Aristotle: The Greatest Philosopher of All Time ( RRL REVISION)

Intro:
According to Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Aristotle is a towering figure in ancient
Greek philosophy, who made important contributions to logic, criticism, rhetoric,
physics, biology, psychology, mathematics, metaphysics, ethics, and politics. He was a
student of Plato for twenty years but is famous for rejecting Plato’s theory of forms. He
was more empirically minded than both Plato and Plato’s teacher, Socrates.

A prolific writer, lecturer, and polymath, Aristotle radically transformed most of the
topics he investigated. In his lifetime, he wrote dialogues and as many as 200 treatises,
of which only 31 survive. These works are in the form of lecture notes and draft
manuscripts never intended for general readership. Nevertheless, they are the earliest
complete philosophical treatises we still possess.

As the father of western logic, Aristotle was the first to develop a formal system for
reasoning. He observed that the deductive validity of any argument can be determined
by its structure rather than its content, for example, in the syllogism: All men are
mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates is mortal. Even if the content of the
argument were changed from being about Socrates to being about someone else,
because of its structure, as long as the premises are true, then the conclusion must also
be true. Aristotelian logic dominated until the rise of modern propositional logic and
predicate logic 2000 years later.

The emphasis on good reasoning serves as the backdrop for Aristotle’s other
investigations. In his natural philosophy, Aristotle combines logic with observation to
make general, causal claims. For example, in his biology, Aristotle uses the concept of
species to make empirical claims about the functions and behavior of individual
animals. However, as revealed in his psychological works, Aristotle is no reductive
materialist. Instead, he thinks of the body as the matter, and the psyche as the form of
each living animal.

Though his natural scientific work is firmly based on observation, Aristotle also
recognizes the possibility of knowledge that is not empirical. In his metaphysics, he
claims that there must be a separate and unchanging being that is the source of all other
beings. In his ethics, he holds that it is only by becoming excellent that one could
achieve eudaimonia, a sort of happiness or blessedness that constitutes the best kind of
human life.
Aristotle was the founder of the Lyceum, a school based in Athens, Greece; and he was
the first of the Peripatetics, his followers from the Lyceum. Aristotle’s works, exerted
tremendous influence on ancient and medieval thought and continue to inspire
philosophers to this day.

Body:

Aristotle and his ideas proved to be great importance, and he is one of the most
prominent and influential figures in Ancient Greek Philosophy. He discussed many
ideas at his time which to this day is of great Relevance.

"Aristotle's Logic, especially his theory of syllogism, has had unparalleled influence on
the history of Western Thought. It did not always hold this position: in the Hellenistic
Period, Stoic logic, and in particular the work of Chrysippus, took proud of place.
However in later antiquity, following the work of Aristotelian Commentators, Aristotle's
logic became dominant and what was transmitted to the Arabic and Latin medieval
traditions,while the work of Chrysippus hasn't survived(Aristotle Logic, 200).

Aristotle has various opinions about various things and aspects in life. One of these
things he discussed was Education.

One of his work in these field is a testament to the belief that our thinking and practices
as Educators must be infused with clear Philosophy of life. There has to be deep concern
for the ethical and political. We have continually to ask what makes for human
flourishing. From this we should act to work for that which is good or "right" rather
than, which is merely "correct" (Smith, 1997&2007).

In another major idea which is Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle's primary concern in this
field is Virtue, especially practical or ethical virtue, the virtues of character such as
courage and moderation. The ethical virtues are the core of happiness, he argues (as
opposed, say, to unlimited acquisition) and differentiate human action from animal
behavior governed by pleasure. Each virtue is the disposition to follow measured
judgements about the goods and passions that we seek and with which we deal. To be
moderate for example, is to enjoy pleasure in the right way and amount with the right
people at the right time ( Harry Jaffa, Aristotle in history of political Philosophy).

Another idea he focused on was politics. "As Aristotle understand things , the heart of
political activity is Regime (the politieia or constitution) because it forms the people and
resources of a particular place into a whole whose laws and actions serve an
understanding virtue and happiness. It is more significant than geography and ethnic
makeup, although such matters are significant.

Aristotle has also important thoughts about Justice and Nature. When Aristotle seeks to
justify a certain practice, constitution or a government, his main resort was always
nature.

(Aristotle, 1980) According to Aristotle, Justice in individual is the harmony in the

human soul, and in the society is equality and proportion in the enjoyment of values. In
Aristotle's political Philosophy, essential criterion Justice is treating equals equally and
un-equals unequally but in proportion to their relevant differences. He says in his
Politics: " In all sciences and arts the end is a good, and especially and above all in the
highest of all- this is the political science on which the good is justice. In other words,
the common interest. All men think justice to be a sort of equality; and to a certain
extent they agree in the philosophical distinctions which have been laid down by us
about Ethics. For they admit that Justice is a thing having relation to persons, and that
equals ought to have equality. However there still remains a question - equality or
inequality of what? Here is a difficulty which the political philosopher has to resolve.
(Aristotle, 1953) Justice, to Aristotle as Plato, is Virtue in action. Justice means that
every member of a community should fulfill his moral obligation towards the
fellow-membersof his community (Dashi, 2014).

Aristotle also talked about the three types of friendship, which are: the friendship of
utility, the friendship of pleasure and friendship of the good. He states, "Such
friendships are of course rare, but such men are few. Moreover, they require time and
intimacy… people who enter into friendly relations quickly have the wish to be friends,
but cannot really be friends without being worthy of friendship, and also knowing each
other to be so; the wish to be friends is a quick growth, but friendship is not."

And the last but not the least, an another major he contributes is all about the definition
of psychological state. Aristotle psychology reserves for the person alone such things as
thinking, desiring, and feeling pain. The soul itself is the subject of none of this.
Nevertheless, only in virtue of the soul, more exactly of its parts, does the person
manage to be in a given such state or to perform a given such act. So psychological
explaination is a kind of level of explaination. What goes on at one level, the level of the
person, is explained what goes on at another, and lower, level of organization. Moreover,
higher level of occurrences are effects of lower level of occurrences, despite absence of
standard causal relations between the levels. Levels causations involves the
supervenience of higher level mental or psychological states or events on certain lower
level states or events (Wedding, 1996).
Conclusion:

Aristotle is considered to be one of the most important figures in Western thought. He

was once of the first of the great thinkers to systematize Philosophy and science. His
thinking on physics and science had such a profound impact that it continued to
influence even medieval thought, which lasted until the Renaissance. Even more
astonishing is that the accuracy of some of his biological observations was only
confirmed in the last century. His works of logic contain the century. During the middle
ages, Aristotelian metaphysics had a profound influence on legacy is still felt in
Christian Theology. Examples of these are seen in Orthodox Theology, and especially
within the Catholic Tradition shaped by scholasticism. All of the aspects of Aristotle's
Philosophy continue to be the object of active academic study today (About the
significance of Aristotle, 2008).

It is believed that Aristotle not only studied almost every subject possible at the time,
but made significant contributions to most of them. Aristotle studied anatomy,
astronomy, economics, embryology, geography, geology, meteorology, physics, and
zoology, in the area of physical sciences. He also wrote on aesthetics, ethics,
government, metaphysics, politics, psychology, rheotic and theology. He extensively
studied education, foreign customs, literature and poetry. His combined works are
thought to constitute a virtual encyclopedia of Greek knowledge. It has been suggested
by many experts that Aristotle has more likely the last person to know everything there
was to be known in his own time.

Citations & links used:

🤸‍♀️https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340594947_political_philosophy_resear
ch_paper_Aristotle

🤸‍♀️ https://iep.utm.edu/aristotle/
AMBAG NI ANGELA😎