Aristotle

It is not really possible to summarize Aristotle's work; it would be like trying to summarize the Encyclopedia Britannica. Although some people of a more malicious bent might suggest that one could shorten such a presentation by discussing only the things Aristotle actually got right—which, in the end, were few—this would downplay the vast subject range that Aristotle and his students studied and systematized. In his own way, Aristotle was the ancient Greek Encyclopedia Britannica.

Aristotle was born in 384 b. c.e. in the town of Stagira in Macedon. His father was court physician to King Amyntas, the father of Philip II and grandfather of Alexander the Great. At age seventeen, Aristotle went to Athens to study with Plato at the Academy, where he remained for the next twenty years. He finally left when Plato died of old age in 347 b. c.e., and in 343 he went north to the city of Pella at the invitation of Philip II to tutor the young prince, Alexander. Aristotle served as personal instructor until Alexander began his regency in 340 b. c.e. Even after this, there remained a strong bond between the two, and Alexander greatly facilitated Aristotle's continued studies and his establishment of a school (see below).

The "complete works of Aristotle" (or most of them, anyway) have been preserved from ancient times in a distinct set of groupings. First are his works on logic, a body of treatises called the Organon ("Instrument" of thought). These include the Categories, On Interpretation, Sophistic Refutations, and Prior Analytics. One important idea from these works is the syllogism: According to this logical construct, if A = B and B = C, then A = C.

Following his logic treatises are Aristotle's works on the natural sciences, beginning with eight books on physics, including astronomy, meteorology, and what we might consider an early form of chemistry. Next come his works enti-tied On the Soul. Next, and perhaps most importantly, are Aristotle's works on biology and related sciences. His Short Physical Treatises include what today we consider psychology, with essays on memory, sleep, and sensory observation. In his Biological Treatises, Aristotle categorized just about every form of life he could observe, which was an appreciable number, considering that Alexander the Great himself had all new species that were discovered sent to his old teacher. Aristotle noted how animals lived, moved, and propagated.

After the Physics were the Metaphysics (literally, "after physics"). This was where Aristotle was at his most abstract. The Medieval philosopher Avicenna claimed that he finally started to understand the Metaphysics after reading the several essays some forty times. Here Aristotle discusses the concepts of matter and change, literally the building blocks of reality. In this corpus, Aristotle discusses the four causes of being. He claimed that every being must be explained according to four criteria. First was the material cause, which noted what a being was made of (bronze, flesh, water, etc.). Then there was the formal cause, which explained why a being was formed or shaped the way it was. Third was the efficient cause, which explained how the being came into being (e. g., born, carved), and finally came the final cause, which explained why the being came into being in the first place (Luce 1992, 116). As Aristotle puts it (Metaphysics, 5.2):

"Cause" is said on the one hand to be that by which means something comes into being, as bronze for the statue and silver for the cup, and such classes of things. Second, the form and the shape. That is: the logic of that which is and the classes of it. . . Third, from what initial beginning either a change or lack of change occurs, as the planner of the action, the father of the child, and in all other respects the doing of the thing done and the changer of the changed. Then the end result—that on which account the thing is done, as walking for health.

Put more simply, the material cause of a house is wood and brick. The formal cause is the practicality of four walls and a roof. The efficient cause is the architect and builder. The final cause is residence.

Following the Metaphysics are the Eudemian Ethics and Nicomachean Ethics, both ethical treatises. Finally, there are Aristotle's works on politics and literary criticism, including the books Rhetoric and Poetics. In this last study, Aristotle claimed that the purpose of drama was mass, emotional catharsis. This book was also where he established the three unities of theater: A drama should have one plot, be set in one place, and occur in one day. These unities were revered for 2,000 years. The seventeenth-century French dramatists Corneille and Racine followed them to the letter, even though this occasionally meant that the hero had to travel from France to Spain, vanquish an enemy army, and return in one day.

In 335 b. c.e., with financial backing from Alexander the Great, Aristotle established the Lyceum, a school like Plato's Academy, located near a sacred grove of Apollo Lykeios. The most notable physical structure of the complex was a colonnaded courtyard called the Peripatos, around which Aristotle

10.1 The School of Athens. Detail: Plato and Aristotle (Ted Spiegel/Corbis)

Walked while discussing philosophy (and everything else). From this his students got the name Peripatetics. The main difference between Aristotle's school and Plato's was the perception of physical reality taught in each school. Plato believed very strongly in the Forms; the physical reality perceived with the bodily senses was merely temporary and not to be trusted. True reality existed on a higher plane. Aristotle, on the other hand, believed that physical reality, perceived through the senses, was the path to all knowledge. The Lyceum involved itself in all branches of philosophical and scientific inquiry, pursuing knowledge through the study, categorization, and explanation of all aspects of the world around it. Aristotle was of this world, Plato of a world beyond (see Image 10.1).