When he (or one of his scribes) put a book about abstract philosophical speculation after his physics book (metaphysics literally means "after physics"), he invented the concepts of metaphysics and standardized learning-how to collect information, assimilate and explain, and then communicate-across many disciplines.
In the late Middle Ages (about 1300- 1500), he was called the "master". The most famous thing is that in Dante's Hell, the author can recognize Aristotle without even using his name. This special nickname is appropriate because Aristotle has written in biology, politics, metaphysics, agriculture, literature, botany, medicine, mathematics, physics, ethics, logic and drama, and is regarded as a master. Traditionally, in the trinity of the three greatest Greek philosophers, he was connected with Socrates and Plato in turn.
Plato (428-348 BC) was a student of Socrates (469/470-399 BC) and Aristotle, and studied under Plato. There are differences between students and teachers in a basic aspect of Plato's philosophy-insisting on a higher formal field to make the objective reality on the earth possible. Although contrary to the opinions of some scholars, this has not caused any cracks between them. Aristotle will promote his original ideas according to Plato's theory. Although he rejected Plato's formalism, he never belittled the basic philosophy of his former master.
In 343 BC, King Philip II of Macedonia summoned Aristotle to tutor his son Alexander the Great.
He was hired by King Philip II of Macedonia (reigned from 359 to 336 BC) as the mentor of his son Alexander the Great (from 356 to 323 BC), which left such a deep impression on young people that Alexander took Aristotle's works with him when he conquered the Persian Empire and introduced Aristotle's philosophy to the East. Through Alexander, Aristotle's works spread all over the known world at that time, influenced ancient philosophy and laid the foundation for the development of Judaism, Christianity and theology.
Early life
In 384 BC, Aristotle was born in Stajila, on the border between Greece and Macedonia. His father Nico Marcos, a court doctor of the King of Macedonia, died when Aristotle was ten years old. His uncle took over the custody of the boy and took charge of his education. Aristotle may be with the tutor of Macedonian court as the son and nephew of the court staff, but this is not certain. /kloc-When he was 0/8 years old, Aristotle was sent to Athens to study at Plato's Academy, where he stayed for 20 years.
He is an excellent student who graduated early and was awarded the teaching position of teaching rhetoric and dialogue. It seems that Aristotle thought he would take over the college after Plato's death. When this position was awarded to Plato's nephew Spacey Persia, Aristotle left Athens to conduct experiments and research on Greek islands.
Aristotle and Alexander the Great
In 343 BC, Aristotle was called by King Philip II of Macedonia to tutor his son Alexander, and he held this position for the next seven years until Alexander ascended the throne in 336 BC and began his famous conquest. In 335 BC, Aristotle returned to Athens, but they kept in touch through letters. Aristotle's influence on conquerors can be seen from his clever diplomatic handling of thorny political issues throughout his career. Alexander's habit of carrying books with him during the campaign and his extensive reading are attributed to Aristotle's influence and Alexander's appreciation of art and culture.
Aristotle generally had a low opinion of non-Greek "barbarians", especially Persians, and encouraged Alexander to conquer their empire. With most, if not all, Greece, Aristotle has told the story of the Marathon in 490 BC and the Persian invasion in 480 BC, and the victory of Greece was better than Salamis and Platia in the Persian army. Therefore, considering that the cultural atmosphere in which he grew up was largely anti-Persian, it is not surprising that he advocated conquest.
Even without this consideration, Aristotle supported the war in philosophy on the grounds that it provided an opportunity to achieve greatness and apply personal Excellence to practical difficult situations. Aristotle believes that the ultimate goal of human existence is happiness (literally "having a good spirit"), and this happiness can be achieved by maintaining a moral life that develops its own arete ("personal Excellence").
A person's arete will make them see what must be done in any given situation and be able to do it. In addition, by associating with virtuous comrades who pursue the same goal, a person's soul has been enriched, and a person's outstanding ability has been honed and honed. War provides many opportunities for individuals, not only to expand and prove their self-worth, but also to prove their greatness. Before launching this movement in 336 BC, he would encourage Alexander to think with these ideas.
Aristotle's works, like Plato's, have influenced almost every road of human knowledge pursued by the East and the West.
Belief and differences with Plato
In 335 BC, after Aristotle returned to Athens, he established his own school, Lv Keang Academy, which was a competitor of Plato's Academy. Aristotle is a teleologist. He believes in the "ultimate cause" and ultimate goal of life, and believes that everything and everyone in the world have a purpose of existence. In addition, these ultimate goals can be determined by observing the known world.
Plato also dealt with the original reasons and purposes, treating them more idealized, and thought that they could be understood by understanding the higher and invisible truth level, which he called "formal field". Plato's philosophy is deeply rooted in the Pythagorean mysticism school founded by Pythagoras, a former Socratic philosopher and mystic (57 1-497 BC). Pythagoras emphasized the immortality of the soul and the importance of moral life, and realized that there are indispensable and indisputable truths in life, and people must recognize and persist in order to live a better life.
Plato was also significantly influenced by another former Socratic philosopher, JD.COM protagoras (485-4 BC15 BC), who was considered as the first thinker of relativity. Protagoras famously said that "in everything, man is the standard of measurement", which means that personal perception determines truth. Protagoras believes that there can be no objective truth in any particular situation, because all observable phenomena or emotional or psychological experiences depend on individual explanations.
Plato developed his formalism to refute protagoras and provide a rational basis for his Pythagorean idealism, from which he can establish the existence of objective truth. * * * is the perfect embodiment of truth, goodness and beauty; Humans perceive and define everything as good, true or beautiful on the earth level only because they participate in a higher and more perfect form of good, true or beautiful. For example, a horse is not beautiful just because people appreciate its appearance; By participating in the form of beauty, it is objective beauty.
Aristotle can never accept Plato's formalism, nor does he believe that when people can push back from what is visible to the first cause, they assume that what is invisible is an explanation of the observable world. Aristotle claimed in Physics and Metaphysics that the first cause in the universe is the motive force-it pushes everything else, but it does not move itself. For Aristotle, this is more meaningful than the formal field.
For Aristotle, horses are beautiful because of some characteristics associated with the concept of beauty: pleasant coat color, good health and good ring shape. Aristotle believes that it is untenable to make a horse beautiful because of some invisible and unprovable perfect beauty field, because any statement needs evidence to be accepted.
The existence of the prime mover can be proved, at least in theory, because at some point in the past, there must be some kind of power that makes life move, and this power-no matter what it is made of-he named it prime mover or prime mover. His reasoning was later adopted by Jews, Christians and theologians, and contributed to the concept of God in these religions.
In rejecting formalism, Aristotle mentioned Plato and how he hated arguing with his former teacher. He is still the person he loves. However, he felt that he must solve the unreality of Plato's theory and encourage Platonists to give it up. He wrote:
For the sake of truth, people may think that a person, especially if he is a philosopher, had better give up even his own theory. In fact, he must do so ... Our sacred duty is to respect truth more than friends [that is Plato]. (Nicola Kyle Morality I. 1096a. 15)
Plato claimed that the concept of truth knowledge could not be obtained from experience, in fact, nothing could be learned. In his conversation with MINO, he proved this point most obviously. He thought that all learning was actually "recalling" the past life. Aristotle refuted this statement, thinking that knowledge can obviously be learned because people can be taught, which is obvious in the change of people's views on life and behavior.
Aristotle believes that a good man is a good man because he has been taught the value of a beautiful and moral life. If a person can't really "learn" but can only "remember" the basic truth of being "good" in his last life, then the person itself can't be considered "good". The virtue shown by a person in life is the result of that person's decision to act in a certain way and form good habits, not for his own reputation or praise from others. Aristotle wrote:
Honor seems to depend on the person who gives it rather than the person who accepts it, and our guess is that kindness is a person's own property and cannot be easily taken away from him. (Nicola Kyle Morality I. 1095b.25)
Aristotle advocates the doctrine of the mean in order to obtain this kind of "beauty" in life, which is ultimately a kind of happiness that no one and no environment can bear or reduce. Aristotle insists that "a person becomes just by performing just acts and controls himself by performing self-controlled acts" (Nikolai Kyle Ethics i.115b.10). This self-control is embodied in his view of the mean. Aristotle wrote:
About happiness and pain ... moderation is self-control, and excess is self-indulgence. In the balance, the doctrine of the mean is generosity, and too little is luxury and meanness. Among these vices, surplus and shortage are opposites: a extravagant person spends more money and eats less, while a stingy person eats more and spends less. (Nicola Kyle Morality I.1107b.5-10)
The golden mean provides a control behavior to correct a person's behavior. If you know that a person is prone to excessive luxury, you should return to the extreme opposite of meanness. Since a person's natural tendency is to spend money lavishly, then consciously trying not to spend money will lead a person to drift to the gentle ground between the two extremes.
The golden mean is one of the many commandments that Aristotle taught students in middle schools. His habit of walking back and forth in teaching earned Lv Keang the name of Minstrel (from Greek, meaning Minstrel). Aristotle's favorite student at school is Theo Frastos, who will succeed him as the leader of the school and collect and publish his works. In fact, some scholars claim that Aristotle's works that exist today have never been written and published, but are just handouts that Theophrastos and others appreciate very much, so they are copied and distributed.
Famous contributions and works
The golden mean is one of Aristotle's most famous contributions to philosophy (second only to the motive force), but it needs to be pointed out that this is only in the field of ethics, and Aristotle has contributed to every branch of knowledge in his time. In ethics, he also famously discussed the difference between voluntary behavior and involuntary behavior, and encouraged people to try voluntary behavior as much as possible to enrich their lives and get the greatest happiness. He understands that there will be a lot of housework and responsibilities in a day, and people would rather not do it, but he suggests that people regard these obvious troubles as opportunities and ways to get happiness.
For example, a person may not want to wash dishes, but he will consider that he must perform this trivial and involuntary action. Aristotle suggested washing dishes as a means to achieve the ideal goal of having a clean kitchen and clean plates for the next meal. It also applies to jobs that people don't like. We should not regard work as an obstacle to happiness, but as a way to buy groceries, clothes, travel and enjoy hobbies. In the 20th century and the 2nd/kloc-0th century, authors from many different disciplines emphasized the value of positive thinking and the importance of gratitude, but Aristotle was an early supporter of the same view.
Aristotle solved the problem of memory as a fact in On the Soul, claiming that a person's memory is an impression, not a reliable record of what really happened. When a person experiences a new experience, his memory will take on different values. Therefore, if a person meets the love of his life because of that car accident, his memory of unpleasant events (such as car accidents) will change. People choose what they will remember and how they will remember according to their emotional descriptions of themselves and others. This concept has been explored since Freud and Jung in the mid-20th century, but it is not their original idea.
His Politics solved Aristotle's problem that the state is regarded as the natural and organic development of any human community. The state is not a static structure imposed on others, but a dynamic and living entity created by people living under the rules of the state. As early as before Thomas Hobbes wrote Burden and Leviathan or Jean-Jacques Jean-jean-jacques rousseau formulated The Social Contract, Aristotle had already solved their same concerns.
Aristotle's Poetics introduced the concepts of imitation (imitation of reality in art) and catharsis (purification of strong emotions) into literary criticism and creative art. Until the European Renaissance, his observation of poetry and rhetorical forms will continue to be taught as the objective truth of the subject. Aristotle was naturally curious about the human condition and all aspects of nature. He systematically studied any subject he was concerned about, making his research satisfactory, and then tried to make it easy to understand and meaningful through philosophical explanation. Through this process, he formed a hypothesis and then tested it through an experiment that can get the same result repeatedly, thus developing an early form of scientific method.
conclusion
After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, the wave of public opinion in Athens turned against Macedonia, and Aristotle was accused of being ungodly because of his earlier relations with Alexander and Macedonian courts. Considering Socrates' unjust execution, Aristotle chose to flee Athens, "lest the Athenians violate philosophy for the second time", as he said. A year later, in 322 BC, he died of natural causes.
Aristotle's works, like Plato's, have influenced almost every aspect of human knowledge in the past two thousand years. After the fall of Rome, although his works were not widely read in the West, they were appreciated in the East, and scholars drew inspiration and understanding from his works. Aristotle's Ethics (A Guide to a Better Life for his son Nico Marcos) is still regarded as the philosophical touchstone of ethical research. He promoted the understanding of physics, created a field and so-called metaphysical research, and naturally wrote many scientific and political philosophies. His Poetics is still a classic literary criticism.
Through all this, he proved that he is indeed a recognized master of Dante. Like Plato, Aristotle's works have injected into the whole range of human knowledge today. For more than two thousand years, many scholars, philosophers and thinkers have demonstrated, refuted, ignored, questioned and even debunked Aristotle's theory, but no one thinks that his influence is not extensive and in-depth, and he has established a school and established a discipline. Of course, all the time now.