Aristotle was a Greek philosopher who studied under Plato and taught Alexander the Great, covering various subjects such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. He developed a comprehensive system of Western philosophy, emphasizing the study of particular phenomena to understand universal essences, and established key principles of logic, including the laws of identity, contradiction, and excluded middle. His ethical framework focused on achieving happiness through the cultivation of virtue, linking human flourishing to a proper understanding of one's function and the development of reason.

1. ARISTOTLE
A QUICK REVIEW
BY
Derrick Augustin,CSs.R.

3. ARISTOTLE
NAME:Aristotle
OCCUPATION: philosopher
BIRTH DATE: c. 384 BCE
DEATH DATE: c. 322 BCE
EDUCATION: Plato's Academy, Lyceum
PLACE OF BIRTH: Stagira, Chalcidice, Greece
PLACE OF DEATH: Chalcis, Euboea, Greece

4. BRIEF
HISTORY:
He was a Greek philosopher. Also a student
of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great.
His writings cover many subjects,
including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theatre, m
usic, logic, rhetoric, linguistics,
politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology.
Aristotle's writings were the first to create a
comprehensive system of Western philosophy,
encompassing ethics,
aesthetics, logic, science, politics,
and metaphysics.

5. EPISTEMOLOGY
Epistemology is derived from the two Greek
words “episteme “knowledge and “logos”
science, and means the science of knowledge.
As employed in philosophy the word means the
science of the certitude of human knowledge.

6. Aristotle and Epistemology
Aristotle defines soul as the Form of a natural body that
has the potential to possess life. This body then must be
furnished with organs: lungs, stomach etc. Life then is
the process of growth and nutrition.
Sensation requires an external stimulus, to move the
potentiality to an actuality. In this case, the perceptive
organ, i.e. the eye, is potentially what the object is
actually. When having a sensation, the eye, which is
only logically distinct from the “seeing” of the eye, is
one in quality with the object of sight. So when looking
at a green wall, the eye becomes qualitatively green.

7. logic
Aristotle himself would have labeled "analytics". The term
"logic" he reserved to mean dialectics. Most of Aristotle's
work is probably not in its original form, because it was
most likely edited by students and later lecturers. The
logical works of Aristotle were compiled into six books in
about the early 1st century CE: and they are:

8. logic
1. categories
2. on interpretation
3. prior analytics
4. posterior analytics
5. Topics
6. On sophistical refutations

9.  Like his teacher Plato, Aristotle's philosophy aims at
the universal. Aristotle's ontology, however, finds the
universal in particular things, which he calls the essence
of things, while in Plato's ontology, the universal exists
apart from particular things, and is related to them as
their prototype or exemplar.
 For Aristotle, therefore, epistemology is based on the
study of particular phenomena and rises to the
knowledge of essences, while for Plato epistemology
begins with knowledge of universal Forms (or ideas)
and descends to knowledge of particular imitations of
these.

10. For Aristotle, "form" still refers to the unconditional
basis of phenomena but is "instantiated" in a particular
substance (see Universals and particulars, below).
In a certain sense, Aristotle's method is
both inductive and deductive, while Plato's is essentially
deductive from a priori principles.

11. logic
In his logic, Aristotle explicitly established three
laws of logical thought.
Law # 1: law of identity: “each thing is inseparable
from itself and its being one just meant this” A
thing is just itself and not something else: e.g. a
soccer ball is a soccer ball and not a kitchen stove.
* Sometimes this is expressed as A = A.
Note: the fact that we can use a book for a
doorstop does not mean it is not a book. Its use
does not contradict the law of identity. What a
thing is and how it is used are two different
issues.

12. logic
Law # 2: the law of contradiction: “the same attribute
cannot at the same time belong and not belong to the
same subject and in the same respect” . E.g. my cup
cannot be blue and not-blue at the same time
• A cannot be A and not-A at the same time in the same
way/respect.
Note: things may have and not have the same attributes in different
ways: e.g. man is the most intelligent creature compared to animals
but he is not intelligent compared to God. So man is both
intelligent (compared to animals) and not intelligent (compared to
God). There is no contradiction because ‘intelligent’ is being used in
different ways.

13. logic
Law # 3: the law of the excluded middle or
excluded third : “there cannot be an intermediate
between two contradictories, but of one subject we
must either affirm or deny any one predicate
[statement]” .
• A statement about a topic must either be true or
false. It cannot be both, i.e. there is no middle
between them. It cannot be neither true nor false.
• Note: It is either true that Socrates is mortal or it is
not true that he is not mortal. He is not both. Nor can
he be neither mortal nor immortal.
• Another example: It is either true that there is a rubber
duck in my bath tub or it is not true. Nor can we say
neither of these choices is true.

14. Systematization
Concept of concept:
• Into which the premise is resolved, i.e. both the
predicate and that of which it is predicated”
• He reduced the concept to its 10 categories or different
types.
THEYARE:
 Substance (man or horse)
 Quantity (two feet long, or three)
 Quality (white or literate)

15. Systematization
 Relationship (double, half)
 Place (answers where)
 Time(answers when)
 Posture(shows the situation)
 State(having shoes on)
 Doing something(cutting, active)
 Undergoing something(being cut, passive)

16. ARISTOTLE AND METAPHYSICS
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy concerned
with the study of "first principles" and "being" In
other words, Metaphysics is the study of the most
general aspects of reality, such as substance, identity,
the nature of the mind, and free will. It is a study of
nature and the nature of the world in which man
lives.
Aristotle’sMetaphysics has as its central theme on an
inquiry into how substance may be defined as a
category of being. According to Aristotle, the being of
any individual thing is primarily defined by what it is,
i.e. by its substance. Substance is both essence (form)
and substratum (matter), and may combine form and
matter.

17. ARISTOTLE AND METAPHYSICS
Substance
Accidents
Act
potency

18. ARISTOTLE AND METAPHYSICS
KINDS OF CAUSES OF THINGS:
 THE FORMAL CAUSE (THE FORM OF THE THING)
 THE MATERIAL CAUSE (WHAT IT IS MADE OF)
 THE EFFICIENT CAUSE (WHAT MADE IT)
 AND THE FINAL CAUSE (ITS PURPOSE OR END).

19. Aristotle divided his Metaphysics into three parts
ONTOLOGY:
The study of being and existence; includes the
definition and classification of entities, physical or
mental, the nature of their properties, and the nature of
change.
THEOLOGY:
The study of a God or gods; involves many topics,
including among others the nature of religion and the
world, existence of the divine, questions about Creation,
and the numerous religious or spiritual issues that
concern humankind in general.
UNIVERSAL SCIENCE:
The study of first principles, such as the law of
noncontradiction (logic), which Aristotle believed were
the foundation of all other inquiries.

20. ETHICS
Aristotle considered ethics to be a practical rather than
theoretical study, i.e., one aimed at becoming good and
doing good rather than knowing for its own sake.
Aristotle taught that virtue has to do with the proper
function of a thing. An eye is only a good eye in so much
as it can see, because the proper function of an eye is
sight.

21. Aristotle reasoned that humans must have a
function specific to humans, and that this
function must be an activity of
the psyche (normally translated as soul) in
accordance with reason Aristotle identified such
an optimum activity of the soul as the aim of all
human deliberate action, eudemonia, generally
translated as "happiness" or sometimes "well
being". To have the potential of ever being happy
in this way necessarily requires a good character,
often translated as moral (or ethical) virtue (or
excellence).

22. Aristotle taught that to achieve a virtuous and
potentially happy character requires a first stage
of having the fortune to be habituated not
deliberately, but by teachers, and experience,
leading to a later stage in which one consciously
chooses to do the best things. When the best
people come to live life this way their practical
wisdom and their intellect can develop with each
other towards the highest possible human virtue,
the wisdom of an accomplished theoretical or
speculative thinker, or in other words, a
philosopher.