Aristotle was born in Stajila, Thrace, 384 years ago. His father was a doctor of the Macedonian king. Aristotle grew up in an aristocratic family environment. /kloc-When he was 0/8 years old, Aristotle was sent to study in Plato's Academy in Athens, where he lived for 20 years until his teacher Plato died in 347. After Plato's death, Aristotle left Athens because the new leader of the college was more sympathetic to the mathematical tendency in Plato's philosophy, which made Aristotle unbearable. However, it can be seen from Aristotle's works that although Aristotle disagreed with Poseidon and other new leaders of the academy, he still maintained good relations with them.
After leaving college, Aristotle accepted the invitation of his former classmate Hermias for the first time to visit Asia Minor. Hermia was then the ruler of Misia along the coast of Asia Minor. Aristotle also married Hermias' niece there. But in 344 BC, Hermias was murdered in a riot, and Aristotle had to leave Asia Minor and go to Terrini with his family. Three years later, Aristotle was called to his hometown by King Philip II of Macedonia and became the teacher of Alexander the Great, who was only 13 years old at that time. Plutarch, a famous biographer in ancient Greece, believes that Aristotle instilled moral, political and philosophical education into the future world leader. Aristotle also used his influence to play an important role in the formation of Alexander the Great's thought. It was under the influence of Aristotle that Alexander the Great always cared about science and respected knowledge. However, Aristotle and Alexander the Great may not have exactly the same political views. The former's political view is based on the declining Greek city-state, while the centralized empire established by Alexander the Great is tantamount to the invention of barbarians for the Greeks.
After Philip's death in 335 BC, Aristotle returned to Athens and established his own school there. The name of the college (Lv Keang) is named after the werewolf killer (Lv Keang) near the temple of Apollo. During this period, Aristotle wrote many philosophical works while giving lectures. Aristotle has the habit of walking in corridors and gardens when giving lectures. Because of this, the philosophy of academy is called "carefree philosophy" or "wandering philosophy". Aristotle also wrote many works in this period, mainly about natural science and philosophy in Nature and Physics, and the language used was much more obscure than Plato's dialogues. Many of his works are based on class notes, and some are even the class notes of his students. So some people regard Aristotle as the author of the first textbook in the West. Although Aristotle wrote many dialogues, only a few fragments of these dialogues survived. The most preserved works are mainly in the form of papers, which Aristotle did not want to publish at first. It is generally believed that these papers are notes or textbooks given to students by Aristotle during his lectures.
Aristotle not only studied almost all disciplines at that time, but also made great contributions. In science, Aristotle studied anatomy, astronomy, economics, embryology, geography, geology, meteorology, physics and zoology. In philosophy, Aristotle studied aesthetics, ethics, politics, government, metaphysics, psychology and theology. Aristotle also studied education, literature and poetry. Aristotle's life works are almost an encyclopedia of Greek knowledge. Others think that Aristotle may be the last person who was proficient in all subjects and had both wisdom [1].
After Alexander's death, the Athenians began to rebel against Macedonian rule. Because of his relationship with Alexander, Aristotle had to take refuge in Kalsis. Because he was accused of impiety, his college was handed over to Theophrastos. Aristotle said that he would flee because: "I don't want the Athenians to commit the crime of destroying philosophy for the second time." [2] But a year later, in 322 BC, Aristotle died of a disease that had accumulated for many years. Aristotle also left a will asking him to be buried next to his wife's grave.
Aristotle defined his philosophy as a kind of "essence" and declared that his philosophy was a "science to study the essence of the real universe". Plato defined his philosophy as "ideal science", and ideal refers to the basic principle of all phenomena. Master and apprentice all think that philosophy is the science of studying the universe. But Aristotle studied the universe by studying the essence of various concrete things, while Plato thought that the universe had nothing to do with other concrete things. In Plato's view, those things are just samples or models of the universe. For Aristotle, studying philosophy means upgrading from studying specific phenomena to studying the essence of things; But for Plato, research philosophy represents the transformation from studying a universal ideal to studying concrete samples of these ideals. Aristotle's research method is both inductive and deductive, while Plato's research method is essentially derived from the transcendental principle. (Yori, 2003)
According to Aristotle, the term "natural philosophy" refers to the study of nature, including the laws of motion, light and physics. Many centuries later, these fields became the basis of modern science and were studied by scientific methods. In modern times, the word "philosophy" is usually only used to describe the field of metaphysics, not those studies that observe nature in the way of physical science. In contrast, in Aristotle's time, the word "philosophy" included all aspects of human knowledge.
More broadly, Aristotle juxtaposed philosophy with logical reasoning, which he called the "science" of philosophy. However, the meaning of the word science he used is not the same as the modern so-called scientific method. "All science (reasoning) is either practical or imaginative and theoretical." Aristotle's practicality means ethics and politics-that is, politics, while imaginative science means the study of poetry and other fine arts, while theoretical means the study of physics, mathematics and metaphysics.
Regarding metaphysics and philosophy, Aristotle defined it as "the cognition of intangible things" and called it "the first philosophy", "the science of theory" or "the thing with the highest abstract level". And logic (or "analysis") is regarded by Aristotle as the basic stage of learning philosophy, so Aristotle's philosophy can be divided into:
1. theoretical science (mathematics, natural science and the first philosophy later called metaphysics)
2. Applied sciences (ethics, politics, economics, strategy and rhetoric)
3. The science of creation is poetics.
"cause" relationship
Aristotle believes that there is a "cause" relationship in nature. This concept of "cause" is different from the modern concept of "cause and effect". "Cause" corresponds to "Why" but not to "Result". That is, objective reasons, material reasons, dynamic reasons and formal reasons.
Aristotle believes that the so-called "material cause" is to show the existence form of a thing from a pile of parts, components, foundations or raw materials, and trace the composition of the matter back to the parts (elements, components), and then form a complete (system, architecture, mixing, synthesis, compound or combination). For example, raw materials such as marble that constitute marble statues are material factors.
"Formal cause" can tell us what kind of definition, form, shape, essence, synthesis or prototype a thing is made of, and explain the basic principles or laws that make up a thing, which is only a part of the whole thing (a set of causality) (macro structure). For example, the sketch or design of marble statues is the formal reason.
"Causation" refers to the motive force and reason of changing things, and studies "what changed what and what caused this change", which includes all the media between things, including living or inanimate, motive force or the origin of changed things. For example, the artist who carves marble into statues is the driving force.
"Final cause" refers to the reason why a thing exists or changes, including purposeful actions and activities. The purpose of a thing is the reason why it exists, or why it changes. This also explains that modern so-called psychological motives, including will, demand, motivation, rationality, irrationality and ethics, are the source of creative behavior. For example, a finished marble statue is the artist's teleology.
In addition, things can interact with each other, leading to changes in results. For example, hard work can lead to a better life, or on the contrary, although there is no same reason, process or function, one thing is the beginning of a set of causality, and the other thing is the result. Aristotle first put forward a set of interactive or circular causality to explain the influence of the interaction between things on each other. But Aristotle also pointed out that the same thing can be used to produce opposite results, and the existence of one thing in causality will also affect the results.
Aristotle pointed out two models of causality: traditional (existing) causality and unexpected (changing) causality. All causes, whether traditional or accidental, can be considered as potential, practical, specific or general in nature. This can also be applied to the influence of causality. General influence can be classified as general reason, specific influence can be classified as specific reason, and action influence can be classified as practical reason. In essence, causality does not mean that there must be time interaction between causality.
Further research on the causal relationship will divide all kinds of causes into appropriate grades, such as purpose >: power > matter > form (Thomas Aquinas). All causal relationships are either limited to the interaction between material causes and dynamic causes, or limited to dynamic causes (determinism or opportunity), or limited to a series of interactions with a series of natural phenomena (natural science explains how things happen, not why they happen and what will happen after they happen).
[Editor] Opportunity and spontaneity
Opportunity and spontaneity are the reasons why things change. Opportunity is an unexpected cause of things changing. It comes from spontaneity (but it should be noted that spontaneity does not come from opportunity). More specifically, Aristotle's so-called "opportunity" is like what is generally called "coincidence". A person does some actions to achieve a certain goal, but it may also change other things (unexpectedly). For example, if a person tries to raise donations, he may find another person who is willing to donate a certain amount. But if the fundraiser doesn't really collect money, but has other purposes, then Aristotle will classify the money donated to him as the result of "opportunity" What happens because of opportunity is not common. In other words, if something happens frequently or always, then we can't classify it as an opportunity.
However, opportunities can only be used by people and belong to the field of moral behavior. Aristotle believes that opportunities must contain the elements of human choice (and therefore will be considered), and only human beings can think and make choices. "Things that have no ability to act will not have the ability to get opportunities" (Physics, 2.6).
[Edit] Entity, Potential and Practicality
Aristotle tested the concept of "ousia" in his book Metaphysics. He pointed out that the entity of concrete things comes from the combination of form and matter. In the eighth volume, he concluded that the "material" of an entity comes from its structure or material. For example, the materials that make up a house are bricks, stones, wood, etc. Or any material that can be used for building houses. And "form" refers to a real house, that is, a building that can be used to "cover up the body and property", or anything with the same meaning. The composition of this house belongs to the "material" part, while the house itself belongs to the "form" part.
Considering the change of things (kinesis) and its reasons, Aristotle divided the types of change into: (1) growth or contraction, the change of related quantity, (2) movement, the change of related space, (3) change and the change of overall quality. Based on the hypothesis of form and quality, Aristotle put forward the concepts of "dynamic" and "entity".
The so-called "potential" refers to the change that a specific thing has the ability to achieve under the assumption that it is not obstructed by any external force. For example, a seed buried in the ground is a potential crop. If it is not disturbed by other things, it will successfully produce crops. The potential thing can be "poiein" or "paschein", and its potential can also be innate or acquired through action or learning. For example, the eyes have the potential to see things (born and performed), while the ability to play the flute is learned (practiced and performed).
The so-called "reality" refers to the result after the potential is brought into play. Telos is the basic principle of the change of everything, and the potential exists only to achieve the result, so the reality itself is the result. Back to the field example above, the crop produced by the flowering of seeds is its "reality".
In short, the "material" of a house is its "potential" and the "shape" of a house is its "reality". Logos, the builder, put forward the formal cause of house design (aitia) and constructed the potential as a real house, and the finished house itself is the end of causality-"purpose cause". Aristotle's conclusion is that in the formula, reality exists earlier than potential, both in time and in essence.
After defining concrete entities (forms and materials), Aristotle tried to study why things are made up: for example, what is human made up of? According to Plato's concept, there are only two answers to this question: animals and two feet, but this does not make people a whole. But according to Aristotle's concept, the potential thing (matter) and the real thing (form) are actually the same thing, and they are integrated. (metaphysics 8 1045a-b)
Although many works of Aristotle have discussed ethics, the most important work in this respect is Nicomachean Ethics, which is also considered as one of Aristotle's greatest works. Aristotle believes that ethical knowledge is not an "accurate" knowledge, so ethics is very different from logic or mathematics, but similar to "common sense" like knowledge about nutrition and sports. Moreover, because ethics is a practical subject rather than a theoretical one, Aristotle believes that if a person wants to be a "good person", he should not only study what virtue is, but also practice it himself. For example, if a person wants to be an excellent football player, he should not only study theory, but also put it into practice. Aristotle first put forward the standard of virtue. He first assumed that any human behavior has goals, and these goals are "goodness". The ultimate goal of his so-called "supreme goodness" is happiness (Greek for eudaimonia, sometimes translated as "living well").
Aristotle believes that happiness can not be achieved only through happiness, or only through fame and honor. Aristotle finally found what he thought was the source of happiness after "studying various specific functions of human beings". He analyzed the human mind and divided his paintings into three parts: nutritious mind (including crops, fields and humans), emotional mind (animals and humans) and rational mind (only humans). Therefore, the function of human beings is to do what human beings should do and what makes human beings special: the ability to use reason. Humans who do such things will be happy, because they have achieved the goal or essence belonging to rational minds. Aristotle divided people into four levels: morality, self-control, self-control and evil according to their pursuit of rational mind.
Aristotle believes that all ethical virtues come from striking a balance between "surplus" and "poverty". However, this does not mean that Aristotle believes in moral relativism. He classified several emotions (such as hate, jealousy, jealousy, etc.). ) and several behaviors (such as adultery, theft, murder, etc. As the wrong party, no matter under what circumstances these emotions and behaviors are generated.
In Nicomachean ethics, Aristotle usually focuses on finding the balance between the two extremes in various fields; Such as justice, courage, wealth and so on. For example, courage is the balance point between two emotions (fear and self-confidence), and actions are taken based on this balance point (brave actions). Too much fear and too little confidence will lead to cowardice, and too little fear and too much confidence will lead to hasty and stupid choices. Aristotle said that finding the balance of things is the key to finding happiness, and happiness itself is the ultimate form of perfection. The balance between the two is often called the golden mean.
Aristotle also wrote down his concept of justice. He defined justice as two parts: general justice and special justice. Universal justice is a form of justice put forward by Aristotle, which can only exist in a perfect society. Special justice is to punish specific crimes or unjust acts. It is also here that Aristotle advocates that people need trained judgment ability to judge whether a particular event is just or not. Aristotle said that forming good habits can cultivate excellent human beings, and practicing the golden mean can make a person live healthier and happier.
Aristotle's ethics is rooted in early Greek ethics, especially from his teacher Plato and Plato's teacher Socrates. Socrates himself did not leave any works, Plato's works were mainly written for the public, while Aristotle left more academic works. Different from Plato, Aristotle often has reservations about his whole theory, and it is even more impossible for him to insist on the correctness of his theory in ethics. However, the overall thoughts of these philosophers are still relatively close.
Socrates was the first Greek philosopher who devoted himself to the study of ethics. Perhaps this effort is to solve the emergence of sophistry. At that time, sophistry skills, which emphasized rhetoric, moral relativism and disobedience to Athenian traditional gods, prevailed (they also used sophistry skills to disobey many other traditions). Sophists can ask many questions about the current society, but they don't provide answers.
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle all have clear ethical systems, and people can choose to pursue virtue to achieve happiness and prosperity. They all believe that the behavior of virtue can be taught and practiced, and that ethics and morality are based on rationality, and there are rational reasons for pursuing virtue. This is in sharp contrast to the moral relativism emphasized by sophists, who believe that many different behaviors have different standards in different societies. In fact, the same argument is still a controversial topic in modern ethics.
Apart from these basic similarities, there are not many ethical differences between Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The main difference is that Socrates and Plato believe that knowing virtue is enough for ordinary people to live a virtuous life, and there are no people who know virtue or do evil. Aristotle thinks (and most philosophers in later generations also agree with this point) that many people do what they are doing because they know it is a bad thing, but they still do it because of their fragile will. Plato listed only a few standard virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance and justice, while Aristotle listed far more than that.