ARISTOTLE [384BC_322BC]

INTRODUCTION
Aristotle (384 BC 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato's teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy. Aristotle's writings were the first to create comprehensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing morality and aesthetics, logic and science, politics and metaphysics. Aristotle organized all knowledge of his time into a coherent whole which served as the basis for much of the science and philosophy of Hellenistic and Roman times and even affected medieval science and philosophy.

BACKGROUND
In 384 BC, when Aristotle was born, Socrates had been dead for 15 years. Plato was 43, just three years past the traditional age of flourishing, and his Academy had been in function for about four years. Sophocles had been dead for two decades. So had Euripides, who spent his last years at the Macedonian court in Pella. Aristophanes died just the year before. In both drama and philosophy, Greece was well into its splendor.

Family background
Aristotle s father was Nicomachus and his mother Phaestis. We know little about brothers or sisters, except that he must have had at least one, since he had a nephew, Callisthenes, whom he recommended to the service of Alexander the Great. Nicomachus was a prominent physician. According to the sources, Nicomachus had cared for the health of king Amyntas III of Macedonia, and may also have been a friend of his. So, Aristotle was born into a family of significance and means. The tradition of the Asclepian physicians was for a son to follow in his father s footsteps. The profession was practically hereditary, and the knowledge was kept within its circle, passed on from father to son. Had Aristotle grown up under his father s wings, he could hardly have done anything else. But Nicomachus died when Aristotle was still a child, probably when he was about 10 years old. He must at least have been young enough for his education as a

physician not to have progressed significantly, or that career would still have been unavoidable.

HIS EARLY LIFE

Aristotle was born in the small Greek town of Stagiros (later Stagira) in the northern Greek district of Chalcidice. Aristotle's interest in science was surely spurred by his father's work, although Aristotle does not display a particularly keen interest in medicine as such. The events of his early life are not clear, but it is possible that his father served at the Macedonian court as physician to Amyntas II and that Aristotle spent part of his youth there. At the age of 17 Aristotle joined Plato's circle at the Academy in Athens. There he remained for 20 years, and although his respect and admiration for Plato was always great, differences developed which ultimately caused a breach. Upon Plato's death Aristotle left for Assos in Mysia (in Asia Minor, today known as Turkey), where he and Xenocrates (c. 396 c. 314 B.C.E. ) joined a small circle of Platonists (followers of Plato) who had already settled there under Hermias, the ruler of Atarneus. Aristotle married the niece of Hermias, a woman named Pythias, who was killed by the Persians some time thereafter. In 342 B.C.E. Aristotle made his way to the court of Philip of Macedon (c. 382 c. 336 B.C.E. ). There Aristotle became tutor to Alexander (c. 356 c. 323 B.C.E. ), who would become master of the whole Persian Empire as Alexander the Great.

PERIPATETIC SCHOOL
Aristotle at the age of fifty,he moved to Athens .He purchased a valuable group of buildings,land and gardens,and there established a philosophical school of his own, the Lyceum, located near a shrine of Apollo Lyceus. Also known as the Peripatetic School, the school took its name from its colonnaded walk (a walk with a series of columns on either side). The lectures were divided into morning and afternoon sessions. The more difficult ones were given in the morning, and the easier and more popular ones were given in the afternoon.The school won acclaim for its distinguished work in the natural sciences. Aristotle himself led the school until the death of Alexander in 323 B.C.E. Aristotle continued teaching in the Lyceum until 323 B.C. In the morning, he strolled about the gardens with his regular students. The Greek descriptive word for "walking about" came to be applied to the school itself. Thus the school was

"peripatetic," and its students and adherents were "peripatetics." Aristotle always took his noon meal with his regular students. In the afternoon, he delivered lectures on politics, literature, and philosophy to the populace in general.

Two distinctive features of lyceum:

 Student Rule Students at the Lyceum organized and ruled themselves. Every ten days a different student would be elected to handle the administrative duties.  Student Research All students were assigned tasks involving historical or scientific research. Aristotle based many of his scientific propositions upon this research.

HIS WRITINGS
Aristotle produced a large number of writings, but few have survived. His earliest writings, consisting for the most part of dialogues (writings in the form of conversation), were produced under the influence of Plato and the Academy. Most of these are lost, although the titles are known from the writings. Among these important works are Rhetoric, Eudemus (On the Soul), On Philosophy, Alexander, Sophistes, On Justice, Wealth, On Prayer, and On Education. They were a wide variety of works written for the public, and they dealt with popular philosophical themes. The dialogues of Plato were undoubtedly the inspiration for some of them, although the fall out between Plato and Aristotle reveals itself to a certain extent in these works, too. A second group of writings is made up of collections of scientific and historical material, among the most important of which is the surviving fragment of the Constitution of the Athenians. This formed part of the large collection of Constitutions, which Aristotle and his students collected and studied for the purpose of analyzing various political theories. The discovery of the Constitution of the Athenians in Egypt in 1890 shed new light on the nature of the Athenian democracy (a government of elected officials) of Aristotle's time. It also revealed the difference in quality between the historical and scientific works of Aristotle . There are only scraps of his work On Education, however we can get a picture of his ideas from surviving works. Aristotle believed that education was central - the fulfilled person was an educated person. First, his work is a testament to the belief that our thinking and practice as educators must be infused with a clear philosophy of life. There has to be a deep

concern for the ethical and political. We have continually to ask what makes for human flourishing. From this we should act to work for that which is good or 'right', rather than that which is merely 'correct'. Secondly, he placed a strong emphasis on all round and 'balanced' development. Play, physical training, music, debate, and the study of science and philosophy were to all have their place in the forming of body, mind and soul. Like Plato before him, he saw such learning happening through life - although with different emphases at different ages. Thirdly, he looked to both education through reason and education through habit. By the latter he meant learning by doing - 'anything that we have to learn to do we learn by the actual doing of it... We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate ones, brave by doing brave ones. Such learning is complemented by reason - and this involves teaching 'the causes of things'. We can see here a connection with more recent theorists that have emphasized experience, reflection and connecting to theories. Following Socrates and Plato, Aristotle had a great wealth of knowledge and wisdom to build upon, but he left no successor who could surpass him. His work changed the direction of Western learning and continues to play a very real part in modern studies. His work in the sciences would inevitably become obsolete, particular in natural philosophy. But his contributions to biology would remain unsurpassed for centuries. On the other hand, his work in the humanities and social sciences continues to provide the basis for debate and guide academic learning. Moreover, he essentially created the field of logic and devised the syllogism. The one major subject that he did not seem to have a large impact on was mathematics, on which the Academy generally led the way. Aristotle's talents showed both depth and variety. As a scientist he was endlessly scrupulous, always grounding his work in observation to a much greater extent than Plato had. Plato's idealism culminated in his Theory of Forms, which Aristotle flatly rejected as empty language, for he preferred to deal with the material world. Beyond the skill of observation, he was also armed with keen insight, able to detect patterns and draw conclusions with discernment. Aristotle was the embodiment of knowledge and learning. His works continue to provoke, inspire, and inform. ll men seek one goal : success or happiness. The only

way to achieve true success is to express yourself completely in service to society. First, have a definite, clear, practical ideal-a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.

PHILOSOPHICAL AND SCIENTIFIC SYSTEMS

The writings that did survive, however, are sufficient to show the quality of Aristotle's achievement. The Topics and the Analytics deal with logic (the study of reasoning) and dialectic (a method of argument) and reveal Aristotle's contributions to the development of debate. His view of nature is set forth in the Physics and the Metaphysics, which mark the most serious difference between Aristotelianism and Platonism: that all investigation must begin with what the senses record and must move only from that point to thought. As a result of this process of intellectualizing, God, who for Plato represents beauty and goodness, is for Aristotle the highest form of being and is completely lacking in materiality. Aristotle's God neither created nor controls the universe, although the universe is affected by this God. Man is the only creature capable of thought even remotely resembling that of God, so man's highest goal is to reason abstractly, like God, and he is more truly human to the extent that he achieves that goal. Aristotle's work was often misunderstood in later times. The scientific and philosophical systems set forth in his writings are not conclusions that must be taken as the final answer, but rather experimental positions arrived at through careful observation and analysis. During the slow intellectual climate of the Roman Empire, which ruled over much of Europe for hundreds of years after Aristotle died, and the totally unscientific Christian Middle Ages (476 1453), Aristotle's views on nature and science were taken as a complete system. As a result, his influence was enormous but not for any reason that would have pleased him. Aristotle shares with his master, Plato, the role of stimulating human thought. Plato had a more direct influence on the development of that great spiritual movement in late antiquity (years before the middle Ages), and Aristotle had a greater effect on science. Antiquity produced no greater minds than those of Plato and Aristotle. The intellectual history of the West would be extremely different without them.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF ARISTOTLE

METAPHYSICS.
 Reality. The universe is composed of two ultimate entities, spirit or form and materiality or matter. All things are reducible to one or other of these basic entities.  The Nature of Man. Man is a rational animal. He is animal in his possession of a body With its physical needs and appetites. He is rational because he has a soul. The active element of the soul is part of the universal principle of life. This element is immortal. The passive element of the soul is the individual personality, with memories and thoughts relating to the experiences of life. This passive element ceases to exist with death. The soul and body form a necessary whole for the existence of the organism. The implications of the theory  Destiny. Man has no eternal destiny. He ceases to exist as an individual personality at death.  Nature. The highest faculty in man is his spiritual nature. Man acts according to his nature when he subordinates his physical appetites to reason.  Teleology. There is purpose, order and intelligence in the universe, stemming from the first being, the unmoved Mover, God.

EPISTEMOLOGY  Source of Truth. The faculty of reason in every man can be trained,
through the principles of logic, to reason toward true conclusions.  Nature of Truth. Truth is objective. For example, a true proposition does not depend upon the mind of the individual man for its existence. Truths exist in nature and are discoverable by the reason of man.

ETHICS.
 Happiness. The highest good to which man may aspire is happiness. A truly happy life can be assessed only upon its completion.  Naturalism. A man lives happily when his actions are in accordance with his nature. Man's spiritual nature is superior to his physical nature. The highest good for any man is the activity of his soul.

 Reason. The faculty of reason, resident in the soul of man, must guide his every action. The physical appetites must be controlled by reason. Reason, therefore, is the source of virtue.  Virtue. Man uses his reason to judge between the extremes of any given act. The middle course constitutes virtue. For example, the mean between the two extremes of the vice of rashness (excess of courage) and the vice of cowardice (lack of courage) is the virtue of temperate courage.

POLITICS  Purpose. The purpose of the state is to produce human good.  Naturalism. Man is social by nature. He will naturally be political. The
difficulty in political philosophy is to determine how man may act reasonably and virtuously to achieve the best political action.  Reason. The ideal state must be reasoned as a mean between two governmental extremes.  Constitutional Monarchy. The best form of government is a constitutional monarchy, which is the mean between the extremes of despotism and democracy. The constitution guarantees moderation between the demands of the wealthy and the interests of the poor.  Public Education. The state is perpetuated through the education of its citizens. Therefore education is, of necessity, public in nature.

THE EDUCATIONALTHEORY OF ARISTOTLE

EDUCATION
The importance of education in the philosophy of Aristotle was great, since the individual man could learn to use his reason to arrive at virtue, happiness, and political harmony only through the process of education.

AIM OF EDUCATION
The purpose of education is to produce a good man. Man is not good by nature. He must learn to control his animal activities through the use of reason. Only when man behaves by habit and reason, according to his nature as a rational being, is he capable of happiness. Education must aim at the development of the full potentialities of each man. It must seek the development of man's intellectual

capacities to their fullest extent. It must aim also at developing each individual's body to its highest level of health and strength.

EDUCATION OF WOMEN
Women were considered inferior to men. The nature of women suggested that their proper function was fulfilled exclusively in the home. Women would not be educated with men. They would receive training in gymnastics and domestic arts to enable them to manage households, to bear and raise children, and to please and be obedient to their husbands.

EDUCATION OF MEN.
Since citizenship would extend only to the aristocracy, which included rulers, soldiers, and priests, education would be given exclusively to this group. The farmer, laborer, merchant, and slave would be trained in whatever specific skills were required of them. Training in industrial arts or vocational skills is not education. Education is that which liberates man, enabling him to live his leisured existence according to his full potentialities. Education is therefore a practical means to the end of achieving the acme of man's nature.

THE CONTENT OF EDUCATION

Education must not serve any mean or vocational activity. These activities are the functions of slaves. The subject material must train the future rulers in the use of reason. Future rulers must learn obedience and responsibility before they rule. We may infer from the curriculum of the Academy that the following subjects would be taught:  Basics. These would include reading, writing and mathematics (not for purposes of trade, but as a preparation for the intellectual abstractions of higher mathematics).  Natural Sciences. Aristotle emphasized the natural sciences of astronomy, biology, physiology, zoology, chemistry and physics.  Physical Education. The training of the body is important to the physical well-being of every citizen.  Humanities. Rhetoric, grammar, poetry, politics and philosophy would be important subjects. During the early education of the child, Aristotle would have the state legislature censor the material which would be read by children.

THE METHOD OF EDUCATION.

Aristotle placed habit high in the learning process. Man learns by nature, by habit, and by reason. Consequently, the teacher would organize materials according to the laws of reason. Repetitive drill would be used to reinforce what was understood by reason. An elementary knowledge of reading and writing. Arithmetic was never developed to a sophisticated extent because of the awkward method of writing numerals.

CONCLUSION
A tireless scholar, whose scientific explorations were as wide-ranging as his philosophical speculations were profound; a teacher who inspired - and who continues to inspire - generations of pupils; a controversial public figure who lived a turbulent life in a turbulent world. No man before him had contributed so much to learning. No man after could hope to rival his achievement.