Aristotle Pristine Greek Philosophy - Essay Example

Name Course Tutor Date Philosophy of Aristotle Introduction Aristotle was a philosopher from Greek, his area of specialisation includes: metaphysics, poetry, physics, rhetoric, ethics and politics among others. Aristotle was considered as one of the most founding figures in Western philosophy. He was surnamed "The Intellect" since he had the loftiest mind in Greece. His principles in the field could not allow them to be abstracted by other motives such as political and practical motives. His writings are considered to create an inclusive system of the philosophy of Western which encompassed aesthetics and morality, politics and metaphysics. The study below concerns the aspects of philosophy of Aristotle. Philosophy of Aristotle Aristotle is assumed to represent an image of difficult or complex thinking in terms of philosophy thus he was the considered as the most notable product of the educational program developed by Plato. Being a polymath and prolific writer, the philosopher made sure that he transformed most of the areas of knowledge he touched. Aristotle wrote approximately 200 treatise and around 31 still exist. His views on the physical sciences greatly determined medieval scholarship and their influence extended well into the renaissance while they were eventually replaced by Newtonian physics. The general aim of his treatises was to come up with a universal way of reasoning thus improving the understanding of everything in reality. Aristotle’s work, the categories entails a proposal for the explanation of particular things concerning their properties, states and activities. He had realised that the validity of all arguments could be determined more by its structure than the content. For example, he argued that all men are mortal and because Socrates is a man he is therefore mortal. Considering the structure of the statement, as long as the property is true the conclusion is also assumed to be real. In physical science, he specialised on such disciplines as astronomy, geography, meteorology, zoology, embryology, anatomy and physics. He also concentrated on education especially the foreign customs for the understanding of the international principles, poetry and literature. Most of his work is found in his encyclopaedia of the knowledge of Greek (Donald, 45-56). The classification of knowledge is considered as the most important in his work depending on the objects of the knowledge. The Greeks were concern about epistemology or the nature of human knowledge in the place thus it was the concern of moist of the philosophers especially on how on their one can be certain of it and what if all that which we know is not reality but an illusion. Aristotle tried to solve all the questions about knowledge by classifying it into various categories depending on relative certainty and objects for better understanding. For example, all mathematical objects enhances the knowledge and understanding of that which is real all the time, for instance the additional or subtraction of things is physical. Other objects like human behaviour do not allow certain knowledge; the activities that people involve in the course of their duties are not analysed the same by people for example, one can do something which hurts some and pleases others. He classified these types of knowledge by their probability and inexact explanations. Aristotle did not demand conviction in everything because it is not possible for ethics and politics to have the same certainty. In ethics Aristotle defined their differences by stating that we must be fulfilled to indicate the truth with a rough sketch thus the reality of the object should be visualised thus the discussion of their matters are depended or held on good as a rule and the conclusion attained must be under the same order (Donald, 56-79). Physics, one of his logic works adds to the universal method by distinguishing among the four causes which may be used in the explanation of most of the things especially in their appearance and their participation in most of the operations in the world. He also used this method in the explanation of characteristics of teleological to biological and astronomical elaboration of the natural environment (Aristotle & Creed, 123-145) In metaphysics, the philosopher tried to rationalize the whole enterprise by covering it all summary study of being a qua being, this helps in the understanding of why things are the way they are. He had realised that the earlier philosophers had not answered most of the questions of concern but rather ended up in more complicated situations, for example, Milesians ended up over-emphasizing the materials causes, Anaxagoras over-emphasized the minds or thinking and Plato got bogged down in the theory of forms. The metaphysical reasoning requires that we think about the processes employed even after we used them in the search of reality. Aristotle supposed that the structure of logic and languages naturally reflects the reality of things. He rejected the theory of forms by Platonic by defending his own view of reality including the existence of things. In the writings on the soul, the philosopher used the concept of hylomorphic composite to give a comprehensive account of the body functions portrayed by living things for example, animal, plants and human beings and considers the use of reason and sensation in the achievement of the actual knowledge. The author was also interested in scientific exploration of the nature of human beings evidenced in most of his poems like Peri Poihtikh V. He tried to bring out facts concerning how moral behaviour contributes to good life of human beings. Aristotle considered the usual need for the achievement of happiness, description of human .decision and moral deliberation, growth of a theory concerning any virtue, discussion of the value of three kinds of friendship and defended his conception of the supreme life of academic pursuit. He argues that the lives of human beings are always linked in a social context; in politics he concentrated on the origin of the state especially the description and assessment of the advantages of various kinds of government and listing of the obligations of the individual citizen. He was the author of the Constitution of Athens in which the abstract notion of the government which is functional to the actual life of a particular group of society of people (Aristotle & Creed, 147-149). The Ancient Greek philosophy lead by Aristotle marked an important change in the evolution of mankind and the ideas concerning the existence in the earth. Thus the philosophy of Aristotle is attributed with the evolution of the present science or reason based society. In one of his many works, the philosopher discovered that space exists like a wave-medium containing spherical motions of wave which causes matter and its interconnected changes. Under metaphysics or physics Aristotle tries to explain the existence of the physical nature, he also argues that wisdom is knowledge about certain principles and causes. While trying to seek it, the kind of principle and cause concerns that knowledge. Thus metaphysics involves intuitive knowledge or concepts and truth in the demonstration of the knowledge which comes from them. The cause of demonstration is depended on the principles or principal premises. Conclusion Aristotle is considered as the leading philosopher whose work although not openly used in the modern societies bit of it is still reflected. The philosopher concentrated on all aspects of life especially the existence of knowledge so as to discover why things are the way they are and not otherwise. Aristotle’s work is reflected in his treatises which are approximately 200 and 31 still exist in the post modern society as reference for the researchers. Among the work that he concentrated on include: metaphysics, universal, politics, ethics, poetics, knowledge among the others are related them with the natural life. Works cited Aristotle, Bambrough, R. & Creed, J. The Philosophy of Aristotle, Westminster : Penguin, 2003. Donald, Allan. The philosophy of Aristotle: (37) 2: 45-79. 2000. Read More