The Philosophy of Aristotle - The Realist and the Scientist

Aristotle had an immense intellectual reach; he founded formal logic and pioneered both observational and theoretical zoology.

He believed that souls who had lived virtuously could continue their existence after physical death; those who did not manifest virtue would descend into Hades.

Aristotle's ideas shaped civilization for centuries and changed how we use language today - examples include phrases such as "substance and predicate" as well as concepts like energy and matter.

The Realist

Aristotle believed in an objective reality - something measurable, touchable, and describable - as well as essential natures - what they represent at their core. He utilized concepts such as function classification and hierarchy to better comprehend his world; his philosophy has gone on to influence many works in areas like science literature and art.

Aristotle's physics focused on how objects evolved in nature. According to him, natural objects reveal their true nature by shifting toward their desired ends in accordance with nature; any intervention from humans would only disrupt this natural process and disrupt this natural expression of their specific features.

He hypothesized that any change in the world had four causes. These included material causes (for instance bronze metal used to form statues); formal causes (such as what type of thing it is; for instance sphere or Callias statue); and final causes - like its purpose or function shifting over time.

Aristotle saw soul as an intellectual power that can perceive objects, feel pleasure or pain and desire things. He divided these capacities of mind into seven stages, from plants possessing nutritive psyche (nutritive+sensitive for simple animals) through higher animals possessing perceptive+sensitive and locomotion capacities to humans possessing understanding or rationality capacities.

Aristotle believed that pure contemplation, or reasoning, was the highest form of thinking and superior to all other modes. He postulated that the gods thought this way as well, hence their superior status compared with men. According to Aristotle, ethics exists solely to bring people towards this state of pure thought.

Aristotle's philosophy has had an indelible mark on society from religion and politics to music and poetry. He is widely regarded as the founder of Western thought and remains one of the most influential philosophers ever, his ideas such as hierarchy and scientific method still pervading education today; furthermore he wrote extensively about drama and poetry.

The Scientist

Studies of nature--including works on special sciences such as cosmology, biology and psychology--form a significant part of Aristotle's surviving writings. His early marine biology research involved extensive fieldwork conducted either directly by him or his students under his guidance.

Aristotle believed that observation is central to philosophy. For him, its primary goal is understanding reality's structure and nature - he believed science could best achieve this objective by studying real things instead of trying to abstractly describe them.

Aristotle's work on physics had an enormous impact, as his contributions paved the way for what would later become the scientific method. Aristotle also highlighted the role of observation when explaining natural phenomena, such as properties and motion of matter and its properties, while insisting that all theories must be verifiable through examination of premises and conclusions of syllogisms.

Aristotle held that intellects produce images, as opposed to Plato's belief that intellects were passive entities that took in whatever was presented; his doctrine of intentionality led him to distinguish between two types of intellect: Receptive (which act passively like a tablet on which images can be drawn), and Producive. With respect to production, Aristotle believed the productive intellect produced images corresponding to what it comprehended whereas passive intellects merely received it all and passively accepted what came its way;

According to Aristotle's metaphysics, everything in existence serves a telos, or purpose or goal, whether that goal be external such as wealth accumulation or internal such as self-perfection. Even governments have their own purpose - providing services for their constituents' welfare.

Living beings strive to reach their full potential. In doing so, they strive toward pure actuality - the highest form of consciousness in the universe - in order to realize this dream. Aristotle identified this drive as being provided by god as its source.

The Anti-Realist

Aristotle believed logic to be not simply the dissemination of a system of beliefs but an artful way to demonstrate rational thought processes, which led him to develop concepts such as truth, predication and definition. Aristotle proposed that for any statement to be true or false it must contain both two terms - subject and predicate - joined together into a syllogism in order to accurately depict reality; his view on reasoning structure had an enormous influence over modern logic and philosophy.

At this stage in his life, Aristotle seems increasingly disillusioned with politics. His friendship with Alexander the Great had begun to fade, and Aristotle felt threatened by Alexander's megalomania - demanding Greeks prostrate themselves before him as an act of worship - yet continued teaching at Lyceum until his death in 322 BCE.

As a naturalist, Aristotle explored a wide array of issues. His investigations encompassed studying heavens and Earth; celestial body motion; living things; as well as human psychology - always providing explanations that correspond with publicly observed phenomena.

His works on the soul, or psyche, provide a middle path between physicalism - which identifies it with body - and dualism (which asserts independent existence of the psyche from body) Boeri has suggested that Aristotle considered the soul to be "materialized into living being".

For Aristotle, metaphysical and epistemological causal explanation were often treated together; natural change involves principles that originate internally; thus efficient, final, and formal causes often coincided. However, with regards to asexual reproduction for instance, differentiating between these forms of explanation would be prudent as its identity principle acts externally through material forces.

Aristotle distinguished between an innate and learned human nature. The former stems from biological inheritance while cultural upbringing and education shape our personality in general; Aristotle believed that in terms of moral judgments requiring multiple sources, however, learning should always take precedence over inheritance.

The Anti-Scientist

Early scholastic philosophers were subject to severe attacks from naturalists. Copernicus disproved Aristotle's cosmology by making Earth a satellite of Sun, while Galileo demonstrated his physical theory was incorrect (heavy objects do not fall more slowly). Furthermore, Descartes disparaged Aristotle's teleological approach in his physics and Hobbes and Hume criticised Aristotle's theory of perception - all these attacks eventually contributed to Aristotle's legacy scholastic philosophy was finally dismantled and Aristotle had been dominant until that fateful day when his influence ultimately led him downfall.

Aristotle's works drew upon his own experiences and vast knowledge of nature. He divided sciences into three types: productive, practical and theoretical. Productive sciences like engineering and architecture create tangible products; practical sciences include strategy and rhetoric for behavior modification; while theoretical sciences included fields such as physics and mathematics.

Contrary to Plato's tendency for abruptly switching topics, Aristotle organized his ideas in an orderly and coherent fashion. His writings, particularly those on natural sciences such as treatises on meteorology or botany, provide valuable information that cannot be found elsewhere like that found in Plato's dialogues.

He began with a principle of causality which stressed evidence-gathering. Aristotle also devised a system for collecting observations, then using logic to draw generalized conclusions from them - this allowed his scientific theories to correspond with publicly observed phenomena.

Aristotle laid out in his more specific naturalistic works on cosmology, biology, and psychology an extensive program of continuous yet teleological investigation - which remains of interest even today to modern scientists. For instance, Aristotle observed bees' "waggle dance," and described for the first time cattle's "lordosis behavior."

At around the time of Plato's death, Aristotle relocated from Athens to Atarneus in northern Anatolia ruled by former Academy student Hermias and engaged in negotiations and potentially espionage on behalf of Philip of Macedon, whose empire was expanding rapidly. Here he married Hermias' ward Pythias and engaged in negotiations or spying activities on behalf of Philip of Macedon whose empire was expanding quickly.