Aristotle

Knowledge comes from

experience

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1
Aristotle

 384 - 322 BCE

 Born in Stagira, in
Thrace, near Macedonia.
 The “Stagirite.”
 Son of Nichomacus,
prominent physician.
 Aristotle was likely
trained in medicine.

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Plato’s Student

 At age 17, Aristotle

was sent to study with
Plato at the Academy.
 He became Plato’s
most important
student, remaining at
the Academy 20
years, until Plato’s
death.

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Aristotle becomes a royal tutor.

 When Aristotle left the Academy in 347, he settled briefly on

islands near the Ionian coast, then accepted an invitation to
teach the son of the Macedonian king, Philip II, whose father
had been attended by Aristotle’s own father.

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Alexander the Great

 Aristotle tutored
Phillip’s son,
Alexander, for 5
years until Phillip
died and
Alexander assumed
the throne.
 Alexander went on
to conquer much
of the nearby
world.

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 The Lyceum

 In 335 BCE, Aristotle returned to Athens and

established his own school, in competition with
the Academy.
 Named the Lyceum, as it was adjacent to the
temple to the god Apollo Lykaios.
 Morning serious lectures
 Evening public lectures
 Inclusive curriculum
 Classification approach
 Aristotle associated with Alexander
 After Alexander's death in 323, Aristotle fled
Athens to prevent “a second sin against
philosophy.”

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 Aristotle’s works

 What we have as Aristotle’s works are about 30 closely

written, terse, treatises on a full range of philosophical
and scientific topics.
 These may have been his morning lectures, or even
student’s notes on those lectures.

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 …versus Plato’s works

 In contrast, Plato’s surviving works consist of about 20

dramatic dialogues that discuss philosophical issues in a
Socratic, dialectical, questioning manner.
 Aristotle may have written such works as well, but they
have not survived.

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 The foundation of western
philosophy – and science
 Aristotle’s works – more than Plato’s – laid the
groundwork for the systematic development of
philosophy and the basic framework for the
understanding of nature.
 Logic, empirical evidence, systematic explanation.
 Sound methodology, wrong conclusions.

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 The benchmark for the
understanding of nature
 The standard view of the world for 2,000 years.
 To understand the development of science it is
necessary first to grasp Aristotle’s methods and his
conclusions about nature.

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 Empiricism

 First, Aristotle grounds all knowledge on experience.

 This is unlike Plato for whom knowledge came only when
the philosopher escaped from the world of sense
perception, which could mislead.
 Reality, for Aristotle, was the world around us, not the
objects of the mind, which could be just fantasy.

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 Aristotle, the biologist

 Students at the Lyceum collected specimens, dissected,

and classified them.
 Analysis of life forms arose from examination of many
real examples.
 Similarly every subject was examined and classified.

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Contrasting World
Views
A basic division in how the
world is understood:
 Plato – (pointing up) true
knowledge comes from
contemplating the abstract
ideas.
 Aristotle – (pointing down)
true knowledge comes
from close examination of
the world around. Plato and Aristotle from
Raphael’s School of Athens.

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 Contrasting World Views, 2
The ideal form, an example:
 For Plato, a geometric object, e.g. a triangle,
circle, cube, etc.
 The true object exists only in the mind.
Actual representations are only approximate.
 For Aristotle, an animal or plant species, e.g.
roses, trout, human beings, etc.
 The species is what all the instances of it
have in common.

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 Logic

 The way to knowledge beyond what is

presented to the senses.
 Based upon Parmenides’ principle of the
excluded middle.
A statement is either true or false.
Therefore, if it can be shown that a
statement is not true, it must be false.
 If valid reasoning leads to a false conclusion,
one of the premises must be false.

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 Syllogisms

 Thekey component of Aristotelian logic is

the syllogism.
 Typical format:
 Major premise – a general truth, or observation
 Minor premise – a particular fact, or specific
observation
 Conclusion – an inference implied by the two
premises together

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 Syllogisms, 2
 The classic example of the syllogism:
 Major premise: All men are mortal.
 Minor premise: Socrates is a man.
 Conclusion: Socrates is mortal.
 In other words, what applies to all
members of a group applies to each
and every member.

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 Syllogisms and Logic

 Aristotle worked out the forms of

valid reasoning from premises.
 The principle is to combine
known truths and deduce new
knowledge that must be true if
the premises are true.
 The method is sound.

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 However…

 Theconclusions from syllogistic reasoning

must be true only if the premises are
true.
 Veryoften, Aristotle reasoned correctly
from faulty generalizations and produced
impressively argued, but nevertheless
false, conclusions.
 As Plato noted, the senses can deceive.

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 The Four Causes

A cause for Aristotle is a factor

that partly determines a result.
 Aristotle identified four causes as
the explanation for anything (or
event) that is.
 How and why something came to
be is understood by examining its
four causes.

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 The Four Causes
 The causes are:
 The Material Cause – basically the stuff out
of which anything is made.
 The Formal Cause – the form, size, and
shape of the thing.
 The Efficient Cause – what put the
material into the form it is in.
 The Final Cause – the purpose of the thing.

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 The Four Causes,
 An example: The causes of a knife.
Material: The metal, e.g. iron, steel.
Formal: The shape of a knife – sharp edge,
long shaft, pointed end, rounded handle,
etc.
Efficient: The tool maker that fashioned
it.
Final: To cut or slice.

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 The Four Causes
 Man-made things are easy enough to
classify, but natural objects become
more difficult.
 What is the efficient cause of a tree?
 What is the final cause of a rain shower? Or
a human being?
 What is the material cause of a thunderclap?
 The formal cause of sunlight?

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 The Four Causes
 For Aristotle, the most important cause
was the final cause, that for which the
thing exists. Anything is explained only
by understanding its purpose.
 Examples: a chair, a blackboard, a piece of
chalk, a shoe.
 Or, a planet, a drought, a mountain, a
leopard.

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Aristotle’s logical analysis applied
 From the logical tools developed by
Aristotle, and the careful
observations made and generalized,
Aristotle built a complete system
that explained the world as it is.
 His system shows the power of
reasoning and the dangers of
premature generalizations.

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 Aristotle’s Cosmos

 Classification:
There are two different
parts of the world.
 There is the world all around, where things
come and go; are born, live, and die; and
motions start and stop.
 There is the world up in the sky, where
things happen over and over again: the sun
rises and sets, the seasons reoccur, the
planets repeat cycles.

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 The Sub-Lunar World

The world around us

includes the Earth itself,
the seas, the atmosphere,
and of course fire.
It extends up to the moon,
the first heavenly body.

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 Generation and Corruption

 The Sublunar world is the world of life.

 Everything in it came into being, had a
period of existence, and died.
 Even motions started and stopped.
 Even objects that did not appear to have a
life span were subject to this process:
 Rocks, mountains, etc., came into being and
passed away, though over very long periods.

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 The Material of the
Sublunar World
 Aristotle accepted the popular four
elements of Empedocles as the
material of the sublunar world:
 Earth, Air, Fire, Water.
 Everything in the sublunar world is
made up of these elements, in
different combinations.
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 Natural Place

 The elements all have a natural place in

the sublunar world
 Earth and water are “heavy” and so
their natural place is at the centre of
the world.
 Fire and air are “light” and their natural
place is at the outer edge of the
sublunar world.
 Note: “Light” does not mean “less heavy.”

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 Natural Motion

 When unobstructed, the elements

strive to reach their natural place.
This is called natural motion, and
requires no further explanation.
 Earth is heavier than water, so it
will push past water seeking the
centre.
 Fire is lighter than air, so it pushes
further outward.
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The Sublunar World

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 Forced Motion

 Objects on Earth are not always in

their natural place, nor do they only
have natural motion.
 They may be forced to move
unnaturally, by, for example, being
pushed or pulled.
 Or an object may be prevented from
going to its natural place by being held
back.

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 Everyday Forced Motions

A heavy object may be pulled or pushed to a

new location.
 When it is no longer being forced, it stops.
 If
it is pushed off a cliff, it will resume its natural
motion downward, seeking its natural place.
A light object, e.g. a vessel containing air,
may be pushed under water
 Ifreleased will assume its natural motion
upward.

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Not so obvious forced motions
 The weakness of Aristotle’s view of
the cosmos is revealed most clearly
in his analysis of forced motions.
 Aristotlebelieved that an object
would only move unnaturally, if it
was pushed or pulled – i.e. was in
direct contact with the cause of
motion.

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 What about something
thrown or shot?
 Consider a rock being hurled,
or an arrow shot from a bow.
 The motion of the object fits
Aristotle’s analysis, only so
long as it is in contact with the
cause of motion – the throwing
arm or the bowstring.
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 Why does the object move
through the air?
 According to Aristotle, the object
resumes its natural motion (i.e.
straight down) as soon as it is no
longer in contact with whatever
was forcing it.
 But this is obviously not so; it
keeps going.
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 Aristotle’s Answer:

 Since the world is full (no empty

spaces anywhere), a rock or arrow
flying through the air must be
pushing the air out of the way as it
flies.
 That air has to go somewhere. It
goes behind the moving object and
continues to push it forward.

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 Antiperistasis

 Thisis the principle of antiperistasis –

“against remaining in the same place.”

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 The weakest point in
Aristotle’s physics
 Aristotle’s antiperistasis
argument was the most
obviously contrived explanation
in his physics.
 It attracted the attention of
later philosophers almost
immediately as a problem.
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 The Super-Lunar World
 The heavens were obviously different.
 Motions there repeated over and over
again.
 Generation and corruption did not apply.
 Heavenly objects seemed to always be there.
 What needed explaining were the cycles.

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 Natural Motion in the
Super-Lunar World
 In the sublunar world, objects moved
to their natural place (and then
stopped).
 In the superlunar world, they cycled.
 Therefore natural motion in the
superlunar world must be circular.
 The circle moves, but stays in the same
place.

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 The Material of the Super-
Lunar World
 The materials of the sublunar
world have built in tendencies
to go to their natural places.
 Therefore the material of the
superlunar world must be
different.

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 The Quintessence

 There are no forced motions or

contrary tendencies in the heavens,
so there is only one material there.
 It is an additional and different
element.
 Aristotle called it the “Fifth
Element.”
 In Latin, that is the Quintessence.
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 The Crystalline Element
The heavens must be full (no
empty space), but they look like
they are empty.
Solution: The fifth element must
be invisible, like glass, except
for the few bits that show up,
the planets and the stars.

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 The Problem of the Planets,
again
 All the natural motions of the
fifth element are circular.
 Since there are no forced
motions, everything in the
heavens must be moving in
combinations of circular
motions.
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 Eudoxian Spheres

 Aristotle
adopted the scheme of
Eudoxus with spherical shells nested
inside each other, all turning
different ways.
 But with a difference:
 Eudoxus was happy to describe the
motions geometrically.
 Aristotle required a cause of motion.

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 Solution: More spheres

 Eudoxus thought 27 spheres were

enough to account for the motions of
the celestial sphere and the seven
planets (which include the sun and
moon). But their motions were
independent.
 Aristotlerequired that motion be
communicated from one to another.
 He needed 55 spheres in total.

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 The Unmoved Mover

 The ultimate cause of motion in the

universe is what turns the celestial
sphere.
 The celestial sphere rubs up against
the spheres of Saturn, which rub up
against Jupiter, etc.
 That ultimate cause is the Unmoved
Mover.
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 The
Aristotelia
n Cosmos

An illustration from
an edition of
Aristotle’s On the
Heavens, published
in 1519.

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 A Philosophy for 2000 Years

 Aristotle’s scheme provided a logically

consistent explanation for the motions
of the heavens and life on Earth.
 It combined most of the
preconceptions of his time into a
grand system.
 His view remained the standard
conception for nearly 2000 years.

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