Aristotle 01 PDF

ARISTOTLE

ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.)
Founder of every science or domain of study known to
humans
Physics Literary Criticism
Chemistry Anthropology
Biology Ethics
Metaphysics Political science
Metereology Psychology
Logic

Original contributions to
philosophy after Aristotle
Augustine – Theory of the Will
Thomas d’Aquino – Phil. of Human Nature
Hegel – Dialectic, elaboration of Aristotle
Marx – Political Economy & Social Psychology
– first major advance beyond Aristotle
- but based on Aristotle,
- called «the Aristotle of the 19th century»
Heidegger – Phenomenology – Aristotelian
psychology

Modernists reject Aristotle
Descartes – his skepticism became basis of
individualistic exploitation of community
Locke – skepticism leads to theory of property
rejecting Aristotle’s understanding of individual
within community
Smith – complete rejection of Aristotle’s theory of
moral economy – Bush-style free enterprise

ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.)
born Macedonia 15 yrs after d. of Socrates
student at Plato’s Academy at age 17
Collaborates with Plato on dialogues
- disagreed over essential realities of our world
- Forms vs. Substances (living organisms)
Leaves Academy after Plato’s death
pursues research in biology
Tutor of Alexander
Founds Lyceum in Athens (334 BC)

Raphael, The School at Athens.
Vatican museums.

Nicomachean Ethics
Reading next 2 weeks

The complete ‘good’
(NE i.7—key chapter)
- ‘what is intrinsically worth pursuing is more complete
than what is worth pursuing for something else’
- the ‘intrinsically choiceworthy’
‘most chiceworthy of all things’
- ‘self-sufficient’
= Happiness (eudaimonia), but this is ‘commonplace’—
what does it mean?

Happiness (eudaimonia)
Eudaimonia
‘living well,’ ‘doing well’
‘Not a state’ of mind (EN x.6), ‘an activity rather than a
state’
So Aristotle doesn’t mean the way you feel eating ice
cream or going shopping
Aristotle: Maybe, we can understand happiness if we
understand function of human

Aristotle on function (ergon)
in general
‘Everything is defined by its ergon and capacity’
(Politics, Bk.i, ch. 2.1253a23)
Ergon = function, work, product
Homonymous
E.g., function (ergon) of house builder is to build
houses (product= ergon) for other members of the
community: this is her/his work (ergon).

Aristotle on function
(ergon)—cont.
E.g., a doctor is the ergon he actualizes:
it is easy, Aristotle says, to know various remedies for
illness, but how to dispense them and to whom and when,
‘that much a function (ergon) is what it is to be a doctor’
(NE v.9.1137a16).
If something loses its function, ceases to be.
An eye that loses capacity to see no longer an eye, except
homonymously

What is function of human
being? (NE i.7)
Functions of craftsmen
Flute player, carpenter, doctor
Not function of individual parts, or function(s) we share
with animals or plants
Function of living thing involves activity (energeia), the
actuality of living
= activity of the soul or life-principal (psuche)
Since reason distinctive of humans, ‘function of human
involves activity in accord w. reason’

Function performed well if performed in accordance
with virtue of the thing
E.g., knife, goat
Conclusion about happiness
‘the human good turns out to be activity of soul in
accord with virtue’
Let’s examine the parts of this statement:
‘Soul’ (Psuche)
‘Virtue’ (arete)

Psuche = ‘soul’ or ‘life-force’
Nothing to do with religion
Greek belief that all living things possess some life
principal or force
Plants, animals, humans – all have soul, but differ in
capacities
Ensouled things are substances.
Psuche is form of the thing
What does it mean to say soul is ‘form’?

Form and matter
Aristotle says everything that exists in our world is a composite of
form and matter
Form is nature or whatness of a thing
Example of bronze sphere, as teaching tool to introduce more
advanced case of form as soul.

Form & matter II
The form sphere provides shape for bronze scrap to be
worked into bronze sphere.
Sphere is whatness of bronze sphere.
Soul understood by its capacities, i.e., what organism
can do.

Capacities of psuche
Nutritive – shared with plants & animals
Perceptual & locomotive – shared w animals
Intellective/rational – distinctly human
For happiness to be human, must involve exercise of
intellective/rational capacity
Aristotle says people who do not live by intellect cannot
be happy (EN x.9)

Intellective capacity
Activity (energeia) of Intellective capacity is form-generating
& form-perceiving.
Same forms that are nature or whatness of things are forms in
intellect by which we perceive those things.
We acquire forms through experience with things that embody
them.
E.g., bronze sphere embodies form ‘sphere’.

Aristotle rejects skepticism
So, Aristotle argues that knowledge is based on an
identity between the knower and the known.
That is one result of his theory that all things are
composites of form and matter.
Ergo, Aristotle rejects skepticism of Descartes.

Virtue
Remember Aristotle’s definition of happiness:
‘activity/actuality of soul in accord with virtue’
He adds:
‘and if there are more virtues than one, then in accord
with best and most complete virtue’ (i.7)
Cf. list of virtues, right column last table
Best and most complete virtue is JUSTICE.

Justice
“Justice is the only virtue that seems to be another
person’s good, for it is related to another, for it does
what benefits another” (EN 1130a3-4).
Justice not a matter of fairness, but rather of helping
another.

Justice in economic relations
Primary example of justice in Aristotle’s theory of
exchange:
a person wealthier or more powerful helps another in their
mutual exchange of goods, s/he loses money to the other
in the transaction.

Conclusion: what is
happiness?
Happiness is fulfillment of the human function of
activity of soul in accordance with the virtue of justice
to benefit others as much as I am able.