Aristotle ()
Western philosopher
Ancient Philosophy Invitation to Philosophy (Protrepticus of Aristotle)
Portrait of an original bronze Lysippus
Birth	384 BC. AD ( Stagira )
Deaths	322 BC. BC ( Chalcis )
School / tradition	Founder of the Lyceum , Aristotle , Aristotelianism
Main interests	Physics , metaphysics , biology , ethics , politics , language , logic , poetics , rhetoric
Notable ideas	Syllogism , Power / Act, Matter / Form, Substance / Accident, Category, phronesis
Major works	Categories , Metaphysics , Physics , Policy , Poetics
Influenced by	Homer , Heraclitus , Parmenides , Anaxagoras , Empedocles , Socrates , Plato
Influenced	Much of Western philosophy, Islamic and Jewish
change

Aristotle (in ancient Greek / is a philosopher born in Greek Stagira (current Stavros) in Macedonia (hence the name "Aristotle" ) in -384 , and died at Chalcis , in Euboea , in - 322.

His conception of being as "substance" (or ontology ) and metaphysics as "science of being qua being" influenced the whole tradition philosophical West , from Alexander of Aphrodisias in Martin Heidegger through Thomas Aquinas and Eastern , of Averroes and Maimonides in Cordoba to the Persian Avicenna through the medieval theologians of Byzantium.

Truly encyclopedic , there was considerable interest in the arts ( music , rhetoric ) and science ( physics , biology ) of his time: he theorized the principles and carried out empirical research to support them. His conception of the poetic art triumphed in the classical aesthetic. His theory of value influenced the philosophy of economics of Karl Marx , while the theory of action ( praxis ) and prudence ( phronesis ) marked the political philosophy and ethics of Hannah Arendt. The Aristotle is also considered, with the Stoics .

His era is marked by the revival of the Empire Macedonian and the declining influence of the Athenian democracy.

Aristotle was born in -384 in Macedonia, Stagira (hence its nickname: the Aristotle), City of Halkidiki. Stagira located near modern Stavro, near Mount Athos. His father, Nicomachus , was physician to King Amyntas II of Macedonia. His mother, Phastis, was a midwife from the island of Evia. He lost his father at age 11, then her mother and was raised by his brother-in Proxenus Atarneus at Atarneus in Mysia , where he befriends a Hermias Atarneus , future tyrant of Mysia.

As Stagira was a Greek colony and his mother came from a Greek island, Evia, Aristotle is Greek.

Thirsty for knowledge, he went to Athens. He began by following the course of Isocrates. Dissatisfied, he decided to return to the Academy of Plato at the age of 17, to -367 , while Plato was in Sicily. He was noticed, especially for his intelligence. Plato even gave him the right to teach, especially the rhetoric , as a repeater . He stayed 20 years at the Academy until Plato's death. He can say at this time "we" to mean "We the Platonic" . Plato calls "the reader" ( ) or "intelligent school" ( ). It is Plato, but critical, since it rejects the theory of Ideas, Plato center. Everyone knows the famous words: "A friend of Plato, but even more of the truth. Aristotle said: "They are friends who introduced the doctrine of Ideas. (...) Truth and friendship we cherish and the other one, but it is our sacred duty to give preference to the truth. "

His first production period is then at the Academy ( -366 / -346 ). He began writing 19 works, including dialogues, now lost, of Platonic philosophy: Rhetoric or Gryllus (polemics with Isocrates), The Banquet, The Sophist, Eudemus or soul, Protrepticus Aristotle On the philosophy of good, etc.. He opposes already during the lifetime of Plato's theory of ideas defended by the latter . Then (from -350 ), he formed the Organon , whose treaties are: Categories , On Interpretation , Prior Analytics , Posterior Analytics, Topica , Rebuttals sophisticated , some books in Physics (I, II, VII ?), a book of the Soul (III), the beginning of the Metaphysics , the beginning of the policy. No timeline is certain, however.

He was interested in local politics but could not attend because of his status as a metic ("foreigner" in the city).

On the death of Plato, -346 , Speusippus , Plato's nephew, succeeded him. Annoyed, Aristotle left for Atarneus with two fellow students, Xenocrates and Theophrastus. It is also possible that he fled an Athens increasingly hostile to the Macedonians, whose King Philip II had just massacred a friendly city of Athens, Olynthus. At Atarneus in Troas on the coast of Asia Minor, he joined Hermias Atarneus of a childhood friend, "tyrant" (sovereign ruler who seized power) of the kingdom of Mysia, with its capital Atarneus. There he found a Platonic circle. Meanwhile, Macedonia and Athens made peace ( -346 ). On Atarneus, Aristotle went to the little port of Assos (current Turkish village of Berhamkale), perhaps after a chill in relations with Hermias of Atarneus. Aristotle continued his biological research and began to observe marine life. He opened a school of philosophy, a sort of subsidiary of the Academy.

In -344 , when Hermias of Atarneus, delivered to the Persians, was executed by Artaxerxes III , he went to Mytilene, the neighboring island of Lesbos , in Theophrastus. He opened his second school, for about two years and met Agathos , who becomes his pupil.

In -343 , he returned to Macedonia, called by the king, Philip II of Macedon , to become, during two or three years, the tutor of the crown prince, the future Alexander the Great , who was 13 years. He teaches the letters (the Iliad ) and probably political. Around 341, he married Pythias, niece and adopted daughter of Hermias of Atarneus, fled to Pella, which will give him a daughter, Pithia.

His second production period is placed successively in Assos, Mytilene, and Mieza (-345/-335), north of Pella (capital of Macedonia), where he gained many friendships. It then produces a result of Physics (III, IV, V, VI), From the sky, On Generation and corruption, following the Metaphysics, part of the Nicomachean Ethics (Book I.6, VII , VIII, II, III), Rhetoric, Poetics. It probably took care of the reconstruction and legislation Stagira, he wanted to rebuild after Philip II of Macedon was destroyed in -349.

It -338 Philip II of Macedonia submits Athens. Aged 49 years, -335 , Aristotle returned to Athens.

Again, the direction of the Academy escapes, this time in favor of his classmate and friend Xenocrates in -339. They say he then exclaimed: "It is shameful to remain silent and let him speak Xenocrates. He then founded his third school, the famous Lyceum , on leased land, but not purchased (Aristotle was a metic, he has no right to property). The word "School" is that the place is adjacent to a sanctuary dedicated to Apollo Lycian. Thus was born - but it is not certain - the Peripatetic school. "Peripatetic" just peripatein (), "walk". The school was situated on a promenade (peripatos) or the master and the disciples walking philosophy . The Aristotelians are "those who walk near the Lyceum" (Lukeioi Peripattikoi, ). The school included a library, museum ... Alexander the Great was funding. Aristotle made two types of courses, one of the morning called "acroamatique", reserved for advanced disciples, the other of the afternoon, open to all, and called "exoteric" . He lives in the woods of Mount Lycabettus. Widowed in Athens, -338 second wife he took for a woman Stagira, Herpyllis, whom he had a son he named Nicomachus, named after his own father. Nicomachus died young. Aristotle's book devoted to the themes of virtue and prudent action, whose title is Nicomachean Ethics, was dedicated.

His third and final period of production is placed at the Lyceum (-335/-323), for thirteen years. This period fall the Eighth Book of the Metaphysics, Small treatises on natural history, Ethics Eudemian, the other part of the Nicomachean Ethics (Books IV, V, VI) of the Constitution of Athens, economic.

Perhaps he accompanied Alexander the Great in Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt, between -335 and -331. This is not historically certain. When Alexander was put to death Callisthenes of Olynthus, nephew of Aristotle, -327 , relations between the great conqueror and the great philosopher darkened.

On the death of Alexander the Great in -323 , Aristotle, threatened by the anti-Macedonian party of Demosthenes , thought it prudent to flee Athens. Especially since "Eurymedon, the hierophant , because the hymns were reserved for worship of the gods. Determined not to let the Athenians "committing a new crime against philosophy" (the first being the death sentence of Socrates), Aristotle left Athens with family, his wife and daughter Herpyllis from his first marriage, Pythias. His friend Antipater , former lieutenant governor and Philip II of Macedon during the expeditions of Alexander, submitted to Crannon, the Athenians decided to rebel after Alexander died.

That same year -322 to Chalcis , a city of his mother, on the island of Evia, Aristotle died at the age of 63. He died of a stomach disease, which undermined the very long time. His body was taken to Stagira. Theophrastus, his classmate and best friend, succeeded Aristotle as head of the Lyceum. The school lasted until 529 AD when the Roman Emperor Justinian ^I. wanted to end the philosophy of "pagan".

Biographers (especially Diogenes Laertius) describe a fault with Aristotle: he stutters or he has a lisp. It is small, stocky, with slender legs, eyes small and sunken. Unusually for the time, he has no beard. However he wears jewels and fine linen. As later Kant , he gives great care to dress.

The evolution of the work and its transmission

Plato (left) and Aristotle (right). Aristotle points to the ground by the flat of his right hand, which symbolizes his belief in knowledge through empirical observation and experience while taking in the other hand, a copy of his Nicomachean Ethics. Plato is pointing the finger toward the sky symbolizing his belief in the ideas (detail of the fresco The School of Athens by the Italian painter Raphael ).

We know that Aristotle wrote in his youth dialogues in the manner of Plato. There are only a few fragments (Eudemus, Philosophy, or property, etc.).. Cicero speaks of "a golden river of eloquence" and the judge better written than those of Plato. These dialogues represent the "exoteric discourse" ( ) Aristotle , for a wide audience. However, the lecture notes we possess are the work of Aristotle technique, enormous, for the public's High School. Some (including Simplicios , Plutarch , Clement of Alexandria , Pico della Mirandola ) have been thought that Aristotle's work contained lessons esoteric. It is not so, and the word "esoteric" does not appear: the "exoteric discourse Aristotle opposes philosophical courses ( ) and the commentator Aulus Gellius notes "acroamatiques (), c ' that is to say, oral lessons (), for advanced scholars in science Platonic or Aristotelian, not for insider Pythagorean type .

After his death, his work continues, with many followers, as his pupil and successor Theophrastus. To -60, Andronicus of Rhodes, eleventh successor of Aristotle at the head of the school, was ordered by Rome to restore the Aristotelian corpus left in a cellar. He gave titles to collections of texts that he himself has gathered and which owe nothing to Aristotle. All kits are in one of three groups: theoretical science, practical science or science poetry.

Theological and political disputes have marked relations between the Greek and Latin worlds throughout late antiquity and the High Middle Ages. Disputes often linked to the divine and human nature of Christ and the controversy about this. The quarrels of words were all the more important that each of the two dominant cultures of Europe and the Mediterranean favored its own language. The idiom refers to the discussions was of paramount importance in this cultural conflict. Everyone has refocused on its preferred language and Latin Europe played down the importance of Greek in education and intellectual life. In the late Middle Ages, the stakes are no longer the same, there is a return of interest in Greek heritage and especially Aristotle. But then the political situation is quite different. In the Near East, Byzantium is in competition with the Muslim world that stretches from Egypt and Syria, ancient Greek cultural centers of primary importance. The Greek classics were translated into Arabic very soon becomes a language of publication of this information. By Muslim Andalusia, in particular, the delivery method is faster and the competition of Byzantium.

Intellectual life in Islam, at the same times, is impregnated with Hellenism. We can cite among others Al Kindi , and especially the ^twelfth century , Averroes (Ibn Rush) and the philosopher, theologian and a Jewish doctor Maimonides.

The transmission of Greek heritage and therefore not only the Aristotelian idiom Greek or Latin, but sometimes by the Arabic language at the beginning of the late Middle Ages, is now controversial nature. The recognition of a more or less important to the Arab-Muslim culture in the dialogue of civilizations is in itself an important political and emotional burden on both sides of the Mediterranean. Thus, the lively debates around the draft Constitution for Europe that focused on explicit statements that European culture owes to Christian thought , have led some polemicists to take part in historical research conducted on transmission of Aristotelian thought (including the phases of translations into Latin), in order to minimize the role of the Arab-Muslim heirs of Aristotelian thought .

The development of ideas of Aristotle

The state of the Aristotelian corpus raises the question of the order-writing the entire works of Aristotle in his History of Greek Philosophy, Edward Zeller wrote:

"All the works in question belong to the later years of the life of Aristotle. If one day a happy discovery was to enrich our understanding of the chronological order of these writings, there would not, however, hoped that the oldest structure makes us go back to a time when Aristotle was still working on his system. In all its parts, it appears to us as a completed whole, nowhere do we still see the architect's work. "

This assumption has long been recognized, and this influence is explained by the design scholasticism of the philosophy of Aristotle. The traditional exegesis, in the words of Werner Jaeger, and gave him an air of rigid conceptual schematic. Therefore, in the history of the Aristotelian interpretation, the work of Jaeger (Aristoteles, Grundlegung einer Geschichte seiner Entwicklung) is considered a major event. Instead of presenting a ready-made system, Jaeger tries to find the house become doctrine. He divides this into three steps:

• The era of the Academy: Platonic time of dogmatism.
• The years of journey: birth of a critical Platonism.
• The master: second stay in Athens , and the advent of Aristotelianism itself.

The era of the Academy

It's that time of Platonic dogmatism (early works, the Ethics Eudemian, Protreptikos). Jaeger brings the Aristotelian form of dialogue and later dialogues of Plato dominated the method of Classification and abstraction, dialectical. The Ethics Eudemian shows us a Platonic Aristotle ( substance and soul , transcendence Well , reminiscence , immortality, ideas). As for Protreptikos, it dates from before the death of Plato, and it is a living program and training Platonic phronesis is a Platonic concept clearly, and we refer to the speculations of the Timaeus , the Philebus, Laws. But we can not find this concept in the Metaphysics. We can not find either in the Nicomachean Ethics ethics as exact as mathematics , this design is even fought.

The years of travel

This is the birth of a critical Platonism. Plato died in -348/-347, and Aristotle left Athens. This, according to Jaeger, Peri Philosophia which allows to get an idea of philosophical activity at the time of Aristotle. Jaeger tries to reconstruct the work. It expresses a philosophy of transition, making corrections of Platonism. The first book is the story of ancient wisdom, and makes the Platonic philosophy of a summit. The second book criticizes the theory of Ideas numbers. Peri Philosophia have also been posted at the same time that criticism of ideas in the first book of the Metaphysics. Finally, the third tells us about the cosmology and theology of the young Aristotle. Several themes are included Platonists: identification of theology and astronomy, a first unmoved mover (an idea which originated in the Laws), the soul of the stars, but sometimes Plato Aristotle away. That would be the moment of foundation of the Hellenic theology and even philosophy of religion. We can say that even after the criticism of ideas, Aristotle still has some Platonic concepts long enough ( soul , immortality , etc.).

Jaeger also examines the Metaphysics , and several distinct states of the text: there is a metaphysical primitive Platonism and corrected. Thus we have two texts that are critical of Ideas (A, 9 and M 4-5). For Jaeger, the first two books would become part of a metaphysical primitive M would date the book from a time when the Peripatetic school opposes the Platonic school (ie, when the second stay in Athens ). But the game M, 9-10 would also be part of the metaphysical primitive, before being replaced by M, 1. The book Z, on the substance , was introduced later to provide a plan for all, since in this book metaphysics is no longer the science of the supersensible, but of being qua being, and this point would show also the evolution of criticism from Aristotle to Plato , but it is known whether Aristotle is able to overcome this contradictory concept of metaphysics in theology or science of being qua being?

Similarly with regard to the ethical , we can distinguish a step Platonic (Protreptikos), a critical Platonism (Ethics Eudemian) and Aristotelianism itself (Nicomachean Ethics). The same kind of remarks could apply to this policy.

The master of the Lyceum

Finally, the second trip to Athens marks the climax of the philosophy of Aristotle. What is usually called Aristotelianism was developed during the second period. In the third period, Aristotle engages in empirical research and it creates a new kind of science : its investigations are characterized by the description and observation of particular things.

• archival research for the history of theater and games;
• zoological and botanical research;
• anthropology and physiology ;
• history of science;
• medicine.

Division of Philosophy of Aristotle

Aristotle was among the first to conduct systematic hierarchical classifications of knowledge and concepts, perhaps based on the divisions used for the organization of armies (this thesis is to explain).

His philosophy is divided into three parts, this division is remarkable because it differs from the division usually received ( logical , physical , ethical ): the theoretical philosophy, practical philosophy and philosophy poetics. The theoretical part is divided in turn into physics , mathematics and theology , philosophy, practice economy , ethics , politics and rhetoric , the poietic includes all activities that produce a work.

The divisions of science

Theoretical science ()

Philosophy and theoretical science deals with knowledge of the causes. Its instrument of the research demonstration : To demonstrate is to show the necessity that governs domestic matters, is at the same time establish a truth by a syllogism based on premises insured. Demonstrative science "part of universal definitions to arrive at conclusions also universal." The demonstration mode of the various sciences differs depending on the specificity of their subject.

The theoretical science is disinterested: it is the end in itself of the human soul and the completion of thought. In this sense, man is made, taking advantage of free time (skhole) by its social position which emerges from the material concerns (the work is allotted to slaves), could devote himself to contemplation, disinterested truth. There are as many divisions of philosophy and theoretical science that there are objects of study, that is to say, different regions of reality (genera, species, etc.).. There is even a general science (the first philosophy) that does not aim to study its part of what is, but what is in its entirety. Among other special sciences, we find so for example:

• physics: that includes substances which have in themselves the principle of their movement and are composed of matter, form and the compound of both. Physics deals with the act of composition of matter and completed the form, by application of first principles. We can speak of negative entropy of the physis (the principle of growing degradation. This science s'occ skirt 1) of sensible sub-lunar world, subject to generation and corruption and 2) things incorruptible, supra-lunar (stars).

• Mathematics: dealing with numbers, that is to say, the quantities usually drawn by abstraction of reality

But also the science of the soul (that is to say, the living and animals), of the city (political science), divine (first unmoved mover), etc..

Practical Science ()

The phronesis, which sometimes results provide "practical wisdom", is turned towards action (praxis). The action, as opposed to production (poiesis), according to Aristotle is the activity whose purpose is immanent on the activity (the agent), as opposed to the production activity whose purpose (subject product) is about outdoor activity.

The happiness , because it is self-realization, actualization of my powers, according to Aristotle result of the action.

Having in itself its own end, praxis has no stopping point: we can see and continue to do, be happy and continue to be, etc. ...

The phronesis is a mode of knowledge that bears on both the universal and the particular: it is therefore a knowledge of how to achieve the universal.

Poietic Science ()

This know-how or technique, which consists of a disposition acquired through use, which aims to produce an object which has no principle in itself, but in the agent that the product (as opposed to natural production).

Because techne serves a production, the field of technology is the use and enjoyment. It is always the individual and the individual, but requires expertise that may resemble an intermediate step in the ladder of knowledge.

Theoretical sciences

Logic or organon

The Organon is not strictly a theoretical book, "organon" means "working tool". So a set of treaties that form a methodology of thinking, that Aristotelian logic. The order of these treaties is not chronological. Aristotle considered the first rules of engagement (Topics) before his research in the field of logic not allow him to invent the theory of the syllogism (reasoning in Greek): he listed all the syllogisms in First Analytical. (For a full explanation of the theory of the syllogism to see this article).

The two first treatises of the Organon deal with elements of the syllogism (the terms and proposals), the Prior Analytics deal of syllogism in general, the Posterior Analytics syllogisms whose premises are necessary and deal with the Topics syllogisms whose premises are Probable (dialectical reasoning from opinions generally accepted).

If Aristotle goes to the inventor of formal logic, the status of logic in his thinking is not clear: is it an organon (tool, tool) or a qualifying ? We do not know. It appears, but it is very doubtful, that logic would allow his eyes to invent arguments producers of knowledge, yet he uses it very rarely. It is therefore possible that Aristotle actually meant putting knowledge already established in the form of systematic syllogism.

Still, only Topics dialectic becomes a mere exercise devoid of scientific certainty, however, this exercise highlights the need to distinguish the meaning of words, to avoid confusion. Categories are testing the terms of proposals, as well, the proposal will be defined as the composition of a subject and an attribute , because according to him, a dialectical problem is to ask if one really belongs to another or not. The form of the proposal is: B belongs to A. (This prevents later, Ch 4 of the Met. gives the dialectic involved much more substantial, since the refutation offers the only way to achieve a proof of the 'principle'.)

Aristotle's logic was long dominant, developed and perfected in the Middle Ages , but it is not the only logic of antiquity , there is also a logic-mgarico stoic, very different in its principles (see Stoicism ).

Aristotelian logic of any true or false (or excluded third) is sometimes considered , and defines it as the thought of thought, that is to say, as a being who thinks his own thinking, intelligence and intellige act of being one and the same with God: "The Supreme Intelligence is therefore thought itself ... and his thought is thought of thought." . It is in this sense a form without matter or act which causes the first set of movements and hence the update of all that is.

Practical sciences

Ethics

In the field of action , Aristotle distinguishes praxis, immanent action which has its end in itself, and poiesis, wider production of a work outside the agent. This distinction makes a share practical science ( ethics and politics ) and science poetry.

Happiness

According to Aristotle, every action tends toward a well that is the end, but we can make them for the last end of man against which they are themselves resources. The premise is the unity of human ends. It apparently does not consider the possibility of conflict between such technical purposes and legal purposes.

The well is the supreme happiness , but opinions vary concerning: the property would be the pleasure, honor or wealth. But for Aristotle, the supreme good is beyond the particular goods which are the means by which happiness can be achieved. The significance of the property is not unique, it is not a substance but an analog unit between different meanings. Aristotle emphasizes three characteristics of the sovereign property:

• self-sufficiency or autarky : Happiness is a property that is sufficient in itself (we do not seek happiness for anything other than happiness)
• completion: it is finished, nothing can add;
• its functionality.

In his conception of happiness, Aristotle does not limit itself to the virtue : happiness can not be completed without the property of the body and external goods. The happiness of man, depends if it also depends on external circumstances, say with the Stoics that the wise man is happy even under torture, "it is talking without saying anything." Instead, the virtuous man is one who is dealing with the circumstances to act always as noble as possible: the man is satisfied with the best possible without being passive, and does not seek an absolute illusion.

Finally, the last character of the property is to be the act proper to each be :

• happiness is not being, possession or mere potentiality, it is actual use, activity and how;
• the proper act of every being is one that is closer to its essence : it is the excellence of the soul , in intellectual and moral virtues.

The philosopher John Greisch proposed to translate the term by development rather than happiness. Indeed, happiness is identified with subjective moments that provide some exhilarating. Happiness for Aristotle is quite different: it is rather a constant state of life, rational and virtuous, who lives in particular in the political sphere, that is to say in the life of the Greek city . This is called happiness human happiness in that it is the fulfillment of human life in the city, under the guidance of right reason and virtue.

However, there is a greater happiness to human happiness: this is what Aristotle called happiness divine . This is the activity of the speculative intelligence as it finds its end in itself and does nothing higher. Aristotle notes that this is the happiness of the gods: the life of the intellect is divine compared to human existence. The happiness that comes from the activity of intelligence is absolutely independent of anything else and he is wanted for himself

Virtue

Virtue (arete, excellence) is an acquired disposition, consisting of a "middle on us, which is determined by the right rule and as determined by the prudent man" ( Nicomachean Ethics ). This is neither a gift nor a science. Morality is not only about the logos (knowing the good is not enough to do) but pathos and ethos (habits). Virtue must enter the irrational part of the soul , the seat of the moral virtues (as opposed to the virtues dianoetic specific to the rational part of the soul).

No definition of the general virtue can not be given because it is the experience of the prudent man, who acquired his insights are the criteria for the right rule. There is however a standard objectified: the balance between defect and excess, the measured use of the passion that is not an average math but a balance and on the individual situation. Aristotle thus defines the virtues in situations without which they do not exist. Existence precedes and the concept of a virtue.

Virtue can take two forms: virtue ethics or "prudence" (phronesis) and intellectual virtue or wisdom (sophia).

Caution: phronesis

Prudence, or wisdom, () is a moral virtue which attaches to acts quotas, that is to say relatively good at acting. This provision is to end the acting subject itself, that is to say that prudence can be constituted righteous . She somehow regulates the use of the passions is to say, it is a fair use of the passions and emotions (pathoi) depending on the circumstances. Therefore, although the rational part of the soul, it is not necessary but on the quota, since it acts according to circumstances. Prudence is eg knowing when to be angry, how and with whom. It is therefore able to act according to circumstances adequately: the wise man knows how to apply, after deliberation, the universal principles to particular situations.

Wisdom

Wisdom or sophia () is under the rational part of the soul that does the necessary. It deals with first principles theoretical and practical. Wisdom is a science, "who knows to what end things are done, the end is in every being's sovereign right and good about the whole nature . So science theoretical highest, that is to say, the architectural science par excellence . And as she attempts to understand the world scientifically, that is to say to decrypt the need to things, it takes the form of physics, cosmology, ontology and theology. But it is also a totality, that it also encompasses the virtue of prudence (or wisdom) and the virtuous life which is rather practice.

As it is in contemplation of necessary truths and away from the contingencies, it is called God . The wise (sophos) is therefore dedicated to a contemplative life (bios theoretikos) away from the passions and sufferings. It is this virtue which is the highest form of virtue according to Aristotle, not prudence.

Will and responsibility

Aristotle is the first philosopher of antiquity to have analyzed the conditions of the voluntary determination.

Some of our actions can not be linked to our desire and we can therefore make us responsible. These actions, they are what we are doing by violence or ignorance. Sometimes we suffer because of external constraints we are unable to resist. We are not responsible for our conduct.

But a man can do as a bad action because he knows that she is bad, and he did not like the idea of an action should be done better. We can not accuse him of deliberately making the wrong. Nevertheless, the ignorance does not necessarily lead to forgiveness: there are cases where we punish ignorance, because there are things that depended on the man to know and he should have known ( Nicomachean Ethics, III). And so sometimes we find our ignorance and error, and we recognize that we have done wrong. But in any of our ignorance, it is never absolute, and we still consider the general principles which should govern the will. Accordingly, we commit evil in deceiving us about the circumstances where we are and how it is used.

What actions do for fun? We always do it ourselves, we are motivated by noble sentiments or the egotism of passion. Our commitment to this because we find our pleasure: we're responsible for:

"What if one pretends that everything is nice and beautiful exerts upon us a kind of constraint, since they are external objects, then it should say everything about us has a violent empire, for it is still view of these things that men do everything they do, in spite of themselves and therefore with regret, others with pleasure, because they only consider the bright side. Now it is ridiculous to accuse the external objects rather than blame himself for the ease that one has to let himself be seduced. (Nicomachean Ethics, III) "

The politics and economics

Policy is one of the oldest treaties of political philosophy of ancient Greece.

The word politics derives its etymology from the Greek word polis , which corresponds to the city (in the etymological Latin civitas).

The city is defined as the political community, and it clearly distinguished family and village communities whose purpose is reproduction (biological and economic) of life, necessary but not sufficient for his humanity. Ce qui distingue prcisment l'homme, qui est dfini dans sa spcificit comme un animal politique : (anthropos phusei politikon zoon) Cette facult, selon Aristote, est rvle par notre langage, dont la fin est de dmarquer le juste de l'injuste ou de dnoncer les faux savoirs, les rputations usurpes. C'est--dire qu'il ralise pleinement et ne parvient en ce sens l'autarcie en tant qu'homme que dans la communaut politique. Vivre en effet ne lui suffit pas : vivre bien, s'panouir, suppose encore de vivre dans une communaut de justice, qui le reconnatra sa valeur en lui donnant ce qui lui revient. C'est en ce sens que la cit est ncessaire l'homme, et que celui-ci ne peut exister pleinement qu'en elle, comme la partie dans le tout : d'une ncessit spirituelle, bien plus que matrielle.

Aristote n'est cependant pas naf, et tient deux analyses en mme temps : chaque homme revendique la justice pour bien vivre et se raliser, et c'est pourquoi au-del de la communaut familiale et de la communaut conomique (le village ) il ne peut vivre pleinement homme que dans la cit (communaut politique) - celle-ci tant dfinie par la fin commune de ses membres, la justice. Mais si la justice est notre fin commune (et nous nous accordons tous en ce sens sur sa dfinition : donner chacun ce qui lui revient, ce quoi il a droit, ce qu'il mrite), elle est en mme temps une fin dispute. Car si tous s'accordent sur sa dfinition, personne ne s'accorde sur ses critres (qui mrite quoi ? en fonction de quel critre ?). Le livre IV de , qui porte prcisment sur les causes des sditions, explique clairement ce point par une analyse sociologique avant la lettre : chaque classe, suivant sa position sociale, interprte les critres de la justice son avantage. Le riche estime que le critre du mrite est la richesse, le noble estime qu'il s'agit de la noblesse (la vertu), et le peuple, dnu de tout, estime que ce n'est aucune proprit en particulier mais la libert qu'il possde en commun avec toutes les autres classes... La communaut politique est donc essentiellement une communaut de la msentente et du conflit : chacun visant la mme fin de justice, mais interprtant son contenu suivant des critres divergents.

Dans , Aristote tend analyser l'origine, la finalit et le fonctionnement de l' tat , mais aussi tudier le fonctionnement des rgimes politiques de son poque. Son but est de dgager le meilleur rgime politique possible, l' tat idal. En mme temps, il veut que cela soit ralisable.

D'autre part, Aristote poussa la rflexion sur l'conomie plus loin que Platon. Aristote est un fondateur de la pense mdivale, en conomie en particulier, et on trouve dans ses ouvrages des concepts prcurseurs de la pense conomique moderne.

Aristote montre avec et l' la diffrence fondamentale entre l'conomique et la chrmatistique. La chrmatistique (de khrma, la richesse, la possession) est l'art de s'enrichir, d'acqurir des richesses. Selon Aristote, l'accumulation de la monnaie pour la monnaie est une activit contre nature et qui dshumanise ceux qui s'y livrent : suivant l'exemple de Platon , il condamne ainsi le got du profit et l'accumulation de richesses. Il ya en effet confusion entre le moyen et la fin : l'argent est un moyen pour changer des valeurs d'usage en vue de satisfaire la vie. La chrmatistique ne consiste en revanche qu' accumuler la richesse comme fin en soi, comme si celle-ci en elle-mme pouvait panouir l'tre humain.

L'homme est d'abord un animal politique. C'est la grande thse aristotlicienne, sur laquelle il va btir toute sa philosophie politique. L'exigence de justice, si conflictuelle soit elle dans la cit, domine la vie et permet seule en se ralisant de raliser l'tre humain.

Rhtorique

Aristote compose trois ouvrages de rhtorique majeurs : la , la et les .

Platon et Aristote discourant .

For Aristotle, rhetoric is primarily a useful art. Moins qu'un moyen de persuasion, elle est un moyen pour argumenter, l'aide de notions communes et d'lments de preuves rationnels, afin de faire admettre des ides un auditoire . Its function is to communicate ideas, despite differences in language disciplines. Aristote fonde ainsi la rhtorique comme science oratoire autonome de la philosophie .

Par ailleurs, Aristote va dvelopper l'art rhtorique. En distinguant trois types d'auditeurs, il distingue ainsi, dans la , trois genres rhtoriques , chacun trouvant s'adapter l'auditeur vis et visant un certain type d'effet social :

chaque discours s'accorde une srie de techniques et un temps particulier : le pass pour le discours judiciaire (puisque c'est sur des faits accomplis que porte l'accusation ou la dfense), le futur pour le dlibratif (on envisage les enjeux et consquences futures de la dcision objet du dbat), enfin le prsent essentiellement mais aussi le pass et le futur pour le dmonstratif (il est question des actes passs, prsents et des souhaits futurs d'une personne). Le judiciaire a le syllogisme rhtorique ou enthymme comme instrument principal, le dlibratif privilgie l' exemple et l'pidictique enfin met en avant l' amplification.

Each work of Aristotle and will make a sound methodology of public speaking. L'hritage platonicien, en dpit de divergences fondamentales entre les deux philosophes, est ainsi conserv travers la dialectique. Aristote en dfinit les rgles dans les livres V et VI de l' . Celle-ci se fonde sur la logique , galement codifie par Aristote. Topica define the framework of argumentative possibilities between the parties, that is to say places rhetorical. Pour Jean Jacques Robrieux , Ainsi est trace, avec Aristote, la voie d'une rhtorique fonde sur la logique des valeurs . Par ailleurs, Aristote a surtout permis la .

Potique

Aristote sur une fresque murale Rome

Dernire uvre du corpus aristotlicien, probablement une des plus connues d'Aristote, s'intresse aux diffrents aspects de l'art potique, comme la tragdie , l' pope , et de manire anecdotique la musique. Aristote mentionne un futur ouvrage sur la comdie qui fait partie des uvres disparues d'Aristote.

Contrairement son matre, Platon , qui entre autres dans et dans s'tait montr trs critique envers la tragdie, considrant qu'elle avilissait l'homme et lui faisait croire sur les dieux des choses fausses, Aristote voit dans cet art un moyen pour l'homme de purifier l'me de ses passions.

Cette purification, ou vient de la piti et la crainte qu'prouvent les spectateurs envers les personnages de la tragdie. Pour que cette soit possible, il faut que les personnages soient une imitation ( ) des passions humaines, des imitations aussi vraisemblables que possibles. L'intrigue, elle, doit tre aussi cohrente que possible, et se drouler sans accroc depuis la situation de dpart jusqu' la conclusion. Le meilleur exemple, pour Aristote, c'est l' dipe Roi , de Sophocle ; l'oppos, la Mde d' Euripide est considre comme un exemple infrieur de tragdie, du fait du / I> Final (Medea carries the corpses of children she had with Jason on a chariot of fire).

How catharsis operates is not clear in the text of Aristotle. Spectators tragedies take pleasure in seeing scenes that would be unsustainable in their daily life: it is perhaps in this aestheticism that feelings can be purified.

Posterity

The works of Aristotle had a considerable posterity ( Aristotle ). His work has been passed in several stages, sometimes with a heightened fidelity, sometimes with seriously questioned.

Antiquity

The works of Aristotle as we know them were not designed by Aristotle himself. The ranking of the notes in volume is due to Andronicus of Rhodes , the first editor of Aristotle, who lived around the ^second century BC. AD We owe him the titles of the works of Aristotle, as Nicomachean Ethics or Metaphysics.

Aristotle's successor as head of the Lyceum was Theophrastus , who wrote books on plants and conceived the "first mover" in a more immanent than did Aristotle himself.

The disappearance of high school , some works of Aristotle disappear; books are lost (part of which was probably made as copies of originals at the destruction of the Library of Alexandria ), and the Metaphysics does was published very late.

Aristotle was commented by tradition Neoplatonic and integrated with that philosophy, which attempted a synthesis of Plato , Aristotle and Orientalism , such as Plotinus , Porphyry and Simplicius.

The Roman philosopher Boethius , also Consul of the Roman Empire around 500 AD under King Ostrogothic Theodoric the Great , translated Logic and Aristotle's Analytics. He also left three pounds of comments. His work, available to the intellectuals of the early Middle Ages, made him a major relay between Antiquity and Middle Ages in the West.

Middle Age

In the Middle Ages , was rediscovered his speculative philosophy, in a rivalry of schools, thanks to Jewish-Muslim philosophers, especially Maimonides and Averroes. In the twelfth ^century was held a general translation of works of Greek philosophers and Arab scientists and scholars from the three major religions monotheistic (Christianity, Judaism, Islam). (See Hunayn ibn Ishaq ). The translations took place between 1120 and 1190 , to Toledo and then in four cities in Italy ( Palermo , Rome , Venice , Pisa ). This period is the Renaissance of the twelfth century. The works of Aristotle were translated word for word into Latin by Albert the Great and William of Moerbeke , near Thomas Aquinas.

In the ^thirteenth century , Aristotelian philosophy, transformed by Thomas Aquinas as the official doctrine of the Catholic Church , despite some upheavals such Condemnation of 1277 a set of proposals by Aristotle the Bishop of Paris tienne Tempier , became the philosophical and scientific reference of any serious reflection, thus giving birth to scholasticism and Thomism. It is believed that Thomas Aquinas made a reconciliation between the works of Aristotle and Christianity. He has commented on the Metaphysics , the book On the Soul, Policies, Logic, and the Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle is the author most quoted in the Summa Theologica and there have been numerous conflicts of interpretation between Thomas Aquinas and the Muslim philosophers such as Averroes. The success of this undertaking was so great that in Christian universities, Aristotle was called simply "the Philosopher."

The Franciscan Roger Bacon , the ^thirteenth century , began to check out of curiosity some aspects of Aristotle's work that had not been a critical review. To his surprise, he discovered that some facts in the Organon was incorrect. .

• Chyromantia (Ulm, 1490). Work on palmistry. XIII ^century?
• Freezing and conglutination stone, and in Latin De congelatione conglutinatione lapidumen. This is a translation-summary of part of Kitab al-Shifa of Avicenna , which deals with the formation of stones and denies the alchemical transmutation. This treaty was added around 1200 by Alfred Sareshel in Book IV of Aristotle's Meteorology, so he could pass for Aristotle.
• Economists. The first book may have been written by Theophrastus , the second book dated III ^century av. AD, the third book is the work part of a peripatetic living around 250 BC. BC and part of a stoic living between 100 and 300. Trad. J. Knitting, Vrin. . Looks like a letter from Aristotle to his former pupil Alexander the Great, who just defeated Darius III. A bestseller in the Middle Ages. Text occultist with physiognomy, alchemy, but also medicine, politics. Reviewed as authentic by Roger Bacon in 1275-1280. The secret of secrets, or Letter [Aristotle] to Alexander [the Great] (Arabic text Kitab Sirr al-Asrar. Book of secrets secret) to 730, by Salim Abu al-'Ala, but some historians, including J. Ruska (Al-Razi's Buch Geheimnis der Geheimnisse, 1937, repr. 1973) give written by Rhazes (865-925), others have proposed Yuhanna ibn al-Bitrq, about 941; Latin text Secretum Secretorum long version to 1243 by Philip of Tripoli. Secretum Secretorum Alexandrum Aristotelis ad Magnum, Cambridge (Mass.), Omnisys, 1990, 153 p. (Reprint of ed. Venice in 1555). Available at: [32]. On the occult.
• Theology of Aristotle: paraphrasing the last three Enneads of Plotinus , perhaps based on a Syriac version which dates back to ^sixth century Plato Opera ed. P. Henry and HR Schwyzer, t. II, 1959 Brussels.
• Treaty of the world (the ^first century, a mixture of Aristotelian philosophy and stoicism of the middle of Posidonius of Apamea), probably written in Alexandria, translated into Latin by the Sicilian Nicolas Ave. 1240. Trad. Jules Tricot, Vrin, 1949.

Studies

(In alphabetical order)

• Martin Achard , Epistemology and practice of science in Aristotle. The Posterior Analytics and the definition of the soul in De Anima, Paris, Klincksieck, 2004.
• Pierre Aubenque :
  • The problem of being in Aristotle (1962), PUF, coll. "Quadriga", Paris, 2005 ^(5th edition);
  • Prudence in Aristotle (1963), PUF, coll. "Quadriga", Paris, 2004 ^(4th edition);
• Emile Boutroux , Lectures on Aristotle, PUF, coll. "The great lesson of philosophy, Paris, 2002 (rd.);
• Dulau stone, commentary Protrepticus Aristotle, "Invitation to Philosophy, Paris, Gallimard, Folioplus Philosophy, 2006.
• Marie-Hlne Gauthier-Muzellec, The Soul in Aristotle's Metaphysics, ed. Kime, et al. Philosophy Epistemology ", 1998
• Alfredo Gomez-Muller, Paths of Aristotle, the feline editions, Paris, 2002
• Lambros Couloubaritsis ,
  • Aristotle's Physics (1980), Ousia, Brussels, 1998, ( ISBN 2870600623 );
  • The Origins of European philosophy, De Boeck, Brussels, 2005 ^(4th edition), Chapter 6;
• Alberto Jori , Aristotle, ed. Bruno Mondadori, Milan 2003 (Award for 2003 in the "Acadmie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences / International Academy of the History of Science; fundamental)
• Kelvin Knight, Aristotelian Philosophy: Ethics and Politics from Aristotle to MacIntyre, Polity Press, 2007.
• Hubert Laiz, Aristote.Potique, Paris, PUF, 1999.
• Augustin Mansion , Introduction to Aristotelian physics, Ed. Higher Institute of Philosophy, Leuven, 1987 ^(2nd ed. revised and ^enlarged, 2nd repr. anastatic)
• Cletus John Martin , The Soul of the world. Availability of Aristotle, The troublemaker of thinking in circles, 1998;
• Pierre-Marie Morel, Aristotle's philosophy of business, Flammarion, coll. " GF-Philosophy ", Paris, 2003;
• Marie-Dominique Philippe , Introduction to the philosophy of Aristotle, Ed University, 1991;
• Christof Rapp, Aristoteles, ed. Junius Verlag, Hamburg, 2004
• Marwan Rashed, Aristotelian Legacy, unpublished texts from antiquity, Les Belles Lettres , ( ISBN 2251181059 ).
• David Ross, Aristotle (1923), trans., Gramma, 1971, 424 p.
• Thomas Aquinas , Aristotle Guest books
• Francis Wolff, Aristotle Democrat Article in: "Philosophy," 1988 (5), No. 18, p.53-87.

Anecdote

In the Middle Ages , philosophers wrote "The Philosopher", all letters are capitals to designate Aristotle.

Peripatetic

• Andronicus of Rhodes
• Aristoxenus
• Critolaus
• Strato of Lampsacus
• Theophrastus

References

Notes

See also

Related Articles

• Catalogue of works of Aristotle, Diogenes Laertius , which lists about 150 separate works, sometimes grouped in the form we know them today (in the case of Topica ).

• The fourteen books constituting the Metaphysics (Aristotle)

• The Organon ( Logic ):
  • Categories (Aristotle)
  • Interpretation
  • Sophistical refutations

• The Nicomachean Ethics
  • The four causes
  • Teleology
  • Final cause

• List of concepts in philosophy
• Concepts of Aristotelian Philosophy
• The noetic
• Entelechy
• Socrates
• Plato
• Theophrastus
• Thomas Aquinas and Fides et Ratio
• Rhetoric

On posterity

• Scholastic
• Galileo , Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632)
• Descartes
• Copernican revolution
• Case Aristotle , test Gouguenheim Sylvain , French historian, medievalist

External Links

Resource Directory ancient philosophical

• Bibliotheca Classica Selecta
• Cnrs
• Remacle
• Toulouse Academic Site

Dictionary articles

• Lexicon graecum 1499

• Ancient Philosophy portal
• Philosophy portal
• Logic gate
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• Gateway to the history of zoology and botany
• Ancient Greece Portal

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