ARISTOTLE (384-322 BC)
Aristotle was born in Stageira, went to Athens at a young age and entered Plato's Academy. He was greatly influenced by his teacher Plato in the Academy, stayed there for twenty years, and later established schools and gave lessons in Assos and Midilli. He was a private tutor to Alexander the Great. When he returned to Athens, he founded a school called Liseum (Peripathetics, the school of wanderers) and engaged in philosophical activities there. He is the founder of the discipline of logic. The Organon, where he explains logic, consists of six books; Categories, On Proposition, I. Analytics, II. Analytics, Topics and Sophistic Refutations. In his metaphysics book, he deals with the problem of being , which he calls the first philosophy. His physics book examines nature. He has works called On Animals, On the Soul, Nicomachean Ethics, Eudemic Ethics, The State of the Athenians, Rhetoric about oratory and Poetics about art.
Aristotle's concept of being;
While Plato thinks that what we see around us is a reflection of what exists in the world of ideas, Aristotle says that the things in the human soul are a reflection of the beings in nature.
Aristotle thinks that form is inherent in visible things. In the famous Renaissance painting The School of Athens by Raphael, Plato points upwards towards the world of forms, while Aristotle, on the contrary, extends his hand to the world in front of him. According to Aristotle, matter gains reality through form, takes shape and gains certain qualities through form Conversely, . form can only realize itself in matter (genesis). Pure matter, in which form has not yet been realized, is a state of being in a state of potentiality. The degree of actualization of form ranks beings; at the bottom are inanimate beings in which form is only slightly actualized, and at the top is God, who is a pure form that has become completely actualized.
There are four main causes that enable anything or the universe as a whole to come into being; material cause, formal cause, efficient cause andfinal cause. Material cause is the material from which something is made, formal cause is its form, efficient cause is the purpose of making it, and final cause is the power that shapes matter in line with the purpose in question.
Being carries ten categories; Substance, Quantity, Quality, Relation, Place, Time, Position, Possession, Activity and Passivity. Nine of these ten categories are accidental, one is substance. Substance consists of form and matter. Form is the mover, matter is the moved.
Aristotle's universe has three parts. The sublunar world is the beings on earth. The superlunar world contains celestial bodies and they are formed from ether (aether), which is a much finer and divine structure. At the end of the superlunar world is the realm of fixed stars, they are the beings that most resemble God in structure, there is no change in this area.
Aristotle's logic and understanding of knowledge;
According to Aristotle, the discipline of logic is a discipline that can be applied as a method in all other sciences and explains the forms of correct reasoning. Logic is a method of deriving correct inferences using deduction and induction. Reaching from the universal to the particular is deduction, and reaching from the particular to the universal is induction.
The three principles of valid reasoning are the principle of identity, the principle of non-contradiction, and the principle of the impossibility of the third state. According to the principle of identity, A=A, everything is identical with itself. The principle of non-contradiction states that something cannot be both A and non-A, and a proposition cannot be both true and false. According to the principle of the impossibility of the third state, something is either A or non-A, a proposition is either true or false, and a third option is not possible.
Aristotle's understanding of the soul;
According to Aristotle, the soul and the body always exist together, and when the body dies, the soul cannot continue its existence. Just as the movement of matter depends on form, the movement of the body depends on the soul. The soul is the form of the body and the body is the substance of the soul. Plants have nutrition, animals have sensation in addition to nutrition, and humans have both nutrition, sensation and a rational soul. The rational soul consists of the passive and active intellect. Information obtained through the senses or perception is collected in the passive intellect. The active intellect is immortal and is where abstract thinking takes place.
Aristotle's concept of morality and virtue;
The goal of man is goodness, happiness, and is achieved by complying with virtue. Virtue requires that man behave in accordance with his nature and that the different parts of the soul are in harmony. According to Aristotle,virtue should bechosen with free will. Virtues are formed by training man's will and choices. Virtue posists that man avoids excesses and deficiencies and always seeks the middle.
According to Aristotle, the three forms of happinesare as follows: a life of pleasure and enjoyment, being a free and responsible citizen and living as a researcher and philosopher. These three forms of happiness must exist together. The "golden mean" is also necessary in interpersonal relationships. We should neither be coward, nor foolishly bold, but we should have courage.
Aristotle speaks of dianoetic virtues as well as ethical virtues. Science, art, intuitive reason, practical wisdom and philosophical or theoretical wisdom, which expresses the unity of intuitive reason and science, constitute dianoetic virtues.
Aristotle speaks of justice in accordance with the law and justice that is right and equal; distributive or sharing justice and corrective justice that ensures the resolution of disputes that arise between citizens.
Aristotle's concept of society and politics;
The state exists for the happiness of man, it has arisen from man's natural needs and tendencies and is a natural entity. The state is responsible for the intellectual and moral education of citizens. Slaves, farmers, craftsmen and merchants do not have citizenship rights. The people and resources that create the city-state are the material cause, the political structure and the constitution is the formal cause, the administrators are the efficient cause, and the good life is the final cause of happiness.
Aristotle mentions six political orders; monarchy, aristocracy and polity are healthy regime types where the public interest is taken care of, and their corrupted forms are tyranny, oligarchy and democracy, respectively. He supports polity as the healthiest regime because it is difficult to find wise administrators.
Art and understanding of aesthetics
Aristotle regards art as an act of imitation. Tragedy has all the qualities of an epic and , has additional qualities such as spectacle and music, is superior to the epic because it is more unified and achieves its imitation goal in a shorter time. In his book Poetics, he says that the goal of art is the pleasure and understanding associated with having knowledege, the emotional purification it brings about and the elevation of man.