UNIT 2 ARISTOTLE

Contents
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Life
2.3 Works
2.4 Aristotle and Plato
2.5 Aristotle’s Philosophy: Logic
2.6 Philosophy of the World
2.7 First Philosophy
2.8 Philosophy of God
2.9 Philosophy of Human
2.10 Ethics
2.11 Art and Literature
2.12 Slavery
2.13 Let Us Sum Up
2.14 Key Words
2.15 Further Readings and References
2.16 Answers to Check Your Progress

2.0 OBJECTIVES
In this Unit we will be dealing with one of the greatest founding fathers of Western
Philosophy,Aristotle. We will explain his philosophy, encompassing morality and
aesthetics, logic and science, politics and metaphysics. The study of Aristotle’s
philosophy is important because Aristotelianism had a profound influence on
philosophical andtheological thinkingintheIslamicand JewishtraditionsintheMiddle
Ages, and it continues to influence Christian theology, especially Eastern Orthodox
theology, and the scholastic tradition of the Roman Catholic Church.
By the end of this Unit you should be able to:
 understandAristotelian logic, systematisation and definition;
 comprehend his philosophy of the world; and
 clarify his metaphysical and ethical position.

2.1 INTRODUCTION
Together with Plato and Socrates,Aristotle is one of the most important founding 19
figures in Western philosophy. He was the first to create a comprehensive system of
Greek Philosophy : Western philosophy, encompassingmoralityand aesthetics, logic and science, politics
Classical Period
and metaphysics. His works contain the earliest known formal studyof logic, which
were incorporated in the late nineteenth century into modern formal logic. In
metaphysics,Aristotelianism hadaprofoundinfluenceonphilosophical andtheological
thinking in the Islamic and Jewish traditions in the MiddleAges, and it continues to
influence Christian theology,especiallyEastern Orthodox theology, and the scholastic
tradition of the Roman Catholic Church.All aspects ofAristotle’s philosophycontinue
to be the object of active academic study today.

2.2 LIFE
The year was 384 B.C. Socrates has been dead for fifteen years; Plato had begun
his Academy three years earlier. In northern Thrace, not far from the boarder of
Athens at Stageira, a child born to a physician in the royal court of Macedonia. This
child namedAristotle was destined to be the second father of Western philosophy.
His father Nicomachus was both a doctor and advisor to Amyntas III king of
Macedonia, but thedate of his father’s death and, consequently, theextent ofAristotle’s
stay at court are not certain.At the age of eighteenAristotle was sent for advanced
studyto Plato’sAcademy atAthens. He spent twenty years (367-347) their imbibing
the spirit of Platonic philosophy.As the death of Socrates has been the catalyst for
Plato’s development as an independent thinker, so the death of Plato signalled the
beginning for Aristotle of a second and more independent period (347-336). He
started his own academy at Assos in Mysia. He traveled with Xenocrates to the
court of his friend Hermias ofAtarneus inAsia Minor.While inAsia,Aristotle traveled
with Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where together theyresearched the botany
and zoologyof the island.Aristotle married Hermias’s adoptive daughter (or niece).
She bore him a daughter, whom they named Pythias. Soon after Hermias’ death,
Aristotle was invited by Philip of Macedon to become tutor toAlexander the Great
in 343 B.C.Alexander succeeded to the throne in 335/4 B.C Inspired by Plato and
seasoned by his own teaching experience,Aristotle returned toAthens for third and
culminating period of his life (335-332). He founded the Lyceum. The members of
the Lyceum came to be called the peripatetic, from the peripatos, of covered walk,
in which they gathered.
Aristotle not onlystudied almost everysubject possible at the time,but made significant
contributions to most of them. In physical science, Aristotle studied anatomy,
astronomy, economics, embryology, geography, geology, meteorology, physics and
zoology. In philosophy, he wrote on aesthetics, ethics, government, metaphysics,
politics, psychology, rhetoric and theology. He also studied education, foreign
customs, literature and poetry. His combined works constitute a virtual encyclopedia
of Greek knowledge. It has been suggested that Aristotle was probably the last
person to know everything there was to be known in his own time.

2.3 WORKS
The prodigious dimensions ofAristotle’s works are eloquently manifested by more
than two hundred known titles.
1. Dialogues
a) Brief works: On Rhetoric, On the Soul, and Exhortation to Philosophy
20 etc.
b) Quasi Treatises: On wealth, on Prayer, On Good Birth, On Pleasure, On Aristotle

Friendship, On Kingship,Alexander (On colonists).

c) Works of more than one book: Politics, On Poets, On Justice, On the Good,
On Ideas, and On Philosophy.
d) On Other philosophers: On Democritus, On the Pythagoreans, and On the
Philosophy ofArchytas
e) From Other Philosophers: From Plato’s Laws, From the Republic.
f) Treatises
2. Logic (The “Organon”): Categories, On Interpretation, PriorAnalysis, Topics,
On Sophisticated Refutation.
3. Natural Philosophy
a. The physical world: physics, On the Heavens, On Generation and
Corruption, Meteorology
b. The Living: On the Soul
The history of Animals, Movement of Animals. Progression of Animals, and
Generation ofAnimals.
4. Metaphysics
5. Ethics: Eudemain Ethics, Nicomachian Ethics, Politics, and Magna Moralia.
6. Poetics: Rhetoric and Poetics.
7. Collection of Facts
During his stay at the Lyceum,Aristotle directed extensive projects of group research,
collecting data in widely diverse fields and wrote the following:
The historyofAnimals.
The History of Plants.
The Politics, collection of lists of the names of the winners in the Pythian and Olympic
games and collections of the History of Literature.

2.4 ARISTOTLEAND PLATO

Plato was born to an aristocratic familywith a long historyof participation in political
life. Aristotle’s father was a doctor.
Otherworldliness: For Plato all that is perfect belong to the otherworld butAristotle
is satisfied with this world.
The objects of knowledge: Plato is a rationalist and a mystic. Mathematics seems to
be the ideal science yet reason is not sufficient to grasp reality so he uses myths and
mysticism.Aristotle ismuch moredowntoearthandforhim languageis quitesufficient
to express the truth of things.
Human Nature: For Plato the real person is the soul. ForAristotle the human person
is the rational animal. 21
Greek Philosophy : Relativism and Scepticism: Plato’s main concern was to refute scepticism. The
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problem does not seem to worryAristotle. For him the problem is to analyse the
process by which we attain knowledge and to set out the basic features of the
realities disclosed.
Ethics: Plato wants and thinks we can get the same kind of certainty in rules of
behaviour that we have in mathematics. Dialectic, reasoning about the Forms can
lead us to moral truths. ForAristotle in matters of practical decision we cannot get
mathematical certainty. Each case has to be dealt with separately.

2.5 ARISTOTLE’S PHILOSOPHY: LOGIC

The Sophist claim to teach pupils “to make the weaker arguments appear stronger”
has been satirized byAristophanes, scorned by Socrates, and repudiated by Plato.
But until Aristotle does his work on Logic, no one gives a good answer to the
question, just what makes an argument weaker or stronger?
We regard those among us the wisest who know not only what something is but also
why it is so. Wisdom, then, either is or at least involves knowledge.And knowledge
involves bothstatements (that somethingis so) andreasons (statements whysomething
is so). Furthermore, for the possession of such statements to qualify as wisdom,
they must be true.As Plato pointed out falsehood cannot make up knowledge. It is
Aristotle’s intention to clarify all this, to sort it out, put it in order, and show how it
works. So he has to do several things. He has to (1) explain the nature of statements
how, for instance, they are put together out of simpler units called terms; (2) explain
how statements can be related to each other so that someone can give “the reason
why” for others; and (3) give an account of what makes statements true or false.
These make up the logic.
Aristotle is a real pioneer in the field of logic. Even todayhis logic is followed. Logic
according toAristotle is the art of right thinking and thereby attaining truth.As such
it does not have any special object as do other disciplines, but is their instrument and
tool.
SYSTEMATISATION
Aristotle did a lot of systematisation in Logic. He was one the first to notice that the
mind has a certain basic structure and method and tried to detail what those were
and how it functioned. The ultimate elements of the working of the mind were three:
concept, judgement and reasoning.
He defined concept as that “into which the premise is resolved, i.e., both the predicate
and that of which it is predicated.” He then went on to reduce the concept to its 10
categories or different types. Thus a concept may be predicated of a subject so as
to indicate its essence, or quantity, quality, relation, place, time, situation, “habitus”,
action or passion.
Substance - man or horse
Quantity - two feet long, three feet long
Quality - white or literate
Relationship - double, half, or greater.
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Place - in the Lyceum, in the market place Aristotle

Time - yesterday, last year.

Posture - reclining at table, sitting down. (situation)
State - having shoes on, being in armour (habitus)
Doing something - cutting, burning (action)
Undergoing something - being cut, being burnt (passion)
He carefully examined what happens when we make a judgement, observed that it
alone is the source of the true or false. Then he investigated their quality(affirmative
and negative) quantity (universal, particular, and singular) and modality (factual,
necessity and possibility) He also studied the convertibility of judgements.As to
reasoning, he reduced the syllogisms to their basic types and exposed the commonest
fallacies and reasoning. Finally he sought to explain how universal premises are
formed and how scientific knowledge may be further developed through induction,
dialectic, demonstration and solution of aprioris or difficulties.
DEFINITIONS
Confusion of meaning of terms is one of the factors that had been responsible for
disagreements etc. Aristotle drew up rules for a good definition, and even gave us
some very good examples of this.
Motion: “the fulfilment of what exists potentially, in so far as it exists potentially, is
motion.”
Time is “measurement of movement according to before and after.”

2.6 PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD

Aristotle advances several arguments against the theory of subsisting ideas of Plato.
According to Plato’s theorythere must be forms of negations and relations.According
toAristotle the theory of Ideas is useless. It is an impossible theorythat the substance
and that of which it is the substance must exist separately.
SUBSTANCE AND ACCIDENTS
This is a distinction we make without looking into the metaphysical roots.Asubstance
is that “which is not predicated of a subject, but of which everything is predicated.”
Or to put it another way, it is “that which is primarily and to which all the other
categories of being are referred.”
Accidents are whatever “attaches to something and can truly be asserted, either of
necessity or usually.”
THE THEORY OFACTAND POTENCY
This theoryprovides the profound metaphysical basis to answer the difficulties raised
by Parmenides against movement and multiplicity. Parmenides and others would
speak of being and non-being, allowing of no other category and implying that a
thing, to exist must, be either pure and simple being or non-being. Basically, the
theory is founded on the situation that a thing can “be” in two ways: it can be able to
be such and such (potency) or it can be such and such. Every change implies, first, 23
Greek Philosophy : that the subject of that change had potency as regards that change. Finally, a change
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implies the actualization of the potency in question. Potency, then, is a capacity with
regard to actualization (or act), whereas act (or actualization) is a perfection or
quality of some sort. A potency can be passive, e.g., a sound is capable of being
heard, i.e., the passive potency of being heard. An active potency is a power or
capacity to act. (E.g. The ear has an active potencyof hearing). It should be noticed,
however, that even a passive potency implies, in some way, a pre-disposition on the
part of the thing concerned.
For example, a sound has a passive potency of being heard, whereas colour has
not. This theoryof act and potencyhas manyimplications inAristotelian philosophy.
A being can be pure act, it has no potency yet to be realized; it is perfection itself.
Such a being would be God. At the other end of the spectrum you have mere
potency - prime matter. In between come the mixed acts the beings of our daily
experience. These have some perfections actually realized, but there are also many
potencies in them - capacities to acquire or lose perfections. This is the way out of
the difficulties raised byParmenides and his school against motion and multiplicity.
THE FOUR CAUSES
The study of the causes involves another application of the theory of act and potency.
He feels that humans can be satisfied only when they have acquired knowledge
about a thing when they can understand “why”. He then points out that everything
we observe has four principles or causes which influence it. First there are two
intrinsic causes, so called because they are inadequately distinct from the effect.
These are the material cause (that out of which some thing is made, e.g. wood of a
table) and the formal cause (that which makes a thing to be what it is, e.g. the form
of wood makes wood to be wood). Then there are two extrinsic causes distinct
from their effect. The efficient cause (the one who makes or initiates the effect, e.g.,
the carpenter with regard to the table) and the final cause (the reason for which the
effect is produced) the carpenter to get money with regard to the table. Aristotle
showed how that material cause is in potency with regard to the formal cause, as
mater and form.

2.7 FIRST PHILOSOPHY

“It is from a feeling of wonder that men start now, and did start in the earliest times,
to practice philosophy.”
Practising philosophyis not the basic activityof human beings. It is for the satisfaction
of the wonderment that one feels. Familiar as we are with the world of nature, we
wonder whether that is all there is. If there is no other substance apart from those
that have come together by nature, natural science will be the first science. But if
there is a substance that is immovable, the science that studies it is prior to natural
science and is the first philosophy. It is the business of this science to study being
qua being, and to find out what it is and what are its attributes qua being. So first
philosophy, also called metaphysics, looks for the ultimate principles and causes of
all things. What are they?
NOT PLATO’S FORMS
The forms are supposed to be what many individuals of the same kind have in
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common. Yet they are supposed to be individual realities on their own. But says
Aristotle, these requirements conflict, if the Forms are indeed individual substances, Aristotle

it makes no sense to think of them as being shared out among other individual
substances. Finally, there is no way to understand how the Forms, eternally
unchanging, account for changes. They are supposed to be the first principles and
causes of whatever happens in the world.
WHAT OF MATHEMATICS?
The most convincing arguments for the forms seem to be mathematical in nature. Is
mathematics dealing with square in itself, triangle in itself? There is no argument,
Aristotle holds, from mathematics to the reality of Platonic Forms independent of
the world of nature. Mathematics is a science, like natural science, has the world of
nature as its only subject. But it does not study it as nature; it studies only certain
abstractions from natural things, without supposing that such abstractions are
themselves things. What happens in mathematics or geometry is conceptually
separating attributes for the sake of understanding.
SUBSTANCE AND FORM
Substance is what is in the basic, fundamental, primarysense. What is it that makes
a given object a substance? Natural things are composed of matter and form.
Could it be matter that makes an object a substance? No. Matter, considered apart
from form, is merelypotentiallysomething. Prime matter cannot be anythingat all on
its won. It cannot have an independent existence, it exists as formed. So it cannot be
matter what makes a thing what it is. Could it be the form?According toAristotle it
is.
The form responsible for the substantiality of substances he calls the essence of the
thing. Essences are expressed by definitions telling us what things are. So form is
the substance of things. But substance is what can exist independently and as an
individual entity. This raises a veryinteresting possibility. Might there be substances
that are no compounds of matter and form? Might there be substances that are pure
form? All of nature is made up of material substances in which matter is made into
something definite by the presence of form within it.

2.8 PHILOSOPHY OF GOD

In the world of nature, the best things would be those that come closest to these
ideals.Aristotle believes these are the heavenly bodies that move eternally in great
circles. But even such eternal motion is not self-explanatory. In MetaphysicsAristotle
says that there is something that is always being moved in an incessant movement,
and this movement is circular...and so the first heaven will be eternal. There must
then, be something that moves it. But since that is moved, as well as moving things,
is intermediate, there must be something that moves without being moved, will be
something eternal, it will be a substance, and it will be an actuality.
In the world of nature, containing the eternal movements of the heavenly bodies is
there an eternal and ultimate mover? There must be,Aristotle argues, otherwise we
could not account for the movement of anything at all. Not all movers can be
“intermediate” movers. If they were, that series would go on to infinity, but there
cannot be any actuallyexisting collection of infinitelymanythings. There must, then,
be ‘something that moves things without being moved.”
Moreover, we can know certain facts about it. It must itself be eternal, since it must
25
account for the eternal movement of the heavenly bodies and so cannot be less
Greek Philosophy : extensive than they. It must be a substance, for what other substances depend on
Classical Period
cannot be less basic than they.And, of course, it must be fully actual; otherwise, its
being what it is would cryout for further explanation - for a mover for it. ForAristotle,
this mover is the final cause. This conclusion is driven home by an analogy.
Now, the object of desire and the object of thought moves things in this way: they
move things without being moved. The ultimate cause of all things is a final cause; it
is what all other things love. Their love for it puts them in motion.As the final cause
and the object of the “desire” in all things it must be the best. So God must enjoy this
life in the highest degree. God then, is an eternally existing, living being who lives a
life of perfect thought.
Aristotle called his first mover God. In his view there is no divine providence. He
does not create the universe, for it is eternal. It is true that he cause motion, but only
as a beautiful picture might cause a man to purchase it. For Aristotle God is a
metaphysical necessity, but not an object of worship.
Check Your Progress I
Note: a) Use the space provided for your answer.
b) Check your answers with those provided at the end of the unit.
1) Discuss the contribution ofAristotle to Logic.
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2) How does Aristotle establish the necessity of a first cause?
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2.9 PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN

Aristotle seems to have started with Plato’s ideas concerning human beings. There
are three types of psyche:
1. The nutritive psyche
2. The sensitive psyche
3. The rational psyche
The soul of animals is characterised bytwo faculties (a) the facultyof discrimination
which is the work of thought and sense, and (b) the faculty of originating local
movement.
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1) Mind is that which calculates means to an end, i.e. mind practical (it differs Aristotle

from mind speculative in the character of its end);

2) appetite is in every form of it, relative to an end; for that which is the object of
appetite is the stimulant of the mind practical; and that which is last to the
process of thinking is the beginning of the action,
 Objects are experienced by animals not simply as neutral but also as
good and bad, as objects of avoidance or pursuit.
 The motion in lower animals by a sense object is relatively stereotypic.
 For the lower animals the good is identical with pleasure, the bad with
pain. For them there is no consideration other than present satisfaction.
 For the animal there is usually, in any given situation, only one thing to do.
 Humans usually perceive alternatives. They must make choices and that
means that they should make use of some criteria for choices.

2.10 ETHICS
Ethics is the science of conduct (what are the criteria for the good life? corresponding
to logic (what are the criteria for correct thinking?) It is not a mere science of knowing
but also practical. It deals not merely with ‘What is the good?’ but also ‘How can I
be good?’ But ethics is not psychology though connected with it. Ethics grows out
of the need of choosing among the multiple courses of behaviour that the human soul
perceives as options at any given time. The good, whatever it is, is the good for man
and therefore can be ascribed only by discovering what man is. The study of
psychology is valuable in pedagogy and especiallyin the learning of good behaviour
and attitudes.
ForAristotle there is one end for man, happiness. Happiness is something everyone
chooses for its own sake; it is not a means to something else. Happiness then is
something final and self-sufficient; it is the end of action. Happiness is the name for
that longer-range, more complete, more stable satisfaction that reason gives men
the possibilityof achieving, but whose achievement it at the same time is more difficult
because of the alternatives men have. This possibility is undreamed bythe relatively
simple sensitive souls The possibility of more ignominious failure than anyanimal is
capable of is the risk the rational soul must run for the possibility of much greater
fulfilment.
CONTEMPLATION IS PERFECT HAPPINESS
Happiness, then, is what we experience when we are living at our best and fullest,
when we are functioning in accordance with our nature, whenever end is realising
itselfwithout impediment,whenourformisbeingactualised. Andsinceman’s activities
are many, the best and highest activity, that is, the activity that most completely,
expresses and realise human nature is the activityof contemplation. In contemplation
- in the cognition of the supreme truths about the universe - lies the greatest happiness
of which man is capable.
TRANSITION FROM ETHICS TO POLITICS
No one is sufficient to oneself; humans cannot live well without community. Thus
human beings live in committees, cities. In his work on ethics,Aristotle addressed 27
Greek Philosophy : the individual; in Politics he deals with life in the City. Aristotle’s conception of the
Classical Period
city is organic, and he is considered one of the first to conceive of the city in this
manner. Aristotle considered the city to be a natural community. Moreover, he
considered the city to be prior to the family which in turn is prior to the individual,
i.e., last in the order of becoming, but first in the order of being. He is also famous
for his statement that “man is by nature a political animal.”Aristotle conceived of
politics as being like an organism rather than like a machine, and as a collection of
parts none of which can exist without the others.
VIRTUES
Aristotle speaks of intellectual and moral virtues. The intellectual virtues are those
that helpus to attain truth, ultimatelythe highest of all truths, theTruth- God. However,
to reach this sublime Goal, we must cultivate the moral virtues. These help us in this
and in so far as they, by keeping in check our passions, enable us to perform right
actions. In this context it is clear howAristotle came to the conclusion that a moral
virtue is “a mean between two vices that which depends on excess and which depends
on defect”.

2.11 ARTAND LITERATURE

In his Poetics, Aristotle answered, in effect, Plato’s criticism of tragedy and his
desire to outlaw poets from his republic, on the grounds that theywould disturb and
weaken the will-power and moral strength of the statesmen and warriors preying on
their emotions. Aristotle made use of the famous theory of catharsis to show that
through the emotions of pity and fear (aroused by tragedy), the soul and its passions
would be replaced and purified. This would bring about a certain feeling of pleasure
and peace.

2.12 SLAVERY
AccordingtoAristotle everystate is a communityof some kind, and everycommunity
is established with a view to some good; for mankind always act in order to obtain
that which they think good. But, if all communities aim at some good, the state or
political community, which is the highest of all, and which embraces all the rest, aims
at good in a greater degree than any other, and at the highest good. The state is
made up of households and households are made of master and slave, husband and
wife, father and children. Some hold that the rule of a master over slaves is contrary
to nature, and that the distinction between slave and freeman exists bylaw only, and
not by nature; and being an interference with nature is therefore unjust. Aristotle
argues that property is apart of the household and a slave is a living possession, an
instrument which takes precedence of all other instruments. The master is only the
master of the slave, he does not belong to him, whereas the slave is not only the
slave of his master, but wholly belongs to him.And a possession may be defined as
an instrument of action, separable from the possessor.
But is there any one intended by nature to be a slave, and for whom such condition
is expedient and right, or rather is not all slavery a violation of nature? In living
creatures the soul rules over the body, the body appears to rule over the soul in
corrupt ones.Again, male is by nature superior, and the female inferior, and the one
rule, and the other is ruled in principle, of necessity, extends to all mankind. Where
28 there is such a difference as that between soul and body, or between men and
animals. Slaves are those whose business is to use their body, because they can do Aristotle

nothing better, the lowest sort are by nature slaves and it is better for them as for all
inferiors that they should be under the rule of a master. For he who can be, therefore
is, anther’s, and he who participates in rational principle enough to apprehend, but
not to have such a principle, is a slave by nature.

2.13 LET US SUM UP

Twenty-three hundred years after his death, Aristotle remains one of the most
influential people who ever lived. He was the founder of formal logic, pioneered the
study of zoology, and left every future scientist and philosopher in his debt through
his contributions to the scientific method. Despite these accolades, manyofAristotle’s
errors held back science considerably. Bertrand Russell notes that “almost every
serious intellectual advance has had to begin with an attack on some Aristotelian
doctrine”. Russell also refers toAristotle’s ethics as “repulsive”, and calls his logic
“as definitely antiquated as Ptolemaic astronomy”. Russell notes that these errors
make it difficult to do historical justice toAristotle, until one remembers how large of
an advance he made upon all of his predecessors.
Aristotle is referred to as “The Philosopher” by Scholastic thinkers such as Thomas
Aquinas. See Summa Theologica. These thinkers blendedAristotelian philosophy
with Christianity, bringing the thought ofAncient Greece into the MiddleAges. It
required a repudiation of someAristotelian principles for the sciences and the arts to
free themselves for the discovery of modern scientific laws and empirical methods.
The Italian poet Dante says ofAristotle in the first circles of hell,
I saw the Master there of those who know,
Amid the philosophic family,
By all admired, and by all reverenced;
There Plato too I saw, and Socrates,
Who stood beside him closer than the rest.
Aristotle was a product of his time. We cannot accept his justification of slavery nor
the inferior position he assigns to women. Martin Heidegger elaborated a new
interpretation ofAristotle, intended to warrant his deconstruction of scholastic and
philosophical tradition. More recently,Alasdair MacIntyre has attempted to reform
what he calls the Aristotelian tradition in a way that is anti-elitist and capable of
disputing the claims of both liberals and Nietzscheans.Ayn Rand consideredAristotle
to be her only significant influence.According to Whitehead everyone is either, by
temperament a Platonist (the mystical, contemplative type) or anAristotelian (the
scientific, active type).
Check Your Progress II
Note: a) Use the space provided for your answer.
b) Check your answers with those provided at the end of the unit.
1) ExplainAristotle’s philosophyof human beings.
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Greek Philosophy : .................................................................................................................
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2) Discuss the ethical philosophy ofAristotle.

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2.14 KEY WORDS

Pedagogy : Pedagogy is the art or science of being a teacher.
The term generally refers to strategies of
instruction, or a style of instruction. Pedagogy is
also sometimes referred to as the correct use of
teaching strategies.
Syllogism : A syllogism is a kind of logical argument in which
one proposition (the conclusion) is inferred from
the two others (the premises) of a certain form.

2.15 FURTHER READINGSAND REFERENCES

Ackrill, J.L. Aristotle the Philosopher. London: London University Press, 1981.
Allen, D.J. The Philosophy ofAristotle, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970.
Barnes, J. A Very Short Introduction to Aristotle. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2000.
Barnes, J., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle. Cambridge & New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Bostock, David. Aristotle’s Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000
Copleston, Frederick. A History of Philosophy, Vol. I, Part II. New York: Image
Books, 1962.
Lear, J. Aristotle: The Desire to Understand. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1988.
Lloyd, G.E.R. Aristotle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968.
Mckenon, Richard, ed. Introduction to Aristotle, 2nd ed. Chicago: The University
of Chicago Press, 1973.
Melchert, Norman, The Great Conversation. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
Category Books, 1995.
Mortimer J, Adler. Aristotle for Everyone. New York: Collier Books, 1978.
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Natali, Carlo. The Wisdom of Aristotle. Tr. Gerald Parks. NewYork: State University Aristotle

of New York Press, 2001.

Randall Jr & John Herman. Aristotle. NewYork: Colombia UniversityPress, 1960.

2.16 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Check Your Progress I
1) Logic according to Aristotle is the art of right thinking and thereby attaining
truth. Wisdom at least involves knowledge. And knowledge involves both
statements (that something is so) and reasons (statements why something is
so). Furthermore, for the possession of such statements to qualify as wisdom,
they must be true.To clarifyall this, he has to (1) explain the nature of statements
how, for instance, they are put together out of simpler units called terms; (2)
explain how statements can be related to each other so that someone can give
“the reason why” for others; and (3) give an account of what makes statements
true or false. These make up the logic.
2) Aristotle believes these are the heavenly bodies that move eternally in great
circles. There must then, be something that moves it. But since that is moved,
as well as moving things, is intermediate, there must be something that moves
without being moved, will be something eternal, it will be a substance, and it
will be an actuality.
In the world of nature, containing the eternal movements of the heavenlybodies
is therean eternal and ultimate mover? There must be,Aristotle argues, otherwise
we could not account for the movement of anything at all. Not all movers can
be “intermediate” movers. If they were, that series would go on to infinity, but
there cannot be anyactually existing collection of infinitely manythings. There
must, then, be ‘something that moves things without being moved.”
Check Your Progress II
1) According to Aristotle there are three types of psyche: The nutritive psyche,
the sensitive psyche, and the rational psyche. The soul of animals is characterised
by two faculties (a) the faculty of discrimination which is the work of thought
and sense, and (b) the faculty of originating local movement.
Objects are experienced by animals not simply as neutral but also as good and
bad, as objects of avoidance or pursuit. The motion in lower animals by a
sense object is relativelystereotypic. For the lower animals the good is identical
with pleasure, the bad with pain. For them there is no consideration other than
present satisfaction. For the animal there is usually, in any given situation, only
one thing to do. Humans usuallyperceive alternatives. Theymust make choices
and that means that they should make use of some criteria for choices.
2) Ethics is the science of conduct (what are the criteria for the good life?
corresponding to logic (what are the criteria for correct thinking?) It is not a
mere science of knowing but also practical. It deals not merely with ‘What is
the good?’ but also ‘How can I be good?’
For Aristotle there is one end for man, happiness. But the achievement it is
more difficult because of the alternatives men have. In contemplation - in the
cognition of the supreme truths about the universe - lies the greatest happiness
of which man is capable. 31