Aristotle Research Paper

Rebecca Ellis
Philosophy 105L
Introduction to Philosophy
11/4/08

Fr. Bruce Taggart, O. Carm., Ph.D., Instructor

Aristotle; The Introduction of Physics Aristotle was born in Stagira, Macedonia during the fourth century Before Common Era. At this time period Macedonia was a semi-Hellenized area in the Balkan Peninsula. Aristotle’s father was a physician. The fact that his father had a profession in society makes people wonder if that is what sparked Aristotle’s interest in his surroundings, or his senses, and biology, or the study of life. In 384 BCE when Aristotle was eighteen years old he entered Plato’s Academy and remained there for twenty years. During his time at the Academy he was most intrigued by the observation, research
and speculation aspects of his studies. After Plato’s death Aristotle decided to separate himself from Platonic belief based on two main reasons. One, he disagreed with Plato’s theory of Forms, and two the skeptical and religious direction that the Academy was headed was not in favor with Aristotle. As an ex-student of the Academy Aristotle moved to Assos and married the King Hermias’ niece Pythias. He then moved to nearby Mytilene and started to study marine biology. From 343-340 BCE Aristotle was a tutor or Alexander, later to be known as Alexander the Great. Around 335 BCE Aristotle returned to Athens and established his own school, known as the Lyceum- named for Apollo Lyceios. The school was dedicated to collecting, classification, and observation. Most of the works that Aristotle did have been sought to be lost, form fire or time. Aristotle died in Euboea of natural causes in 322 BCE. It was later thought that Aristotle may have been involved in Alexander’s death and he too may have been murdered as a result of Alexander’s unexplained death.
In order to establish his belief Aristotle had to reject Plato’s theory of Forms.
He didn’t agree that there was a world of immaterial forms perceived by the soul and then another world of individual material things perceived by the body. He also objected to Plato’s belief that there is a perfect form apart from the worldly forms. For instance according to Plato if there are 10 dogs on the world there are 11 dogs altogether because there is one more perfect one in the transcendental world. Aristotle believed there were only as many forms as there were in this world. In order then to understand the world Aristotle created his “science of nature” or Physics. He was very big into classification and is the man responsible for the classification of animal, vegetable, or mineral that we still use. At the heart of Aristotle’s Physics is his Four Causes. The causes are the formal, efficient, material, and final. The formal cause is the definition of form that makes us what we are. An example would be a dog can never be a cat because he has the dog form, his formal cause is dog. The efficient cause is what brought us to existence, for a baby this would be the parents. The third cause is the material cause. This is what we are made up of, and it is the same in all objects within the same form. This is like in humans we all have same amount of chromosomes, our material make up is exactly the same. The last cause is the final cause. This is the purpose of the form. For a child this
would be to grow up, get a job in society and have more kids. Aristotle also set up two types of change substantial which is a change in form like if I woke up tomorrow as a giraffe that would be a substantial change. The second change is accidental, this would be if I got fatter or dyed my hair. One of the last major ideas of Aristotle was his Virtue of Golden Mean. With this he believed that you had to have a proper balance of all things too much also known as an excess, or too little also known as a deficit could be very bad. One example would be striving for the Golden Mean of Bravery. Too little is Cowardliness and too much is Foolhardiness, both which can be harmful in a war type situation. The last one is his major and minor premise which lead to a conclusion. The Major Premise would be- All human beings are mortal. The Minor Premise would be Rebecca is a human being, so therefore the Conclusion is Rebecca is mortal.
I really did enjoy studying Aristotle.
I think there is more to know and learn about him than any other philosopher that I have been exposed to. I knew of his theory of forms before and his virtue of golden mean, but I had never heard of is concept of his causes, which are like the basis of his physics. I think that Aristotle was the closest to actually creating an idea that people could just follow without being extremely radical. His concepts seemed very general. For instance, if starting today I tried to live by Aristotle’s way of thinking I think I could pretty much do it. I already practice the virtue of golden mean when I eat. I don’t want to eat too much, but I don’t want to starve either. Also I think that I believe in his four causes, they all make sense to me. There is obviously something that brought me into this word, I am made up of material, I do have the same basic form as a European human because I am human and I do believe I have a purpose. Also I agree with Aristotle that each person poses a soul within them. I am religious, and Plato’s theory seemed to be more religious than Aristotle’s, but seem to agree with Aristotle on the soul issue. One thing I wish I knew about Aristotle was if his father’s occupation inspired him to look at life through the scientific eye. All throughout school we had to classify and observe and I really find it interesting that the idea of that came from Aristotle during BCE. Another thing that I do which is inspired by Aristotle
is living by observations through my five senses. In the morning I can feel through my sense of fell what the temperature is like through the window. I can smell if my food is burning or listening to hear if the tea pot is whistling. When we used to do experiments in school I think that is when I learned the best. They were the only time when I really got to do a trial and error experiment and then correct my mistakes, learn from them and go from there. I am a firm believer in learning from my mistakes and I think Aristotle showed he was willing to experiment and set up this new scientific theory that was unheard of. He seemed to be willing to stick to gut and develop a more scientific based theory than Socrates or Plato.