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| Ἀριστοτέλης, Aristotélēs |
Marble bust of Aristotle. Roman copy after a Greek bronze original by Lysippus c. 330 BC. The alabaster mantle is modern |
| Full name |
Ἀριστοτέλης, Aristotélēs |
| Born |
384 BC
Stageira, Chalcidice
|
| Died |
322 BC (age 61 or 62)
Euboea
|
| Era |
Ancient philosophy |
| Region |
Western philosophy |
| School |
Peripatetic school
Aristotelianism |
| Main interests |
Physics, Metaphysics, Poetry, Theatre, Music, Rhetoric, Politics, Government, Ethics, Biology, Zoology |
| Notable ideas |
Golden mean, Reason, Logic, Passion |
|
|
Influenced
Virtually all Western philosophy after his works, Alexander the Great, Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Galileo, and most of Islamic philosophy, Jewish philosophy, Christian philosophy, science and more....
|
Aristotle (
Greek:
Ἀριστοτέλης,
Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a
Greek philosopher, a student of
Plato and teacher of
Alexander the Great.
.^ This term indicates that Aristotle sees in ethical activity an attraction that is comparable to the beauty of well-crafted artifacts, including such artifacts as poetry, music, and drama.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Subjects include ideas and movements of reform, church government and structures, missionary enterprises, forms of spirituality and worship, and the political role and cultural impact of Christianity.
.^ That is why for Aristotle one of the most important capacities one can have is moral judgment.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ And (3) others define him as one who lives with and (4) has the same tastes as another, or (5) one who grieves and rejoices with his friend; and this too is found in mothers most of all.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ However, considerable emphasis will be placed on major traditions ignored by earlier histories of medieval philosophy: glossing of Plato Latinus, Aristotles Latinus, Macrobius, and Martianus Capella.
.^ An introduction to issues in philosophy of education such as religion and education, education and politics (including global politics), the value of social and empirical sciences for the study of education, the problem of indoctrination, etc.
^ An examination of modes of moral reasoning and what constitutes the good life, based primarily on the study of Aristotle's NICOMACHEAN ETHICS and the moral philosophy of Kant.
^ This preoccupation with the role of "acting" in moral development is reflected not only in works of theology and philosophy but also in aesthetics, theory of drama, plays, and novels.
.^ Although it has often been noted that the poor are more generous than the rich, giving freely of what they have even if it isn't much, which is what Aristotle is referring to at the end of this passage.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ We will study how these thinkers answered these questions as well as how their answers influenced the specific obligations they understood us as having.
^ This course integrates the principles of physical sciences and engineering as they pertain to the environment, with addition discussion of social, political, and theological concerns.
In the biological sciences, some of his observations were confirmed to be accurate only in the nineteenth century.
.^ A number of recent works attempt to reassess our view of modern theology by painting in broad strokes key developments of the 17th and 18th centuries.
^ Then it will focus on how immigration transformed the church in the U.S. We will study such issues as national identity, devotional life, gender, and doctrine over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
In metaphysics,
Aristotelianism had a profound influence on
philosophical and theological thinking in the Islamic and Jewish traditions in the
Middle Ages, and it continues to influence
Christian theology, especially
Eastern Orthodox theology, and the
scholastic tradition of the
Catholic Church.
.^ Guidance will be principally taken from works of Plato, Aristotle, and St. Thomas Aquinas, though some modern and contemporary conceptions of the virtues will be discussed by way of counterpoint.
^ There has been considerable interest recently in recovering traditions of reflection on the virtues as a resource for Christian ethics.
.^ An examination of modes of moral reasoning and what constitutes the good life, based primarily on the study of Aristotle's NICOMACHEAN ETHICS and the moral philosophy of Kant.
.^ Cicero, a leading statesman of the late Roman Republic, endeavored to mediate between the work of Greek theorists and Roman practice; in time, his writings became among the most important sources on ancient moral and political thought for the Christian tradition.
^ Now no one deliberates about things that are invariable, nor about things that it is impossible for him to do.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Now about eternal things no one deliberates, e.g.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[2]
.^ Guidance will be principally taken from works of Plato, Aristotle, and St. Thomas Aquinas, though some modern and contemporary conceptions of the virtues will be discussed by way of counterpoint.
^ Aristotle does not actually think that akrasia is possible, but common sense says that it is and it would take us too far out of the way into Aristotelian scholarship to see why he doesn't think so.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[3]
Life
Early Islamic portrayal of Aristotle
Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal academy of
Macedon.
.^ Sometimes only a small degree of anger is appropriate; but at other times, circumstances call for great anger.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ For when something is subtracted from one of two equals and added to the other, the other is in excess by these two; since if what was taken from the one had not been added to the other, the latter would have been in excess by one only.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ In their parts and during the time they occupy, all movements are incomplete, and are different in kind from the whole movement and from each other.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ On the other hand, he who thinks himself worthy of great things, being unworthy of them, is vain; though not every one who thinks himself worthy of more than he really is worthy of in vain.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ It should be evident that Aristotle's treatment of virtues as mean states endorses the idea that we should sometimes have strong feelings—when such feelings are called for by our situation.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Now often one contrary state is recognized from its contrary, and often states are recognized from the subjects that exhibit them; for (A) if good condition is known, bad condition also becomes known, and (B) good condition is known from the things that are in good condition, and they from it.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Tactfully, he included the young prince and his father in that category. Aristotle encouraged Alexander toward eastern conquest, and his attitude towards Persia was unabashedly ethnocentric. In one famous example, he counsels Alexander to be 'a leader to the Greeks and a despot to the barbarians, to look after the former as after friends and relatives, and to deal with the latter as with beasts or plants'.
[6]By 335 BC he had returned to Athens, establishing his own school there known as the
Lyceum. Aristotle conducted courses at the school for the next twelve years.
.^ And these friendships differ also from each other; for it is not the same that exists between parents and children and between rulers and subjects, nor is even that of father to son the same as that of son to father, nor that of husband to wife the same as that of wife to husband.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ While Aristotle does believe that there is a common human nature in that we have common needs and capacities, he does not believe that there is a common moral nature, unlike many who moral theorists who will follow him.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Power and wealth are desirable for the sake of honour (at least those who have them wish to get honour by means of them); and for him to whom even honour is a little thing the others must be so too.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
According to the
Suda, he also had an
eromenos,
Palaephatus of Abydus.
[7].^ While Aristotle does believe that there is a common human nature in that we have common needs and capacities, he does not believe that there is a common moral nature, unlike many who moral theorists who will follow him.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[5] Aristotle wrote many dialogues, only fragments of which survived.
.^ For if the gods have any care for human affairs, as they are thought to have, it would be reasonable both that they should delight in that which was best and most akin to them (i.e.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ (They are welcome guests in our discussions) Nevertheless, despite this limitation, we will be dealing with that form of postmodern discourses that has exercised the most influence on the academy in general, and has shown itself to be interesting at least in the construction of alternatives to regnant theologies.
^ Socrates, then, thought the virtues were rules or rational principles (for he thought they were, all of them, forms of scientific knowledge), while we think they involve a rational principle.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ Texts to be read include Books I and II of the Physics, the De Anima, and large chunks of the Nicomachean Ethics, along with snippets from the Parva Naturalia.
^ An examination of a number of the most important systematic contributions to medical ethics in recent years.
^ A basic introduction to Aristotle's "human philosophy" (ta anthropina philosophia) by reading the Nicomachean Ethics and the Politics.
.^ Building on a study of several well-documented cases from various places and times, an analysis will be made of the dynamics of conversion from theological as well as other perspectives.
^ Of these characteristics it is possible to have some only at times, and not to be mastered by them.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Daniel Dennett, a philosopher at Tufts University, has argued that the modern theory of evolution has not only made it intellectually possible and satisfying to be an atheist, but mandatory.
In physical science, Aristotle studied anatomy, astronomy,
embryology, geography, geology, meteorology, physics and zoology.
.^ Ethics and International Relations explores diverse international issues through normative political philosophy and case studies.
^ An examination of the linkage among religious beliefs, world views, group identifications, political attitudes and behavior, based on literature in political science, sociology, psychology, and theology.
^ We'll look at works of literature and biography, of politics and philosophy, and of theology and economics.
He also studied education, foreign customs, literature and poetry. His combined works constitute a virtual encyclopedia of Greek knowledge.
.^ Now (1) arents know their offspring better than there children know that they are their children, and (2) the originator feels his offspring to be his own more than the offspring do their begetter; for the product belongs to the producer (e.g.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ If there is a natural purpose for human life (as Aristotle suggests) then it seems clear that the quality of a human life (its excellence or lack of excellence) can then be measured against the extent to which a human life has realized this purpose.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[8]
.^ If there is a natural purpose for human life (as Aristotle suggests) then it seems clear that the quality of a human life (its excellence or lack of excellence) can then be measured against the extent to which a human life has realized this purpose.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Aristotle had made no secret of his contempt for Alexander's pretense of divinity, and the king had executed Aristotle's grandnephew
Callisthenes as a traitor.
.^ In a tradition that goes back at least as far as Homer, Aristotle has no room for the notion that there is an individual existence prior to or independent of the community.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[9]
Upon Alexander's death, anti-Macedonian sentiment in Athens once again flared.
Eurymedon the hierophant denounced Aristotle for not holding the gods in honor. Aristotle fled the city to his mother's family estate in
Chalcis, explaining, "I will not allow the Athenians to sin twice against philosophy,"
[10] a reference to Athens's prior
trial and execution of Socrates. However, he died in Euboea of
natural causes within the year (in 322 BC). Aristotle named chief executor his student
Antipater and left a
will in which he asked to be buried next to his wife.
[11]Logic
.^ Use of four ethical theories and five classical logical/analytical criteria to ethically evaluate case studies in contemporary science.
.^ An examination of modes of moral reasoning and what constitutes the good life, based primarily on the study of Aristotle's NICOMACHEAN ETHICS and the moral philosophy of Kant.
History
.^ For this reason it is not identity of opinion; for that might occur even with people who do not know each other; nor do we say that people who have the same views on any and every subject are unanimous, e.g.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Besides, it has been shown before that the man of practical wisdom is one who will act (for he is a man concerned with the individual facts) and who has the other virtues.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Therefore for this reason also the whole concern both of virtue and of political science is with pleasures and pains; for the man who uses these well will be good, he who uses them badly bad.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ And the memory of noble things is pleasant, but that of useful things is not likely to be pleasant, or is less so; though the reverse seems true of expectation.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ To clarify this concept, Aristotle introduces the notion of the practical syllogism (although he never uses this term).- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ Particular emphasis will be placed on the importance of viewing biomedicine as one among many culturally constructed systems of medicine.
^ To clarify this concept, Aristotle introduces the notion of the practical syllogism (although he never uses this term).- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Those who think there is only one because it admits of degrees have relied on an inadequate indication; for even things different in species admit of degree.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[13] Plato believed that deduction would simply follow from
premises, hence he focused on maintaining solid premises so that the
conclusion would logically follow. Consequently, Plato realized that a method for obtaining conclusions would be most beneficial. He never succeeded in devising such a method, but his best attempt was published in his book
Sophist, where he introduced his division method.
[14]
Analytics and the Organon
.^ It should be evident that Aristotle's treatment of virtues as mean states endorses the idea that we should sometimes have strong feelings—when such feelings are called for by our situation.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ A defense of Aristotle would have to say that the virtuous person does after all aim at a mean, if we allow for a broad enough notion of what sort of aiming is involved.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Logically, one would think that one could be temperate with regard to vision and hearing, but since people don't speak that way, Aristotle won't either.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ We have discussed movement with precision in another work, but it seems that it is not complete at any and every time, but that the many movements are incomplete and different in kind, since the whence and whither give them their form.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
The logical works of Aristotle were compiled into six books in about the early 1st century AD:
- Categories
- On Interpretation
- Prior Analytics
- Posterior Analytics
- Topics
- On Sophistical Refutations
.^ These books are listed in the order in which they will be read.- Fritzman's PHIL 103 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC legacy.lclark.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^ The logical works of Aristotle were compiled into six books in about the early 1st century AD: Categories On Interpretation Prior Analytics Posterior Analytics Topics On Sophistical Refutations The order of the books (or the teachings from which they are composed) is not certain, but this list was derived from analysis of Aristotle's writings.
^ In his will Aristotle ordered that "Wherever they bury me, there the bones of Pythias shall be laid, in accordance with her own instructions."
It goes from the basics, the analysis of simple terms in the
Categories, the analysis of propositions and their elementary relations in
On Interpretation, to the study of more complex forms, namely, syllogisms (in the
Analytics) and dialectics (in the
Topics and
Sophistical Refutations).
.^ Now this seems to be a correct form of government, but the Persian type is perverted; for the modes of rule appropriate to different relations are diverse.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ We must next discuss whether there is any one who is incontinent without qualification, or all men who are incontinent are so in a particular sense, and if there is, with what sort of objects he is concerned.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Logically, one would think that one could be temperate with regard to vision and hearing, but since people don't speak that way, Aristotle won't either.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ The excess can be manifested in all the points that have been named (for one can be angry with the wrong persons, at the wrong things, more than is right, too quickly, or too long); yet all are not found in the same person.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[13]
Aristotle's scientific method
Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of
The School of Athens, a fresco by
Raphael. Aristotle gestures to the earth, representing his belief in knowledge through empirical observation and experience, while holding a copy of his
Nicomachean Ethics in his hand, whilst Plato gestures to the heavens, representing his belief in
The Forms.
.^ However, considerable emphasis will be placed on major traditions ignored by earlier histories of medieval philosophy: glossing of Plato Latinus, Aristotles Latinus, Macrobius, and Martianus Capella.
.^ And the same equality will exist between the persons and between the things concerned; for as the latter the things concerned-are related, so are the former; if they are not equal, they will not have what is equal, but this is the origin of quarrels and complaints-when either equals have and are awarded unequal shares, or unequals equal shares.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ However, considerable emphasis will be placed on major traditions ignored by earlier histories of medieval philosophy: glossing of Plato Latinus, Aristotles Latinus, Macrobius, and Martianus Capella.
^ Of things just and lawful each is related as the universal to its particulars; for the things that are done are many, but of them each is one, since it is universal.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ For these variable facts are the starting-points for the apprehension of the end, since the universals are reached from the particulars; of these therefore we must have perception, and this perception is intuitive reason.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ A close analysis of the forms, ideas, and preoccupations of both the religious imagination in literature and of the historical relationships between religious faith and traditions in particular literary works.
^ We shall study Boethius as reading intertextually the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle and the Greek scientists Nicomachus and Ptolemy, without forgetting the Latin theology of Augustine.
.^ Aristotle is not referring to some spiritual substance which is independent of the body and survives death: he is pre-Christian.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
In a certain sense, Aristotle's method is both
inductive and
deductive, while Plato's is essentially deductive from
a priori principles.
[15]
.^ An examination of the very distinctive manner in which Hellenistic philosophy (Cynics, Epicureans, Stoics, New Academy) defines the subject of knowledge, of action, and of interaction with others in the environment.
^ An examination of the linkage among religious beliefs, world views, group identifications, political attitudes and behavior, based on literature in political science, sociology, psychology, and theology.
^ Surely it is strange, too, to make the supremely happy man a solitary; for no one would choose the whole world on condition of being alone, since man is a political creature and one whose nature is to live with others.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ This perception then calls into play the relevant major premise that "spells out the general import of the concern that makes this feature the salient feature of the situation" (Wiggins 234).- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ A general introduction to philosophy, with emphasis on perennial problems such as the existence of God, human freedom, and moral obligation.
^ We will pay special attention to the relation between disputes within medical ethics and more general disputes in moral philosophy.
.^ This involves study of the philosophies, theories, policies, and practices of development as expounded by the world powers and non-government organizations.
^ Among the most basic questions of philosophy is whether nature, as a whole world and in its parts, has a purpose or pursues goals.
^ An introduction to issues in philosophy of education such as religion and education, education and politics (including global politics), the value of social and empirical sciences for the study of education, the problem of indoctrination, etc.
.^ Although Aristotle frequently draws analogies between the crafts and the virtues (and similarly between physical health and eudaimonia ), he insists that the virtues differ from the crafts and all branches of knowledge in that the former involve appropriate emotional responses and are not purely intellectual conditions.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Aristotle holds that this same topography applies to every ethical virtue: all are located on a map that places the virtues between states of excess and deficiency.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ A defense of Aristotle would have to say that the virtuous person does after all aim at a mean, if we allow for a broad enough notion of what sort of aiming is involved.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ There is, then, another kind of injustice which is a part of injustice in the wide sense, and a use of the word 'unjust' which answers to a part of what is unjust in the wide sense of 'contrary to the law'.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ The reason is that all law is universal but about some things it is not possible to make a universal statement which shall be correct.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ And it is natural that meanness is described as the contrary of liberality; for not only is it a greater evil than prodigality, but men err more often in this direction than in the way of prodigality as we have described it.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ Ethics and International Relations explores diverse international issues through normative political philosophy and case studies.
^ This course utilizes a burgeoning body of empirical studies, drawn from political science, sociology, and psychology, that address relationships among religious beliefs and organizations on the one hand, and political attitudes and actions, on the other.
^ For him the study of ethics, how individuals can become excellent or can evaluate excellence, is a necessary preliminary to the study of politics.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ This involves study of the philosophies, theories, policies, and practices of development as expounded by the world powers and non-government organizations.
^ Logically, one would think that one could be temperate with regard to vision and hearing, but since people don't speak that way, Aristotle won't either.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Use of four ethical theories and five classical logical/analytical criteria to ethically evaluate case studies in contemporary science.
.^ For, as we said at the outset, most differences arise between friends when they are not friends in the spirit in which they think they are.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ A study of THE DIVINE COMEDY, in translation with facing Italian text, with special attention to the history of ideas, the nature of mimesis and allegory, and Dante's sacramental vision of life.
^ Part of the course will be devoted to a close study of De Consolatione Philosophers Plato and Aristotle and the Greek scientists Nicomachus and Ptolemy, without forgetting the theology of Augustine.
^ Then it will focus on how immigration transformed the church in the U.S. We will study such issues as national identity, devotional life, gender, and doctrine over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Aristotle's metaphysics contains observations on the nature of numbers but he made no original contributions to mathematics.
.^ Students will read books by Wald, Benson and Williams, and several other authors, and may do directed research on NES or GSS datasets.
^ An examination of the nature and limits of both scientific and religious knowledge, and a discussion of several cases in which science and religion seem to either challenge or support one another.
^ He would not accept, for example, any idea of original sin or any other idea that suggest we are naturally bad (or good) people.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Aristotle's writings on science are largely qualitative, as opposed to quantitative. Beginning in the sixteenth century, scientists began applying mathematics to the physical sciences, and Aristotle's work in this area was deemed hopelessly inadequate. His failings were largely due to the absence of concepts like mass, velocity, force and temperature. He had a conception of speed and temperature, but no quantitative understanding of them, which was partly due to the absence of basic experimental devices, like clocks and thermometers.
His writings provide an account of many scientific observations, a mixture of precocious accuracy and curious errors.
.^ To good temper we oppose the excess rather than the defect; for not only is it commoner since revenge is the more human), but bad-tempered people are worse to live with.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Although it has often been noted that the poor are more generous than the rich, giving freely of what they have even if it isn't much, which is what Aristotle is referring to at the end of this passage.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[17]In a similar vein,
John Philoponus, and later
Galileo, showed by simple experiments that Aristotle's theory that a heavier object falls faster than a lighter object is incorrect.
[18] On the other hand, Aristotle refuted
Democritus's claim that the
Milky Way was made up of "those stars which are shaded by the earth from the sun's rays," pointing out (correctly, even if such reasoning was bound to be dismissed for a long time) that, given "current astronomical demonstrations" that "the size of the sun is greater than that of the earth and the distance of the stars from the earth many times greater than that of the sun, then...the sun shines on all the stars and the earth screens none of them."
[19].^ The reason is that all law is universal but about some things it is not possible to make a universal statement which shall be correct.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ In a tradition that goes back at least as far as Homer, Aristotle has no room for the notion that there is an individual existence prior to or independent of the community.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ But Aristotle gives pride of place to the appetite for pleasure as the passion that undermines reason.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ One also can do more than when one started.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ (Though Aristotle in fact uses bothtm ) .- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ On the other hand, he who thinks himself worthy of great things, being unworthy of them, is vain; though not every one who thinks himself worthy of more than he really is worthy of in vain.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Aristotle also had some scientific blind spots. He posited a geocentric cosmology that we may discern in selections of the
Metaphysics, which was widely accepted up until the 1500s. From the 3rd century to the 1500s, the dominant view held that the Earth was the center of the universe (
geocentrism).
.^ And that all these attributes belong most of all to the philosopher is manifest.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Therefore the states that are most strictly those in respect of which each of these parts will reach truth are the virtues of the two parts.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ (Though Aristotle did not see these in the separate, often conflicting, way that we do.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[20] .^ But with a view to utility or pleasure it is possible that many people should please one; for many people are useful or pleasant, and these services take little time.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ But as regards good friends, should we have as many as possible, or is there a limit to the number of one's friends, as there is to the size of a city?- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Why then should we not say the same about at least some of the emotions that Aristotle builds into his analysis of the ethically virtuous agent?- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
For instance, he founded logic as a formal science and created foundations to biology that were not superseded for two millennia.
.^ It is evident which sort of thing, among things capable of being otherwise, is by nature, and which is not but is legal and conventional, assuming that both are equally changeable.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ That practical wisdom is not scientific knowledge is evident; for it is, as has been said, concerned with the ultimate particular fact, since the thing to be done is of this nature.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ But 'change in all things is sweet', as the poet says, because of some vice; for as it is the vicious man that is changeable, so the nature that needs change is vicious; for it is not simple nor good.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Physics
The five elements
- Fire, which is hot and dry.
- Earth, which is cold and dry.
- Air, which is hot and wet.
- Water, which is cold and wet.
- Aether, which is the divine substance that makes up the heavenly spheres and heavenly bodies (stars and planets).
Each of the four earthly elements has its natural place; the earth at the centre of the universe, then water, then air, then fire.
.^ And politics appears to be of this nature; for it is this that ordains which of the sciences should be studied in a state, and which each class of citizens should learn and up to what point they should learn them; and we see even the most highly esteemed of capacities to fall under this, e.g.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ But, being a man, one will also need external prosperity; for our nature is not self-sufficient for the purpose of contemplation, but our body also must be healthy and must have food and other attention.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ But no more do we deliberate about the things that involve movement but always happen in the same way, whether of necessity or by nature or from any other cause, e.g.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
The heavenly element has perpetual circular motion.
Causality, The Four Causes
Main article:
Four causes
- Material cause describes the material out of which something is composed. Thus the material cause of a table is wood, and the material cause of a car is rubber and steel. It is not about action. .
- The formal cause tells us what a thing is, that any thing is determined by the definition, form, pattern, essence, whole, synthesis or archetype.^ But one might complain of another if, when he loved us for our usefulness or pleasantness, he pretended to love us for our character.
- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ For it is a whole, and at no time can one find a pleasure whose form will be completed if the pleasure lasts longer.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Hence in respect of its substance and the definition which states its essence virtue is a mean, with regard to what is best and right an extreme.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ The relationship of religious principles and precepts, with "positive law" in and between sovereign states and pluralist democracies; the cases of modern states in which freedom of religion is considered to be a fundamental human right by constitutional and international law.
.^ The first half is on the story of the life in terms of feeling and imagination and insight and choice, and the second half is on the story of the person in terms of the life project, the boundary situations of life, and conversion of mind, of heart, and of soul.
Formal cause could only refer to the essential quality of causation. .
- The efficient cause is that from which the change or the ending of the change first starts.^ Being able to live to the end of a complete human life, as far as is possible; not dying prematurely, or before ones life is so reduced in quality as to be not worth living.
- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ The origin of action-its efficient, not its final cause-is choice, and that of choice is desire and reasoning with a view to an end.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ This, then, is one cause, drawn from the thing itself; another is drawn from ourselves; for the things to which we ourselves more naturally tend seem more contrary to the intermediate.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ Thus it is like comparing a lifeless thing with a living in respect of badness; for the badness of that which has no originative source of movement is always less hurtful, and reason is an originative source.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ We will cover questions related to the specificity of Christian ethics, Jesus and moral thinking, the human (Christian) person as moral agent, and the different methods employed in making ethical decisions.
More simply again that which immediately sets the thing in motion. .^ If, then, first there is proportionate equality of goods, and then reciprocal action takes place, the result we mention will be effected.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ For it consists in two things, deficiency in giving and excess in taking, and is not found complete in all men but is sometimes divided; some men go to excess in taking, others fall short in giving.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.
- The final cause is that for the sake of which a thing exists or is done, including both purposeful and instrumental actions and activities.^ For the originating causes of the things that are done consist in the end at which they are aimed; but the man who has been ruined by pleasure or pain forthwith fails to see any such originating cause-to see that for the sake of this or because of this he ought to choose and do whatever he chooses and does; for vice is destructive of the originating cause of action.
- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ It seems, then, as has been said, that man is a moving principle of actions; now deliberation is about the things to be done by the agent himself, and actions are for the sake of things other than themselves.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ And of this nature virtuous actions are thought to be; for to do noble and good deeds is a thing desirable for its own sake.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ The origin of action-its efficient, not its final cause-is choice, and that of choice is desire and reasoning with a view to an end.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Happiness, then, is something final and self-sufficient, and is the end of action.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Certainly the future is obscure to us, while happiness, we claim, is an end and something in every way final.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
This also covers modern ideas of mental causation involving such psychological causes as volition, need, motivation or motives, rational, irrational, ethical, and all that gives purpose to behavior.
.^ On the other hand, he who thinks himself worthy of great things, being unworthy of them, is vain; though not every one who thinks himself worthy of more than he really is worthy of in vain.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ The justice, then, which answers to the whole of virtue, and the corresponding injustice, one being the exercise of virtue as a whole, and the other that of vice as a whole, towards one's neighbour, we may leave on one side.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ The excess can be manifested in all the points that have been named (for one can be angry with the wrong persons, at the wrong things, more than is right, too quickly, or too long); yet all are not found in the same person.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ If, then, first there is proportionate equality of goods, and then reciprocal action takes place, the result we mention will be effected.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ But not only are the sources and causes of their origination and growth the same as those of their destruction, but also the sphere of their actualization will be the same; for this is also true of the things which are more evident to sense, e.g.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ We shall examine classical and modern sources to highlight the contrast, locating the signal difference in the presence (or absence) of a creator.
^ A faculty or a science which is one and the same is held to relate to contrary objects, but a state of character which is one of two contraries does not produce the contrary results; e.g.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Simply it is the goal or purpose that brings about an event (not necessarily a mental goal).
.^ And so one might rather take the aforenamed objects to be ends; for they are loved for themselves.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ For it consists in two things, deficiency in giving and excess in taking, and is not found complete in all men but is sometimes divided; some men go to excess in taking, others fall short in giving.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ They become apt to take because they wish to spend and cannot do this easily; for their possessions soon run short.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Aristotle marked two modes of causation: proper (prior) causation and accidental (chance) causation.
.^ It will also on this view be very generally shared; for all who are not maimed as regards their potentiality for virtue may win it by a certain kind of study and care .- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ But not only are the sources and causes of their origination and growth the same as those of their destruction, but also the sphere of their actualization will be the same; for this is also true of the things which are more evident to sense, e.g.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Essentially, causality does not suggest a temporal relation between the cause and the effect.
.^ For the originating causes of the things that are done consist in the end at which they are aimed; but the man who has been ruined by pleasure or pain forthwith fails to see any such originating cause-to see that for the sake of this or because of this he ought to choose and do whatever he chooses and does; for vice is destructive of the originating cause of action.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Further, we pardon people more easily for following natural desires, since we pardon them more easily for following such appetites as are common to all men, and in so far as they are common; now anger and bad temper are more natural than the appetites for excess, i.e.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ The origin of action-its efficient, not its final cause-is choice, and that of choice is desire and reasoning with a view to an end.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Optics
.^ For (a) he perhaps gets more than his share of some other good, e.g.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ On the other hand, he who thinks himself worthy of great things, being unworthy of them, is vain; though not every one who thinks himself worthy of more than he really is worthy of in vain.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ It is in this way more than any other that even unequals can be friends; they can be equalized.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
The earliest known written evidence of a
camera obscura can be found in Aristotle's documentation of such a device in 350 BC in
Problemata. Aristotle's apparatus contained a dark chamber that had a single small hole, or
aperture, to allow for sunlight to enter.
.^ For when the thing is indefinite the rule also is indefinite, like the leaden rule used in making the Lesbian moulding; the rule adapts itself to the shape of the stone and is not rigid, and so too the decree is adapted to the facts.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ But it makes, perhaps, no small difference whether we place the chief good in possession or in use, in state of mind or in activity.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ And thus the incontinent man like a city which passes all the right decrees and has good laws, but makes no use of them, as in Anaxandrides' jesting remark, .- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
In modern cameras, this is analogous to the
diaphragm. Aristotle also made the observation that when the distance between the tiny hole and the surface with the image increased, the image was amplified.
[21]
Chance and spontaneity
Spontaneity and chance are causes of effects. Chance as an incidental cause lies in the realm of
accidental things.
.^ It is "from what is spontaneous" (but note that what is spontaneous does not come from chance).
.^ For a better understanding of Aristotle's conception of "chance" it might be better to think of "coincidence": Something takes place by chance if a person sets out with the intent of having one thing take place, but with the result of another thing (not intended) taking place.
^ It appears to be one thing in one particular activity or art and something else in another.- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics [Abridged] 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC records.viu.ca [Source type: Original source]
^ To escape prosecution he fled to Chalcis in Euboea so that (Aristotle says) "The Athenians might not have another opportunity of sinning against philosophy as they had already done in the person of Socrates."- Aristotle (384-322 BCE): Overview [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy] 19 January 2010 8:47 UTC www.utm.edu [Source type: Original source]
- Aristotle 19 January 2010 8:47 UTC history-world.org [Source type: Original source]
- Philosophy Professor | Aristotle 19 January 2010 8:47 UTC www.philosophyprofessor.com [Source type: Original source]
.^ For example: A person seeks donations.
^ However, if the person seeking the donations met the person donating, not for the purpose of collecting donations, but for some other purpose, Aristotle would call the collecting of the donation by that particular donator a result of chance.
.^ That person may find another person willing to donate a substantial sum.
^ He may also be a suitable person to look to for instruction on finding the mean between boastfulness and self-deprecation.- enlightenment: Carolyn Ray: Eudaimonia in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC enlightenment.supersaturated.com [Source type: Original source]
^ A naturally slow-tempered person may find it easy to deal with some (not necessarily all) anger-provoking situations.- Aristotle's Doctrine of the Mean 18 September 2009 4:22 UTC www.plosin.com [Source type: Original source]
.^ For example: A person seeks donations.
^ However, if the person seeking the donations met the person donating, not for the purpose of collecting donations, but for some other purpose, Aristotle would call the collecting of the donation by that particular donator a result of chance.
^ Some Aristotle Quotes that we are collecting .- Aristotle Metaphysics Philosophy: Metaphysics of Space and Motion explainsPhilosopher Aristotle's Metaphysics, Physics 19 January 2010 8:47 UTC www.spaceandmotion.com [Source type: Original source]
.^ It must be unusual that something happens by chance.
^ In other words, if something happens all or most of the time, we cannot say that it is by chance.
^ But questions as to whether something has happened or has not happened, will be or will not be, is or is not, must of necessity be left to the judge, since the lawgiver cannot foresee them.- TheologyWebsite.com Etext Index: Rhetoric by Aristotle 19 January 2010 8:47 UTC www.theologywebsite.com [Source type: Original source]
.^ Most overrated philosopher of all time?- Amazon.com: Nicomachean Ethics (9780872204645): Aristotle, Terence Irwin: Books 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC www.amazon.com [Source type: General]
^ He left the city, saying (according to many ancient authorities) that he would not give the Athenians a chance to sin a third time against Philosophy.- Aristotle - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 19 January 2010 8:47 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^ What to say about classic What can one say abaout Aristotle, something new and compelling, in such a short manner and on a narrow place of thousand words.- Amazon.com: The Nicomachean Ethics (Oxford World's Classics) (9780192834072): Aristotle, J. L. Ackrill, J. O. Urmson, David Ross: Books 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC www.amazon.com [Source type: General]
.^ And this is the equal; for in any kind of action in which there's a more and a less there is also what is equal.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Since only humans can reason, reason must be part of our unique function as humans .- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Therefore, if there is only one final end, this will be what we are seeking, and if there are more than one, the most final of these will be what we are seeking.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ Since humans are uniquely rational creatures, that function must involve using reason well.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Since only humans can reason, reason must be part of our unique function as humans .- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Thus, as the wickedness which is on the human level is called wickedness simply, while that which is not is called wickedness not simply but with the qualification 'brutish' or 'morbid', in the same way it is plain that some incontinence is brutish and some morbid, while only that which corresponds to human self-indulgence is incontinence simply.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
"What is not capable of action cannot do anything by chance".
[22]
Metaphysics
Aristotle defines metaphysics as "the knowledge of
immaterial being," or of "being in the highest degree of abstraction." He refers to metaphysics as "first philosophy", as well as "the theologic science."
Substance, potentiality and actuality
.^ A close analysis of the forms, ideas, and preoccupations of both the religious imagination in literature and of the historical relationships between religious faith and traditions in particular literary works.
As he proceeds to the book VIII, he concludes that the matter of the substance is the
substratum or the stuff of which it is composed,
e.g. the matter of the house are the bricks, stones, timbers etc., or whatever constitutes the
potential house.
.^ Once we see that temperance, courage, and other generally recognized characteristics are mean states, we are in a position to generalize and to identify other mean states as virtues, even though they are not qualities for which we have a name.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
The formula that gives the components is the account of the matter, and the formula that gives the differentia is the account of the form.
[23]
With regard to the change (
kinesis) and its causes now, as he defines in his
Physics and
On Generation and Corruption 319b-320a, he distinguishes the coming to be from: 1) growth and diminution, which is change in quantity; 2) locomotion, which is change in space; and 3) alteration, which is change in quality.
The coming to be is a change where nothing persists of which the resultant is a property. In that particular change he introduces the concept of potentiality (
dynamis) and actuality (
entelecheia) in association with the matter and the form.
.^ It is evident which sort of thing, among things capable of being otherwise, is by nature, and which is not but is legal and conventional, assuming that both are equally changeable.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Virtuous people: Their feelings support doing the right thing and so do not experience internal tension or conflict in being good.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ If he had been persuaded of the rightness of what he does, he would have desisted when he was persuaded to change his mind; but now he acts in spite of his being persuaded of something quite different.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
For example, the seed of a plant in the soil is potentially (
dynamei) plant, and if is not prevented by something, it will become a plant. Potentially beings can either 'act' (
poiein) or 'be acted upon' (
paschein), which can be either innate or learned.
.^ For this reason also a boy is not happy; for he is not yet capable of such acts, owing to his age; and boys who are called happy are being congratulated by reason of the hopes we have for them.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Again, every science is thought to be capable of being taught, and its object of being learned.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ There remains, then, an active life of the element that has a rational principle; of this, one part has such a principle in the sense of being obedient to one, the other in the sense of possessing one and exercising thought.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ The end of life is not a state or condition, its an activity that is reasonably designed to fulfill human potential as much as possible.We dont achieve virtue or reach it really; we do it.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ In medicine this is health, in strategy victory, in architecture a house, in any other sphere something else, and in every action and pursuit the end; for it is for the sake of this that all men do whatever else they do.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ The justice therefore that exists between persons so related is not the same on both sides but is in every case proportioned to merit; for that is true of the friendship as well.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ And again that is most an object of choice which we choose not because or for the sake of something else, and pleasure is admittedly of this nature; for no one asks to what end he is pleased, thus implying that pleasure is in itself an object of choice.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Referring then to our previous example, we could say that actuality is when the seed of the plant becomes a plant.
.^ It seems, then, as has been said, that man is a moving principle of actions; now deliberation is about the things to be done by the agent himself, and actions are for the sake of things other than themselves.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Therefore, while he will fear even the things that are not beyond human strength, he will face them as he ought and as the rule directs, for honour's sake; for this is the end of virtue.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ For the animal nature is always in travail, as the students of natural science also testify, saying that sight and hearing are painful; but we have become used to this, as they maintain.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[24]
In conclusion, the matter of the house is its potentiality and the form is its actuality.
.^ The origin of action-its efficient, not its final cause-is choice, and that of choice is desire and reasoning with a view to an end.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ The end of life is not a state or condition, its an activity that is reasonably designed to fulfill human potential as much as possible.We dont achieve virtue or reach it really; we do it.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Then Aristotle proceeds and concludes that the actuality is prior to potentiality in formula, in time and in substantiality.
.^ For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Or perhaps pleasures differ in kind; for those derived from noble sources are different from those derived from base sources, and one cannot the pleasure of the just man without being just, nor that of the musical man without being musical, and so on.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ If, then, being is in itself desirable for the supremely happy man (since it is by its nature good and pleasant), and that of his friend is very much the same, a friend will be one of the things that are desirable.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ (A) We have shown that both the unjust man and the unjust act are unfair or unequal; now it is clear that there is also an intermediate between the two unequals involved in either case.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Nor is there in animals other than man any pleasure connected with these senses, except incidentally.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ There are also means in the passions and concerned with the passions; since shame is not a virtue, and yet praise is extended to the modest man.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ On the other hand, he who thinks himself worthy of great things, being unworthy of them, is vain; though not every one who thinks himself worthy of more than he really is worthy of in vain.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ If, then, being is in itself desirable for the supremely happy man (since it is by its nature good and pleasant), and that of his friend is very much the same, a friend will be one of the things that are desirable.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ But not only are the sources and causes of their origination and growth the same as those of their destruction, but also the sphere of their actualization will be the same; for this is also true of the things which are more evident to sense, e.g.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[25]
Universals and particulars
.^ (Aristotle says somewhere that a man with no need for others is either a god or an animal.-tm) .- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ The reason is that all law is universal but about some things it is not possible to make a universal statement which shall be correct.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Now each of these is true of the good man's relation to himself (and of all other men in so far as they think themselves good; virtue and the good man seem, as has been said, to be the measure of every class of things).- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
When we look at an apple, for example, we see an apple, and we can also analyze a form of an apple. In this distinction, there is a particular apple and a universal form of an apple.
.^ We have now discussed continence and incontinence, and pleasure and pain, both what each is and in what sense some of them are good and others bad; it remains to speak of friendship.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ The reasons for the view that not all pleasures are good are that (a) there are pleasures that are actually base and objects of reproach, and (b) there are harmful pleasures; for some pleasant things are unhealthy.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ The reason is that all law is universal but about some things it is not possible to make a universal statement which shall be correct.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ That there is such a thing is indicated by the fact that while the man who exhibits in action the other forms of wickedness acts wrongly indeed, but not graspingly (e.g.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ For if this were not so, there would have been no need of a teacher, but all men would have been born good or bad at their craft.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ But as regards good friends, should we have as many as possible, or is there a limit to the number of one's friends, as there is to the size of a city?- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Let A be a farmer, C food, B a shoemaker, D his product equated to C. If it had not been possible for reciprocity to be thus effected, there would have been no association of the parties.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Bertrand Russell is a contemporary philosopher that agreed with Plato on the existence of "uninstantiated universals".
.^ Generalize this to all wrong acts and you can see Aristotles point.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Aristotle makes no attempt to argue this fundamental point; he simply takes it as self-evident (as it would be for any one of his contemporaries).- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ And there are many things we should be keen about even if they brought no pleasure, e.g.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ It exists least in the worst form; in tyranny there is little or no friendship.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ There is no universal rule, for example, about how much food an athlete should eat, and it would be absurd to infer from the fact that 10 lbs.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ We must next discuss whether there is any one who is incontinent without qualification, or all men who are incontinent are so in a particular sense, and if there is, with what sort of objects he is concerned.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ For these variable facts are the starting-points for the apprehension of the end, since the universals are reached from the particulars; of these therefore we must have perception, and this perception is intuitive reason.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ And the same equality will exist between the persons and between the things concerned; for as the latter the things concerned-are related, so are the former; if they are not equal, they will not have what is equal, but this is the origin of quarrels and complaints-when either equals have and are awarded unequal shares, or unequals equal shares.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ A critic might concede that in some cases virtuous acts can be described in Aristotle's terms.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ And in some cases, this difference may be made not so much by some extra degree of moral strength at all, but by some feature of the circumstances over which the agent does not have full control: the absence of a supremely-tempting object, the presence of some unusual pressure or temptation.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Aristotle does urge us, in assessing such cases, to consider how the agent’s disposition stands to the usual case .- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
In addition, Aristotle disagreed with Plato about the location of universals.
.^ Aristotle holds that this same topography applies to every ethical virtue: all are located on a map that places the virtues between states of excess and deficiency.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ We all suppose that what we know is not even capable of being otherwise; of things capable of being otherwise we do not know, when they have passed outside our observation, whether they exist or not.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ The reason is that all law is universal but about some things it is not possible to make a universal statement which shall be correct.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ This claim is a vital because it will enable Aristotle to anchor his discussion in nature, in the truth of things, rather than in opinion or convention.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Biology and medicine
In Aristotelian science, most especially in biology, things he saw himself have stood the test of time better than his retelling of the reports of others, which contain error and superstition. He dissected animals, but not humans and his ideas on how the human body works have been almost entirely superseded.
Empirical research program
.^ Aristotle is not referring to some spiritual substance which is independent of the body and survives death: he is pre-Christian.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Aristotle certainly did research on the natural history of
Lesbos, and the surrounding seas and neighbouring areas.
.^ We will explore some of the major historical interpretations of the Catholic experience, and become familiar with methods of historical research.
^ Part I will look at how some of the earliest teachings of the church developed out of a need to interpret authoritatively the suffering Christ and the suffering of the early Christian martyrs.
^ This course introduces students to theoretical reflection on these and related questions through the study of some of the great works of ancient and medieval political thought.
The most striking passages are about the sea-life visible from observation on Lesbos and available from the catches of fishermen. His observations on
catfish,
electric fish (
Torpedo) and angler-fish are detailed, as is his writing on
cephalopods, namely,
Octopus,
Sepia (
cuttlefish) and the paper nautilus (
Argonauta argo). His description of the
hectocotyl arm was about two thousand years ahead of its time, and widely disbelieved until its rediscovery in the nineteenth century. He separated the aquatic mammals from fish, and knew that sharks and rays were part of the group he called Selachē (
selachians).
[26]
.^ Aristotle thinks of the good person as someone who is good at deliberation, and he describes deliberation as a process of rational inquiry.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ The Major Premise, the universal, comes from education, habit, observation, and example, from an educated sense of what eudaimonia means in my community and its relationship to the variously ranked goods of life.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Classification of living things
Aristotle's classification of living things contains some elements which still existed in the nineteenth century.
.^ Which is called after which, makes no difference to our present purpose; plainly, however, the later is called after the earlier.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Or perhaps pleasures differ in kind; for those derived from noble sources are different from those derived from base sources, and one cannot the pleasure of the just man without being just, nor that of the musical man without being musical, and so on.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ But it makes, perhaps, no small difference whether we place the chief good in possession or in use, in state of mind or in activity.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ With the other animals the union extends only to this point, but human beings live together not only for the sake of reproduction but also for the various purposes of life; for from the start the functions are divided, and those of man and woman are different; so they help each other by throwing their peculiar gifts into the common stock.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Invertebrates ('animals without blood') are insects, crustacea (divided into non-shelled – cephalopods – and shelled) and testacea (molluscs).
.^ It is for this reason also that it is called just (sikaion), because it is a division into two equal parts (sicha), just as if one were to call it sichaion; and the judge (sikastes) is one who bisects (sichastes).- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ These are the reasons, too, why mothers are fonder of their children than fathers; bringing them into the world costs them more pains, and they know better that the children are their own.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Within this category, some are typically better able to resist these counter-rational pressures than is the average person.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ For a moral thinker like Immanuel Kant of the 18 th century, a virtue is really nothing more than the strength of will to overcome feelings.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ On the other hand, he who thinks himself worthy of great things, being unworthy of them, is vain; though not every one who thinks himself worthy of more than he really is worthy of in vain.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Aristotle assumes that when someone systematically makes bad decisions about how to live his life, his failures are caused by psychological forces that are less than fully rational.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[28]
.^ The reasons given for the view that pleasure is not a good at all are (a) that every pleasure is a perceptible process to a natural state, and that no process is of the same kind as its end, e.g.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Aristotle offers no "proof" of this claim that all behaviour is goal oriented or teleological, by nature purposeful, and that the notion of goodness is thus naturally linked to some final destination or stage of development.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ If there is a natural purpose for human life (as Aristotle suggests) then it seems clear that the quality of a human life (its excellence or lack of excellence) can then be measured against the extent to which a human life has realized this purpose.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ Now this view plainly contradicts the observed facts, and we must inquire about what happens to such a man; if he acts by reason of ignorance, what is the manner of his ignorance?- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ But it is from their likeness and their unlikeness to the same thing that they are thought both to be and not to be friendships.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ (Aristotle says somewhere that a man with no need for others is either a god or an animal.-tm) .- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ They say that if pain is an evil it does not follow that pleasure is a good; for evil is opposed to evil and at the same time both are opposed to the neutral state-which is correct enough but does not apply to the things in question.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Noting that ruminants had a multiple stomachs and weak teeth, he supposed the first was to compensate for the latter, with Nature trying to preserve a type of balance.
[29]
In a similar fashion, Aristotle believed that creatures were arranged in a graded scale of perfection rising from plants on up to man, the
scala naturae or
Great Chain of Being.
[30] His system had eleven grades, arranged according "to the degree to which they are infected with potentiality", expressed in their form at birth. The highest animals laid warm and wet creatures alive, the lowest bore theirs cold, dry, and in thick eggs.
Aristotle also held that the level of a creature's perfection was reflected in its form, but not preordained by that form.
.^ Further, to maintain its supremacy would be like saying that the art of politics rules the gods because it issues orders about all the affairs of the state.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Now we have discussed in detail the moral virtues; with regard to the others let us express our view as follows, beginning with some remarks about the soul.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ There remains, then, an active life of the element that has a rational principle; of this, one part has such a principle in the sense of being obedient to one, the other in the sense of possessing one and exercising thought.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[31]
.^ However, considerable emphasis will be placed on major traditions ignored by earlier histories of medieval philosophy: glossing of Plato Latinus, Aristotles Latinus, Macrobius, and Martianus Capella.
^ This claim is a vital because it will enable Aristotle to anchor his discussion in nature, in the truth of things, rather than in opinion or convention.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ The person who is weak goes through a process of deliberation and makes a choice; but rather than act in accordance with his reasoned choice, he acts under the influence of a passion.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[32] Notable is Aristotle's division of sensation and thought, which generally went against previous philosophers, with the exception of
Alcmaeon.
[33]
Successor: Theophrastus
Frontispiece to a 1644 version of the expanded and illustrated edition of
Historia Plantarum (ca. 1200), which was originally written around 200 BC
.^ That is why for Aristotle one of the most important capacities one can have is moral judgment.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Many of Theophrastus' names survive into modern times, such as
carpos for fruit, and
pericarpion for seed vessel.
.^ Themes treated are state of nature, relationship of society to state, conception of democracy, rights theory, economic justice and justice between groups, and alternatives to liberalism.
^ Although Aristotle frequently draws analogies between the crafts and the virtues (and similarly between physical health and eudaimonia ), he insists that the virtues differ from the crafts and all branches of knowledge in that the former involve appropriate emotional responses and are not purely intellectual conditions.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Pleasant amusements also are thought to be of this nature; we choose them not for the sake of other things; for we are injured rather than benefited by them, since we are led to neglect our bodies and our property.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ Changing family patterns, sex roles, sexuality, premarital relationships, marriage and divorce, parenthood, childhood, and family interaction are some of the topics.
^ Though he is guided to some degree by distinctions captured by ordinary terms, his methodology allows him to recognize states for which no names exist.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[34]
Influence on Hellenistic medicine
After Theophrastus, the Lyceum failed to produce any original work.
.^ Guidance will be principally taken from works of Plato, Aristotle, and St. Thomas Aquinas, though some modern and contemporary conceptions of the virtues will be discussed by way of counterpoint.
^ Once we see that temperance, courage, and other generally recognized characteristics are mean states, we are in a position to generalize and to identify other mean states as virtues, even though they are not qualities for which we have a name.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Although it has often been noted that the poor are more generous than the rich, giving freely of what they have even if it isn't much, which is what Aristotle is referring to at the end of this passage.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[35] It is not until the age of
Alexandria under the
Ptolemies that advances in biology can be again found.
The first medical teacher at Alexandria
Herophilus of Chalcedon, corrected Aristotle, placing intelligence in the brain, and connected the nervous system to motion and sensation.
.^ And the same equality will exist between the persons and between the things concerned; for as the latter the things concerned-are related, so are the former; if they are not equal, they will not have what is equal, but this is the origin of quarrels and complaints-when either equals have and are awarded unequal shares, or unequals equal shares.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[36] .^ The purpose of this course is to accomplish a close reading of Newman's most important writings, THE OXFORD UNIVERISTY SERMONS, ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, THE GRAMMAR OF ASSENT, THE IDEA OF THE UNIVERSITY, APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA, and excerpts from lesser known works, to discover both (1) the continuity of Newman's thought with previous theology and (2) the ideas that made him a 19th-century original.
^ A study of THE DIVINE COMEDY, in translation with facing Italian text, with special attention to the history of ideas, the nature of mimesis and allegory, and Dante's sacramental vision of life.
^ The course will examine what memory and prophecy signify for living a Christian life and doing theology in light of some of the major challenges to Christian faith today.
Ernst Mayr claimed that there was "nothing of any real consequence in biology after Lucretius and Galen until the Renaissance."
[37] Aristotle's ideas of natural history and medicine survived, but they were generally taken unquestioningly.
[38]Practical philosophy
Ethics
.^ And of this nature virtuous actions are thought to be; for to do noble and good deeds is a thing desirable for its own sake.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ This argument seems to show it to be one of the goods, and no more a good than any other; for every good is more worthy of choice along with another good than taken alone.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Happiness, on the other hand, no one chooses for the sake of these, nor, in general, for anything other than itself.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
He wrote several treatises on ethics, including most notably, the
Nichomachean Ethics.
.^ The virtue of a thing is relative to its proper work.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ This is why Aristotle thinks it important that children be taught to be virtuous because it is easier to start out virtuous than to have to unlearn bad habits .- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
An eye is only a good eye in so much as it can see, because the proper function of an eye is sight. Aristotle reasoned that humans must have a function specific to humans, and that this function must be an activity of the
psuchē (normally translated as
soul) in accordance with reason (
logos).
.^ So a good human being is not at first glance a morally good human being, but a being that carries out its human-being function well.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Certainly all human beings are incapable of continuous activity.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Virtue just means excellence or doing something well for Aristotle.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ Now if there is any gift of the gods to men, it is reasonable that happiness should be god-given, and most surely god-given of all human things inasmuch as it is the best.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Happiness, on the other hand, no one chooses for the sake of these, nor, in general, for anything other than itself.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ The happy life is thought to be virtuous; now a virtuous life requires exertion, and does not consist in amusement.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ Plainly, then, practical wisdom is a virtue and not an art.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Ethical virtue is fully developed only when it is combined with practical wisdom (1144b14-17).- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and savior has practical implications for the way believers construe the world, organize their lives and engage with the world.
Politics
.^ For him the study of ethics, how individuals can become excellent or can evaluate excellence, is a necessary preliminary to the study of politics.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ A basic introduction to Aristotle's "human philosophy" (ta anthropina philosophia) by reading the Nicomachean Ethics and the Politics.
^ Individual works by artists such as Brunelleschi, Donatello, Ghiberti, Botticelli, and Alberti are set into their social, political, and religious context.
Aristotle's conception of the city is organic, and he is considered one of the first to conceive of the city in this manner.
[39] Aristotle considered the city to be a natural community.
.^ But at the outset we must consider the man by whom we are being benefited and on what terms he is acting, in order that we may accept the benefit on these terms, or else decline it.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ They assume the end and consider how and by what means it is to be attained; and if it seems to be produced by several means they consider by which it is most easily and best produced, while if it is achieved by one only they consider how it will be achieved by this and by what means this will be achieved, till they come to the first cause, which in the order of discovery is last.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ What are the implications of this aging process for social institutions (the family, economy, government) as well as for the individual well-being of the elderly?
He is also famous for his statement that "man is by nature a political animal."
.^ Part of the course will be devoted to a close study of De Consolatione Philosophers Plato and Aristotle and the Greek scientists Nicomachus and Ptolemy, without forgetting the theology of Augustine.
^ For without virtue it is not easy to bear gracefully the goods of fortune; and, being unable to bear them, and thinking themselves superior to others, they despise others and themselves do what they please.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ These states being thus opposed to one another, the greatest contrariety is that of the extremes to each other, rather than to the intermediate; for these are further from each other than from the intermediate, as the great is further from the small and the small from the great than both are from the equal.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
It should be noted that the modern understanding of a political community is that of the state. However, the state was foreign to Aristotle. He referred to political communities as cities. Aristotle understood a city as a political "partnership" .
.^ Now virtuous actions are noble and done for the sake of the noble.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ For not even with regard to each other will their tastes agree, and without this (as we saw) they cannot be friends; for they cannot live together.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Therefore it is hard to be truly proud; for it is impossible without nobility and goodness of character.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
This can be distinguished from the social contract theory which individuals leave the
state of nature because of "fear of violent death" or its "inconveniences."
[40]Rhetoric and poetics
.^ This term indicates that Aristotle sees in ethical activity an attraction that is comparable to the beauty of well-crafted artifacts, including such artifacts as poetry, music, and drama.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[41] For example, music imitates with the media of rhythm and harmony, whereas dance imitates with rhythm alone, and poetry with language. The forms also differ in their object of imitation. Comedy, for instance, is a dramatic imitation of men worse than average; whereas tragedy imitates men slightly better than average.
.^ This form of the just has a different specific character from the former.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ It makes no difference whether we consider the state of character or the man characterized by it.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ It makes no small difference, then, whether we form habits of one kind or of another from our very youth; it makes a very great difference, or rather all the difference.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[42] .^ Similarly, the things which are just not by nature but by human enactment are not everywhere the same, since constitutions also are not the same, though there is but one which is everywhere by nature the best.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ While Aristotle does believe that there is a common human nature in that we have common needs and capacities, he does not believe that there is a common moral nature, unlike many who moral theorists who will follow him.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[43]
.^ The two kinds of passions that Aristotle focuses on, in his treatment of akrasia , are the appetite for pleasure and anger .- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ For when something is subtracted from one of two equals and added to the other, the other is in excess by these two; since if what was taken from the one had not been added to the other, the latter would have been in excess by one only.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Aristotle taught that tragedy is composed of six elements: plot-structure, character, style, spectacle, and lyric poetry.
[44] The characters in a tragedy are merely a means of driving the story; and the plot, not the characters, is the chief focus of tragedy.
.^ It is defined, at any rate, as a kind of fear of dishonour, and produces an effect similar to that produced by fear of danger; for people who feel disgraced blush, and those who fear death turn pale.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Aristotle concludes
Poetics with a discussion on which, if either, is superior: epic or tragic
mimesis.
.^ And the more he is possessed of virtue in its entirety and the happier he is, the more he will be pained at the thought of death; for life is best worth living for such a man, and he is knowingly losing the greatest goods, and this is painful.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Those who are called by such names as 'miserly', 'close', 'stingy', all fall short in giving, but do not covet the possessions of others nor wish to get them.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ But he is none the less brave, and perhaps all the more so, because he chooses noble deeds of war at that cost.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[45]
Aristotle was a keen systematic collector of riddles, folklore, and proverbs; he and his school had a special interest in the riddles of the
Delphic Oracle and studied the fables of
Aesop.
[46]Modern scholarship
.^ Guidance will be principally taken from works of Plato, Aristotle, and St. Thomas Aquinas, though some modern and contemporary conceptions of the virtues will be discussed by way of counterpoint.
Whereas the lost works appear to have been originally written with an intent for subsequent publication, the surviving works do not appear to have been so.
[3] Rather the surviving works mostly resemble lectures unintended for publication.
[3] .^ After considering the bearing of some common views of faith and reason on these questions, we turn to more specific questions in epistemology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology.
^ If not, the bargain is not equal, and does not hold; for there is nothing to prevent the work of the one being better than that of the other; they must therefore be equated.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ But since unfair and the unlawful are not the same, but are different as a part is from its whole (for all that is unfair is unlawful, but not all that is unlawful is unfair), the unjust and injustice in the sense of the unfair are not the same as but different from the former kind, as part from whole; for injustice in this sense is a part of injustice in the wide sense, and similarly justice in the one sense of justice in the other.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[3]
.^ Guidance will be principally taken from works of Plato, Aristotle, and St. Thomas Aquinas, though some modern and contemporary conceptions of the virtues will be discussed by way of counterpoint.
^ I have chosen to see Aristotle as holding the view that our happiness is to some extent dependent on chance but there is no consensus on this among scholars .- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Others, such as
On Colors, may have been produced by Aristotle's successors at the Lyceum, e.g.,
Theophrastus and
Straton.
.^ Those who are called by such names as 'miserly', 'close', 'stingy', all fall short in giving, but do not covet the possessions of others nor wish to get them.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Other works in the corpus include medieval palmistries and
astrological and
magical texts whose connections to Aristotle are purely fanciful and self-promotional.
Loss of his works
.^ On the other hand, he who thinks himself worthy of great things, being unworthy of them, is vain; though not every one who thinks himself worthy of more than he really is worthy of in vain.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Virtue too is distinguished into kinds in accordance with this difference; for we say that some of the virtues are intellectual and others moral, philosophic wisdom and understanding and practical wisdom being intellectual, liberality and temperance moral .- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ We will also pay special attention to the crucial connections between work and identities of class, race, and gender as they evolved over the past two centuries.
.^ Aristotle saw these as objective needs common to all human beings.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ And (F) if certain pleasures are bad, that does not prevent the chief good from being some pleasure, just as the chief good may be some form of knowledge though certain kinds of knowledge are bad.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ It is found difficult, too, to rejoice and to grieve in an intimate way with many people, for it may likely happen that one has at once to be happy with one friend and to mourn with another.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ While many of these courses are offered currently at Notre Dame, some courses may not be offered at present.
.^ Aristotle is not referring to some spiritual substance which is independent of the body and survives death: he is pre-Christian.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
)
.^ These people seem to bear goodwill to each other; but how could one call them friends when they do not know their mutual feelings?- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Many of us would do something shameful if pressed hard enough; and yet the few who have the bad luck to be so pressed will be judged for their acts, while the rest of us will not.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Logically, one would think that one could be temperate with regard to vision and hearing, but since people don't speak that way, Aristotle won't either.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[49] .^ So, although Aristotle holds that ethics cannot be reduced to a system of rules, however complex, he insists that some rules are inviolable.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Readings will include writings of authors such as Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine, Farabi, Maimonides, and Aquinas.
^ Further, a man has practical wisdom not by knowing only but by being able to act; but the incontinent man is unable to act-there is, however, nothing to prevent a clever man from being incontinent; this is why it is sometimes actually thought that some people have practical wisdom but are incontinent, viz.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[50]
.^ Aristotle does urge us, in assessing such cases, to consider how the agent’s disposition stands to the usual case .- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Now laws are as it were the' works' of the political art; how then can one learn from them to be a legislator, or judge which are best?- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ If you come to a different one, do you think there is some further goal that you do each of those stopping points for (so that they're not really final stopping points at all.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[51] The story of the original manuscripts of the esoteric treatises is described by
Strabo in his
Geography and
Plutarch in his
Parallel Lives.
[52] The manuscripts were left from Aristotle to his successor
Theophrastus, who in turn willed them to
Neleus of Scepsis. Neleus supposedly took the writings from Athens to
Scepsis, where his heirs let them languish in a cellar until the first century BC, when
Apellicon of Teos discovered and purchased the manuscripts, bringing them back to Athens. According to the story, Apellicon tried to repair some of the damage that was done during the manuscripts' stay in the basement, introducing a number of errors into the text. When
Lucius Cornelius Sulla occupied Athens in 86 BC, he carried off the library of Apellicon to
Rome, where they were first published in 60 BC by the grammarian
Tyrannion of Amisus and then by philosopher
Andronicus of Rhodes.
[53][54]
.^ How British and American modernist writers responded to an upheaval of traditional religious belief in the first half of the 20th century.
^ Readings for the first part of the course are taken from Plato and Aristotle, for the second from thinkers from the 18th century to the present.
^ We will place our understanding of current conditions in historical perspective by looking at the formation of common schools in the middle of the 19th century.
.^ That it does not follow from these grounds that pleasure is not a good, or even the chief good, is plain from the following considerations.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ In their parts and during the time they occupy, all movements are incomplete, and are different in kind from the whole movement and from each other.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ Even medical men do not seem to be made by a study of text-books.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
And fourth, ancient library catalogues predating Andronicus' intervention list an Aristotelian corpus quite similar to the one we currently possess.
.^ Let us too, then, lay this down as a general basis.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ While it focuses mainly on economic factors at work and makes us use the tools of economic analysis, it adopts a broader political economy framework.
^ While it focuses mainly on economic factors at work and makes us use the tools fo economic analysis, it adopts a broader political economy framework.
As the influence of the
falsafa grew in the West, in part due to
Gerard of Cremona's translations and the spread of
Averroism, the demand for Aristotle's works grew.
William of Moerbeke translated a number of them into Latin.
.^ We shall study Boethius as reading intertextually the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle and the Greek scientists Nicomachus and Ptolemy, without forgetting the Latin theology of Augustine.
^ Cicero, a leading statesman of the late Roman Republic, endeavored to mediate between the work of Greek theorists and Roman practice; in time, his writings became among the most important sources on ancient moral and political thought for the Christian tradition.
^ Critical of the growing influence of Aristotelian thought within theology, he deliberately chose the tradition of St. Augustine, Ps.-Denis and Hugh of St. Victor as the basis for his theology.
[citation needed]Legacy
Portrait of Aristoteles. Pentelic marble, copy of the Imperial Period (1st or 2nd century) of a lost
bronze sculpture made by
Lysippos
Development of logic
.^ Readings will vary from year to year but will be drawn from the most influential contemporary work in moral philosophy.
^ We said, then, that it is not a disposition; for if it were it might belong to some one who was asleep throughout his life, living the life of a plant, or, again, to some one who was suffering the greatest misfortunes.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ That is why for Aristotle one of the most important capacities one can have is moral judgment.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ Part of the course will be devoted to a close study of De Consolatione Philosophers Plato and Aristotle and the Greek scientists Nicomachus and Ptolemy, without forgetting the theology of Augustine.
^ We shall study Boethius as reading intertextually the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle and the Greek scientists Nicomachus and Ptolemy, without forgetting the Latin theology of Augustine.
[56][57] Despite these accolades, many of Aristotle's errors held back science considerably.
.^ These capacities are the intellectual virtues , which Aristotle calls theoretical wisdom.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ So, although Aristotle holds that ethics cannot be reduced to a system of rules, however complex, he insists that some rules are inviolable.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ For every one ceases to inquire how he is to act when he has brought the moving principle back to himself and to the ruling part of himself; for this is what chooses.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[5] .^ Readings for the first part of the course are taken from Plato and Aristotle, for the second from thinkers from the 18th century to the present.
^ Part of the course will be devoted to a close study of De Consolatione Philosophers Plato and Aristotle and the Greek scientists Nicomachus and Ptolemy, without forgetting the theology of Augustine.
^ Then it will focus on how immigration transformed the church in the U.S. We will study such issues as national identity, devotional life, gender, and doctrine over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Later Greek philosophers
The immediate influence of Aristotle's work was felt as the Lyceum grew into the
Peripatetic school. Aristotle's notable students included
Aristoxenus,
Dicaearchus,
Demetrius of Phalerum,
Eudemos of Rhodes,
Harpalus,
Hephaestion,
Meno,
Mnason of Phocis,
Nicomachus, and
Theophrastus. Aristotle's influence over Alexander the Great is seen in the latter's bringing with him on his expedition a host of zoologists, botanists, and researchers. He had also learned a great deal about Persian customs and traditions from his teacher.
.^ Our discussion will be adequate if it has as much clearness as the subject-matter admits of, for precision is not to be sought for alike in all discussions, any more than in all the products of the crafts.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ For this also seems to be a virtue concerned with wealth; but it does not like liberality extend to all the actions that are concerned with wealth, but only to those that involve expenditure; and in these it surpasses liberality in scale.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Perfect friendship is the friendship of men who are good, and alike in virtue; for these wish well alike to each other qua good, and they are good themselves.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
[58]Influence on Christian theologians
.^ Along with Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus, St. Bonaventure is considered one of the leading and most influential theologians of the high Scholastic period.
^ Readings will include writings of authors such as Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine, Farabi, Maimonides, and Aquinas.
^ Guidance will be principally taken from works of Plato, Aristotle, and St. Thomas Aquinas, though some modern and contemporary conceptions of the virtues will be discussed by way of counterpoint.
See
Summa Theologica, Part I, Question 3, etc.
.^ These thinkers blended Aristotelian philosophy with Christianity, bringing the thought of Ancient Greece into the Middle Ages.
^ Muslim thinkers such as Avicenna, Al-Farabi, and Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi were a few of the major proponents of the Aristotelian school of thought during the Golden Age of Islam .
^ The eucharist stands at the heart of western European Christianity in the high middle ages.
.^ It required a repudiation of some Aristotelian principles for the sciences and the arts to free themselves for the discovery of modern scientific laws and empirical methods.
^ The free, unhampered exchange of ideas and scientific conclusions is necessary for the sound development of science, as it is in all spheres of cultural life.- Aristotle Metaphysics Philosophy: Metaphysics of Space and Motion explainsPhilosopher Aristotle's Metaphysics, Physics 19 January 2010 8:47 UTC www.spaceandmotion.com [Source type: Original source]
^ Note, however, that his use of the term science carries a different meaning than that covered by the term scientific method.
The medieval English poet
Chaucer describes his student as being happy by having
- at his beddes heed
- Twenty bookes, clad in blak or reed,
- Of aristotle and his philosophie,[59]
- I saw the Master there of those who know,
- Amid the philosophic family,
- By all admired, and by all reverenced;
- There Plato too I saw, and Socrates,
- Who stood beside him closer than the rest.[60]
Views on women
Aristotle believed that women are colder than men and thus a lower form of life.
[61] His assumption carried forward unexamined to
Galen and others for almost two thousand years until the sixteenth century.
[62] He also believed that females could not be fully human.
[63] .^ After considering the bearing of some common views of faith and reason on these questions, we turn to more specific questions in epistemology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology.
^ Why then should we not say the same about at least some of the emotions that Aristotle builds into his analysis of the ethically virtuous agent?- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Are there elements of the Christian tradition that we can draw upon to counteract these kinds of assumptions and use to construct a vision of sustainable life on earth?
[64] .^ Happiness, on the other hand, no one chooses for the sake of these, nor, in general, for anything other than itself.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ The magistrate on the other hand is the guardian of justice, and, if of justice, then of equality also.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ And in all other things the same distinction will apply; by nature the right hand is stronger, yet it is possible that all men should come to be ambidextrous.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
.^ And not only so, but in walking itself there are such differences; for the whence and whither are not the same in the whole racecourse and in a part of it, nor in one part and in another, nor is it the same thing to traverse this line and that; for one traverses not only a line but one which is in a place, and this one is in a different place from that.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
(see Rhetoric 1.5.6)
Post-Enlightenment thinkers
.^ A basic introduction to Aristotle's "human philosophy" (ta anthropina philosophia) by reading the Nicomachean Ethics and the Politics.
^ The second part will review what statesmen and political philosophers have said about the subject.
[65] .^ So too is it, then, in the case of temperance and courage and the other virtues.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ At all events it seems that each party is justified in his claim, and that each should get more out of the friendship than the other-not more of the same thing, however, but the superior more honour and the inferior more gain; for honour is the prize of virtue and of beneficence, while gain is the assistance required by inferiority.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ A critic might concede that in some cases virtuous acts can be described in Aristotle's terms.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
It is
Martin Heidegger, not Nietzsche, who elaborated a new interpretation of Aristotle, intended to warrant his deconstruction of scholastic and philosophical tradition.
.^ One of the main objectives of this class is to both critique and retrieve our biblical and historical traditions in ways that respond to contemporary concerns while avoiding uncritical anachronisms.
^ Recent events both domestically and internationally remind us that the relation of religion and politics and the liberal solution of sparation remain vexed questions.
^ This course has three quite specific aims: (1) to describe that form of the Christian tradition both in doctrine and practice which is called Catholic; (2) to argue that within the Catholic tradition there are different "ways" of being a Catholic; (3) to outline a general way of being a Christian within the Catholic tradition; we will call that "way" a "spirituality.
[66]
List of works
The works of Aristotle that have survived from antiquity through Mediæval manuscript transmission are collected in the
Corpus Aristotelicum.
.^ In addition to the ancient texts themselves, we will be considering contemporary work by philosophers such as Annas, Cavell, Foucault and Hedot.
^ A study of the enquiries of three 20th-century Catholic philosophers at work within three very different philosophical traditions, designed to identify the relationship between a commitment to philosophical enquiry and Catholic faith.
.^ According to student interest, these may be selected from work on specialized cultural institution like art and the mass media, or from more broadly based studies of meaning and value.
^ This course introduces students to theoretical reflection on these and related questions through the study of some of the great works of ancient and medieval political thought.
See also
Notes and references
- ^ Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106BC-43BC). ""flumen orationis aureum fundens Aristoteles"". Acadmeica. http://www2.cddc.vt.edu/gutenberg/1/4/9/7/14970/14970-h/14970-h.htm#BkII_119. Retrieved 25-Jan-2007.
- ^ Jonathan Barnes, "Life and Work" in The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle (1995), p. 9.
- ^ a b c d e Terence Irwin and Gail Fine, Cornell University, Aristotle: Introductory Readings. Indianapolis, Indiana: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. (1996), Introduction, pp. xi-xii.
- ^ McLeisch, Kenneth Cole (1999). Aristotle: The Great Philosophers. Routledge. p. 5. ISBN 0-415-92392-1.
- ^ a b c Bertrand Russell, "A History of Western Philosophy", Simon & Schuster, 1972
- ^ Peter Green, Alexander of Macedon, 1991 University of California Press, Ltd. Oxford, England. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, p.58–59
- ^ William George Smith,Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 3, p. 88
- ^ Neill, Alex; Aaron Ridley (1995). The Philosophy of Art: Readings Ancient and Modern. McGraw Hill. p. 488. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0070461929/.
- ^ Peter Green, Alexander of Macedon, 1991 University of California Press, Ltd. Oxford, England. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, p.379,459
- ^ Jones, W.T. (1980). The Classical Mind: A History of Western Philosophy. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. p. 216. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0155383124/. , cf. Vita Marciana 41.
- ^ Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt by Hildegard Temporini, Wolfgang Haase Aristotle's Will
- ^ Bocheński, I. M. (1951). Ancient Formal Logic. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company.
- ^ a b Bocheński, 1951.
- ^ Rose, Lynn E. (1968). Aristotle's Syllogistic. Springfield: Charles C Thomas Publisher.
- ^ Jori, Alberto (2003). Aristotele. Milano: Bruno Mondadori Editore.
- ^ Aristotle, History of Animals, 2.3.
- ^ Aristotle, 1943 (1953). Generation of animals. Harvard University Press via Google Books.
- ^ "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy". Plato.stanford.edu. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philoponus/#2.2. Retrieved 2009-04-26.
- ^ Aristotle, Meteorology 1.8, trans. E.W. Webster, rev. J. Barnes.
- ^ Burent, John. 1928. Platonism, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 61, 103–104.
- ^ Michael Lahanas. "Optics and ancient Greeks". Mlahanas.de. http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Optics.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-26.
- ^ Aristotle, Physics 2.6
- ^ Aristotle, Metaphysics VIII 1043a 10–30
- ^ Aristotle, Metaphysics IX 1050a 5–10
- ^ Aristotle, Metaphysics VIII 1045a-b
- ^ a b Singer, Charles. A short history of biology. Oxford 1931.
- ^ Emily Kearns, "Animals, knowledge about," in Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd ed., 1996, p. 92.
- ^ Aristotle, of course, is not responsible for the later use made of this idea by clerics.
- ^ Mason, A History of the Sciences pp 43–44
- ^ Mayr, The Growth of Biological Thought, pp 201–202; see also: Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being
- ^ Aristotle, De Anima II 3
- ^ Mason, A History of the Sciences pp 45
- ^ Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy Vol. 1 pp. 348
- ^ Mayr, The Growth of Biological Thought, pp 90–91; Mason, A History of the Sciences, p 46
- ^ Annas, Classical Greek Philosophy pp 252
- ^ Mason, A History of the Sciences pp 56
- ^ Mayr, The Growth of Biological Thought, pp 90–94; quotation from p 91
- ^ Annas, Classical Greek Philosophy, p 252
- ^ Ebenstein, Alan; William Ebenstein (2002). Introduction to Political Thinkers. Wadsworth Group. p. 59.
- ^ For a different reading of social and economic processes in the Nicomacean Ethics and Politics see Polanyi, K. (1957) "Aristotle Discovers the Economy" in Primitive, Archaic and Modern Economies: Essays of Karl Polanyi ed. G. Dalton, Boston 1971, 78–115
- ^ Aristotle, Poetics I 1447a
- ^ Aristotle, Poetics III
- ^ Aristotle, Poetics IV
- ^ Aristotle, Poetics VI
- ^ Aristotle, Poetics XXVI
- ^ Temple, Olivia, and Temple, Robert (translators), The Complete Fables By Aesop Penguin Classics, 1998. ISBN 0140446494 Cf. Introduction, pp. xi-xii.
- ^ Jonathan Barnes, "Life and Work" in The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle (1995), p. 12; Aristotle himself: Nichomachean Ethics 1102a26–27. Aristotle himself never uses the term "esoteric" or "acroamatic". For other passages where Aristotle speaks of exōterikoi logoi, see W. D. Ross, Aristotle's Metaphysics (1953), vol. 2, pp. 408–410. Ross defends an interpretation according to which the phrase, at least in Aristotle's own works, usually refers generally to "discussions not peculiar to the Peripatetic school", rather than to specific works of Aristotle's own.
- ^ Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106BC-43BC). ""flumen orationis aureum fundens Aristoteles"". Academica. http://www2.cddc.vt.edu/gutenberg/1/4/9/7/14970/14970-h/14970-h.htm#BkII_119. Retrieved 25 January 2007.
- ^ Barnes, "Life and Work", p. 12.
- ^ Barnes, "Roman Aristotle", in Gregory Nagy, Greek Literature, Routledge 2001, vol. 8, p. 174 n. 240.
- ^ The definitive, English study of these questions is Barnes, "Roman Aristotle".
- ^ "Sulla."
- ^ Ancient Rome: from the early Republic to the assassination of Julius Caesar - Page 513, Matthew Dillon, Lynda Garland
- ^ The Encyclopedia Americana, Volume 22 - Page 131, Grolier Incorporated - Juvenile Nonfiction
- ^ Lord, Carnes (1984). Introduction to the Politics, by Aristotle. Chicago: Chicago University Press. p. 11.
- ^ "Aristotle (Greek philosopher) - Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Britannica.com. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/34560/Aristotle. Retrieved 2009-04-26.
- ^ Durant, Will (1926 (2006)). The Story of Philosophy. United States: Simon & Schuster, Inc.. p. 92. ISBN 9780671739164.
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Alexander
- ^ Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, Prologue, lines 295–295
- ^ vidi ’l maestro di color che sanno seder tra filosofica famiglia.
Tutti lo miran, tutti onor li fanno:
quivi vid’ïo Socrate e Platone
che ’nnanzi a li altri più presso li stanno;
Dante, L’Inferno (Hell), Canto IV. Lines 131–135
- ^ Lovejoy, Arthur (1964). The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674361539.
- ^ Tuana, Nancy (1993). The Less Noble Sex: Scientific, Religious and Philosophical Conceptions of Women's Nature. Indiana University Press. pp. 21, 169. ISBN 0-253-36098-6.
- ^ Tuana, The Less Noble Sex p. 19, and footnote 8 p. 176
- ^ Harding, Sandra; Merrill B. Hintikka (31 December 1999). Discovering Reality,: Feminist Perspectives on Epistemology, Metaphysics, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science. Springer. p. 372. http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/9027714967/.
- ^ Durant, p. 86
- ^ Kelvin Knight, Aristotelian Philosophy, Polity Press, 2007, passim.
Further reading
The secondary literature on Aristotle is vast. The following references are only a small selection.
- Ackrill J. L. 2001. Essays on Plato and Aristotle, Oxford University Press, USA
- Adler, Mortimer J. (1978). Aristotle for Everybody. New York: Macmillan. A popular exposition for the general reader.
- Bakalis Nikolaos. .
- Barnes J. 1995. The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle, Cambridge University Press
- Bocheński, I. M. (1951).^ From 1951 to 1953, the University of Chicago Press published three sets of the Walgreen Lectures dealing with the intellectual basis of various twentieth-century challenges to democracy.
Ancient Formal Logic. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company.
- Bolotin, David (1998). An Approach to Aristotle's Physics: With Particular Attention to the Role of His Manner of Writing. Albany: SUNY Press. .
- Burnyeat, M. F. et al. 1979. Notes on Book Zeta of Aristotle's Metaphysics.^ Students will be required to read a list of books and articles prior to coming to Notre Dame and will spend the majority of their time here working on a research project.
^ Students will read one document each week and ask how the document's ideas relate to our own present lives and planned futures.
^ Our method of work combines survey by means of set readings and "close readings" of selected prophetic texts.
Oxford: Sub-faculty of Philosophy
- Chappell, V. 1973. Aristotle's Conception of Matter, Journal of Philosophy 70: 679–696
- Code, Alan. 1995. Potentiality in Aristotle's Science and Metaphysics, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 76
- Frede, Michael. 1987. Essays in Ancient Philosophy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
- Gill, Mary Louise. 1989. Aristotle on Substance: The Paradox of Unity. Princeton: Princeton University Press
- Guthrie, W. K. C. (1981). .^ A History of Greek Philosophy / ARISTOTLE .
- Aristotle - 1 19 January 2010 8:47 UTC www.ellopos.net [Source type: Academic]
^ Tracy, T. Heart and Soul in Aristotle. in Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy , vol.
^ A History of Greek Philosophy : Table of Contents Cf.- Aristotle - 1 19 January 2010 8:47 UTC www.ellopos.net [Source type: Academic]
6. .
- Halper, Edward C. (2007) One and Many in Aristotle's Metaphysics, Volume 1: Books Alpha — Delta, Parmenides Publishing, ISBN 978-1-930972-21-6
- Halper, Edward C. (2005) One and Many in Aristotle's Metaphysics, Volume 2: The Central Books, Parmenides Publishing, ISBN 978-1-930972-05-6
- Irwin, T. H. 1988. Aristotle's First Principles.^ From 1951 to 1953, the University of Chicago Press published three sets of the Walgreen Lectures dealing with the intellectual basis of various twentieth-century challenges to democracy.
^ Of things just and lawful each is related as the universal to its particulars; for the things that are done are many, but of them each is one, since it is universal.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ Scientific knowledge is judgement about things that are universal and necessary, and the conclusions of demonstration, and all scientific knowledge, follow from first principles (for scientific knowledge involves apprehension of a rational ground).- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Oxford: Clarendon Press
- Jori, Alberto. 2003. Aristotele, Milano: Bruno Mondadori Editore (Prize 2003 of the "International Academy of the History of Science") ISBN 88-424-9737-1
- Knight, Kelvin. .
- Lewis, Frank A. 1991. Substance and Predication in Aristotle.^ Ethics and International Relations explores diverse international issues through normative political philosophy and case studies.
^ A basic introduction to Aristotle's "human philosophy" (ta anthropina philosophia) by reading the Nicomachean Ethics and the Politics.
^ An examination of modes of moral reasoning and what constitutes the good life, based primarily on the study of Aristotle's NICOMACHEAN ETHICS and the moral philosophy of Kant.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Lloyd, G. E. R. 1968. Aristotle: The Growth and Structure of his Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr., ISBN 0-521-09456-9.
- Lord, Carnes. .^ A basic introduction to Aristotle's "human philosophy" (ta anthropina philosophia) by reading the Nicomachean Ethics and the Politics.
.
- Loux, Michael J. 1991. Primary Ousia: An Essay on Aristotle's Metaphysics Ζ and Η.^ From 1951 to 1953, the University of Chicago Press published three sets of the Walgreen Lectures dealing with the intellectual basis of various twentieth-century challenges to democracy.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press
- Owen, G. E. L. 1965c. The Platonism of Aristotle, Proceedings of the British Academy 50 125–150. Reprinted in J. Barnes, M. Schofield, and R. R. K. Sorabji (eds.), Articles on Aristotle, Vol 1. Science. London: Duckworth (1975). 14–34
- Pangle, Lorraine Smith (2003). Aristotle and the Philosophy of Friendship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
- Reeve, C. D. C. 2000. Substantial Knowledge: Aristotle's Metaphysics.^ An examination of the view of providence offered by the proponents of middle knowledge, and the objections raised against this Molinist view by both Thomists and contemporary analytic philosophers.
^ Yet Aquinas’s moral thought cannot be fully understood or appreciated unless it is placed in relationship to the views of his immediate predecessors and interlocutors.
^ An examination of the relationship between thought and action in light of contemporary and traditional accounts of the nature of ethics.
Indianapolis: Hackett.
- Rose, Lynn E. (1968). Aristotle's Syllogistic. Springfield: Charles C Thomas Publisher.
- Ross, Sir David (1995). Aristotle (6th ed.). . A classic overview by one of Aristotle's most prominent English translators, in print since 1923.
- Scaltsas, T. 1994. Substances and Universals in Aristotle's Metaphysics.^ Logically, one would think that one could be temperate with regard to vision and hearing, but since people don't speak that way, Aristotle won't either.
- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ That is why for Aristotle one of the most important capacities one can have is moral judgment.- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
^ NICHOMACHEAN ETHICS by Aristotle Public Domain English Translation by W. D. Ross .- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle 9 February 2010 15:36 UTC philosophy.csusb.edu [Source type: Original source]
Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
- Strauss, Leo. "On Aristotle's Politics" (1964), in The City and Man, Chicago; Rand McNally.
- Swanson, Judith (1992). .^ How do political theorists distinguish between the public and the private?
Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
- Taylor, Henry Osborn (1922). "Chapter 3: Aristotle's Biology". Greek Biology and Medicine. http://web.archive.org/web/20060327222953/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/medicine/0051.html.
- Veatch, Henry B. (1974). Aristotle: A Contemporary Appreciation. Bloomington: Indiana U. Press. For the general reader.
- Woods, M. J. 1991b. "Universals and Particular Forms in Aristotle's Metaphysics." Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy supplement. 41–56
External links
- The Catholic Encyclopedia (general article)
- The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (general article)
- Scholarly surveys of focused topics from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: articles on Aristotle, Aristotle in the Renaissance, Biology, Causality, Commentators on Aristotle, Ethics, Logic, Mathematics, Metaphysics, Natural philosophy, Non-contradiction, Political theory, Psychology, Rhetoric
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This article incorporates material from Aristotle on PlanetMath, which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
| Persondata |
| NAME |
Aristotle |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES |
Ἀριστοτέλης (Greek) |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION |
Greek philosopher |
| DATE OF BIRTH |
384 BC |
| PLACE OF BIRTH |
Stageira |
| DATE OF DEATH |
322 BC |
| PLACE OF DEATH |
Chalcis |
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