Aristotle went back to the city.

4. In 335 BC when Aristotle went back to Athens he found the Academy flourishing under Xenocrates. The academy at this point was still the leading influence on Greek Philosophy. With Alexander’s permission, Aristotle started his own school in Athens, called the Lyceum. On and off, Aristotle spent most of the remainder of his life working as a teacher, researcher and writer at the Lyceum in Athens.  During his time at the Lyceum, Aristotle wrote extensively on a wide range of subjects: politics, metaphysics, ethics, logic and science. Aristotle ultimately agreed with Plato that the cosmos is rationally designed and that philosophy can come to know absolute truths by studying universal forms. Their ideas diverged in that Aristotle thought that the one finds the universal in particular things, while Plato believed the universal exists apart from particular things, and that material things are only a shadow of true reality, which exists in the realm of ideas and forms. The fundamental difference between the two philosophers is that Plato thought only pure mathematical reasoning was necessary, and therefore focused on metaphysics and mathematics. Aristotle, on the other hand, thought that in addition to this "first philosophy," it is also necessary to undertake detailed empirical investigations of nature, and thus to study what he called "second philosophy," which includes such subjects as physics, mechanics and biology. • Aristotle's philosophy therefore involved both inductive and deductive reasoning, observing the workings of the world around him and then reasoning from the particular to a knowledge of essences and universal laws. In a sense, Aristotle was the first major proponent of the modern scientific method.