Biography of Aristotle. Aristotle: short biography, philosophy and main ideas Aristotle created

Aristotle is considered one of the most prominent philosophers of Ancient Greece. He was born on the territory of the Chalkidiki peninsula in the Macedonian city of Stagira in 383 -384 BC (the exact date is currently unknown). His father’s name was Nicomachus, and despite his “barbarian” origin, he had the honor of serving as a healer close to the Macedonian king Amyntas the Second. There is a legend according to which Nicomachus comes from the family of Machaon, an epic hero glorified in Homer’s famous “Iliad.” Aristotle's mother, Festida, came from a noble Euboean family.

When young Aristotle was barely 15 years old, he was left an orphan. Proxenus, his maternal uncle, took guardianship of the boy and managed to instill in the future philosopher a love of books and a passion for studying various scientific disciplines. A couple of years later, young Aristotle migrated to Athens, where he joined the ranks of students at the famous Academy under the leadership of Plato himself. Having noticed the young man’s outstanding learning abilities, after a few years he was given a teaching position.

Despite the fact that Aristotle was one of Plato's favorites, the latter often accused his zealous student of lack of gratitude and due respect for the eminent teacher. The reason for this attitude on the part of the mentor was differences in views, and the fact that Aristotle stubbornly defended his own point of view, not wanting to recognize the supremacy of the head of the Academy. This is where the world-famous saying “Plato is my friend, but the truth is dearer” comes from. However, despite all the disagreements, Aristotle never spoke about the great thinker in a negative way.

About the philosopher's hobbies

From a young age, Aristotle had a passion for studying the animal world, subsequently compiling many scientific works, which included a lot of descriptions of various mammals, as well as mollusks and representatives of the aquatic kingdom. His book, dedicated to the history of animals, and bearing the same name, became a truly revolutionary work that literally shook up the entire ancient world. Systematized descriptions of various creatures from the famous “History of Animals” were studied in schools until the end of the eighteenth century AD.

Mature years

In the period from 368 to 365 BC, Aristotle visited Athens, where he became the founder of his own school, which was located near the temple dedicated to Apollo Lycaeum. The educational institution was called “Lyceum”, and the lecture hall for students was often the territory of the lush garden surrounding the school. Subjects such as rhetoric, physics, biology and a number of other disciplines were taught here.

After the death of Plato, in 348 BC, Aristotle had to leave the walls of the temple of knowledge and flee from Athens. The reason for this was the brewing military conflict in Macedonia and strife with Speusipus, who headed the Academy after the death of its former leader. From Greece, Aristotle, at the invitation of his good friend, the dictator Hermias, moved to Assos, a city located in Asia Minor. Some time later, the tyrant who fought against the Persian yoke was killed as a result of a conspiracy, and Aristotle was forced to urgently flee Assos.

Fleeing from the city in rebellion, Aristotle took with him a young relative of Hermias named Pythias, who later became the philosopher’s wife. The city of Mytilene, located on the Greek island of Lesbos, became a refuge for the newlyweds. Here an event occurred that became fateful for the philosopher. In 341 BC, the Greek monarch Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, invited Aristotle to become the mentor of his son, who showed great promise from an early age.

The philosopher had the opportunity to teach the future conqueror the basics of humanistic doctrine, medicine and ethics, as well as the basics of political discourse and the natural sciences. Soon the aggressive views of Macedonian came into conflict with the views of Aristotle, and he moved away from his ward. A year after the death of the conqueror in 323 BC, Aristotle also died. According to one version, the cause of death was poisoning by the poisonous plant borer. According to another version, the great philosopher died of a stomach disease.

Aristotle's creative heritage

From the written works of the Greek thinker that have survived to this day, a number of biological, physical and logical treatises have been preserved. In his philosophical work Metaphysics, Aristotle describes existence in various aspects, and in his ethical works he talks about the lives of Eudemus and Nicomachus.

Such works as “Rhetoric”, “Meteorology”, stories about plants, animals, vices, virtues, physiognomy and mechanics have been preserved.

ARISTOTLE

ARISTOTLE

(Aristoteles) (384-322 BC) - great ancient Greek. and scientist, creator of logic, founder of psychology, ethics, politics, poetics as independent sciences. Born in the north-east of Greece (Staghira), he spent 20 years at Plato's Academy ( cm. ACADEMY) in Athens. After Plato's death he lived in Greek. Asia Minor, then in Macedonia as a teacher of Alexander the Great. Then again in Athens as the head of his philosophy. schools - Lyceum. The second and third periods of A.'s life each take 12 years. A. owns a large number of works, mainly those that have come down to us: on philosophy, physics, biology, psychology, logic, ethics, politics, poetics.
As a student of Plato, A. deeply criticized, rejecting Plato's teaching about ideas as general essences-standards that exist before the objects of the material world and are only reflected in them. A. hesitated in understanding the essence of the individual, species and genus. His two criteria of essence are contradictory: it must exist independently, but only individuals exist in this way, and it must be definable, have its own, but only (a species) exists in this way, individuals do not have their own concept. Rejecting genera (they exist through species) and Platonic qualities, quantities, relationships, actions, etc.
into independent ideas, A. was inclined to recognize the primacy of the species relative to the individual and the genus, designating it as “morphe” (Latin “”), “first essence” (only in “Metaphysics” and in “Categories” the first essence designates individuals), “what was and what is”, i.e. stable in time (in the translation “the essence of being”, “whatness”).
In the doctrine of possibility and reality (potential and actual), A. gave forms to active forces that shape internally and externally and reshape the passive (“hyule”, matter), giving rise to objects of the sensory physical world. Formal and material universal principles and causes are complemented by driving and target causes.
In scientific teaching, A. emphasized “theoretical” (contemplative, without going into the utilitarian practice they despised) knowledge. Theoretical knowledge includes: wisdom, “first” (later -), (“second philosophy”) and. “Practical”, inauthentic knowledge (in which, due to the complexity of the subject, one has to choose, whereas in theoretical sciences there is no choice: either knowledge or lies): ethics and politics; “creative” sciences limited to art. A. does not pay attention to the industrial activities that remain with him - an aristocratic slave owner, without attention. The physics of astrology, which treats such topics as its types, problems of space and time, and the source of motion, is speculative. In mathematics itself, A. did not give anything new. In the philosophy of mathematics, he understood mathematical subjects not as coinciding with physical subjects (Pythagoreans) and not as primary for physical subjects (Platonism), but as the abstracting work of a mathematician. The cosmology of Africa, with its geocentrism, the division of space into the supralunar (ethereal) and sublunar (earth, water, air and fire) worlds, with its ending of the world in space, played a negative role in the history of science. A. was interested in biology, described about five hundred species of living organisms, and was engaged in biological classification.
In psychology, A. broke with Plato's doctrine of the immortality of personal souls, their transmigration from the body into the soul, and their existence in an ideal world, allowing only a universal human active intellect, equally inherent in people. On the question of the source of knowledge, A. hesitated between feelings and mind. To understand the general nature of nature, both are necessary and active. In the rational soul, inherent only to man (plants have a plant soul; animals have both plant and animal; - plant, animal and rational), all forms are potential, so what is common in nature is the forms potentially inherent in the soul (a relic of Plato’s doctrine of knowledge as the recollection of what souls contemplated in the ideal world before they entered bodies).
A. formulated contradictions: it is impossible to express opposing judgments about the same thing in the same respect and in the same way, because in reality, objects cannot have opposite essences, qualities, quantities, relationships, perform opposite actions, etc. A. gave three different meanings to this law: ontological, epistemological and logical. At the level of possibility, this law does not apply (in possibility a person can be both sick and healthy; in reality, as a matter of fact, he is either healthy or sick). Having created logic (called “analytics”), A. “discovered” its figures and modes. A. distinguished between the reliable (apodeictic), the probable (dialectic) and the deliberately false (sophistry).
In the doctrine of categories, A. identified the category of essence as a general designation of a really existing carrier of independently non-existent qualities (quality), the category of quantity (quantitative characteristics), the category of relationships, the category of place and the category of time, the category of action, the category of suffering (susceptibility to influence). In “Categories” A. this list is supplemented by the categories of position and possession.
In ethics, A. distinguished between “ethical” virtues of behavior as the mean between extremes as vices (for example, generosity - as the mean between extravagance and stinginess) and dianoetic virtues of knowledge. Ethical A. is a contemplative philosopher: this is how the true God lives.
In politics, A. saw in man a “political animal” that cannot live outside the society of his own kind, he defined the state as a historically emerged people, which, unlike such communities as pre-state “villages”, has a political structure - as correct, i.e. .e. serving the common good (aristocracy, polity), and wrong (tyranny, oligarchy, democracy), where the propertied serve only their own interests. A. criticized Plato's communist political ideal. Man is an owner by nature, property alone brings the unspeakable, while the common cause will all be blamed on each other. Distinguishing between necessary and constituent parts in the state, A. classified slaves as the first, understanding the slave mainly as a natural element of nature. Thinking that virtue is necessary, A. did not recognize the rights of citizens for workers, but he wanted all Greeks to be citizens in the state he himself was designing. A. saw the way out of this contradiction in having barbarian slaves replace the Greeks in all types of labor. A. approached Alexander the Great with this project, but to no avail.

Philosophy: Encyclopedic Dictionary. - M.: Gardariki. Edited by A.A. Ivina. 2004 .

ARISTOTLE

Stagirite, ancient Greek. philosopher and encyclopedist scientist, founder of the Peripatetic school. In 367-347 - at Plato's Academy, first as a listener, then as a teacher and an equal member of the community of Platonist philosophers. Years of wandering (347-334) : V G. Asse in Troas (M. Asia), in Mitylena on O. Lesvos; from 343/342 teacher of 13-year-old Alexander the Great (probably up to 340). During the 2nd Athenian period (334-323) A. teaches at the Lyceum. A complete set of all ancient biographical works. evidence of A. with comments: I. During, Aristotle in the ancient biographical tradition, 1957.

Genuine op. A. fall into three classes: 1) publ. during life and literary treatment (so-called exoteric, i.e. popular science), Ch. arr. dialogues; 2) all kinds of collections of materials and extracts - empirical. theoretical base treatises; 3) so-called esoteric op.- scientific treatises (“pragmatism”), often in the form of "lecture notes" (during A.’s lifetime they were not published, until 1 V. before n. e. were little known - about their fate cm. in Art. Peripatetic school). All that have come down to us are genuine. op. A. (Corpus Aristoteli-cum - vault preserved in Byzantine manuscripts under the name A., also includes 15 inauthentic op.) belong to 3rd class (except for the Athenian Polity), op. first two classes (and judging by antique catalogues, part op. 3rd class) lost. Some fragments are given about the dialogues - quotes from later authors (there are three general editions: V. Rose, 18863; R. Walzer, 19632; W. D. ROSS, 1955 and many dept. publications with attempts at reconstructions).

The problem relates. chronological op. A. is closely intertwined with the problem of evolution Philosopher views A. According to genetic. concepts German scientist V. Yeager (1923), academician. period A. was an orthodox Platonist who recognized the “separateness” of ideas; only after the death of Plato, having experienced the worldview. , he criticized the theory of ideas and then, until the end of his life, evolved towards natural science. empiricism. Accordingly Yeager and his school dated op. A. according to the degree of “remoteness” from Platonism. Yeager's theory, which predetermined the development of Aristotelian science in the 20s V., nowadays, time is shared by few people in its pure form. According to the concept Swede. scientist I. Dühring (1966), A. was initially an opponent of the transcendence of ideas; his harshest tone was in the early op., on the contrary, in its mature ontology (“Metaphysics” G - Z - N - ?) he essentially returned to platonic. problems of supersenses. reality.

Dating op. A. according to Dühring. Up to 360 (parallel to Plato's Phaedrus, Timaeus, Theaetetus, Parmenides): “About ideas” (controversy with Plato and Eudoxus), dialogue “On Rhetoric, or Grill” and etc. 1st floor. 50's gg. (parallel to Plato's Sophist and Politics); "Categories", "Hermeneutics", "Topic" (book 2-7, 8, 1, 9) , "Analysts" (cm."Organon"), dialogue “On Philosophy” (one of the most important lost op., basic source of information about the philosophy of A. in Hellenistic. era; book 1: humanity from the primitive state to the development of sciences and philosophy, reaching its pinnacle in the Academy; book 2: Plato's teachings on principles, ideal numbers and ideas; book 3: A. - “Timaeus”); notes from Plato's lectures “On the Good”; And "Metaphysics"; “About Poets”, “Homeric Questions”, original version of “Poetics”, book 1-2 "Rhetoric", original version of “Big Ethics”. From 355 to Plato's death in 347 (parallel to Philebus, Laws, 7th letter of Plato): "Physics" (book 1, 2, 7, 3-4) , “About the sky”, “About creation and destruction”, “Meteorology” (book 4) , controversy over ideas (“Metaphysics”, M 9 1086 b 21 - N, A, ?, ? 1-9, B), recycling book 1-2 and book 3 “Rhetoricians”, “Evdemova”, dialogue “Evdem” (about the immortality of the soul), "Protreptic" (“Admonition” to Philosophy, used in Cicero’s “Hortensia” and Iamblichus’ “Protrepticus”) And etc. Period of wanderings in Asse, Mytilene, Macedonia (347-334) : "Animal History" (book 1-6, 8) , “On the parts of animals”, “On the movement of animals”, “Meteorology” (book 1-3) , first drafts of small natural sciences. op. and “About the Soul.” The joint work with Theophrastus according to the description of 158 probably dates back to the same period state devices ("Polytius") Greek policies and the lost “Description of non-Greek. customs and institutions." "Policy" (nor. 1, 7-8), excerpts from Plato's Laws. 2nd Athenian period (from 334 until death): "Rhetoric" (recycling), "Policy" (book 2, 5, 6, 3-4) , first philosophy (“Metaphysics”, G, ?, ?, ?, ?), "Physics" (probably, book 8) , “On the Birth of Animals”, probably the surviving edition of small natural sciences. op. and the treatise “On the Soul”, “Nicomachean”.

Philosophy is divided into A. theoretical (speculative), the goal of which is knowledge for the sake of knowledge, practical, the goal of which is knowledge for the sake of activity, and noetic (creative), the goal of which is knowledge for the sake of creativity. Theoretical philosophy is divided into physical, mathematical. and the first (in “Metaphysics”? - “theological.”) philosophy. Physical subject philosophy is something that exists “separately” (i.e. substantially) and moves; mathematical - something that does not exist “separately” (i.e. abstractions) and motionless; first, or philosophy proper (Also " "), - that which exists “separately” and motionless. To practical philosophies include ethics and poetry, and poetics. Logic is not independent. science, but to the entire complex of sciences. Theoretical sciences have a value primacy over practical ones. and poyetic. sciences, first philosophy is above the rest of the theoretical. sciences.

The ontology of A. is based on: 1) existence (?? ??) , or the doctrine of being-than; 2) causal substance; 3) the doctrine of possibility and reality, or the theory of not-yet-being.

Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary. 2010 .

ARISTOTLE

(Ἀριστοτέλης) (384–322 BC) – ancient Greek. philosopher and scientist. A. lived and acted in the era when the slave owner. democracy in Athens was declining and when a fierce party took place within the Athenian polis, and in philosophy - a struggle between materialism and idealism. A. occupied an intermediate position in this struggle, wavering “between idealism and materialism” (V.I. Lenin, Philosophical Notebooks, 1947, p. 267). Engels considered A. the most universal head among the ancient Greeks. philosophers, a thinker who explored “the most essential forms of dialectical thinking” (Anti-Dühring, 1957, p. 20).

A. gen. in Stagira (hence the name A. - “Stagirite”), Greek. colonies on the Thracian coast of Chalkidiki. His father Nicomachus was the court physician of the Macedonian king Amyntas II. In 367 A. went to Athens and became a student of Plato. During this first period of his activity, A. was a member of Plato’s Academy, remaining in it for 20 years, until Plato’s death (347). In 343 A. was invited by Philip, the king of Macedonia, to the capital Pella to raise his son, Alexander. When Alexander became king, A. returned to Stagira, and in 335 - to Athens. In this second period, philosophy. A.’s activities matured the criticality that had developed even earlier. attitude towards Plato's idealism and, apparently, the foundations of their own were found. Philosopher systems. Upon returning to Athens, where he created his own school, known as the Lyceum, or, the third period of philosophy begins. A.'s activities. This period lasted until A.'s death in Chalkis on Euboea, where he fled to avoid manifestations of intense hostility among members of the anti-Macedonian party and persecution on charges of a crime against religion (impiety). Not being a native of Athens, A. lived there as a meteka - a foreigner who does not have citizenship rights. A. was neither a supporter of the Athenian aristocracy nor the Athenian democratic system, considering it an incorrect form of government. A. was a supporter of moderate democracy.

Modern researchers distinguish between A.'s works: 1) written and published during A.'s collaboration at Plato's Academy; 2) written after leaving A. Academy. The first were widely known in ancient times and were highly valued for their lit. merits. They have not survived and only their names are known and little else is known. fragments, as well as reviews of them by ancient writers. The latter as a whole constitute what has come down to us under the name A. Some of them are also lost, some are forged and written at a later time. According to the content, A.'s treatises are divided into 7 groups.

1. Logical treatises. They are united in a code, which received (not from A. himself, but from his commentators) the name “Organon”. This name shows what A. saw in the logic (or method) of research. The "Organon" included treatises: "Categories" (Russian translation, 1859, 1939); “On Interpretation” (Russian translation, 1891) – theory of judgment; “The First and Second Analysts” (Russian translation, 1952; there is a Russian translation, “The First Analytics”, 1894) – logic in its own right. meaning of the word; "Topic" (about probable argumentation and about general concepts, on the basis of which ordinary topics are interpreted) and adjacent to the "Topic" "Refutation of sophistic arguments."

2. Physical treatises. In them, general physics corresponds to lectures on nature and motion. Treatises are devoted to these issues: “Physics”, “On Origin and Destruction”, “On Heaven”, “On Meteorological Issues”. The treatises adjacent to this group - "Problems", "Mechanics", etc. - are of later origin.

3. Biological treatises. Their common basis is formed by the treatise “On the Soul” (Russian translation, 1937). To biological essays in their own sense of the word include: “History of Animals”, “On the Parts of Animals” (Russian translation 1937), “On the Origin of Animals” (Russian translation 1940), “On the Movement of Animals” and some others.

4. Op. about “first philosophy” is called the work of A., considering existence as such. Scientific editor and publisher of the 1st century. BC. Andronicus of Rhodes placed this group of treatises by A. behind the group of his physics. works "after physics" (τά μετά τά φυσικά). On this basis, the collection of treatises on “first philosophy” subsequently received the name “Metaphysics”.

5. Ethical essays. so-called “Nicomachean Ethics” (dedicated to A.’s son, Nikomachus) (Russian translation, 1884, republished in 1908; other translation, 1900) and “Eudemus Ethics” (dedicated to A.’s student and collaborator, Eudemus). Three books from both of these works coincide verbatim, but between the two there is a correspondence that does not reach the point of identity. "Nicomachean Ethics", apparently, reproduces A.'s lectures on ethics, given at the Lyceum; "Eudemic Ethics" is the first, early edition of the ethical. teachings of A. There is also the so-called ascribed to A. "Great ethics", but it arose later and bears traces of the influence of Stoicism.

6. Socio-political and historical works: “Politics” (Russian translation 1865, 1911) – a collection of treatises or lectures on sociology. topics related to each other; "Polities" – constitutions 158 Greek. cities-states; Of these, only the “Athensian Polity” (Russian translation, 1891, 1937), found in 1890 in Egypt, has reached us. papyrus.

7. Works on art, poetry and rhetoric: “Rhetoric” (Russian translation, 1894) and the incompletely extant “Poetics” (Russian translation, 1854, 1855, 1893, reprinted 1927, 1957) .

The question of the time of writing of individual op. A. in a number of cases is difficult and allows only hypothetical. solution. It has been established that many op. A. were not created in the text that has come down to us by A. himself, but represent codes or collections that arose for the purpose of teaching at the Lyceum. It can be considered probable that in the period between 347 and 335 A. most of his courses were developed: first “Topics” (Books I and VIII of it may have appeared later), then, apparently, “Categories” and “On Interpretation " and, finally, "Analysts" - the most mature logical. work. They were followed by "Physics" (Russian translation, 1936) (for the most part); treatises "On Heaven" and "On Origin and Destruction"; Book 3 of the treatise “On the Soul”; the first parts of “Metaphysics”: I, IV, eight initial chapters of the X book, XI book. (except for the end) and XIII, “Politics” (Books II, III, VII and VIII). In the period after 335 A. worked on special. questions of physics, biology, psychology and history. The development of certain specialties for students dates back to this time. questions of philosophy: about reality and possibility, about the one and the many, the result of which were the VIII and IX books of the Metaphysics. At the same time, in books II, III, V of “Metaphysics” A. developed what was stated in the first part of the X book, and in the XII book he gave a new version of the I and XIII books.

With his research, A. covered almost all branches of knowledge available at that time. A. divided philosophy into three branches: 1) theoretical - about being and parts of being, highlighting “first philosophy” as the science of the first causes and principles; 2) practical - about human activity, and 3) poetic. In this division, A. does not specifically mention logic, although he is the creator of this science. A.’s followers, not without reason, attributed to him that, according to him, logic is considered not as a special branch of philosophy, but as an instrument of any scientific. knowledge.

In his “first philosophy,” also called “metaphysics,” A. subjected Plato’s teaching about ideas to sharp criticism, ch. arr. for the idealist the position about the separation of the idea-essence from the sensually perceived thing. A. gave here his solution to the question of the relationship in existence between the general and the individual. According to A., this is something that exists only “somewhere” and “now”; it is sensually perceived. The general is what exists in any place and at any time (“everywhere” and “always”), manifesting itself under certain conditions in the individual. It is the subject of science and is cognizable by the mind. Moreover, the general exists only in the individual (if there were no individual, there would be no general) and is cognized only through the sensory perceived individual (it is impossible to comprehend the general without induction, and impossible without sensory perception).

To explain what exists, A. accepted four reasons: 1) the essence and essence of being, by virtue of which every thing is what it is (formal), 2) matter and the subject (substrate) - that from which something - arises (material cause), 3) the driving cause, the beginning of movement, 4) the target cause - that for the sake of which something is carried out. Although A. recognized matter as one of the first causes and considered it a kind of essence, he saw in matter only a passive principle (only the possibility of something), nevertheless he attributed everything to the other three causes, and he also attributed immutability to the essence of being - form, and He considered the source of all movement to be a motionless, but all-moving principle - God. Movement, according to A., is the transition of something from possibility to reality. In accordance with the doctrine of categories, A. distinguished the following types of movement:

2) quantitative – increase and decrease,

3) movement – ​​spaces. movement. They are joined by a fourth genus, which can be reduced to the first two—origin and destruction.

According to A., every really existing individual thing is “matter” and “form”. “Form” is not an otherworldly cause, but a “shape” inherent in the substance itself, which it takes on. Thus, a copper ball is the unity of substance (copper) and shape (sphericity), which is given to copper by a master, but in a really existing ball it is one with the substance. One and the same object of feelings. the world can be considered both as “matter” and as “form”. Copper is “matter” in relation to the ball, which is cast from copper. But the same copper is a “form” in relation to those physical. elements, the compound of which, according to A., is the substance of copper. “Form” is the reality of that of which “matter” is the possibility. “Matter” is, firstly, the absence (“deprivation”) of form and, secondly, the possibility of that of which “form” is the reality. According to A.’s thought, all reality turned out to be a sequence of transitions from “matter” to “form” and from “form” to “matter”. These categories, as Engels noted, became “fluid” for A. (“Dialectics of Nature,” 1935, p. 159). Nowhere does A. “have any doubts about the reality of the external world” (V.I. Lenin, Philosophical Notebooks, 1947, p. 305).

A. understood the relationship between “form” and “matter” not as the separation of supersenses. "ideas" and feelings. "substances". A.’s criticism of Plato’s “ideas,” in which Lenin saw “materialistic features” (ibid., p. 263), “is a criticism of idealism, as idealism in general” (ibid., p. 264). And yet, as Lenin noted, the criticism of Plato’s idealism was not carried through to the end. Climbing the ladder of forms, A. reached the highest “form” - a god who is outside the world. God A. is the “prime mover” of the world, the highest goal of all developing on their own. laws of forms and formations. Thus, A.’s doctrine of “form” is the doctrine of objective idealism. However, as Lenin showed, in many respects it is “more objective and more distant, more general than Plato’s idealism, and therefore in natural philosophy more often = materialism” (ibid.); “Aristotle comes close to materialism” (ibid., p. 267) - in A., a single sensory thing is affirmed as a really existing “essence”, as a unity of “matter” and “form”. From this view of a thing flowed A.’s view of knowledge. Although, like Plato, Aristotle considered the general to be the subject of knowledge, he at the same time argued that the general should be revealed to thought aimed at individual things of the sensory world.

Basic The content of logic and A. is the theory of deduction, although he expounded the doctrine of other forms of inference. The basis of this theory is a detailed theory of categorical syllogism. Although A.’s logic is formal, it is directly connected with the doctrine of truth and with the theory of knowledge in general, as well as with the doctrine of being, for A. understood, at the same time, how the forms of being (see V.I. Lenin, Philosophical notebooks, 1947, p. 304).

In the doctrine of knowledge and its types, A. distinguished between “dialectical” and “apodeictic” (apodeictic) knowledge. A. defined the area of ​​“dialectical” as the area of ​​“opinion” that could be this or that, “apodeictic” – as the area of ​​reliable knowledge (see Apodeictic). At the same time, in expressing results through language ("logos"), "apodictic" and "dialectical" are interconnected. Consideration of the question of whether an opinion can be affirmed as true is the subject of “dialectical” research. The “dialectician” moves in the region of incompatible opposites and establishes positions, either subsuming many things under unity, or dividing unity into many. In the treatise "Topika" A. examined the tricks of sophistry, with the help of which a victory in an argument can be won, and the methods by which a "dialectician" can convey the most to one or another opinion obtained from general experience. This goal, according to A., leads to the opinions of the people, as well as to the opinions of scientists, in order to more confidently rely on the completeness of experience confirming this opinion. At the same time, A. recommended comparing different opinions and making them logical. conclusions, compare these conclusions with each other and between already established provisions. However, even if tested by all available means and given a relatively high degree of probability, “opinions” do not become unconditionally reliable. Therefore, experience is not, according to A., the final authority for justifying the highest premises of science. The mind directly contemplates the highest and directly perceives them. At the same time, A. believed that the speculatively contemplated general principles of knowledge are by no means innate to man, although they are potentially in the mind as an opportunity to be acquired. To really acquire them, it is necessary to collect facts, direct thought to these facts, and only in this way trigger the process of thinking. contemplation of higher truths, or premises of contemplation. Since science proceeds from the most general and, as a result, has the task of exhausting everything related to the essence of an object, A. recognized the object as the goal of science. A complete definition can be achieved, according to A., only by combining deduction and induction: 1) knowledge about each individual property must be acquired from experience; 2) that this is essential must be proven by a special logical conclusion. forms - categorical. syllogism. Research categorical syllogism, carried out by A. in "Analytics", became, along with the doctrine of evidence, the center. part of it is logical. teachings. A. understood the three terms of a syllogism as a connection between the effect, the cause and the bearer of the cause. Basic the principle of syllogism expresses the connection between genus, species and individual thing. because Science has certain general principles and develops from them all particular truths, then it exhausts the entire set of concepts related to its field. However, according to A., this body of scientific knowledge cannot be reduced to a single integral system of concepts. According to A., there is no such concept that could be a predicate of all other concepts: various concepts are so different from each other that they cannot be generalized into a single genus common to them all. Therefore, for A. it turned out to be necessary to indicate all the higher genera, to which the remaining genera of existence are reduced. These higher genera have been studied in special studies. treatise "Categories".

The cosmology of A., for all its achievements (reduction of the entire sum of visible celestial phenomena and movements of the luminaries into a coherent theory), in some parts was backward in comparison with the cosmology of the Democritus and Pythagorean schools. A.'s influence on the development of the doctrine of the world survived until Copernicus. A. cosmology is geocentric. A. was guided by the planetary theory of Eudoxus of Cnidus, but attributed real physical existence to the planetary spheres: the Universe consists of a number of concentric - crystal - moving at different speeds and set in motion by the outermost sphere of fixed stars. The last source of movement, the unmoving prime mover, is God. According to the teachings of A., “sublunar”, i.e. the region between the orbit of the Moon and the center of the Earth is a region of constant variability and random uneven movements, and all bodies in this region consist of the four lower elements: earth, water, air and fire. The earth, as the heaviest element, occupies the center. . Above the Earth, shells of water, air and fire are successively located. The "supralunar" world, i.e. the region between the orbit of the Moon and the outer sphere of the fixed stars is a region of eternally uniform movements, and the stars themselves consist of the fifth - the most perfect element - ether. The superlunar world is the region of the perfect, the imperishable, the eternal.

No less influential was A.'s doctrine of biological expediency. The source for its development were observations of the appropriate structure of living organisms, as well as analogies with the nature of art. activities in which the implementation of a form presupposes the appropriate use and subordination of the material. Although A. extended the principle of expediency to all of existence and even raised it to God, his teaching, in contrast to Plato’s teaching about the conscious, goal-directing soul of the world, put forward the concept of the expediency of nature. For A., ​​organic facts were an example of such expediency. development, in which he saw a natural process of revealing the inherent structural features of living bodies, which they achieve in adulthood. A. considered such facts to be the development of organic. structures from the seed, various manifestations of the expediently acting instinct of animals, mutual adaptability of their organs, etc. In their biological works (“On the Parts of Animals”, “Description of Animals”, “On the Origin of Animals”), which served for a long time as the basis. source of information on zoology, A. gave a classification and description of numerous. species of animals. Life presupposes its own matter and form, matter is the body, form is what A. called “entelechy.” According to the three kinds of living beings (plants, animals, humans), A. distinguished three souls or three parts of the soul: 1) plant, 2) animal (sensing) and 3) rational. Their psychological A. outlined research that was also significant from the point of view of the theory of knowledge in three books “On the Soul.”

In Etik e A. is captured typical of the Greek. 4th century thinker BC. a look at the relationship between practice and theory. Without denying the beauty and greatness of political and military virtues and other “ethical” virtues, conditioned by inclinations to appropriate actions, A. placed contemplation even higher. The activity of the mind (“dianoetic” virtues), which, in his opinion, contains within itself the pleasure characteristic of it alone, which enhances energy. This ideal reflected what was characteristic of slave owners. Greece 4th century BC. department of physics labor, which was the share of the slave, from mental labor, which was the privilege of the free. The moral ideal of A. is God - the most perfect philosopher, or “self-thinking thinking.” Ethical virtue, by which A. understood the reasonable regulation of one’s activities, A. defined as the middle between two extremes. For example, generosity is the middle ground between stinginess and extravagance.

Ethical A.'s ideals determine the principles of his pedagogy and aesthetics. A. subordinated the tasks of organizing education as the highest goal to the formation of a personality capable of enjoying intellectual leisure and rising above any profession. specialization. This task determines the boundaries of art. training acceptable for children from free classes. On the one hand, for an enlightened judgment about works of art and enjoyment of them, it is necessary to a certain extent to be practical. possession of the claim, and therefore corresponding. On the other hand, this training should not cross the line beyond which art classes acquire the character of professional skill associated with remuneration.

But if practical. The occupation of lawsuits is greatly limited in A. in accordance with the rules adopted in the slaveholding. circles with views on professional work and leisure, then from a “consumer” point of view, A. gave a very high assessment of art. According to his view of a thing as a unity of form and matter, A. viewed art as a special type of cognition based on imitation (see Mimesis). At the same time, it was proclaimed - as an activity depicting what could be - a more valuable type of knowledge than historical knowledge, which, according to A., has as its subject the reproduction of one-time individual events in their bare factuality. Incorrect regarding history. This view of science allowed A. in the field of aesthetics - in "Poetics" and "Rhetoric" - to develop a deep theory of art, approaching realism, the doctrine of the arts. activities and about the genres of epic and drama (see Catharsis, Aesthetics).

A.'s teachings on society and the types of state set out in "Politics". authorities reflected the crisis of the Athenian slave owners. state and the beginning of the decline of slave ownership. classes. In the eyes of A., farmers seem to be the best of all classes of society, because due to his lifestyle and territorial dispersion, he is not able to actively intervene in issues of government management, which should be the privilege of the middle-income classes of society.

Cell: best editions of Greek. texts of individual treatises in the series: Oxford Classical Texts and Collection G. Bude (P.); rus. trans. - Aristotle. Op. in 4 volumes, ed. V. F. Asmus, 3. H. Mikeladze, I. D. Rozhansky, A; I. Dovatura. M., 1975-84; Athenian watered, trans. S. I. Radtsig. M.-L., 1936; On parts of animals, trans. V. P. Karpova. M., 1937; On the Origin of Animals, trans. .IN. P. Karpova, M.-L., 1940; Rhetoric, book. 1-3, lane N. Platonova.-In collection. Ancient rhetoric. M., 1978; Rhetoric, book. 3, per. S. S. Averintseva.-In collection. Aristotle and ancient literature. M., 1978, p. 164-228; History of Animals, trans. V. P. Karpova, preface. B. A Starostina. M., 1996.

Lit.: Dukasevich Ya. Aristotelian syllogistics from the point of view of modern formal logic, trans. from English M., 1959; Ahma, but “A. S. Aristotle’s logical teaching. M., I960; Zubov V, P. Aristotle. M., 1963 (bib.); Losev A. F. History of ancient aesthetics. Aristotle and the late classics. M., 1975; Royasansky I. D. Development of natural science in the era of antiquity. M-, 1979; Vizgsh V. P. Genesis and qualitativeism of Aristotle. M., 1982; Dobrokhotov A. L. The category of being in classical Western European philosophy. M., 1986, p. 84-130; Chanyshev A. N. Aristotle. M., 1987; Focht B. A. Lexicon Aristotelicum. A brief lexicon of the most important philosophical terms found in the works of Aristotle. - “Historical and Philosophical Yearbook-97”. M., 1999, p. 41-74; Kappes M. Aristoteles-Lexicon. Paderborn, 1894; Boniti H. Index Aristotelicus. B., 1955; Jaeger W. Aristoteles. Grundlegung einer Geschichte seiner Entwicklung. B., 1955; Symposium Aristotelicum, 1-7-, 1960-1975; Chemiss S. F. Aristotle's criticism of Plato and the Academy. N. Y., 1964; During I. Aristotle in the ancient biographical tradition. 1957; Idem. Aristoteles. Darstellung und Interpretation seines Denkens. Hdlb., 1966; Aristoteles in der neueren Forschung, hrsg . v. P. Dannstadt, 1968; hrsg. v. F.-P. Darmstadt, 1972; Chrousl A. H. Aristotle, New light on his life and on some of his lost works. . P. Moraux. Darmstadt, 1975; Lesîl W. Aristotle's conception of ontology. Padova, 1975; Chen Ch.-H. Sophia, The science Aristotle sought. Hildesheim, 1976; Brinkmann K. Aristoteles" allgemeine undspezielle Metaphysik. B.-N. Y., 1979; Metaphysik und Theologie des Aristoteles, hrsg. v. F.-P. Hager. Darmstadt, 1979; Edel A. Aristotle and his philosophy. L., 1982; A New Aristotle Reader, ed. J. L. Ackrill. xf., 1987; Gill M. L. Aristotle on Substance: The Paradox of Unity, Princeton, 1989; to Aristotle, ed. J. Barnes. Cambr., 1995; Cleary J. J. Aristotle and Mathematics: Aporetic Method in Cosmology and Metaphysics. Leiden, 1995; .

Political science. Dictionary.

Aristotle was born in Greece on the island of Euboea, in 384 BC. e. His father was engaged in medicine, and he instilled in his son a passion for studying science. At the age of 17, Aristotle became a student of Plato's Academy; a few years later he began teaching himself and joined the community of Platonist philosophers.

After Plato's death in 347 BC. e. Aristotle left the academy, having worked in it for 20 years, and settled in the city of Atarnaeus, where Plato-Hermias ruled. After some time, Tsar Philip II invited him to become a teacher for his son Alexander. Aristotle visited the royal house and taught little Alexander the basics of ethics and politics, and had conversations with him on topics of medicine, philosophy and literature.

School in Athens

In 335 BC. Aristotle returned to Athens, and his former student ascended the throne. In Athens, the scientist founded his school of philosophy not far from the temple of Apollo Lyceum, which became known as the “Lyceum”. Aristotle gave lectures in the open air, walking along the paths of the garden, the students listened attentively to their teacher. So another name was added - “Peripatos”, which is translated from Greek as “walk”. Aristotle's school began to be called peripatetic, and its students - peripatetics. In addition to philosophy, the scientist taught history, astronomy, physics and geography.

In 323 BC, preparing for the next campaign, Alexander the Great fell ill and died. At this time, an anti-Macedonian revolt begins in Athens, Aristotle falls out of favor and flees the city. The scientist spends the last months of his life on the island of Euboea, located in the Aegean Sea.

Aristotle's achievements

An outstanding philosopher and scientist, the great dialectician of antiquity and the founder of formal logic, Aristotle was interested in many sciences and created truly great ones: “Metaphysics”, “Mechanics”, “Economics”, “Rhetoric”, “Physiognomy”, “Great Ethics” and many others . His knowledge covered all branches of the sciences of ancient times.

It is with the works of Aristotle that the emergence of the basic concepts for space and time is associated. His “Doctrine of the Four Causes,” which was developed in “Metaphysics,” marked the beginning of attempts at deeper research into the origins of all things. Paying great attention to the human soul and its needs, Aristotle stood at the origins of psychology. His scientific work “On the Soul” became the main material for the study of psychic phenomena for many centuries.

In his works on political science, Aristotle created his classification of correct and incorrect government structures. In fact, it was he who laid the foundations of political science as an independent science of politics.

By writing his essay “Meteorology,” Aristotle presented the world with one of the first serious works on physical geography. He also identified the hierarchical levels of all things, dividing them into 4 classes: “inorganic world”, “plant world”, “animal world”, “man”.

Aristotle created a conceptual-categorical apparatus, which is still present in the philosophical vocabulary and style of scientific thinking today. His metaphysical teaching was supported by Thomas Aquinas and subsequently developed by the scholastic method.

Aristotle's handwritten works reflect the entire spiritual and scientific experience of Ancient Greece; they had a significant influence on the development of human thought.

Old Greek Ἀριστοτέλης

famous ancient Greek scientist and philosopher; student of Plato; from 343 BC e. - teacher of Alexander the Great; in 335/4 BC. e. founded the Lyceum (Ancient Greek: Λύκειον Lyceum, or Peripatetic school); naturalist of the classical period; the most influential of the ancient philosophers; founder of formal logic; created a conceptual apparatus that still permeates the philosophical vocabulary and style of scientific thinking; was the first thinker to create a comprehensive system of philosophy that covered all spheres of human development: sociology, philosophy, politics, logic, physics

384 - 322 BC e.

short biography

Aristotle- the famous ancient Greek scientist, philosopher, founder of the Peripatetic school, one of Plato’s favorite students, teacher of Alexander the Great - is often called Stagirite, because in 322 BC. e. he was born precisely in the city of Stagira, a Greek colony in Chalkida. He happened to be born into a family of people of noble origin. Aristotle's father was a hereditary physician, served as a physician at the royal court, and it was from him that his son learned the basics of philosophy and the art of healing. Aristotle spent his childhood at court; he was well acquainted with his peer, the son of King Amyntas III, Philip, who years later himself became the ruler and father of Alexander the Great.

In 369 BC. e. Aristotle became an orphan. His relative Proxen took care of the teenager. The guardian encouraged the student's curiosity, contributed to his education, and spared no expense in purchasing books, which at that time were a very expensive pleasure - fortunately, the fortune left by the parents allowed this. The young man’s mind was captivated by the stories that reached their area about the sages Plato and Socrates, and young Aristotle worked diligently so that, once in Athens, he would not be branded an ignoramus.

In 367 or 366 BC. e. Aristotle arrived in Athens, but, to his great disappointment, did not find Plato there: he went to Sicily for three years. The young philosopher did not waste time, but plunged into the study of his works, simultaneously becoming acquainted with other directions. Perhaps it was this circumstance that influenced the formation of views different from the views of the mentor. His stay at Plato's Academy lasted almost two decades. Aristotle turned out to be an extremely talented student; his mentor highly valued his mental merits, although the reputation of his ward was ambiguous and did not quite correspond to the Athenians’ idea of ​​true philosophers. Aristotle did not deprive himself of earthly pleasures, did not tolerate restrictions, and Plato used to say that he must be “kept in check.”

Aristotle was one of his favorite students, one of those in whom he poured his soul; There were friendly relations between them. Many accusations of black ingratitude were made against Aristotle. However, when arguing with a friend-mentor, he always spoke about Plato with exceptional respect. Deep respect can also be evidenced by the fact that, having a formed, integral system of views, and therefore the prerequisites for opening his own school, Aristotle did not do this during Plato’s lifetime, limiting himself to teaching rhetoric.

Around 347 BC. e. the great mentor died, and the place of head of the Academy was taken by his nephew, heir to the Speusip property. Finding himself among the dissatisfied, Aristotle left Athens and went to Asia Minor, the city of Assos: he was invited to stay there by the tyrant Hermias, also a student of the Platonic Academy. In 345 BC. e. Hermias, who actively opposed the Persian yoke, was betrayed and killed, and Aristotle had to quickly leave Assos. A young relative of Hermia, Pythias, also escaped with him, whom he soon married. They found refuge on the island of Lesbos, in the city of Mytilene: the couple got there thanks to the philosopher’s assistant and friend. It was there that Aristotle found an event that began a new stage in his biography - the Macedonian king Philip invited him to become a mentor, educator of his son Alexander, then a 13-year-old teenager.

Aristotle carried out this mission approximately from 343 - 340 BC. e., and its influence on the way of thinking and the character of a person who became famous throughout the world was enormous. Alexander the Great is credited with the following statement: “I honor Aristotle on an equal basis with my father, since if I owe my life to my father, then to Aristotle I owe it for what gives it value.” After the young king ascended the throne, his former mentor stayed with him for several years. There are versions that the philosopher was his companion on his first long campaigns.

In 335 BC. e. 50-year-old Aristotle, leaving Callisthenes, his nephew and philosopher, with Alexander, went to Athens, where he founded the Lyceum - his own school. It received the name “peripatetic” from the word “peripatos,” which meant a covered gallery around a courtyard or a walk. Thus, it characterized either the place of study or the manner of the mentor presenting information while walking back and forth. In the morning, a narrow circle of initiates studied science with him, and in the afternoon, everyone, beginners, could listen to the philosopher. The Lycean period is an extremely important stage in Aristotle’s biography: it was then that most of the works were written, the result of research was discoveries that largely determined the development of world science.

Immersed in the world of science, Aristotle was very far from politics, but in 323 BC. e., after the death of Alexander the Great, a wave of anti-Macedonian repressions swept across the country, and clouds gathered over the philosopher. Having found a fairly formal reason, he was charged with blasphemy and disrespect for the gods. Realizing that the upcoming trial would not be objective, Aristotle in 322 BC. e. leaves the Lyceum and leaves with a group of students for Chalkis. The island of Euboea becomes his last refuge: a hereditary stomach disease interrupted the life of the 62-year-old philosopher.

His most famous works are “Metaphysics”, “Physics”, “Politics”, “Poetics”, etc. - the legacy of Aristotle Stagirite is very extensive. He is considered one of the most influential dialecticians of the ancient world and is considered the founder of formal logic. Aristotle's philosophical system touched upon a variety of aspects of human development and largely influenced the further development of scientific thinking; The conceptual apparatus he created has not lost its relevance to this day.

Biography from Wikipedia

Plato and Aristotle (shown backwards), 15th century, Luca Della Robbia

Aristotle was born in Stagira (hence his nickname Stagirite), a Greek colony in Chalkidiki, near Mount Athos, between July and October 384/383 BC, according to ancient chronology in the first year of the 99th Olympiad. In ancient Greek, Aristotle's city is expressed in different ways. In sources, Stagira is mentioned in different grammatical categories of gender and number: neuter plural. h. - τὰ Στάγειρα, in the feminine gender unit. h. - ἡ Στάγειρος or ἡ Στάγειρα.

Some researchers believed that Stagira belonged to Macedonia, and Aristotle himself was Macedonian by origin. Based on this, they concluded that Aristotle's nationality helped him to impartially consider and analyze the diversity of Greek political systems. However, this is not entirely true, since Stagira came under Macedonian rule only with the beginning of the expansion of Philip II, who invaded Chalkidiki in the late forties of the 4th century BC. e. At this time, around 349-348 BC. e., he captured and destroyed Stagira and some other cities. Aristotle, meanwhile, was in Athens at Plato's school, and the founder of the academy himself was already close to death. Subsequently, Aristotle will ask Philip to restore Stagira and himself will write laws for its citizens. We find that Stagira belongs to Macedonia in Stephen of Byzantium in his “Ethnics”, where he writes: “Στάγειρα, πόλις Μακεδονίας” that is, “Stagira is a Macedonian city.”

According to some other sources, Stagira was located in Thrace. Hesychius of Meletius in the Compendium of Lives of Philosophers writes that Aristotle “ἐκ Σταγείρων πόλεως τῆς Θρᾷκης” that is, “from Stagira, the city of Thrace.” There is also a mention word for word in the Byzantine dictionary Suda of the 10th century: πόλεως τῆς Θρᾴκης" that is, "Aristotle the son of Nicomachus and Thestis from Stagira, the city of Thrace."

Aristotle's father, Nicomachus, was from the island of Andros. Mother Thestis came from Euboean Chalcis (it was there that Aristotle would go during his exile from Athens; most likely he still had family ties there). It turns out that Aristotle was a pure Greek on his father and mother. Nicomachus, Aristotle's father, was a hereditary Asclepiad and traced his family back to the Homeric hero Machaon, the son of Asclepius. The philosopher's father was a court physician and friend of Amyntas III, father of Philip II and grandfather of Alexander the Great. According to the Suda dictionary, Aristotle's father was the author of six books on medicine and one work on natural philosophy. He was Aristotle's first tutor, as the Asclepiads had a tradition of teaching their children from a young age, and it is therefore possible that Aristotle helped his father while he was still a boy. Apparently this is where his interest in biology began.

However, Aristotle's parents died when he had not yet reached adulthood. Therefore, he was taken in by Proxenus, the husband of the philosopher’s elder sister, Arimnesta, who came from Atarnea, a city in Asia Minor. Proxen took care of training his ward.

In 367/6, at the age of seventeen, Aristotle arrived in Athens. However, at the time of his arrival, Plato was not at the Academy. According to some sources, Aristotle studied oratory before the academy with the rhetorician Isocrates. This version is supported by the fact that Aristotle had a special interest in rhetoric, which would later be embodied in such works as Rhetoric, Topics, First Analytics, Second Analytics, and On Interpretation. In them, the philosopher considers not only the types of speeches and social positions “rhetor - audience”, but also the “beginnings” of speech, namely: sound, syllable, verb, etc. He laid the foundation for the first logical principles of reasoning and formulated the rules for compiling syllogical figures . Therefore, Aristotle could well have devoted the first years of his Athenian studies to the rhetorical school of Isocrates. Aristotle stayed at Plato's Academy for 20 years, until the death of his teacher. Both positive and negative aspects stand out in their relationship. Among the latter, Aristotle's biographers narrate not the most successful everyday scenes. Aelian left the following evidence:

“Once, when Xenocrates left Athens for a while to visit his hometown, Aristotle, accompanied by his students, the Phocian Mnason and others, approached Plato and began to press him. Speusippus was ill that day and could not accompany the teacher, an eighty-year-old man with a memory already weakened by age. Aristotle attacked him in anger and arrogantly began to ask questions, wanting to somehow expose him, and behaved impudently and very disrespectfully. From that time on, Plato stopped going outside the boundaries of his garden and walked with his students only within its fence. After three months, Xenocrates returned and found Aristotle walking where Plato usually walked. Noticing that after a walk he and his companions were heading not to Plato’s house, but to the city, he asked one of Aristotle’s interlocutors where Plato was, because he thought that he was not going out due to illness. “He is healthy,” was the answer, “but, since Aristotle offended him, he stopped walking here and talks with his students in his garden.” Hearing this, Xenocrates immediately went to Plato and found him in the circle of listeners (there were a lot of them, and all of them were worthy and famous people). At the end of the conversation, Plato greeted Xenocrates with his usual cordiality, and he greeted him with no less cordiality; At this meeting, both did not say a word about what had happened. Then Xenocrates gathered Plato’s students and began to angrily reprimand Speusippus for giving up their usual place of walking, then he attacked Aristotle and acted so decisively that he drove him away and returned to Plato the place where he was accustomed to teach.”

Aelian, "Motley Tales" III, 19.

However, despite everyday disagreements, Aristotle remained in Plato’s school until the latter’s death and became close to Xenocrates, who treated his teacher with respect. In addition, Aristotle, although he did not agree with Plato’s teaching in many ways, nevertheless spoke positively about it. In the Ethics of Nicomacheus, Aristotle writes about Plato: “The doctrine of ideas was introduced by people close to us.” The original uses the word “φίλοι”, which can also be translated as “friends”.

Coming to the glorious land of Cecropia piously
established an altar of holy friendship of a husband whom bad and
it is not appropriate to praise; he is the only one, or at least
the first of mortals showed clearly both with his life and
words that a good person is both
blessed; but now no one will ever be able to do this
understand

Inscription attributed to Aristotle on the altar of Philia (Friendship) erected in honor of Plato

After the death of Plato (347 BC), Aristotle, together with Xenocrates, Erastus and Coriscus (the last two are mentioned by Plato in Letter VI and recommends that they make peace with the tyrant Hermias, the ruler of Atarnea and Assos, where they were from) goes to Assos , a coastal city in Asia Minor, located opposite the island. Lesvos. During his stay in Assos, Aristotle became close to Hermias. The tyrant treated the philosopher with respect and listened to his lectures. The proximity contributed to the fact that Aristotle married his adopted daughter and niece Pythias, who gave birth to a girl who received her mother’s name. Pythias was not Aristotle's only woman. After her death, he illegally married the maid Herpellida, from whom he had a son, named, according to ancient Greek tradition, in honor of Nicomachus's father.

After a three-year stay in Assos, Aristotle, on the advice of his student Theophrastus, went to the island of Lesbos and stayed in the city of Mythelenae, where he taught until 343/2 BC. e. until he received an invitation from Philip II to become the tutor of the royal son Alexander. The reason for Aristotle's choice for this position could have been Hermias's close relationship with Philip.

Aristotle began teaching Alexander when he was 14 (or 13) years old. The learning process took place in Pella, and then in the city of Mieza in the sanctuary of the nymphs - Nymphaeion (ancient Greek: Νυμφαῖον). Aristotle taught Alexander a variety of sciences, including medicine. The philosopher instilled in the prince a love of Homeric poetry, so that subsequently, the copy of the Iliad, which Aristotle compiled for Alexander, would be kept by the king along with the dagger under his pillow.

At this time, Aristotle learns of the death of Hermias. The city of Hermia Atarnei was besieged by Mentor, a Greek general who served Darius III. The mentor lured Hermias out of the city by cunning, took him to Susa, tortured him for a long time in the hope of obtaining information about plans with Philip, and as a result crucified him on the cross.

In 335/334, Aristotle suspended the education of Alexander, due to the fact that the latter’s father was killed and the young prince had to take power into his own hands. At this time, Aristotle decided to go to Athens, where he founded his school in the northeast of the city near the Temple of Apollo Lycaeum. From the name of the temple, the area received the name Lyceum, which, in turn, passed on to the new philosophical school. In addition, Aristotle’s school was called peripatetic - this name is also present in Diogenes Laertius, who claimed that Aristotle’s school received this name because of regular walks during philosophical conversations (ancient Greek περιπατέω - stroll, stroll). And although many philosophers practiced walking while teaching, the followers of Aristotle were given the name “peripatetics.”

Aristotle's Lyceum in Athens

After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. e. An anti-Macedonian uprising began in Athens. The Athenian People's Assembly proclaimed the beginning of the liberation movement for independence from Macedonian rule. The rebellious democrats issued a decree demanding the expulsion of enemy garrisons from Greece. At this time, the hierophant of the Eleusinian Mysteries, Eurymedon, and the rhetorician from the school of Isocrates, Demophilus, accused Aristotle of atheism. The reason for such a loud accusation was the hymn “Virtue” twenty years ago, which Aristotle wrote in honor of the tyrant Hermias. Prosecutors argued that the poems were written in the style of hymns to Apollo, and the tyrant Atarnea was not worthy of such veneration. However, most likely, Aristotle’s hymn served only as a pretext for initiating political persecution against the philosopher, but in fact the main reason was the close ties of the philosopher with Alexander the Great. In addition, Aristotle was a metician, and therefore did not have Athenian citizenship and full political rights. Legally, he did not even belong to the Lyceum (Aristotle does not mention it in his will). Ultimately, Aristotle decided not to repeat the fate of Socrates and left for Euboean Chalcis. There he lived in his mother's house with his second wife Herpelis and two children Nicomachus and Pythias.

In 322 BC. e., according to ancient Greek calculation, in the 3rd year of the 114th Olympiad (a year after the death of Alexander the Great), Aristotle died of a stomach disease (according to another version, he was poisoned by aconite). His body was transferred to Stagiri, where grateful fellow citizens erected a crypt for the philosopher. In honor of Aristotle, festivals were established that bore the name "Aristotelia", and the month in which they were held was called "Aristotle".

Philosophical teachings of Aristotle

Sculpture of the head of Aristotle - copy of Lysippos, Louvre

Aristotle divides science into theoretical, the goal of which is knowledge for the sake of knowledge, practical and “poetic” (creative). Theoretical sciences include physics, mathematics and “first philosophy” (also theological philosophy, which was later called metaphysics). Practical sciences include ethics and politics (also known as the science of state). One of the central teachings of Aristotle's “first philosophy” is the doctrine of four causes, or first principles.

Doctrine of the Four Causes

In “Metaphysics” and other works, Aristotle develops the doctrine of the causes and principles of all things. These reasons are:

• Matter(Greek ΰλη, Greek ὑποκείμενον) - “that from which.” The variety of things that exist objectively; matter is eternal, uncreated and indestructible; it cannot arise from nothing, increase or decrease in quantity; she is inert and passive. Formless matter represents nothingness. Primary formed matter is expressed in the form of five primary elements (elements): air, water, earth, fire and ether (heavenly substance).
• Form(Greek μορφή, Greek tò τί ἧν εἶναι) - “that which.” The essence, stimulus, purpose, and also the reason for the formation of diverse things from monotonous matter. God (or the prime mover mind) creates the forms of various things from matter. Aristotle approaches the idea of ​​​​the individual existence of a thing, a phenomenon: it is a fusion of matter and form.
• Efficient or producing cause(Greek τὸ διὰ τί) - “that from where.” Characterizes the moment in time from which the existence of a thing begins. The beginning of all beginnings is God. There is a causal dependence of the phenomenon of existence: there is an efficient cause - this is an energetic force that generates something in the rest of the universal interaction of the phenomena of existence, not only matter and form, act and potency, but also the generating energy-cause, which, along with the active principle, has a target meaning.
• Target, or final reason(Greek τὸ οὖ ἕνεκα) - “that for which.” Each thing has its own particular purpose. The highest goal is Good.

Act and potency

With his analysis of potency and act, Aristotle introduced the principle of development into philosophy, which was a response to the aporia of the Eleans, according to which existence can arise either from existence or from non-existence. Aristotle said that both are impossible, firstly, because existing things already exist, and secondly, nothing can arise from nothing, which means emergence and formation are generally impossible.

Act and potency (actuality and possibility):

• act - the active implementation of something;
• potency is a force capable of such implementation.

Categories of philosophy

Categories are the most general and fundamental concepts of philosophy, expressing the essential, universal properties and relationships of the phenomena of reality and knowledge. The categories were formed as a result of generalization of the historical development of knowledge.

Aristotle developed a hierarchical system of categories in which the main one was “essence” or “substance”, and the rest were considered its characteristics. He created a classification of the properties of being that comprehensively define the subject - 9 predicates.

Category comes first essence with the first entity highlighted - individual existence, and the second entity - existence of species and genera. Other categories reveal properties and states of being: quantity, quality, relation, place, time, possession, position, action, suffering.

Striving to simplify the categorical system, Aristotle then recognized only three among the main nine categories - time, place, position (or essence, state, relation).

With Aristotle, the basic concepts of space and time begin to take shape:

• substantial - considers space and time as independent entities, the principles of the world.

• relational - (from Latin Relativus - relative). According to this concept, space and time are not independent entities, but systems of relations formed by interacting material objects.

The categories of space and time act as a “method” and number of motion, that is, as a sequence of real and mental events and states, and therefore are organically connected with the principle of development.

Aristotle saw the specific embodiment of Beauty as the principle of the world structure in the Idea or Mind.

Aristotle created hierarchy of levels of all things(from matter as a possibility to the formation of individual forms of being and further):

• inorganic formations (inorganic world).
• the world of plants and living beings.
• world of different animal species.
• Human.

History of philosophy

Aristotle argued that philosophy emerges from "episteme" - knowledge that goes beyond the senses, skills and experience. Thus, empirical knowledge in the field of calculus, human health, and the natural properties of objects were not only the beginnings of science, but also the theoretical prerequisites for the emergence of philosophy. Aristotle derives philosophy from the rudiments of the sciences.

Philosophy is a system of scientific knowledge.

God as the prime mover, as the absolute beginning of all beginnings

According to Aristotle, world movement is an integral process: all its moments are mutually determined, which presupposes the presence of a single engine. Further, based on the concept of causality, he comes to the concept of the first cause. And this is the so-called cosmological proof of the existence of God. God is the first cause of movement, the beginning of all beginnings, since there cannot be an infinite series of causes or a beginningless one. There is a cause that determines itself: the cause of all causes.

The absolute beginning of any movement is deity as a universal supersensible substance. Aristotle justified the existence of a deity by considering the principle of improvement of the Cosmos. According to Aristotle, deity serves as the subject of the highest and most perfect knowledge, since all knowledge is aimed at form and essence, and God is pure form and the first essence.

The idea of ​​the soul

Aristotle believed that the soul, which has integrity, is nothing more than its organizing principle, inseparable from the body, the source and method of regulation of the organism, its objectively observable behavior. The soul is the entelechy of the body. The soul is inseparable from the body, but itself is immaterial, incorporeal. What makes us live, feel and think is the soul. “The soul is the cause as that from which movement comes, as the goal and as the essence of animate bodies.”

Thus, the soul is a certain meaning and form, and not matter, not a substratum.

The body is characterized by a vital state that creates its orderliness and harmony. This is the soul, that is, a reflection of the actual reality of the universal and eternal Mind. Aristotle gave an analysis of the various parts of the soul: memory, emotions, the transition from sensations to general perception, and from it to a generalized idea; from opinion through concept to knowledge, and from directly felt desire to rational will.

“The soul distinguishes and cognizes existence, but it itself spends a lot of “time in mistakes.” “To achieve something reliable about the soul in all respects is, of course, the most difficult thing.”

Theory of knowledge and logic

Aristotle's knowledge has being as its subject. The basis of experience is sensations, memory and habit. Any knowledge begins with sensations: it is that which is capable of taking the form of sensory objects without their matter; the mind sees the general in the individual.

However, it is impossible to acquire scientific knowledge with the help of sensations and perceptions alone, because all things are changeable and transitory. The forms of truly scientific knowledge are concepts that comprehend the essence of a thing.

Having analyzed the theory of knowledge in detail and deeply, Aristotle created a work on logic that retains its enduring significance to this day. Here he developed a theory of thinking and its forms, concepts, judgments and inferences.

Aristotle is also the founder of logic.

The task of knowledge is to ascend from simple sensory perception to the heights of abstraction. Scientific knowledge is the most reliable, logically provable and necessary knowledge.

In the doctrine of knowledge and its types, Aristotle distinguished between “dialectical” and “apodictic” knowledge. The area of ​​the first is “opinion” obtained from experience, the second is reliable knowledge. Although an opinion can receive a very high degree of probability in its content, experience is not, according to Aristotle, the final authority for the reliability of knowledge, for the highest principles of knowledge are contemplated directly by the mind.

The starting point of knowledge is the sensations obtained as a result of the influence of the external world on the senses; without sensations there is no knowledge. Defending this epistemological basic position, “Aristotle comes close to materialism.” Aristotle considered sensations to be reliable, reliable evidence about things, but added with a reservation that sensations themselves determine only the first and lowest level of knowledge, and a person rises to the highest level thanks to the generalization in thinking of social practice.

Aristotle saw the goal of science in a complete definition of the subject, achieved only by combining deduction and induction:

1) knowledge about each individual property must be acquired from experience;

2) the conviction that this property is essential must be proven by a conclusion of a special logical form - a categorical syllogism.

The basic principle of a syllogism expresses the connection between genus, species and individual thing. These three terms were understood by Aristotle as reflecting the relationship between the effect, the cause and the bearer of the cause.

The system of scientific knowledge cannot be reduced to a single system of concepts, because there is no such concept that could be a predicate of all other concepts: therefore, for Aristotle it turned out to be necessary to indicate all the higher genera, namely the categories to which the remaining genera of existence are reduced.

Reflecting on categories and operating with them in the analysis of philosophical problems, Aristotle considered the operations of the mind and its logic, including the logic of statements. Developed by Aristotle and problems dialogue, deepening the ideas of Socrates.

He formulated logical laws:

• law of identity - a concept must be used in the same meaning in the course of reasoning;
• the law of contradiction - “do not contradict yourself”;
• the law of the excluded middle - “A or not-A is true, there is no third.”

Aristotle developed the doctrine of syllogisms, which considers all kinds of inferences in the process of reasoning.

Ethical views

To designate the totality of virtues of human character as a special subject area of ​​knowledge and to highlight this very knowledge of science, Aristotle introduced the term “ethics”. Starting from the word “ethos” (ancient Greek ethos), Aristotle formed the adjective “ethical” in order to designate a special a class of human qualities that he called ethical virtues. Ethical virtues are properties of a person’s temperament; they are also called spiritual qualities.

The Teaching of Virtues

Aristotle divides all virtues into moral, or ethical, and mental, or rational, or dianoetic. Ethical virtues represent the mean between extremes - excess and deficiency - and include: meekness, courage, moderation, generosity, majesty, magnanimity, ambition, evenness, truthfulness, courtesy, friendliness, justice, practical wisdom, just indignation. Regarding moral virtue, Aristotle states that it is “the ability to do the best in everything that concerns pleasure and pain, and depravity is its opposite.” Moral, or ethical, virtues (virtues of character) are born from habits-morals: a person acts, gains experience, and on the basis of this, his character traits are formed. Reasonable virtues (virtues of the mind) develop in a person through training.

Virtue is the inner order or disposition of the soul; order is achieved by man through conscious and purposeful effort.

Aristotle, like Plato, divided the soul into three forces: rational (logical), passionate (thumoidic) and desiring (epithumic). Aristotle endows each of the powers of the soul with its characteristic virtue: logical - rationality; passionate - with meekness and courage; whoever wants it - with abstinence and chastity. In general, the soul, according to Aristotle, has the following virtues: justice, nobility and generosity

Internal conflict

Every choice situation involves conflict. However, the choice is often experienced much more softly - as a choice between various kinds of goods (knowing virtue, one can lead a vicious life).

Aristotle tried to show the possibility of resolving this moral difficulty.

The word “know” is used in two meanings:

1) “knows” is said about someone who only has knowledge;

2) about who applies knowledge in practice.

Aristotle further clarified that, strictly speaking, only those who can apply it should be considered to have knowledge. So, if a person knows one thing, but acts differently, then he does not know, it means that he does not have knowledge, but an opinion, and he should achieve true knowledge that stands the test in practical activity.

Virtue as rationality is acquired by a person in the process of understanding his own duality and resolving internal conflict (at least as far as this is within the power of the person himself).

Human

For Aristotle, a person is, first of all, a social or political being (“political animal”), gifted with speech and capable of understanding such concepts as good and evil, justice and injustice, that is, possessing moral qualities.

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle noted that “man is by nature a social being,” and in “Politics” he is a political being. He also put forward the position that man is born a political being and carries within himself an instinctive desire for a common life. Innate inequality of abilities is the reason for uniting people into groups, hence the difference in the functions and places of people in society.

There are two principles in a person: biological and social. From the moment of his birth, a person is not left alone with himself; he joins in all the achievements of the past and present, in the thoughts and feelings of all humanity. Human life outside society is impossible.

Aristotle's cosmology

Aristotle, following Eudoxus, taught that the Earth, which is the center of the Universe, is spherical. Aristotle saw evidence of the sphericity of the Earth in the nature of lunar eclipses, in which the shadow cast by the Earth on the Moon has a rounded shape at the edges, which can only be if the Earth is spherical. Referring to the statements of a number of ancient mathematicians, Aristotle considered the circumference of the Earth to be equal to 400 thousand stadia (approx. 71,200 km). Aristotle was also the first to prove the sphericity of the Moon based on the study of its phases. His essay “Meteorology” was one of the first works on physical geography.

The influence of Aristotle's geocentric cosmology continued until Copernicus. Aristotle was guided by the planetary theory of Eudoxus of Cnidus, but attributed real physical existence to the planetary spheres: The Universe consists of a number of concentric spheres moving at different speeds and driven by the outermost sphere of the fixed stars.

The firmament and all the heavenly bodies are spherical. However, Aristotle proved this idea incorrectly, based on a teleological idealistic concept. Aristotle deduced the sphericity of the heavenly bodies from the false view that the so-called “sphere” is the most perfect form.

Aristotle's idealism gets into his doctrine of the worlds final design:

The “sublunar world,” that is, the region between the orbit of the Moon and the center of the Earth, is a region of chaotic, uneven movements, and all bodies in this region consist of the four lower elements: earth, water, air and fire. Earth, as the heaviest element, occupies a central place. Above it are successively the shells of water, air and fire.

The “supralunar world,” that is, the region between the orbit of the Moon and the outer sphere of the fixed stars, is a region of eternally uniform movements, and the stars themselves consist of the fifth, most perfect element - ether.

Ether (the fifth element or quinta essentia) is part of the stars and sky. It is divine, incorruptible and completely different from the other four elements.

The stars, according to Aristotle, are fixedly fixed in the sky and rotate with it, and the “wandering stars” (planets) move in seven concentric circles.
The cause of heavenly movement is God.

Doctrine of the State

Aristotle criticized Plato's doctrine of a perfect state and preferred to talk about a political system that most states could have. He believed that the community of property, wives and children proposed by Plato would lead to the destruction of the state. Aristotle was a staunch defender of individual rights, private property and the monogamous family, as well as a supporter of slavery.

However, Aristotle did not recognize the justification for turning prisoners of war into slavery; in his opinion, slaves should be those who, having physical strength, do not have reason - “All those who differ to such a strong degree from other people, in which the soul differs from the body, and man from animal... those people are slaves by nature; ... a slave by nature is one who can belong to another (that’s why he belongs to another) and who is involved in reason to such an extent that he is able to understand its orders, but does not possess reason himself.”

Having carried out a grandiose generalization of the social and political experience of the Hellenes, Aristotle developed an original socio-political teaching. When studying socio-political life, he proceeded from the principle: “As elsewhere, the best way of theoretical construction is to consider the primary formation of objects.” He considered such “education” to be the natural desire of people for living together and for political communication.

According to Aristotle, man is a political being, that is, a social one, and he carries within himself an instinctive desire for “cohabitation together.”

Aristotle considered the first result of social life to be the formation of a family - husband and wife, parents and children... The need for mutual exchange led to the communication of families and villages. This is how the state arose. The state is created not in order to live in general, but to live mainly happily.

According to Aristotle, the state arises only when communication is created for the sake of a good life between families and clans, for the sake of a perfect and sufficient life for itself.

The nature of the state is “ahead” of the family and the individual. Thus, the perfection of a citizen is determined by the qualities of the society to which he belongs - whoever wants to create perfect people must create perfect citizens, and whoever wants to create perfect citizens must create a perfect state.

Having identified society with the state, Aristotle was forced to search for the goals, interests and nature of people’s activities depending on their property status and used this criterion when characterizing various strata of society. He identified three main layers of citizens: the very wealthy, the average, and the extremely poor. According to Aristotle, the poor and the rich “turn out to be elements in the state that are diametrically opposed to each other, and depending on the preponderance of one or another element, the corresponding form of the state system is established.”

The best state is a society that is achieved through the middle element (that is, the “middle” element between slave owners and slaves), and those states have the best system where the middle element is represented in greater numbers, where it has greater importance compared to both extremes elements. Aristotle noted that when a state has many people deprived of political rights, when there are many poor people in it, then there will inevitably be hostile elements in such a state.

The basic general rule, according to Aristotle, should be the following: no citizen should be given the opportunity to excessively increase his political power beyond its proper measure.

Politician and politics

Aristotle, relying on the results of Plato's political philosophy, singled out the special scientific study of a certain area of ​​social relations into an independent science of politics.

According to Aristotle, people can only live in society, under the conditions of a political system, since “man is by nature a political being.” To properly organize social life, people need politics.

Politics is a science, knowledge of how to best organize the joint life of people in a state.

Politics is the art and skill of public administration.

The essence of politics is revealed through its goal, which, according to Aristotle, is to give citizens high moral qualities, to make them people who act fairly. That is, the goal of politics is a fair (common) good. Achieving this goal is not easy. A politician must take into account that people have not only virtues, but also vices. Therefore, the task of politics is not to educate morally perfect people, but to cultivate virtues in citizens. The virtue of a citizen consists of the ability to fulfill one's civic duty and the ability to obey authorities and laws. Therefore, a politician must look for the best, that is, the most appropriate state structure for the specified purpose.

The state is a product of natural development, but at the same time the highest form of communication. Man by nature is a political being, and in the state (political communication) the process of this political nature of man is completed.

Depending on the goals that the rulers of the state set for themselves, Aristotle distinguished correct And incorrect government devices:

The correct system is a system in which the common good is pursued, regardless of whether one, a few or many rule:

• Monarchy (Greek monarchia - autocracy) is a form of government in which all supreme power belongs to the monarch.

• Aristocracy (Greek aristokratia - power of the best) is a form of government in which supreme power belongs by inheritance to the clan nobility, the privileged class. The power of the few, but more than one.

• Polity - Aristotle considered this form to be the best. It occurs extremely “rarely and in a few.” In particular, discussing the possibility of establishing a polity in contemporary Greece, Aristotle came to the conclusion that such a possibility was small. In a polity, the majority rules in the interests of the common good. Polity is the “average” form of the state, and the “average” element here dominates in everything: in morals - moderation, in property - average wealth, in power - the middle stratum. “A state consisting of average people will have the best political system.”

An incorrect system is a system in which the private goals of the rulers are pursued:

• Tyranny is a monarchical power that has in mind the benefits of one ruler.

• Oligarchy - respects the benefits of wealthy citizens. A system in which power is in the hands of people who are rich and of noble birth and form a minority.

• Democracy is the benefit of the poor; among the incorrect forms of the state, Aristotle gave preference to it, considering it the most tolerable. Democracy should be considered a system when the freeborn and the poor, constituting the majority, have supreme power in their hands.

deviation from monarchy gives tyranny,
deviation from aristocracy - oligarchy,
deviation from politics - democracy.
deviation from democracy - ochlocracy.

The basis of all social upheavals is property inequality. According to Aristotle, oligarchy and democracy base their claim to power in the state on the fact that property is the lot of a few, and all citizens enjoy freedom. The oligarchy protects the interests of the propertied classes. None of them have any general benefit.

In any political system, the general rule should be the following: no citizen should be given the opportunity to excessively increase his political power beyond due measure. Aristotle advised to monitor ruling officials so that they do not turn public office into a source of personal enrichment.

Deviation from law means a departure from civilized forms of government to despotic violence and the degeneration of law into a means of despotism. “It cannot be a matter of law to rule not only by right, but also contrary to law: the desire for violent subordination, of course, contradicts the idea of ​​law.”

The main thing in the state is the citizen, that is, the one who participates in court and administration, performs military service and performs priestly functions. Slaves were excluded from the political community, although, according to Aristotle, they should have constituted the majority of the population.

Aristotle undertook a gigantic study of the “constitution” - the political structure of 158 states (of which only one has survived - the “Athenian polity”).

Aristotle and natural sciences

Although Aristotle's early philosophical works were largely speculative, his later works demonstrate a deep understanding of empiricism, the basics of biology, and the diversity of life forms. Aristotle did not conduct experiments, believing that things reveal their true nature more accurately in their natural environment than in an artificially created one. While in physics and chemistry such an approach was recognized as non-functional, in zoology and ethology the works of Aristotle “are of real interest.” He made numerous descriptions of nature, especially the habitats and properties of various plants and animals, which he included in his catalogue. In total, Aristotle classified 540 varieties of animals and studied the internal structure of at least fifty species.

Aristotle believed that all natural processes are governed by intellectual goals, formal reasons. Such teleological views gave Aristotle a reason to present the information he collected as an expression of formal design. For example, he assumed that it was not in vain that Nature endowed some animals with horns and others with tusks, thereby giving them the minimum set of means necessary for survival. Aristotle believed that all living beings could be arranged in order on a special scale - scala naturae or the Great Chain of Being - at the very bottom of which there would be plants, and at the top - humans. .

Aristotle was of the opinion that the more perfect the creation, the more perfect its form, but the form does not determine the content. Another aspect of his biological theory was the identification of three types of souls: the plant soul, responsible for reproduction and growth; the feeling soul, responsible for mobility and feelings; and a rational soul, capable of thinking and reasoning. He attributed the presence of the first soul to plants, the first and second to animals, and all three to man. Aristotle, unlike other early philosophers, and following the Egyptians, believed that the place of the rational soul is in the heart, and not in the brain. It is interesting that Aristotle was one of the first to separate feeling and thought. Theophrastus, a follower of Aristotle from the Lyceum, wrote the History of Plants series of books, which is the most important contribution of ancient science to botany, it remained unsurpassed until the Middle Ages.

Many of the names coined by Theophrastus have survived to this day, such as carpos for fruit and pericarpion for seed pod. Instead of relying on a theory of formal causes, as Aristotle did, Theophrastus proposed a mechanistic scheme, drawing analogies between natural and artificial processes, relying on Aristotle's concept of "moving cause." Theophrastus also recognized the role of sex in the reproduction of some higher plants, although this knowledge was later lost. The contribution of the biological and teleological ideas of Aristotle and Theophrastus to Western medicine cannot be underestimated.

Essays

Aristotle's numerous works covered almost the entire area of ​​knowledge available at that time, which in his works received a deeper philosophical justification, was brought into a strict, systematic order, and its empirical basis grew significantly. Some of these works were not published by him during his lifetime, and many others were falsely attributed to him later. But even some parts of those works that undoubtedly belong to him can be called into question, and the ancients already tried to explain this incompleteness and fragmentation to themselves by the vicissitudes of the fate of Aristotle’s manuscripts. According to the legend preserved by Strabo and Plutarch, Aristotle bequeathed his writings to Theophrastus, from whom they passed to Nelius of Skepsis. The heirs of Nelius hid the precious manuscripts from the greed of the Pergamon kings in the cellar, where they suffered greatly from dampness and mold. In the 1st century BC. e. they were sold for a high price to the rich and book-lover Apellikon in the most pitiful condition, and he tried to restore the damaged parts of the manuscripts with his own additions, but not always successfully. Subsequently, under Sulla, they were among other booty in Rome, where Tyrannian and Andronicus of Rhodes published them in their current form.

Of the works of Aristotle, those written in a publicly accessible form (exoteric), for example, the “Dialogues,” have not reached us, although the distinction between exoteric and esoteric works accepted by the ancients was not so strictly drawn by Aristotle himself and in any case did not mean a difference in content. The works of Aristotle that have come down to us are far from identical in their literary merits: in the same work, some sections give the impression of thoroughly processed and prepared texts for publication, others - more or less detailed sketches. Finally, there are those that suggest that they were only notes from the teacher for upcoming lectures, and some passages, like perhaps his Eudemian Ethics, seem to owe their origin to notes from listeners, or at least revised according to these notes.

Years of life: 384 BC e. - 322 BC e.

State: Ancient Greece

Field of activity: Politician, Scientist, Philosopher, Writer

Aristotle, along with Socrates and Plato, became the founder of Western philosophy.

Who is Aristotle?

Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist who is still considered one of the greatest thinkers today. When Aristotle was 17 years old, he entered Plato's Academy. In 338 he began to study with. In 335, Aristotle founded his own school, the Lyceum, in Athens, where he spent most of his life researching, teaching, and writing. Some of his most notable works deal with ethics, politics, metaphysics, poetry, and analytical reasoning.

Aristotle's family, early life and education

Aristotle was born around 384 BC. e. in Stagira, a small town on the northern coast that was once a seaport. His father, Nicomachus, was the court physician of the Macedonian king Amyntas II. Although Aristotle was just a child when his father died, he remained in close contact with the Macedonian court and was influenced by it for the rest of his life. Little is known about his mother, Festida; she is believed to have died when Aristotle was young.

After the death of his father, Proxenus of Atarnea, who was married to Aristotle's elder sister, Arimnesta, became the boy's guardian. Proxenus sent him to Athens to receive higher education. At that time, Athens was considered the world's academic center. In Athens, Aristotle entered Plato's Academy, the leading educational institution in Greece, and turned out to be an exemplary student. There, Greek philosopher, student of Socrates.

Because Aristotle disagreed with some of Plato's philosophical treatises, he did not inherit the position of head of the academy, as many assumed.

After the death of Plato, the king of Atarnea and Assos in Mysia, Hermias, invited Aristotle to rule his city.

Aristotle's personal life

During his three-year stay in Mysia, Aristotle married Pythias, the niece of Hermias. They had a daughter, who was named Pythias in honor of her mother.

In 335 BC. e., in the same year when Aristotle opened the Lyceum, his wife died. Soon after this, Aristotle became involved with a woman named Herpyllis, who was from his hometown of Stagira. According to some historians, Herpyllida may have been Aristotle's slave, provided to him by the Macedonian authorities. It is assumed that he eventually freed Herpyllida and married her. It is known that Aristotle’s second wife gave birth to a son, who was named Nicomachus in honor of his grandfather.

Teacher of Alexander the Great

In 338, Aristotle went home to Macedonia to begin raising the son of King Philip II of Macedonia, then 13-year-old Alexander the Great. Philip and Alexander both held Aristotle in high esteem and ensured that the Macedonian authorities would reward him generously for his work.

In 335 BC. e., when Alexander conquered Athens, Aristotle returned there. Plato's Academy was still strong in Athens, now ruled by Xenocrates.

With the permission of Alexander the Great, Aristotle founded his own school and called it the Lyceum. Starting from this period, Aristotle spent most of his life working as a teacher, researcher and writer at the Lyceum in Athens until the death of his former student Alexander the Great.

Because Aristotle was known to pace around the school playground during class, his students, forced to follow him, were given the nickname "peripatetics", which means "people who move, travel". Lyceum students studied subjects ranging from mathematics and philosophy to politics, and almost all related disciplines. Art was also a popular area of ​​interest. Lyceum members wrote down their conclusions. In this way, they created a massive collection of the school's written materials, which the ancients considered to be one of the first great libraries.

When Alexander the Great died suddenly in 323 BC. BC, the pro-Macedonian government was overthrown, and in light of sentiment against Macedonia, Aristotle was indicted for his association with his former student and the Macedonian authorities. To avoid persecution and execution, he left Athens and fled to Chalkis on the island of Euboea, where he remained until his death in 322.

Aristotle's books

Aristotle wrote about 200 works. Some of them are in the form of dialogues, others are records of scientific observations and systematization works. His student Theophrastus was involved in the preservation of his works: he was present when they were written, and then passed them on to his student Neleus, who took them to storage to protect them from moisture, and subsequently the collection of works was taken to Rome, and scientists worked on it there. Of Aristotle's 200 works, only thirty-one have survived. Most date from the period when Aristotle worked at the Lyceum.

"Poetics"

One of his most famous works, Poetics, is a scientific study of drama and poetry. In it, Aristotle examines and analyzes mainly Greek tragedy and epic. In his opinion, in comparison with philosophy, the basis of which is an idea, poetry is the imitation of language, rhythm and harmony to reproduce objects and events. In the treatise, he explores the basis of the plot, character development and subplots.

"Nicomachean Ethics" and "Eudaimonic Ethics"

The Nicomachean Ethics, believed to be named after Aristotle's son Nicomacheus, contains a moral code of conduct. He argued that the rules of life to some extent contradict the laws of logic, since in the real world there are circumstances that can conflict with personal values. However, one must learn to reason while developing one's own vision. “Eudaimonic Ethics” is another of Aristotle’s main treatises on behavior and moral reasoning that help choose the right path in life.

In these works, Aristotle distinguishes the concepts of “happiness” and “virtue”: the highest benefit for a person, according to him, is the pursuit of happiness. Our happiness is not a state but an activity, and this is determined by our ability to live a life that allows us to use and develop our minds. Virtue, according to Aristotle, was the ultimate goal. This means that each dilemma must be considered by finding a middle ground between not enough and too much, taking into account the needs and circumstances of the person.

"Metaphysics"

The subject of this treatise is the distinction between matter and form. For Aristotle, matter was the physical substance of things, and form was the unique nature of a thing that determines its identity.

"Policy"

The work focuses on human behavior in the context of society and government. Aristotle believed that the purpose of government is to enable citizens to achieve virtue and happiness. To help statesmen and rulers, Politics examines how and why cities arise; the role of citizens and politicians; wealth and class system. What is the purpose of a political system, what types of governments and democracies are there; what is the role of slaves and women in the family and society.

"Rhetoric"

Here is an analysis of public speaking to teach readers how to be more effective speakers. Aristotle believed that rhetoric was important in politics and law. She helps to defend truth and justice. Rhetoric, according to Aristotle, can educate people and encourage them to consider both opposing sides in an argument.

Works on scientific disciplines

Aristotle's works on astronomy, including the heavens, and earth sciences, including meteorology, survive. Meteorology, according to Aristotle, is not just the study of weather. His definition included "all the appearances which we may call common to air and water, and also the species and parts of the earth and the manifestations of its elements." In Meteorology, Aristotle defined the water cycle and addressed topics ranging from natural disasters to astronomical phenomena. Although many of his views on the nature of the Earth were controversial at the time, they were re-accepted and popularized in the late Middle Ages.

Works on psychology

In On the Soul, Aristotle discusses human psychology. Aristotle's insights into how people perceive the world continue to underlie many principles of modern psychology.

Aristotle's philosophy

Aristotle the philosopher influenced the ideas of late antiquity throughout the Renaissance. One of the main directions of Aristotle's philosophy was his concept of logic. Aristotle's task was to come up with a universal process of reasoning that would allow a person to know every conceivable thing about reality. The initial process involved describing objects based on their characteristics, states of being, and actions.

In his philosophical treatises, Aristotle also discussed how a person can obtain information about objects by the method of deduction and inference. For Aristotle, deduction was a rational method in which “when certain things are given, something else follows by necessity in virtue of their existence.” His theory is the basis of what philosophers now call a syllogism, a logical argument where a conclusion is drawn from two or more other premises of a particular form.

Aristotle and biology

Although Aristotle was not a scientist in the modern sense, science was among the subjects that he explored in detail during his time at the Lyceum. Aristotle believed that knowledge could be gained through interaction with physical objects. He concluded that objects consist of an essential potential that is honed by circumstances to result in an object.

Aristotle's studies in the sciences included the study of biology. He attempted, albeit erroneously, to classify animals into genera based on their similar characteristics. He then divided the animals into those that had red blood and those that did not. Animals with red blood were mainly vertebrates, and he called “bloodless” animals “cephalopods.” Despite its relative imprecision, Aristotle's classification has been used as the primary classification for hundreds of years.

Aristotle was also fascinated by the biological world of the sea. He carefully studied the anatomy of sea creatures. Unlike the classification of terrestrial fauna, observations of marine life described in his books are much more accurate.

When and how did Aristotle die?

In 322 BC. BC, just a year after he fled to Chalcis to avoid prosecution, Aristotle was stricken with a digestive disease that ultimately caused his death.

Heritage

After Aristotle's death, his work and his name ceased to be used in science, but they were revived during the first century. Over time, they became the basis of philosophy. Aristotle's influence on Western thought in the humanities and social sciences is largely considered unparalleled, with the exception of the contributions of his predecessors, his teacher Plato and Plato's teacher.