We explain what Aristotelian thought is and what the bases of its studies are. In addition, we explain its general characteristics and political philosophy.
Aristotelian thought is characterized by the use of deductive logic.
What is Aristotelian thought?
Aristotelian thought is called a series of philosophical traditions that recovered, debated and worked with Aristotle’s ideas.
Aristotle (384-322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and thinker. Although only 31 of the estimated 200 treatises he wrote survive, his ideas remain influential today.
Aristotle was a disciple of Plato, but many of his ideas conflicted with those of his predecessor. He was the teacher of Alexander the Great, who protected him until his death.
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are considered the fathers of Western philosophy.
The Aristotelian tradition is characterized by the use of deductive logic and the use of the inductive analytical method in the study of metaphysics and natural philosophy. Any school of thought that starts from any of the Aristotelian ideas is characterized as “Aristotelian.”
Aristotelian thought is often called Aristotelianism, peripatetism (by the peripatetic school) and neo-Aristotelianism (if it was taken up again some time after Aristotle’s death), depending on the place and the historical moment.
1. First philosophy
Aristotle promulgated the idea that metaphysics is the first philosophy. He stated that metaphysics “studies what iswhile something that is, and the attributes that belong to it.”
According to Aristotle, metaphysics is the first science, because it studies universally what is, that is, “being”, unlike the particular sciences, which are in charge of a single aspect of what is.
2. The syllogisms
Aristotle is considered the father of logic, since he was one of the first to enunciate and study its principles. The basis of logic is the syllogism: a logical and necessary deduction carried out through discourse.
Logic is the necessary derivation of a conclusion from two premises that already contain it in their statements. For example:
Proposition 1. All men are mortal.
Proposition 2. All Greeks are men.
Conclusion. All Greeks are mortal.
3. The principle of non-contradiction
The principle of non-contradiction holds that A proposition and its negation cannot be true at the same time and in the same sense.. It is one of the basic laws of logic and is what allows more complex arguments to be made, such as reductio ad absurdum.
This principle is frequently used in different areas of thought, such as logic, mathematics, metaphysics and even computer science. To this day it is maintained that it is the principle under which the mind is governed: the human being cannot think two contradictory things simultaneously.
4. Fallacies
Aristotle discovered that there are arguments that are valid only in appearance. Fallacies have the form of a syllogism, but contain a logical error that prevents the conclusion from necessarily being derived from the proposition.
An example of the fallacies studied by Aristotle is what is known as “the affirmation of the consequent”. For example:
Whenever it rains, the ground in the yard is wet.
The ground in the yard is wet, which means it’s raining.
This reasoning may seem correct, but it is not, since there are many other possible causes for the floor to be wet.
5. The permanent essence and the changing appearance
The essence is identified as the substance or foundational characteristic of things, and is considered to remain unchanged. The appearance, however, is variable.since it is exposed to becoming as accidental change and there is nothing in it that remains the same.
This division between the essential and the apparent can be applied both to objects in general and to living beings and individuals in particular.
6. Criticism of Platonic thought
Platonic thought maintains that what can be known through the senses is false and the truth can only be reached through ideas. Aristotelian thought is empirical: It is based on the observation of phenomena.
Aristotle maintained that only in this way was it possible to work on philosophy as a science, since thought had to start from the observable world to reach what is intelligible or unobservable.
7. The multiplicity of sciences
Aristotelian thought seeks the specificity of things. For this reason, Aristotle grouped the sciences according to their specific object:
- LogicIt is the study of rational thought.
- Theoretical philosophy. It is subdivided into physics, mathematics and metaphysics.
- Practical Philosophy. It includes politics and ethics.
8. The geocentric system
Aristotle proposed a geocentric theory, that is, He maintained that the Earth remained motionless at the center of the universe. and that all the planets, the stars and the Sun revolved around it. According to this theory, the universe has a spherical shape and is finite, that is, it has a limit.
Although this theory is wrong, it coincides with the direct observation of astronomical phenomena, which is why it was taken as true until the 16th century when Copernicus and then Galileo Galilei (17th century) contradicted it.
9. The elements of nature
In the works of Aristotle, nature is described as composed of five elements:
- Water and earth. They tend to move towards the center of the universe.
- Air and fireThey tend to move away from the center of the universe.
- Ether. It revolves around the center of the universe.
With these principles, different phenomena could be explained at a time when the law of gravity had not yet been stated and the measurement of density was not known.
For example, it could be explained that a stone sank in water using a rational argument: the stone has weight, the stone behaves differently in a medium other than air.
10. Political philosophy
For Aristotle, the State is the community of equals whose objective is to achieve the best possible life. He considered man a social animal, whose indispensable political instrument was language.
He distinguished three forms of government:
11. Poetics or literary theory
The Poetics Aristotle’s Tragedy is the first formal study of the arts on record. It studies the structure, form and themes of tragedy (the quintessential Greek literary form).
One of the mistakes that was made for centuries was to consider the Poetics as a normative text, that is, a text that aims to regulate the way tragedies should be. In reality, it is a descriptive text, which merely describes what the tragedies of its time were like.
It is believed that the Poetics It also included a treatise on comedy, but it has been lost.
History of Aristotelian thought
The history of Aristotelian thought can be traced as parallel to the history of Western philosophy. It has its origins in Greece, in the 4th century.
Aristotle He founded the Peripatetic school in 335 BC. c. According to tradition, Aristotle’s students used to walk through the garden of Apollo’s temple, alongside his teacher while he gave his lessons. This is why they are known as peripatetics (meaning “circling”). Some of its members were Theophrastus, Aristoxenus, Satyrus, Eudemus of Rhodes and Andronicus of Rhodes.
After the death of Aristotle in 322 BC. C., Theophrastus assumed the role of director of the school. Theophrastus was replaced by Straton of Lampsacus, who was the last of the great teachers of the school. This period was followed by a time of little activity and a decline in the school’s social status. Different philosophies, such as Stoicism and Epicureanism, appeared in Greece and displaced the Peripatetics.
In 86 BC, the Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla invaded Athens and plundered the Greek schools and temples. This, however, marked the beginning of a new period of fertility for the Peripatetic school.
Sulla took Aristotle’s writings to Rome, where Andronicus of Rhodes compiled the first Aristotelian Corpus, a compilation that survives to this day. However, With the rise of Neoplatonism and the expansion of Christianity, Aristotelian thought was relegated to the background.even though many Neoplatonists wanted to incorporate some Aristotelian ideas into their thinking.
Most of Aristotle’s works were transferred to the East, where they were incorporated into Islamic thought. The works of Avicenna and Averroes) are considered a full recovery of Aristotelian thought. Both Islamic thinkers wrote commentaries on Aristotle’s work.
Aristotelian thought It had its greatest recovery from the 13th century with the appearance of the works of Thomas Aquinas.His work is one of the most studied sources of his time, and his commentaries on the works of Aristotle, influenced by the thought of Augustine of Hippo, Averroes and Maimonides, are some of the most studied in the philosophical tradition.
After the Middle Ages, Aristotelian thought was taken up by various thinkers. Christian Wolff, Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Hegel all recovered different aspects of Aristotle’s work. Even the works of contemporary philosophers such as Hans-Georg Gadamer and John McDowell, despite being a rejection of traditional Aristotelian metaphysics, take it up again to, at least, subject it to a critical exercise and discussion.
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References
- Guthrie, W.K.C. (1993). History of greek philosophy. Vol. VI: Introduction to Aristotle. Gredos.
- Guthrie, W. (1953). The Greek philosophers. From Thales to Aristotle. FCE.
- Barnes, J. (1987). Aristotle. Chair.