The Philosophy

of
I or

Aristotle
Francisco Javier García
Moreno
Philosophy Professor
IES Vistazul
(Two Sisters-Seville)

ARISTOTLE (384-322 BC) C.)

Aristotle is the most important Socratic
philosopher because he condenses what his
predecessors contributed to philosophical
thought. He was born in Stagira. His father
was physician to the King of Macedonia and
tutor to Alexander the Great. Around the age
of 18 he was a disciple of Plato, but then he
founded his own school of Philosophy called
Lyceum . Among his main works are
“Nichomachean Ethics”, “Metaphysics”, “On
the Soul”, “Rhetoric”, “Politics”.
Aristotelian philosophy can focus on 3 fundamental focuses of interest

the study of "being" "ethical action"

the study of "nature"

The theme of nature is none other than the problem of reality, therefore
this theme will be closely linked to the question of "being", but
unfolding into two areas: a physical one referred to sensory reality, and
another metaphysical one referred to in this case to a type of reality
that is beyond the pure physical realm of perception, and that finds its
culmination in the Zeos
The conception of the human being in
Aristotle
Aristotle, like Plato, considered that man is a compound of soul and body ,
but while for Plato soul and body are the meeting of two entities, which
correspond to different realities and worlds (the soul to the ideal world and
the body to sensible world) for Aristotle constitute a substantial unity of
matter (body) and form (soul) .
 The conception of the human being in
Aristotle
Aristotle maintains this idea by stating that the soul is the form of the body and,
consequently, it is also the act of the body, which, because it is matter, is the power. Thus, in
the same way that act is superior to power and form is superior to matter, the soul prevails
over the body and is superior to it, in the sense that it is the beginning of all the activity of
beings. alive.
Aristotle considers that all living beings have a soul, but not all souls can perform
the same functions.

That is why he distinguishes three different types of souls:

Soul Purpose Features Structure Belongs to

Vegetative Conservation of Nutrition and Organism Floors
the individual reproduction

Sensitive Motion Sensory 5 senses Animals

 Intellectual Thought Intellectuals People
Patient and agent
understanding

The theory of Knowledge

The knowledge process would be the following:

• The senses capture the sensitive aspects of the object.

• Common sense coordinates the senses and guarantees a unitary and global perception of the object.
From this process an image is obtained, which is the material and power of the concept. The image is
created by imagination, memory, and experience.
• The image passes to the patient understanding, which receives the images and makes them
potentially intelligible. The agent understanding abstracts and updates the intelligibles present in the
patient understanding, obtaining a concept, which constitutes the basis of universal knowledge, and is
always true.
 The concept of reality: Aristotelian
metaphysics
Metaphysics or first philosophy as a science of being, as being

Being is the object of philosophy, and it is because it is the most universal concept of
all, since all things agree that they are something. But the fact that being is the most
universal of concepts does not mean that it is univocal, but on the contrary, it is the most
equivocal of all concepts, since being is said in many ways. It is analogical, it has
many meanings and many ways of being understood.

- be entitative or substantial
- be predicative or accidental
- be in act
- be potentially

Luis is tall
Be entitative What is predicated of an entity
subject of preaching
 The concept of reality: Aristotelian
metaphysics
The study of being It is done through Entit
as being y
Entity is being as it is being, that is, that which has the actuality of being, that exists.

Ente (onto, in Greek) is the present participle of the verb Eimai=Be.

Entity literally means that which is, that which is being.

Aristotle approaches the study of beings through concrete beings, of beings as they
have the actuality of being; and that entity is the substance
The concept of reality. The metaphysics
Aristotelian: The hylemorphic theory
First material

Of what is
made one It is not perceptible by the senses, but by
intelligence. Let's say that it is the
substance coincidence of all material things in being
precisely matter

It can be distinguished
between
Subject Second matter,
(allows potentiality) It is the physical matter of which each
Substanc specific substance is composed: wood,
e clay, marble, meat, etc.
Shape
(allows current events)

Which makes that

a substance is
what is and
we can
identify it as
such
Different substances that share the
same matter. They differ in shape
The concept of reality. Aristotelian
metaphysics: The hylemorphic theory
One can also distinguish between

First Substance

Individual subject composed of matter (body) and

form (soul or psyche in Greek)

Second Substance

Human being as a genus and species

Aristotle (1st substance) is a human being (2nd

substance)
The concept of reality. Aristotelian
metaphysics: The categories
Every sensible and concrete substance is an individual being composed of matter and form,
which at the same time is the subject of all predication. That is, substance is, in addition to
being a sensible entity, a category, and therefore a form of predication, an explicit
affirmation of reality. Everything we affirm about reality we are affirming through
substances and from substances.

Therefore substance is the first category

The accidental categories quantity, (one, two, many, some, etc.)

quality, (tall, short, ugly, white, etc.)
Every substance has accidents, since relationship, (double, half, major, minor,
accidents are the modes or forms of being etc.)
of the substance , what we can predicate of Place (here, there…..)
the substance . The peculiarity of accidents Time (now, before, after...
is that they cannot exist by themselves, that position
possession or condition
is, they exist thanks to the substance, since
action
they are affections of the substance, there are passion
nine:
 The Philosophy of Nature in Aristotle:
Change and typology
Substantial
Changes of entity are when the changes
affect the entire substance in such a way
that it becomes another totally different
substance, another totally different entity
(being). This type of change implies a total
change in the form of the substance. They
are conceptualized as generation or
destruction

Accidental
Variations occur in the substance or in
the shape of the substance without
changing it. They can be subdivided
into three: Quantitative changes,
which affect volume, size, etc.
Qualitative changes, referring to the
qualities of the substances.
Local changes, that is, displacements.

The Philosophy of
 Nature in Aristotle: Change and its conceptualization
Aristotle explains change with the power-act scheme.
Potency is the passive capacity that a substrate has to become something that it is not yet.

The act is the realization or determination of the power, it is the current possession of a form in a
here and now, of which the power was deprived.

We can affirm that change is the process by which a subject (substrate), who lacked
(deprivation) a certain condition or quality (form), but could really have it (potency),
comes to possess it totally or partially in act.
 Aristotle's ethics
According to Aristotle, each animal has a certain ethos, (a character, a custom, a way of being)
that governs its behavior, but the human character is mediated by thought and that makes man
a different being that must be studied separately. for ethics
Aristotle turns Ethics into a practical reflection

What is the ultimate goal of THE HAPPINESS

man's actions? (ultimate end of all action, since it is
sought for itself)

Aristotle affirms that happiness is the ultimate good to which all men aspire by nature . Nature impels us
to seek happiness, a happiness that Aristotle identifies with the good life, with a good life . But not all men
have the same conception of what a good life is, and therefore, of happiness. Some make mistakes when
considering:

• Pleasure is not an end but a feeling that

Pleasu Fame or Money accompanies what we do.
re Honor • Honor or fame depends on something outside
oneself, but happiness is something very personal
and inalienable.
• Money is a means but not an end. Money does not
buy happiness, although it is necessary.
 Aristotle's ethics
Aristotle does not try to search for a definition of happiness in the way Plato searches for the
Idea of Good. Ethics is not , nor can it be, a science, which depends on the knowledge of the
universal definition of the Good , but rather a practical reflection aimed at action , so it
must be in human activity itself where we find the elements that help us. allow us to answer this
question.

We start from the fact that man has a unique nature characterized by his intellectual
function. Happiness is, therefore, the activity of human nature, a nature that possesses
reason and that thinks . It is the activity and acting of the soul in consortium with the rational
principle of acting in accordance with virtue.

Man is a substance composed of soul and body, so along with the appetitive
tendencies typical of his animal nature we will find intellective tendencies typical of
his rational nature.
There will, therefore, be two proper forms of behavior and, therefore, two types of
virtues: the ethical virtues (proper to the appetitive and volitional part of human
nature) and the dianoetic virtues (proper to diánoia, of thought, of the intellectual
functions of the soul).
 Aristotle's ethics

Virtue
Selective habit that consists of a middle term relative to us, determined by reason and by which the prudent
man would decide
Aristotle distinguishes between:

Dianoetic virtues. ethical virtues,

Virtues corresponding to perfect thought, that They correspond to the character,
understanding, intellectual. Are forming habits perfecting the appetitive part. They must
be directed by understanding. They must
Dictates the middle also be consolidated into habits
SOFIA, wisdom, ground
PHRONESIS, prudence. Acquired voluntary disposition (habit)
directed by reason and consisting of the
Man, as he is a rational Being, and in this he is middle ground between two vices
distinguished from animals, must need the intellectual
instruction that makes him as a man, makes him wise, and
with wisdom he becomes happy.

We have the power of them because we are BY EXCESS VIRTUE DEFAULT

human, but we must update them by always
opting for the middle ground, so our acts will be irascibility affability indolence
virtuous when they maintain the balance (middle temerity worth cowardice
ground) between excess and defect. In this way shamelessness modesty shyness
our societies can be:
Aristotle's ethics
 Justice from Ethics to Politics
For Aristotle, the entire order of moral virtues culminates in justice.
According to Aristotle, man is a social being by nature, and can only be realized within the
Polis.
Justice in the general sense justice is the adequacy or conformity to the laws.
In its most specific senses:
• Commutative justice that regulates the balance of social relations, seeking equality both
in contracts between individuals and seeking the proportion of guilt and punishment in
crimes.
• Distributive justice regulates the distribution of rewards that correspond to the members
of society according to their merits.
 Aristotle's politics
Aristotle starts from a radical fact: The human being is a political animal that has language
(zoon politikon). To be fully fulfilled, the human being needs to belong to a community. This
community is the city, the polis, which is nothing more than the culmination of a development
of different human associations through the natural-historical process.

family tribe villa cop

ge
In fact, physically, biologically, it is the individual who generates the family, it settles in a
house; Then comes the tribe, which is nothing more than a family group to better satisfy
human needs, then comes the village, and finally, the polis.

Human beings have a natural tendency to associate, to be social, to integrate into a polis, to be
a political animal. If not, he would not have the capacity for language, that capacity, that of
speaking, can only be exercised in a social environment.
 Aristotle's politics
The Polis has as its goal the happiness of citizens , human beings have not associated to
live, but to live well. But by living well we do not have to understand the abundance of
material goods but rather a life in accordance with virtue: a life in accordance with the
demands of virtue, which we mentioned before, that is, a life governed by reason in all human
behaviors.

Aristotle gives politics a clear ethical content , by placing it under the tutelage of virtue,
which becomes the goal and the ideal to which the city must aspire. The true mission of the
Polis is to create the conditions for a good and perfect life: it has to satisfy the primary and
material needs of the citizens. The State is made so that the community lives, not only
biologically, but so that it lives well. The good and the end coincide, and the supreme
good is happiness, therefore, the State has to ensure that the city achieves happiness.
Aristotle's politics
 Aristotle's politics
THE FORMS OF GOVERNMENT.
Aristotle distinguishes between

Systems that are considered fair because they Systems that he considers unfair
seek the good of the community: because they seek their own good:

• Monarchy, or government by one. • Tyranny, or deviation from

• Aristocracy, or government of the best. monarchy.
• Oligarchy, or deviation from
aristocracy.
• Demagogy, or deviation from
democracy
Righteous regimes differ from deviant ones in that in the former, power is exercised in the
public interest and not in the interest of the rulers.

Aristotle was always against democracy, for him the best form of government is aristocracy, a
middle ground between monarchy and democracy.
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Francisco Javier García Moreno. 2012

Recognitions
The concept maps are taken from
http://cmapspublic.ihmc.us/rid= I HVVK9F3X-1 LQ3LGN-
I 379/Aristoteles_ActoPotencia.cmap

Not knowing the name of the author I cannot publicly express my gratitude. If anyone knows,
please let us know so we can give it due recognition.