Years of life: 384 BC e. - 322 BC e.

State: Ancient Greece

Field of activity: Politician, Scientist, Philosopher, Writer

Aristotle, along with Socrates and Plato, became the founder of Western philosophy.

Who is Aristotle?

Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist who is still considered one of the greatest thinkers today. When Aristotle was 17 years old, he entered Plato's Academy. In 338 he began to study with. In 335, Aristotle founded his own school, the Lyceum, in Athens, where he spent most of his life researching, teaching, and writing. Some of his most notable works deal with ethics, politics, metaphysics, poetry, and analytical reasoning.

Aristotle's family, early life and education

Aristotle was born around 384 BC. e. in Stagira, a small town on the northern coast that was once a seaport. His father, Nicomachus, was the court physician of the Macedonian king Amyntas II. Although Aristotle was just a child when his father died, he remained in close contact with the Macedonian court and was influenced by it for the rest of his life. Little is known about his mother, Festida; she is believed to have died when Aristotle was young.

After the death of his father, Proxenus of Atarnea, who was married to Aristotle's elder sister, Arimnesta, became the boy's guardian. Proxenus sent him to Athens to receive higher education. At that time, Athens was considered the world's academic center. In Athens, Aristotle entered Plato's Academy, the leading educational institution Greece, and turned out to be an exemplary student. There, Greek philosopher, student of Socrates.

Because Aristotle disagreed with some of Plato's philosophical treatises, he did not inherit the position of head of the academy, as many assumed.

After the death of Plato, the king of Atarnea and Assos in Mysia, Hermias, invited Aristotle to rule his city.

Aristotle's personal life

During his three-year stay in Mysia, Aristotle married Pythias, the niece of Hermias. They had a daughter, who was named Pythias in honor of her mother.

In 335 BC. e., in the same year when Aristotle opened the Lyceum, his wife died. Soon after this, Aristotle became involved with a woman named Herpyllis, who was from his hometown of Stagira. According to some historians, Herpyllida may have been Aristotle's slave, provided to him by the Macedonian authorities. It is assumed that he eventually freed Herpyllida and married her. It is known that Aristotle’s second wife gave birth to a son, who was named Nicomachus in honor of his grandfather.

Teacher of Alexander the Great

In 338, Aristotle went home to Macedonia to begin raising the son of King Philip II of Macedonia, then 13-year-old Alexander the Great. Philip and Alexander both held Aristotle in high esteem and ensured that the Macedonian authorities would reward him generously for his work.

In 335 BC. e., when Alexander conquered Athens, Aristotle returned there. Plato's Academy was still strong in Athens, now ruled by Xenocrates.

With the permission of Alexander the Great, Aristotle founded his own school and called it the Lyceum. Starting from this period, Aristotle spent most of his life working as a teacher, researcher and writer at the Lyceum in Athens until the death of his former student Alexander the Great.

Because Aristotle was known to pace around the school playground during class, his students, forced to follow him, were given the nickname "peripatetics", which means "people who move, travel". Lyceum students studied subjects ranging from mathematics and philosophy to politics, and almost all related disciplines. Art was also a popular area of ​​interest. Lyceum members wrote down their conclusions. In this way, they created a massive collection of the school's written materials, which the ancients considered to be one of the first great libraries.

When Alexander the Great died suddenly in 323 BC. BC, the pro-Macedonian government was overthrown, and in light of sentiment against Macedonia, Aristotle was indicted for his association with his former student and the Macedonian authorities. To avoid persecution and execution, he left Athens and fled to Chalkis on the island of Euboea, where he remained until his death in 322.

Aristotle's books

Aristotle wrote about 200 works. Some of them are in the form of dialogues, others are records of scientific observations and systematization works. His student Theophrastus was involved in the preservation of his works: he was present when they were written, and then passed them on to his student Neleus, who took them to storage to protect them from moisture, and subsequently the collection of works was taken to Rome, and scientists worked on it there. Of Aristotle's 200 works, only thirty-one have survived. Most date from the period when Aristotle worked at the Lyceum.

"Poetics"

One of his most famous works “Poetics” is Scientific research drama and poetry. In it, Aristotle examines and analyzes mainly Greek tragedy and epic. In his opinion, in comparison with philosophy, the basis of which is an idea, poetry is the imitation of language, rhythm and harmony to reproduce objects and events. In the treatise, he explores the basis of the plot, character development and subplots.

"Nicomachean Ethics" and "Eudaimonic Ethics"

The Nicomachean Ethics, believed to be named after Aristotle's son Nicomacheus, contains a moral code of conduct. He argued that the rules of life to some extent contradict the laws of logic, since in the real world there are circumstances that can conflict with personal values. However, a person must learn to reason by developing his own vision. “Eudaimonic Ethics” is another of Aristotle’s main treatises on behavior and moral reasoning that help choose the right path in life.

In these works, Aristotle distinguishes the concepts of “happiness” and “virtue”: the highest benefit for a person, according to him, is the pursuit of happiness. Our happiness is not a state but an activity, and this is determined by our ability to live a life that allows us to use and develop our minds. Virtue, according to Aristotle, was the ultimate goal. This means that each dilemma must be considered by finding a middle ground between not enough and too much, taking into account the needs and circumstances of the person.

"Metaphysics"

The subject of this treatise is the distinction between matter and form. For Aristotle, matter was the physical substance of things, and form was the unique nature of a thing that determines its identity.

"Policy"

The work focuses on human behavior in the context of society and government. Aristotle believed that the purpose of government is to enable citizens to achieve virtue and happiness. To help statesmen and rulers, Politics examines how and why cities arise; the role of citizens and politicians; wealth and class system. What is the purpose of a political system, what types of governments and democracies are there; what is the role of slaves and women in the family and society.

"Rhetoric"

Here is an analysis of public speaking to teach readers how to be more effective speakers. Aristotle believed that rhetoric was important in politics and law. She helps to defend truth and justice. Rhetoric, according to Aristotle, can educate people and encourage them to consider both opposing sides in an argument.

Works on scientific disciplines

Aristotle's works on astronomy, including the heavens, and the earth sciences, including meteorology, survive. Meteorology, according to Aristotle, is not just the study of weather. His definition included "all the appearances which we may call common to air and water, and also the species and parts of the earth and the manifestations of its elements." In Meteorology, Aristotle defined the water cycle and covered topics ranging from natural disasters to astronomical phenomena. Although many of his views on the nature of the Earth were controversial at the time, they were re-accepted and popularized in the late Middle Ages.

Works on psychology

In On the Soul, Aristotle discusses human psychology. Aristotle's insights into how people perceive the world continue to underlie many principles of modern psychology.

Aristotle's philosophy

Aristotle the philosopher influenced the ideas of late antiquity throughout the Renaissance. One of the main directions of Aristotle's philosophy was his concept of logic. Aristotle's task was to come up with a universal process of reasoning that would allow a person to know every conceivable thing about reality. The initial process involved describing objects based on their characteristics, states of being, and actions.

In his philosophical treatises, Aristotle also discussed how a person can obtain information about objects by the method of deduction and inference. For Aristotle, deduction was a rational method in which “when certain things are given, something else follows by necessity in virtue of their existence.” His theory is the basis of what philosophers now call a syllogism, a logical argument where a conclusion is drawn from two or more other premises of a particular form.

Aristotle and biology

Although Aristotle was not a scientist in the modern sense, science was among the subjects that he explored in detail during his time at the Lyceum. Aristotle believed that knowledge could be gained through interaction with physical objects. He concluded that objects consist of an essential potential that is honed by circumstances to result in an object.

Aristotle's studies in the sciences included the study of biology. He attempted, albeit erroneously, to classify animals into genera based on their similar characteristics. He then divided the animals into those that had red blood and those that did not. Animals with red blood were mainly vertebrates, and he called “bloodless” animals “cephalopods.” Despite its relative imprecision, Aristotle's classification has been used as the primary classification for hundreds of years.

Aristotle was also fascinated biological world seas. He carefully studied anatomy sea ​​creatures. Unlike the classification of terrestrial fauna, observations of marine life described in his books are much more accurate.

When and how did Aristotle die?

In 322 BC. BC, just a year after he fled to Chalcis to avoid prosecution, Aristotle was stricken with a digestive disease that ultimately caused his death.

Heritage

After Aristotle's death, his work and his name ceased to be used in science, but they were revived during the first century. Over time, they became the basis of philosophy. Aristotle's influence on Western thought in the humanities and social sciences is largely considered unparalleled, with the exception of the contributions of his predecessors, his teacher Plato and Plato's teacher.

What Aristotle discovered in geography, biology, and physics you will learn in this article.

What did Aristotle discover in geography?

Aristotle, through long observations of sunsets of the Sun and Moon, proved that the earth is spherical.

Aristotle's works contain many geographical information. His Meteorology describes atmospheric phenomena, but the understanding of their causes and explanations of the influence of climate on people are very imperfect. Aristotle, for example, believed that the inhabitants of the Northern Black Sea region “are doomed to slavery due to the climate.”

What did Aristotle discover in biology?

Based on numerous observations, Aristotle divided animals into 2 groups, which roughly correspond to the groups of vertebrates and invertebrates, laid the foundations for descriptive and comparative anatomy, described about 500 species of animals. While studying the development of chicken embryos, Aristotle observed the gradual formation of new parts of the body. He expressed ideas about unity in nature and the gradation of organisms, that is, about the existence in nature of gradual transitions from inanimate bodies to plants and from them to animals. Aristotle's works had a great influence on the further development of biology and medicine.

Aristotle outlined his views on natural phenomena in his works “The History of Animals”, “On the Origin of Animals”, etc.

What did Aristotle discover in physics?

He developed many physical theories and hypotheses based on the knowledge of that time. In fact, the term “physics” itself was introduced by Aristotle.

In physical treatises “Physics”, “On Origin and Destruction”, “On Heaven”, “On Meteorological Issues”, “Mechanics” and others, he outlined his ideas about nature and movement. His physics is basically speculative. He considered the primary qualities of matter to be two pairs of opposites “warm - cold” and “dry - wet”, the main elements, or elements - earth, air, water and fire (a kind of “system of elements”), which are various combinations of primary qualities; The combination of cold and dry corresponds to earth, cold to wet - water, warm to dry - fire, warm to wet - air. Aristotle considered ether to be the fifth, most perfect element.

A change in properties leads to a change in the state of aggregation of a substance. When, for example, the “cold” quality in water is replaced by “warm”, the water turns into steam (in Aristotle’s understanding - air). This is because instead of the cold and wet combination (water), a new combination (warm and wet) appeared. In some cases, Aristotle notes that qualitative changes sometimes occur suddenly (abruptly), such as the transition of water into steam.

Aristotle's studies also covered mechanics, acoustics and optics. In particular, he explained sound by the “shaking” of the air by a loud body, echo - by the reflection of sound, and opposed some of Euclid’s theories.

Aristotle's merit in natural philosophy was that he systematized and generalized the ideas about nature that developed within the framework of ancient society. At the same time, some of Aristotle's conclusions were erroneous, which, despite his authority during the late Middle Ages, created certain difficulties in establishing the truth. One of these conclusions was the position that only the movable moves - Aristotle failed to understand the principle of inertia.

ARISTOTLE(lat. Aristotle) (384 BC, Stagira, Halkidiki peninsula, Northern Greece- 322 BC e., Chalkis, Euboea island, Central Greece), ancient Greek scientist, philosopher, founder of the Lyceum, teacher of Alexander the Great.

Aristotle's father, Nicomachus, was a doctor at the court of the Macedonian kings. He managed to give his son a good home education and knowledge of ancient medicine. His father’s influence affected Aristotle’s scientific interests and his serious studies in anatomy. In 367, at the age of seventeen, Aristotle went to Athens, where he became a student at Plato's Academy. A few years later, Aristotle himself began teaching at the Academy and became a full member of the community of Platonist philosophers. For twenty years, Aristotle worked together with Plato, but was an independent and independent-minded scientist, critical of the views of his teacher.

After Plato's death in 347, Aristotle left the Academy and moved to the city of Atarnaeus (Asia Minor), which was ruled by Plato's student Hermias. After the death of Hermias in 344, Aristotle lived in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, and in 343 the Macedonian king Philip II invited the scientist to become the teacher of his son Alexander. After Alexander ascended the throne, Aristotle returned to Athens in 335, where he founded his own philosophical school.

The location of the school was a gymnasium not far from the temple of Apollo Lyceum, so Aristotle's school received the name Lyceum. Aristotle loved to give lectures while walking with his students along the paths of the garden. This is how another name for the Lyceum appeared - the peripatetic school (from peripato - walk). Representatives of the Peripatetic school, in addition to philosophy, also studied specific sciences (history, physics, astronomy, geography).

In 323, after the death of Alexander the Great, an anti-Macedonian rebellion began in Athens. Aristotle, as a Macedonian, was not left alone. He was accused of religious irreverence and was forced to leave Athens. Aristotle spent the last months of his life on the island of Euboea.

Aristotle's scientific productivity was unusually high; his works covered all branches of ancient science. He became the founder of formal logic, the creator of syllogistics, the doctrine of logical deduction. Aristotle's logic is not an independent science, but a method of judgment applicable to any science. Aristotle's philosophy contains the doctrine of the basic principles of being: reality and possibility (act and potency), form and matter, efficient cause and purpose (see Entelechy). Aristotle's metaphysics is based on the doctrine of the principles and causes of the organization of being. As the beginning and root cause of all things, Aristotle put forward the concept of substantial reason. To classify the properties of being, Aristotle identified ten predicates (essence, quantity, quality, relationships, place, time, state, possession, action, suffering), which comprehensively determined the subject. Aristotle established four principles (conditions) of being: form, matter, cause and purpose. The main importance is the relationship between form and matter.

In natural philosophy, Aristotle follows following principles: The universe is finite; everything has its cause and purpose; it is impossible to comprehend nature with mathematics; physical laws are not universal; nature is built on a hierarchical ladder; one should not explain the world, but classify its components from a scientific point of view. Aristotle divided nature into the inorganic world, plants (trees, cacti, flowers, etc.), animals and humans. What distinguishes humans from animals is the presence of intelligence. And since man is a social being, ethics is important in the teachings of Aristotle. The basic principle of Aristotelian ethics is reasonable behavior, moderation (metriopathy).

In politics, Aristotle gave a classification of forms of government; he classified monarchy, aristocracy and polity (moderate democracy) as the best forms, and tyranny, oligarchy, ochlocracy as the worst. In his doctrine of art, Aristotle argued that the essence of art is imitation (mimesis). He introduced the concept of catharsis (purification of the human spirit) as the goal of theatrical tragedy, proposed general principles construction of a work of art.

Aristotle dedicated three books of the treatise "Rhetoric" oratory. In this treatise, rhetoric acquired a harmonious system and was linked with logic and dialectics. Aristotle created a theory of style and developed the basic principles of classical stylistics.

The surviving works of Aristotle can be arranged into four main groups, according to his proposed classification of sciences:

1. Works on logic that made up the collection “Organon” (works “Categories”, “On Interpretation”, the first and second “Analytics”, “Topic”);
2. A consolidated work on the principles of being, called “Metaphysics”;
3. Natural science works ("Physics", "About the sky", "Meteorology", "On the origin and destruction", "History of animals", "On the parts of animals", "On the origin of animals", "On the movement of animals");
4. Works that address problems of society, state, law, historical, political, ethical, aesthetic issues (“Ethics”, “Politics”, “Athenian Polity”, “Poetics”, “Rhetoric”).

Aristotle's works reflected the entire scientific and spiritual experience of Ancient Greece, he became the standard of wisdom, and had an indelible influence on the course of development of human thought.

Old Greek Ἀριστοτέλης

famous ancient Greek scientist and philosopher; student of Plato; from 343 BC e. - teacher of Alexander the Great; in 335/4 BC. e. founded the Lyceum (Ancient Greek: Λύκειον Lyceum, or Peripatetic school); naturalist of the classical period; the most influential of the ancient philosophers; founder of formal logic; created a conceptual apparatus that still permeates the philosophical vocabulary and style of scientific thinking; was the first thinker to create a comprehensive system of philosophy that covered all spheres of human development: sociology, philosophy, politics, logic, physics

384 - 322 BC e.

short biography

Aristotle- the famous ancient Greek scientist, philosopher, founder of the Peripatetic school, one of Plato’s favorite students, teacher of Alexander the Great - is often called Stagirite, because in 322 BC. e. he was born precisely in the city of Stagira, a Greek colony in Chalkis. He happened to be born into a family of people of noble origin. Aristotle's father was a hereditary physician, served as a physician at the royal court, and it was from him that his son learned the basics of philosophy and the art of healing. Aristotle spent his childhood at court; he was well acquainted with his peer, the son of King Amyntas III, Philip, who years later himself became the ruler and father of Alexander the Great.

In 369 BC. e. Aristotle became an orphan. His relative Proxen took care of the teenager. The guardian encouraged the student’s curiosity, contributed to his education, and spared no expense in purchasing books, which at that time were very expensive pleasure- fortunately, the fortune left from my parents allowed this. The young man’s mind was captivated by the stories that reached their area about the sages Plato and Socrates, and young Aristotle worked diligently so that, once in Athens, he would not be branded an ignoramus.

In 367 or 366 BC. e. Aristotle arrived in Athens, but, to his great disappointment, did not find Plato there: he went to Sicily for three years. The young philosopher did not waste time, but plunged into the study of his works, simultaneously becoming acquainted with other directions. Perhaps it was this circumstance that influenced the formation of views different from the views of the mentor. His stay at Plato's Academy lasted almost two decades. Aristotle turned out to be an extremely talented student; his mentor highly valued his mental merits, although the reputation of his ward was ambiguous and did not quite correspond to the Athenians’ idea of ​​true philosophers. Aristotle did not deprive himself of earthly pleasures, did not tolerate restrictions, and Plato used to say that he must be “kept in check.”

Aristotle was one of his favorite students, one of those in whom he poured his soul; There were friendly relations between them. Many accusations of black ingratitude were made against Aristotle. However, when arguing with a friend-mentor, he always spoke about Plato with exceptional respect. Deep respect can also be evidenced by the fact that, having a formed, integral system of views, and therefore the prerequisites for opening his own school, Aristotle did not do this during Plato’s lifetime, limiting himself to teaching rhetoric.

Around 347 BC. e. the great mentor died, and the place of head of the Academy was taken by his nephew, heir to the Spevsip property. Finding himself among the dissatisfied, Aristotle left Athens and went to Asia Minor, city of Assos: he was invited to stay there by the tyrant Hermias, also a student of the Platonic Academy. In 345 BC. e. Hermias, who actively opposed the Persian yoke, was betrayed and killed, and Aristotle had to quickly leave Assos. A young relative of Hermia, Pythias, also escaped with him, whom he soon married. They found refuge on the island of Lesbos, in the city of Mytilene: the couple got there thanks to the philosopher’s assistant and friend. It was there that Aristotle found the event that began his life in his biography. new stage- the Macedonian king Philip invited him to become a mentor, educator of his son Alexander, then a 13-year-old teenager.

Aristotle carried out this mission approximately from 343 - 340 BC. e., and its influence on the way of thinking, the character of a person who became famous throughout the world was enormous. Alexander the Great is credited with the following statement: “I honor Aristotle on an equal basis with my father, since if I owe my life to my father, then to Aristotle I owe it for what gives it value.” After the young king ascended the throne, his former mentor stayed with him for several years. There are versions that the philosopher was his companion on his first long campaigns.

In 335 BC. e. 50-year-old Aristotle, leaving Callisthenes, his nephew and philosopher, with Alexander, went to Athens, where he founded the Lyceum - his own school. It received the name “peripatetic” from the word “peripatos,” which meant a covered gallery around a courtyard or a walk. Thus, it characterized either the place of study or the manner of the mentor presenting information while walking back and forth. In the morning, a narrow circle of initiates studied science with him, and in the afternoon, everyone, beginners, could listen to the philosopher. The Lycean period is an extremely important stage in the biography of Aristotle: it was then that most of the works were written, the result of research was discoveries that largely determined the development of world science.

Immersed in the world of science, Aristotle was very far from politics, but in 323 BC. e., after the death of Alexander the Great, a wave of anti-Macedonian repressions swept across the country, and clouds gathered over the philosopher. Having found a fairly formal reason, he was charged with blasphemy and disrespect for the gods. Realizing that the upcoming trial would not be objective, Aristotle in 322 BC. e. leaves the Lyceum and leaves with a group of students for Chalkis. The island of Euboea becomes his last refuge: a hereditary stomach disease interrupted the life of the 62-year-old philosopher.

His most famous works are “Metaphysics”, “Physics”, “Politics”, “Poetics”, etc. - the legacy of Aristotle Stagirite is very extensive. He is considered one of the most influential dialecticians ancient world, is considered the founder of formal logic. Aristotle's philosophical system touched upon a variety of aspects of human development and largely influenced the further development of scientific thinking; The conceptual apparatus he created has not lost its relevance to this day.

Biography from Wikipedia

Plato and Aristotle (depicted backwards), 15th century, Luca Della Robbia

Aristotle was born in Stagira (hence his nickname Stagirite), a Greek colony in Chalkidiki, near Mount Athos, between July and October 384/383 BC, according to ancient chronology in the first year of the 99th Olympiad. In ancient Greek, Aristotle's city is expressed in different ways. In sources, Stagira is mentioned in different grammatical categories of gender and number: neuter plural. h. - τὰ Στάγειρα, in the feminine gender unit. h. - ἡ Στάγειρος or ἡ Στάγειρα.

Some researchers believed that Stagira belonged to Macedonia, and Aristotle himself was Macedonian by origin. Based on this, they concluded that Aristotle's nationality helped him to impartially consider and analyze the diversity of Greek political systems. However, this is not entirely true, since Stagira came under Macedonian rule only with the beginning of the expansion of Philip II, who invaded Chalkidiki in the late forties of the 4th century BC. e. At this time, around 349-348 BC. e., he captured and destroyed Stagira and some other cities. Aristotle, meanwhile, was in Athens at Plato's school, and the founder of the academy himself was already close to death. Subsequently, Aristotle will ask Philip to restore Stagira and himself will write laws for its citizens. We find that Stagira belongs to Macedonia in Stephen of Byzantium in his “Ethnics”, where he writes: “Στάγειρα, πόλις Μακεδονίας” that is, “Stagira is a Macedonian city.”

According to some other sources, Stagira was located in Thrace. Hesychius of Meletius in the Compendium of Lives of Philosophers writes that Aristotle “ἐκ Σταγείρων πόλεως τῆς Θρᾷκης” that is, “from Stagira, the city of Thrace.” Word for word there is a mention in the Byzantine dictionary Suda of the 10th century: “Ἀριϛοτέλης υἱὸς Νιχομάχου καὶ Φαιϛιάδος ἐκ Σταγείρων π όλεως τῆς Θρᾴκης" that is, "Aristotle the son of Nicomachus and Thestis from Stagira, the city of Thrace."

Aristotle's father, Nicomachus, was from the island of Andros. Mother Thestis came from Euboean Chalcis (it was there that Aristotle would go during his exile from Athens; most likely he still had family ties there). It turns out that Aristotle was a pure Greek on his father and mother. Nicomachus, Aristotle's father, was a hereditary Asclepiad and traced his family back to the Homeric hero Machaon, the son of Asclepius. The philosopher's father was a court physician and friend of Amyntas III, father of Philip II and grandfather of Alexander the Great. According to the Suda dictionary, Aristotle's father was the author of six books on medicine and one work on natural philosophy. He was Aristotle's first tutor, as the Asclepiads had a tradition of teaching their children from a young age, and it is therefore possible that Aristotle helped his father while he was still a boy. Apparently, this is where his interest in biology began.

However, Aristotle's parents died when he had not yet reached adulthood. Therefore, he was taken in by Proxenus, the husband of the philosopher’s elder sister, Arimnesta, who came from Atarnea, a city in Asia Minor. Proxen took care of training his ward.

In 367/6, at the age of seventeen, Aristotle arrived in Athens. However, at the time of his arrival, Plato was not at the Academy. According to some sources, Aristotle studied oratory with the rhetorician Isocrates before the academy. This version is supported by the fact that Aristotle had a special interest in rhetoric, which would later be embodied in such works as Rhetoric, Topics, First Analytics, Second Analytics, and On Interpretation. In them, the philosopher considers not only the types of speeches and social positions “rhetor - audience”, but also the “beginnings” of speech, namely: sound, syllable, verb, etc. He laid the foundation for the first logical principles of reasoning and formulated the rules for compiling syllogical figures . Therefore, Aristotle could well have devoted the first years of his Athenian studies to the rhetorical school of Isocrates. Aristotle stayed at Plato's Academy for 20 years, until the death of his teacher. Both positive and negative aspects stand out in their relationship. Among the latter, Aristotle's biographers narrate not the most successful everyday scenes. Aelian left the following evidence:

"One day, when Xenocrates took some time to visit his hometown, left Athens, Aristotle, accompanied by his students, the Phocian Mnason and others, approached Plato and began to press him. Speusippus was ill that day and could not accompany the teacher, an eighty-year-old man with a memory already weakened by age. Aristotle attacked him in anger and arrogantly began to ask questions, wanting to somehow expose him, and behaved impudently and very disrespectfully. From that time on, Plato stopped going outside the boundaries of his garden and walked with his students only within its fence. After three months, Xenocrates returned and found Aristotle walking where Plato usually walked. Noticing that after a walk he and his companions were heading not to Plato’s house, but to the city, he asked one of Aristotle’s interlocutors where Plato was, because he thought that he was not going out due to illness. “He is healthy,” was the answer, “but, since Aristotle offended him, he stopped walking here and talks with his students in his garden.” Hearing this, Xenocrates immediately went to Plato and found him in the circle of listeners (there were a lot of them, and all of them were worthy and famous people). At the end of the conversation, Plato greeted Xenocrates with his usual cordiality, and he greeted him with no less cordiality; At this meeting, both did not say a word about what had happened. Then Xenocrates gathered Plato’s students and began to angrily reprimand Speusippus for giving up their usual place of walking, then he attacked Aristotle and acted so decisively that he drove him away and returned to Plato the place where he was accustomed to teach.”

Aelian, "Motley Tales" III, 19.

However, despite everyday disagreements, Aristotle remained in Plato’s school until the latter’s death and became close to Xenocrates, who treated his teacher with respect. In addition, Aristotle, although he did not agree with Plato’s teaching in many ways, nevertheless spoke positively about it. In the Ethics of Nicomacheus, Aristotle writes about Plato: “The doctrine of ideas was introduced by people close to us.” The original uses the word “φίλοι”, which can also be translated as “friends”.

Coming to the glorious land of Cecropia piously
established an altar of holy friendship of a husband whom bad and
it is not appropriate to praise; he is the only one, or at least
the first of mortals showed clearly both with his life and
words that a good person is both
blessed; but now no one will ever be able to do this
understand

Inscription attributed to Aristotle on the altar of Philia (Friendship) erected in honor of Plato

After the death of Plato (347 BC), Aristotle, together with Xenocrates, Erastus and Coriscus (the last two are mentioned by Plato in Letter VI and recommends that they make peace with the tyrant Hermias, the ruler of Atarnea and Assos, where they were from) goes to Assos , a coastal city in Asia Minor, located opposite the island. Lesvos. During his stay in Assos, Aristotle became close to Hermias. The tyrant treated the philosopher with respect and listened to his lectures. The proximity contributed to the fact that Aristotle married his adopted daughter and niece Pythias, who gave birth to a girl who received her mother’s name. Pythias was not Aristotle's only woman. After her death, he illegally married the maid Herpellida, from whom he had a son, named, according to ancient Greek tradition, in honor of Nicomachus's father.

After a three-year stay in Assos, Aristotle, on the advice of his student Theophrastus, went to the island of Lesbos and stayed in the city of Mythelenae, where he taught until 343/2 BC. e. until he received an invitation from Philip II to become the tutor of the royal son Alexander. The reason for Aristotle's choice for this position could have been Hermias's close relationship with Philip.

Aristotle began teaching Alexander when he was 14 (or 13) years old. The learning process took place in Pella, and then in the city of Mieza in the sanctuary of the nymphs - Nymphaeion (ancient Greek: Νυμφαῖον). Aristotle taught Alexander a variety of sciences, including medicine. The philosopher instilled in the prince a love of Homeric poetry, so that subsequently, the copy of the Iliad, which Aristotle compiled for Alexander, would be kept by the king along with the dagger under his pillow.

At this time, Aristotle learns of the death of Hermias. The city of Hermia Atarnei was besieged by Mentor, a Greek general who served Darius III. The mentor lured Hermias out of the city by cunning, took him to Susa, tortured him for a long time in the hope of obtaining information about plans with Philip, and as a result crucified him on the cross.

In 335/334, Aristotle suspended the education of Alexander, due to the fact that the latter’s father was killed and the young prince had to take power into his own hands. At this time, Aristotle decided to go to Athens, where he founded his school in the northeast of the city near the Temple of Apollo Lycaeum. From the name of the temple, the area received the name Lyceum, which, in turn, passed on to the new philosophical school. In addition, Aristotle’s school was called peripatetic - this name is also present in Diogenes Laertius, who claimed that Aristotle’s school received this name because of regular walks during philosophical conversations (ancient Greek περιπατέω - stroll, stroll). And although many philosophers practiced walking while teaching, the followers of Aristotle were given the name “peripatetics.”

Aristotle's Lyceum in Athens

After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. e. An anti-Macedonian uprising began in Athens. The Athenian People's Assembly proclaimed the beginning of the liberation movement for independence from Macedonian rule. The rebellious democrats issued a decree demanding the expulsion of enemy garrisons from Greece. At this time, the hierophant of the Eleusinian Mysteries, Eurymedon, and the rhetorician from the school of Isocrates, Demophilus, accused Aristotle of atheism. The reason for such a loud accusation was the hymn “Virtue” twenty years ago, which Aristotle wrote in honor of the tyrant Hermias. Prosecutors argued that the poems were written in the style of hymns to Apollo, and the tyrant Atarnea was not worthy of such veneration. However, most likely, Aristotle’s hymn served only as a pretext for initiating political persecution against the philosopher, but in fact the main reason was the close ties of the philosopher with Alexander the Great. In addition, Aristotle was a metician, and therefore did not have Athenian citizenship and full political rights. Legally, he did not even belong to the Lyceum (Aristotle does not mention it in his will). Ultimately, Aristotle decided not to repeat the fate of Socrates and left for Euboean Chalcis. There he lived in his mother's house with his second wife Herpelis and two children Nicomachus and Pythias.

In 322 BC. e., according to ancient Greek calculation, in the 3rd year of the 114th Olympiad (a year after the death of Alexander the Great), Aristotle died of a stomach disease (according to another version, he was poisoned by aconite). His body was transferred to Stagiri, where grateful fellow citizens erected a crypt for the philosopher. In honor of Aristotle, festivals were established that bore the name "Aristotelia", and the month in which they were held was called "Aristotle".

Philosophical teachings of Aristotle

Sculpture of the head of Aristotle - copy of Lysippos, Louvre

Aristotle divides science into theoretical, the goal of which is knowledge for the sake of knowledge, practical and “poetic” (creative). Theoretical sciences include physics, mathematics and “first philosophy” (also theological philosophy, which was later called metaphysics). Practical sciences include ethics and politics (also known as the science of state). One of the central teachings of Aristotle's “first philosophy” is the doctrine of four causes, or first principles.

Doctrine of the Four Causes

In “Metaphysics” and other works, Aristotle develops the doctrine of the causes and principles of all things. These reasons are:

• Matter(Greek ΰλη, Greek ὑποκείμενον) - “that from which.” The variety of things that exist objectively; matter is eternal, uncreated and indestructible; it cannot arise from nothing, increase or decrease in quantity; she is inert and passive. Formless matter represents nothingness. Primary formed matter is expressed in the form of five primary elements (elements): air, water, earth, fire and ether (heavenly substance).
• Form(Greek μορφή, Greek tò τί ἧν εἶναι) - “that which.” The essence, stimulus, purpose, and also the reason for the formation of diverse things from monotonous matter. God (or the prime mover mind) creates the forms of various things from matter. Aristotle approaches the idea of ​​​​the individual existence of a thing, a phenomenon: it is a fusion of matter and form.
• Efficient or producing cause(Greek τὸ διὰ τί) - “that from where.” Characterizes the moment in time from which the existence of a thing begins. The beginning of all beginnings is God. There is a causal dependence of the phenomenon of existence: there is an efficient cause - this is an energetic force that generates something in the rest of the universal interaction of the phenomena of existence, not only matter and form, act and potency, but also the generating energy-cause, which, along with the active principle, has a target meaning.
• Target, or final reason(Greek τὸ οὖ ἕνεκα) - “that for which.” Each thing has its own particular purpose. The highest goal is Good.

Act and potency

With his analysis of potency and act, Aristotle introduced the principle of development into philosophy, which was a response to the aporia of the Eleans, according to which existence can arise either from existence or from non-existence. Aristotle said that both are impossible, firstly, because existing things already exist, and secondly, nothing can arise from nothing, which means emergence and formation are generally impossible.

Act and potency (actuality and possibility):

• act - the active implementation of something;
• potency is a force capable of such implementation.

Categories of philosophy

Categories are the most general and fundamental concepts of philosophy, expressing the essential, all general properties and the relationship between the phenomena of reality and knowledge. The categories were formed as a result of generalization of the historical development of knowledge.

Aristotle developed a hierarchical system of categories in which the main one was “essence” or “substance”, and the rest were considered its characteristics. He created a classification of the properties of being that comprehensively define the subject - 9 predicates.

Category comes first essence with the first entity highlighted - individual existence, and the second entity - existence of species and genera. Other categories reveal properties and states of being: quantity, quality, relation, place, time, possession, position, action, suffering.

Striving to simplify the categorical system, Aristotle then recognized only three among the main nine categories - time, place, position (or essence, state, relation).

With Aristotle, the basic concepts of space and time begin to take shape:

• substantial - considers space and time as independent entities, the principles of the world.

• relational - (from Latin Relativus - relative). According to this concept, space and time are not independent entities, but systems of relations formed by interacting material objects.

The categories of space and time act as a “method” and number of motion, that is, as a sequence of real and mental events and states, and therefore are organically connected with the principle of development.

Aristotle saw the specific embodiment of Beauty as the principle of the world structure in the Idea or Mind.

Aristotle created hierarchy of levels of all things(from matter as a possibility to the formation of individual forms of being and further):

• inorganic formations (inorganic world).
• the world of plants and living beings.
• world various types animals.
• Human.

History of philosophy

Aristotle argued that philosophy emerges from "episteme" - knowledge that goes beyond the senses, skills and experience. So empirical knowledge in the field of calculus, human health, natural properties subjects were not only the rudiments of science, but also the theoretical prerequisites for the emergence of philosophy. Aristotle derives philosophy from the rudiments of the sciences.

Philosophy is a system scientific knowledge.

God as the prime mover, as the absolute beginning of all beginnings

According to Aristotle, world movement is an integral process: all its moments are mutually determined, which presupposes the presence of a single engine. Further, based on the concept of causality, he comes to the concept of the first cause. And this is the so-called cosmological proof of the existence of God. God is the first cause of movement, the beginning of all beginnings, since there cannot be an infinite series of causes or a beginningless one. There is a cause that determines itself: the cause of all causes.

The absolute beginning of any movement is deity as a universal supersensible substance. Aristotle justified the existence of a deity by considering the principle of improvement of the Cosmos. According to Aristotle, deity serves as the subject of the highest and most perfect knowledge, since all knowledge is aimed at form and essence, and God is pure form and the first essence.

The idea of ​​the soul

Aristotle believed that the soul, which has integrity, is nothing more than its organizing principle, inseparable from the body, the source and method of regulation of the organism, its objectively observable behavior. The soul is the entelechy of the body. The soul is inseparable from the body, but itself is immaterial, incorporeal. What makes us live, feel and think is the soul. “The soul is the cause as that from which movement comes, as the goal and as the essence of animate bodies.”

Thus, the soul is a certain meaning and form, and not matter, not a substratum.

The body is characterized by a vital state that creates its orderliness and harmony. This is the soul, that is, a reflection of the actual reality of the universal and eternal Mind. Aristotle gave an analysis various parts soul: memory, emotions, transition from sensations to general perception, and from it to a generalized idea; from opinion through concept to knowledge, and from directly felt desire to rational will.

“The soul distinguishes and cognizes existence, but it itself spends a lot of “time in mistakes.” “To achieve something reliable about the soul in all respects is, of course, the most difficult thing.”

Theory of knowledge and logic

Aristotle's knowledge has being as its subject. The basis of experience is sensations, memory and habit. Any knowledge begins with sensations: it is that which is capable of taking the form of sensory objects without their matter; the mind sees the general in the individual.

However, it is impossible to acquire scientific knowledge with the help of sensations and perceptions alone, because all things are changeable and transitory. The forms of truly scientific knowledge are concepts that comprehend the essence of a thing.

Having analyzed the theory of knowledge in detail and deeply, Aristotle created a work on logic that retains its enduring significance to this day. Here he developed a theory of thinking and its forms, concepts, judgments and inferences.

Aristotle is also the founder of logic.

The task of knowledge is to ascend from simple sensory perception to the heights of abstraction. Scientific knowledge is the most reliable, logically provable and necessary knowledge.

In the doctrine of knowledge and its types, Aristotle distinguished between “dialectical” and “apodictic” knowledge. The area of ​​the first is “opinion” obtained from experience, the second is reliable knowledge. Although an opinion can receive a very high degree of probability in its content, experience is not, according to Aristotle, the final authority for the reliability of knowledge, for the highest principles of knowledge are contemplated directly by the mind.

The starting point of knowledge is the sensations obtained as a result of the influence of the external world on the senses; without sensations there is no knowledge. Defending this epistemological basic position, “Aristotle comes close to materialism.” Aristotle considered sensations to be reliable, reliable evidence about things, but added with a reservation that sensations themselves determine only the first and lowest level of knowledge, and a person rises to the highest level thanks to the generalization in thinking of social practice.

Aristotle saw the goal of science in a complete definition of the subject, achieved only by combining deduction and induction:

1) knowledge about each individual property must be acquired from experience;

2) the belief that this property is essential must be proven by the conclusion of a special logical form- categorical syllogism.

The basic principle of a syllogism expresses the connection between genus, species and individual thing. These three terms were understood by Aristotle as reflecting the relationship between the effect, the cause and the bearer of the cause.

The system of scientific knowledge cannot be reduced to a single system of concepts, because there is no such concept that could be a predicate of all other concepts: therefore, for Aristotle it turned out to be necessary to indicate all the higher genera, namely the categories to which the remaining genera of existence are reduced.

Reflecting on categories and operating with them in the analysis of philosophical problems, Aristotle considered the operations of the mind and its logic, including the logic of statements. Developed by Aristotle and problems dialogue, deepening the ideas of Socrates.

He formulated logical laws:

• law of identity - a concept must be used in the same meaning in the course of reasoning;
• the law of contradiction - “do not contradict yourself”;
• the law of the excluded middle - “A or not-A is true, there is no third.”

Aristotle developed the doctrine of syllogisms, which considers all kinds of inferences in the process of reasoning.

Ethical views

To designate the totality of virtues of human character as a special subject area of ​​knowledge and to highlight this very knowledge of science, Aristotle introduced the term “ethics”. Starting from the word “ethos” (ancient Greek ethos), Aristotle formed the adjective “ethical” in order to designate a special a class of human qualities that he called ethical virtues. Ethical virtues are properties of a person’s temperament; they are also called spiritual qualities.

The Teaching of Virtues

Aristotle divides all virtues into moral, or ethical, and mental, or rational, or dianoetic. Ethical virtues represent the mean between extremes - excess and deficiency - and include: meekness, courage, moderation, generosity, majesty, magnanimity, ambition, evenness, truthfulness, courtesy, friendliness, justice, practical wisdom, just indignation. Regarding moral virtue, Aristotle states that it is “the ability to do the best in everything that concerns pleasure and pain, and depravity is its opposite.” Moral, or ethical, virtues (virtues of character) are born from habits-morals: a person acts, gains experience, and on the basis of this, his character traits are formed. Reasonable virtues (virtues of the mind) develop in a person through training.

Virtue is the inner order or disposition of the soul; order is achieved by man through conscious and purposeful effort.

Aristotle, like Plato, divided the soul into three forces: rational (logical), passionate (thumoidic) and desiring (epithumic). Aristotle endows each of the powers of the soul with its characteristic virtue: logical - rationality; passionate - with meekness and courage; whoever wants it - with abstinence and chastity. In general, the soul, according to Aristotle, has the following virtues: justice, nobility and generosity

Internal conflict

Every choice situation involves conflict. However, the choice is often experienced much more softly - as a choice between various kinds of goods (knowing virtue, one can lead a vicious life).

Aristotle tried to show the possibility of resolving this moral difficulty.

The word “know” is used in two meanings:

1) “knows” is said about someone who only has knowledge;

2) about who applies knowledge in practice.

Aristotle further clarified that, strictly speaking, only those who can apply it should be considered to have knowledge. So, if a person knows one thing, but acts differently, it means he doesn’t know, it means he doesn’t have knowledge, but an opinion, and he should achieve true knowledge, standing the test in practical activities.

Virtue as rationality is acquired by a person in the process of understanding his own duality and resolving internal conflict (at least as far as this is within the power of the person himself).

Human

For Aristotle, a person is, first of all, a social or political being (“political animal”), gifted with speech and capable of understanding such concepts as good and evil, justice and injustice, that is, possessing moral qualities.

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle noted that “man is by nature a social being,” and in “Politics” he is a political being. He also put forward the position that man is born a political being and carries within himself an instinctive desire for a common life. Innate inequality of abilities is the reason for uniting people into groups, hence the difference in the functions and places of people in society.

There are two principles in a person: biological and social. From the moment of his birth, a person is not left alone with himself; he joins in all the achievements of the past and present, in the thoughts and feelings of all humanity. Human life outside society is impossible.

Aristotle's cosmology

Aristotle, following Eudoxus, taught that the Earth, which is the center of the Universe, is spherical. Aristotle saw the proof of the spherical shape of the Earth in the character lunar eclipses, in which the shadow cast by the Earth on the Moon has a rounded shape at the edges, which can only happen if the Earth is spherical. Referring to the statements of a number of ancient mathematicians, Aristotle considered the circumference of the Earth to be equal to 400 thousand stadia (approx. 71,200 km). Aristotle was also the first to prove the sphericity of the Moon based on the study of its phases. His essay “Meteorology” was one of the first works on physical geography.

The influence of Aristotle's geocentric cosmology continued until Copernicus. Aristotle was guided by the planetary theory of Eudoxus of Cnidus, but attributed real physical existence to the planetary spheres: The Universe consists of a number of concentric spheres moving at different speeds and driven by the outermost sphere of the fixed stars.

The firmament and all the heavenly bodies are spherical. However, Aristotle proved this idea incorrectly, based on a teleological idealistic concept. Aristotle deduced the sphericity of the heavenly bodies from the false view that the so-called “sphere” is the most perfect form.

Aristotle's idealism gets into his doctrine of the worlds final design:

The “sublunar world,” that is, the region between the orbit of the Moon and the center of the Earth, is a region of chaotic, uneven movements, and all bodies in this region consist of the four lower elements: earth, water, air and fire. Earth, as the heaviest element, occupies a central place. Above it are successively the shells of water, air and fire.

The “supralunar world,” that is, the region between the orbit of the Moon and the outer sphere of the fixed stars, is a region of eternally uniform movements, and the stars themselves consist of the fifth, most perfect element - ether.

Ether (the fifth element or quinta essentia) is part of the stars and sky. It is divine, incorruptible and completely different from the other four elements.

The stars, according to Aristotle, are fixedly fixed in the sky and rotate with it, and the “wandering stars” (planets) move in seven concentric circles.
The cause of heavenly movement is God.

Doctrine of the State

Aristotle criticized Plato's doctrine of a perfect state and preferred to talk about a political system that most states could have. He believed that the community of property, wives and children proposed by Plato would lead to the destruction of the state. Aristotle was a staunch defender of individual rights, private property and the monogamous family, as well as a supporter of slavery.

However, Aristotle did not recognize the justification for turning prisoners of war into slavery; in his opinion, slaves should be those who, having physical strength, do not have reason - “All those who differ to such a strong degree from other people, in which the soul differs from the body, and man from animal... those people are slaves by nature; ... a slave by nature is one who can belong to another (that’s why he belongs to another) and who is involved in reason to such an extent that he is able to understand its orders, but does not possess reason himself.”

Having carried out a grandiose generalization of the social and political experience of the Hellenes, Aristotle developed an original socio-political teaching. When studying socio-political life, he proceeded from the principle: “As elsewhere, the best way of theoretical construction is to consider the primary formation of objects.” He considered such “education” to be the natural desire of people for living together and for political communication.

According to Aristotle, man is a political being, that is, a social one, and he carries within himself an instinctive desire for “cohabitation together.”

The first result social life Aristotle considered the formation of a family - husband and wife, parents and children... The need for mutual exchange led to the communication of families and villages. This is how the state arose. The state is created not in order to live in general, but to live mainly happily.

According to Aristotle, the state arises only when communication is created for the sake of a good life between families and clans, for the sake of a perfect and sufficient life for itself.

The nature of the state is “ahead” of the family and the individual. Thus, the perfection of a citizen is determined by the qualities of the society to which he belongs - whoever wants to create perfect people must create perfect citizens, and whoever wants to create perfect citizens must create a perfect state.

Having identified society with the state, Aristotle was forced to search for the goals, interests and nature of people’s activities depending on their property status and used this criterion when characterizing various strata of society. He identified three main layers of citizens: the very wealthy, the average, and the extremely poor. According to Aristotle, the poor and the rich “turn out to be elements in the state that are diametrically opposed to each other, and depending on the preponderance of one or another element, the corresponding form of the state system is established.”

The best state is a society that is achieved through the medium of the middle element (that is, the “middle” element between slave owners and slaves), and those states have the best system where the middle element is represented in greater numbers, where it has higher value compared with both extreme elements. Aristotle noted that when a state has many people deprived of political rights, when there are many poor people in it, then there will inevitably be hostile elements in such a state.

Main general rule, according to Aristotle's idea, the following should serve: no citizen should be given the opportunity to excessively increase his political power beyond due measure.

Politician and politics

Aristotle, relying on the results of Plato's political philosophy, singled out the special scientific study of a certain area of ​​social relations into an independent science of politics.

According to Aristotle, people can only live in society, under the conditions of a political system, since “man is by nature a political being.” To properly organize social life, people need politics.

Politics is a science, knowledge of how to best organize the joint life of people in a state.

Politics is the art and skill of public administration.

The essence of politics is revealed through its goal, which, according to Aristotle, is to give citizens high moral qualities, to make them people who act fairly. That is, the goal of politics is a fair (common) good. Achieving this goal is not easy. A politician must take into account that people have not only virtues, but also vices. Therefore, the task of politics is not to educate morally perfect people, but to cultivate virtues in citizens. The virtue of a citizen consists of the ability to fulfill one's civic duty and the ability to obey authorities and laws. Therefore, a politician must look for the best, that is, the most appropriate state structure for the specified purpose.

The state is a product of natural development, but at the same time the highest form of communication. Man by nature is a political being, and in the state (political communication) the process of this political nature of man is completed.

Depending on the goals that the rulers of the state set for themselves, Aristotle distinguished correct And incorrect government devices:

The correct system is a system in which the common good is pursued, regardless of whether one, a few or many rule:

• Monarchy (Greek monarchia - autocracy) is a form of government in which all supreme power belongs to the monarch.

• Aristocracy (Greek aristokratia - power of the best) is a form of government in which supreme power belongs by inheritance to the clan nobility, the privileged class. The power of the few, but more than one.

• Polity - Aristotle considered this form to be the best. It occurs extremely “rarely and in a few.” In particular, discussing the possibility of establishing a polity in contemporary Greece, Aristotle came to the conclusion that such a possibility was small. In a polity, the majority rules in the interests of the common good. Polity is the “average” form of the state, and the “average” element here dominates in everything: in morals - moderation, in property - average wealth, in power - the middle stratum. “A state consisting of average people will have the best political system.”

An incorrect system is a system in which the private goals of the rulers are pursued:

• Tyranny is a monarchical power that has in mind the benefits of one ruler.

• Oligarchy - respects the benefits of wealthy citizens. A system in which power is in the hands of people who are rich and of noble birth and form a minority.

• Democracy benefits the poor, among irregular shapes State Aristotle gave preference to it, considering it the most tolerable. Democracy should be considered a system when the freeborn and the poor, constituting the majority, have supreme power in their hands.

deviation from monarchy gives tyranny,
deviation from aristocracy - oligarchy,
deviation from politics - democracy.
deviation from democracy - ochlocracy.

The basis of all social upheavals is property inequality. According to Aristotle, oligarchy and democracy base their claim to power in the state on the fact that property is the lot of a few, and all citizens enjoy freedom. The oligarchy protects the interests of the propertied classes. None of them have any general benefit.

In any political system, the general rule should be the following: no citizen should be given the opportunity to excessively increase his political power beyond due measure. Aristotle advised to monitor ruling officials so that they do not turn public office into a source of personal enrichment.

Deviation from law means a departure from civilized forms of government to despotic violence and the degeneration of law into a means of despotism. “It cannot be a matter of law to rule not only by right, but also contrary to law: the desire for violent subordination, of course, contradicts the idea of ​​law.”

The main thing in the state is the citizen, that is, the one who participates in court and administration bears military service and performs priestly functions. Slaves were excluded from the political community, although, according to Aristotle, they should have constituted the majority of the population.

Aristotle undertook a gigantic study of the “constitution” - the political structure of 158 states (of which only one has survived - the “Athenian polity”).

Aristotle and natural sciences

Although Aristotle's early philosophical works were largely speculative, his later works demonstrate a deep understanding of empiricism, the basics of biology, and the diversity of life forms. Aristotle did not conduct experiments, believing that things reveal their true nature more accurately in their natural environment than in an artificially created one. While in physics and chemistry such an approach was recognized as non-functional, in zoology and ethology the works of Aristotle “are of real interest.” He made numerous descriptions of nature, especially the habitats and properties of various plants and animals, which he included in his catalogue. In total, Aristotle classified 540 varieties of animals and studied the internal structure of at least fifty species.

Aristotle believed that everyone natural processes guided by intellectual goals, formal reasons. Such teleological views gave Aristotle a reason to present the information he collected as an expression of formal design. For example, he assumed that it was not in vain that Nature endowed some animals with horns and others with tusks, thereby giving them the minimum set of means necessary for survival. Aristotle believed that all living beings could be arranged in order on a special scale - scala naturae or the Great Chain of Being - at the very bottom of which there would be plants, and at the top - humans. .

Aristotle was of the opinion that, than more perfect creation, the more perfect its form, but the form does not determine the content. Another aspect of his biological theory was the identification of three types of souls: the plant soul, responsible for reproduction and growth; the feeling soul, responsible for mobility and feelings; and a rational soul, capable of thinking and reasoning. He attributed the presence of the first soul to plants, the first and second to animals, and all three to humans. Aristotle, unlike other early philosophers, and following the Egyptians, believed that the place of the rational soul is in the heart, and not in the brain. It is interesting that Aristotle was one of the first to separate feeling and thought. Theophrastus, a follower of Aristotle from the Lyceum, wrote a series of books on the History of Plants, which is the most important contribution of ancient science to botany, it remained unsurpassed until the Middle Ages.

Many of the names coined by Theophrastus have survived to this day, such as carpos for fruit and pericarpion for seed pod. Instead of relying on a theory of formal causes, as Aristotle did, Theophrastus proposed a mechanistic scheme, drawing analogies between natural and artificial processes, relying on Aristotle's concept of "moving cause." Theophrastus also recognized the role of sex in the reproduction of some higher plants, although this knowledge was later lost. The contribution of the biological and teleological ideas of Aristotle and Theophrastus to Western medicine cannot be underestimated.

Essays

Aristotle's numerous works covered almost the entire area of ​​knowledge available at that time, which in his works received a deeper philosophical justification, was brought into a strict, systematic order, and its empirical basis grew significantly. Some of these works were not published by him during his lifetime, and many others were falsely attributed to him later. But even some parts of those works that undoubtedly belong to him can be called into question, and the ancients already tried to explain this incompleteness and fragmentation to themselves by the vicissitudes of the fate of Aristotle’s manuscripts. According to the legend preserved by Strabo and Plutarch, Aristotle bequeathed his writings to Theophrastus, from whom they passed on to Nelius of Skepsis. The heirs of Nelius hid the precious manuscripts from the greed of the Pergamon kings in the cellar, where they suffered greatly from dampness and mold. In the 1st century BC. e. they were sold for a high price to the rich and book-lover Apellikon in the most pitiful condition, and he tried to restore the damaged parts of the manuscripts with his own additions, but not always successfully. Subsequently, under Sulla, they were among other booty in Rome, where Tyrannian and Andronicus of Rhodes published them in their current form.

Of the works of Aristotle, those written in a publicly accessible form (exoteric), for example, the “Dialogues,” have not reached us, although the distinction between exoteric and esoteric works accepted by the ancients was not so strictly drawn by Aristotle himself and in any case did not mean a difference in content. The works of Aristotle that have come down to us are far from identical in their literary merits: in the same work, some sections give the impression of thoroughly processed and prepared texts for publication, others - more or less detailed sketches. Finally, there are those that suggest that they were only notes from the teacher for upcoming lectures, and some passages, like perhaps his Eudemian Ethics, seem to owe their origin to notes from listeners, or at least revised according to these notes.

In the fifth book of Historia animalium, Aristotle mentioned his Doctrine of Plants, which survives only in a small number of fragments. These fragments were collected and published in 1838 by the German botanist H. Wimmer. From them you can see that Aristotle recognized the existence of two kingdoms in the surrounding world: inanimate and living nature. He classified plants as animate, living nature. According to Aristotle, plants have a lower level of soul development compared to animals and humans. Aristotle noted certain common properties in the nature of plants and animals. He wrote, for example, that in relation to some sea inhabitants it is difficult to decide whether they are plants or animals.

Aristotelian corpus

The “Aristotelian Corpus” (lat. Corpus Aristotelicum) traditionally includes works expounding the teachings of Aristotle, belonging to Aristotle himself.

Logic (Organon)

• Categories/ Κατηγοριῶν / Categoriae
• About interpretation/ Περὶ ἑρμηνείας / De interpretatione
• First analytics/ ἀναλυτικά πρότερα / Analytica priora
• Second analytics/ ἀναλυτικά ὑστερα / Analytica posteriora
• Topeka/ Τοπικῶν / Topica
• On sophistical refutations/ Περὶ τῶν σοφιστικῶν ἐλέγχων / De sophisticis elenchis

About nature

• Physics/ Φυσικὴ ἀκρόασις / Physica
• About the sky/ Περὶ οὐρανοῦ / De caelo
• About emergence and destruction/ Περὶ γενέσεως καὶ φθορᾶς / De generatione et corruptione
• Meteorology/ Τα μετεωρολογικά / Meteorologica
• About the soul/ Περὶ ψυχῆς / De anima
• Parva naturalia (“Small works on nature”, a cycle of 7 small works) About perception and the perceived, other translation - About sensory perception / Περὶ αἰσθήσεως καὶ αἰσθητῶν / De sensu et sensibilibus About memory and recollection/ Περὶ μνήμης καὶ ἀναμνήσεως / De memoria et reminiscentia About sleep and wakefulness/ Περὶ ὗπνου καὶ ὶγρηγορήσεως / De somno et vigilia About dreams/ Περὶ ἐνυπνίου / De insomniis On the interpretation of dreams / Περὶ τῆς καθ΄ ὕπνον μαντικῆς / De divinatione per somnumAbout the longness and brevity of life / Περὶ μακροβιότητος καὶ βραχυβιότητος / De longitudine et brevitate vitaeAbout youth and old age, about life and death and about breathing / Περὶ νεότητος καὶ γήρως καὶ ζωῆς καὶ θανάτου / De juventute et senectute, de vita et morte et de respiratione
• Animal history / Περὶ τὰ ζὼα ἱστορίαι / Historia animalium
• About animal parts / Περὶ ζῴων μορίων / De partibus animalium
• About the movement of animals / Περὶ ζῴων κινήσεως / De motu animalium
• About the methods of movement of animals / Περὶ ζῴων πορείας / De incessu animalium
• About the origin of animals / Περὶ ζῴων γενέσεως / De generatione animalium

• About the world/ Περὶ κόσμου / De mundo
• About breathing / Περὶ πνεύματος / De spiritu
• About flowers / Περὶ χρωμάτων / De coloribus
• About the audible / Περὶ ἀκουστῶν / De audibilibus
• Physiognomy / Φυσιογνωμικά / Physiognomonica
• About plants / Περὶ φυτών / De plantis
• About wonderful rumors / Περὶ θαυμάσιων ἀκουσμάτων / De mirabilibus auscultationibus
• Mechanics / Μηχανικά / Mechanica
• Problems / Προβλήματα / Problemata
• About indivisible lines / Περὶ ατόμων γραμμών / De lineis insecabilibus
• About the directions and names of the winds / Ἀνέμων θέσεις καὶ προσηγορίαι / Ventorum situs et cognomina
• About Xenophanes, Zeno, Gorgias / Περὶ Ξενοφάνους, περὶ Ζήνωνος, περὶ Γοργίου / De Xenophane, de Zenone, de Gorgia

Metaphysics

• Metaphysics/ Μετὰ τὰ φυσικά / Metaphysica

Ethics and Politics

• Nicomachean Ethics/ Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια / Ethica Nicomachea
• Evdemova ethics/ Ἠθικὰ Εὐδήμεια / Ethica Eudemia
• Policy/ Πολιτικά /Politica

• Athenian polity / Ἀθηναίων πολιτεία /
• Great ethics/ Ἠθικὰ μεγάλα / Magna moralia
• About virtues and vices/ Περὶ ἀρετῶν καὶ κακιῶν / De virtutibus et vitiis libellus
• Economy/ Οἰκονομικά / Oeconomica

Rhetoric and Poetics

• Rhetoric/ Ῥητορικὴ τέχνη / Ars rhetorica
• Poetics/ Περὶ ποιητικῆς / Ars poetica

• Rhetoric to Alexander/ Ῥητορικὴ πρὸς Ἀλέξανδρον / Rhetorica ad Alexandrum (the author is considered to be Anaximenes of Lampsacus)

Reception

Appearance and habits

According to Greek biographers, Aristotle suffered from speech impediments, was “short-legged, had small eyes, wore smart clothes and a trimmed beard.” According to Aelian, Plato did not approve of Aristotle’s lifestyle or his manner of dressing: he wore luxurious clothes and elegant shoes, trimmed his beard and showed off with many rings on his hands. “And there was some kind of mockery on his face, inappropriate talkativeness also testified to his character.”

Ancient Russian sources echo the late antique reception, describing Aristotle as follows:

The image was of average age. His head is not large, his voice is thin, his eyes are small, his legs are thin. And he walked around in colorful and good clothes. And he loved to wear gold rings and caps... and he washed himself in the vessel with warm wooden oil

The Legend of the Hellenic Philosopher and the Wise Aristotle

It also tells how Aristotle, in order not to sleep too long, went to bed with a bronze ball in his hand, which, falling into a metal basin, woke up the philosopher.

Editions

The first complete edition in Latin with commentaries by the Arab philosopher Averroes appeared in 1489 in Venice, and the first Greek edition was made by Aldus Manutius (5 vols., Venice, 1495-98). This was followed by a new edition, revised by Erasmus of Rotterdam (Basel, 1531), then another, revised by Silburg (Frank., 1584) and many others. At the end of the 18th century, Boulet made a new Greek and Latin edition (5 vols., Zweibrück and Strasb., 1791-1800). In the 19th century, at the expense of the Berlin Academy, a five-volume complete edition of works, commentaries, scholia and fragments was prepared (Berlin, 1831-71), which also served as a guide for the French edition of Didot in Paris (5 volumes, 1848-74).

Translators of Aristotle into Russian

Note. The list includes translators of the authentic works of Aristotle and his non-authentic works (Corpus Aristotelicum)

• Alymova, Elena Valentinovna
• Afonasin, Evgeniy Vasilievich
• Appelrot, Vladimir Germanovich
• Braginskaya, Nina Vladimirovna
• Voden A. M.
• Gasparov, Mikhail Leonovich
• Zhebelev, Sergey Alexandrovich
• Zakharov V. I.
• Itkin M. I.
• Kazansky A.P.
• Karpov, Vladimir Porfirievich
• Kastorsky M. N.
• Kubitsky, Alexander Vladislavovich
• Lange, Nikolai Nikolaevich
• Lebedev Andrey Valentinovich
• Losev, Alexey Fedorovich
• Makhankov I. I.
• Miller, Tatyana Adolfovna
• Novosadsky, Nikolai Ivanovich
• Ordynsky B.I.
• Pervov, Pavel Dmitrievich
• Platonova, Nadezhda Nikolaevna
• Popov P.S.
• Radlov, Ernest Leopoldovich
• Rozanov, Vasily Vasilievich
• Skvortsov N.
• Snegirev V.
• Solopova, Maria Anatolyevna
• Fokht, Boris Alexandrovich
• Tsybenko, Oleg Pavlovich

Memory

Named after Aristotle:

• Aristotle University of Thessaloniki;
• Aristotle Square in Thessaloniki;
• Aristotelian plant;
• crater on the Moon;
• asteroid (eng. 6123 Aristoteles).

Aristotle is the greatest philosopher of ancient Greece, the creator of the Peripatetic school, and a scientist. Plato's favorite student and mentor of Alexander the Great is also Aristotle.

Brief biography for children: about youth

In 384 BC. e. In Stagira, a Greek colony near Athos, Aristotle was born - one of the great philosophers of all times and peoples.

The parents of the future scientist, who was often called Stagirite, had a noble origin. Nicomachus, the father of the future scientist, a hereditary physician, served as a court physician and taught his heir the basics of medical art and philosophy, which at that time was inseparable from medicine. From childhood, Aristotle was closely associated with the Macedonian court and knew very well his peer, the son of King Amyntas III, Philip.

While still a child, Aristotle was orphaned and was raised by his relative Proxenus. The latter placed the care of the young man on his shoulders: he helped in obtaining an education, encouraged the teenager’s curiosity in every possible way, and spent money on purchasing books, which at that time were a very expensive pleasure, almost a luxury. Such expenses were facilitated by the fortune left after the death of the parents. Biography of Aristotle, summary which arouses genuine interest among modern youth, truly inspires deep respect for this man, who has placed on his shoulders the responsibility for educating other people interested in the favorable future of their country.

Plato is my friend

The biography of Aristotle briefly tells how, in order to study philosophy in 367 BC. e. Aristotle moved to Athens, where he remained for two decades. In the famous Greek city, a young man entered the Academy opened by the great philosopher Plato as a student. The mentor, paying attention to the brilliant mental qualities of the student, began to distinguish him from the rest of the listeners.

Aristotle gradually began to retreat from the views and ideas of his teacher and rely on his own worldview. Plato did not really like this, but the difference in views did not affect the personal relationship of the two geniuses. Most of all, the opinions of the two great minds diverged in the doctrine of ideas, which, as Plato believed, formed the incorporeal world. For his student Aristotle, ideas were just the essence of ongoing material phenomena, clothed in these very ideas. Regarding this dispute, Aristotle voiced a famous phrase, which in an abbreviated version sounds like: “Plato is my friend, but the truth is dearer.” Aristotle’s incredible respect for his beloved mentor Plato can be judged by the fact that the young man, who already had an established worldview system, and therefore the prerequisites for organizing his own philosophical school, did not do this during his mentor’s lifetime.

Aristotle's biography briefly describes that in 347 BC. e., after the passing of the great teacher into another world, his place as the head of the Academy was taken by his nephew Speusip. Aristotle, who was among those dissatisfied with this circumstance, left Athens and, at the invitation of the tyrant Hermias (a student of Plato), went to the city of Assos, located in Asia Minor. 2 years later, for active opposition to the Persian yoke, Hermias was betrayed and crucified, and therefore Aristotle had to quickly leave Assos. Pythias, a relative of Hermia, who later became the wife of the Greek philosopher, also fled. Refuge for the young couple was found in the city of Mytilene (Lesbos island). It was here that Aristotle was invited to become a mentor to Philip's son, Alexander, at that time a 13-year-old teenager.

About Aristotle's pupil

The biography of Aristotle briefly shows that the influence of the Greek philosopher on the character of his student and his way of thinking, which later became famous greatest commander, was huge.

Aristotle, skillfully tempering the passion of the soul of his ward, directed young man to serious thoughts, awakened noble aspirations to accomplish feats and glory, instilled a love for the Iliad - the book of Homer, which accompanied Macedonsky throughout his life. Alexander received a classical education, in which the emphasis was on the study of politics and ethics. The young commander was also well versed in literature, medicine and philosophy.

Founding of the school

Aristotle's biography briefly describes how the Greek philosopher, leaving his nephew Callisthenes with the Macedonian, in 335 BC. e. returned to Athens, where he founded the philosophical school Lyceum (lyceum), otherwise called “peripatetic” (from “peripatos” - a covered gallery around a courtyard, a walk). This characterized the location of the lessons or the teacher’s manner in the process of presenting information - walking back and forth. Representatives of the Peripatetic school, along with philosophy, studied various sciences: physics, geography, astronomy, history. The morning classes, called “acroamatics,” were attended by the most prepared students; after lunch, anyone could listen to the philosopher.

This period in the biography of the Greek philosopher is a crucial stage, because it was during this time that many important discoveries were made in the process of research and a colossal part of the works was created, which largely determined and directed the development of world science in the right direction. During these years, his wife Pythias died. Aristotle married her former slave Herpyllis for the second time.

last years of life

The biography of Aristotle briefly and clearly describes that the ancient Greek philosopher, enthusiastically occupied with the world of science, was completely far from political events, but after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. e. A wave of anti-Macedonian persecution and repression began in the country, and the sky thickened over the head of the Greek philosopher. Aristotle was charged with disrespect for the gods and blasphemy, which forced the scientist, who understood the bias of the upcoming trial, to leave with some students to Chalkis, on the island of Euboea, which became the last refuge in his life. 62-year-old philosopher died from hereditary disease stomach. Aristotle was replaced as head of the Lyceum by his best student, Theophrastus. The family of the great scientist was continued by his daughter Pythiala (the son of Nicomachus, according to some assumptions, was killed in the war in his young years).

Aristotle: short biography and his discoveries

There is an opinion that the great Aristotle was a short and sickly man. His speech was very fast and with defects: the philosopher mixed some sounds, which in no way detracted from his tremendous contribution to science.

Like most thinkers of ancient times, Aristotle, in addition to philosophy, diligently studied various sciences and became the founder of some sections: logic, scientific rhetoric, and grammar. Also, the great thinker established a large number of important facts in anatomy and zoology, and was the first to create a philosophy of art and a theory of poetry. The most important and famous works of Aristotle are “Politics”, “Metaphysics”, “Poetics”, “Physics”. The philosophical system of the Greek enlightener affected various aspects of humanity and globally influenced the subsequent development of scientific thinking.

In geography, Aristotle expressed the idea of ​​the integrity and boundlessness of the World Ocean. In biology, the scientist described about five thousand species of animals and founded a zoological taxonomy, the first in scientific history. Studying animals, he divided them into 2 groups: bloodless and animals with blood (putting humans at the head), which practically corresponds to today’s concept: vertebrates and invertebrates. The great philosopher is considered the father of meteorology (this term was first mentioned in a treatise on celestial phenomena).

Of all the works of Aristotle, only a quarter of his works have survived to this day. According to some assumptions, after his death the philosopher’s rich library passed to Theophrastus and his descendants, who, being uneducated people, dumped the books in boxes and locked them in the basement. Dampness and worms completed what had been started.