Philosophers
Aristotle
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A philosopher born in Stagira in northern Greece who studied at Plato's Academy for roughly twenty years before founding his own school, the Lyceum, in Athens. Aristotle wrote systematically across nearly every field then recognized as philosophy: logic, physics, metaphysics, ethics, politics, rhetoric, and biology, and his surviving works, mostly lecture notes rather than polished treatises, shaped Western and Islamic philosophy for close to two thousand years. He rejected Plato's separate realm of Forms, arguing instead that form and matter are inseparable in the particular things that exist, and his theory of the four causes, material, formal, efficient, and final, gave later philosophy its basic vocabulary for explaining why things are as they are. From 343 to 340 BCE he tutored the young Alexander the Great at the Macedonian court.
Facts
TraditionClassical Greek philosophy 2 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Al-Farabi, Philosophers Al-Farabi's logical commentaries transmitted and systematized Aristotle's logic for later Islamic philosophy.
Critiqued Here
Plato, Philosophers Aristotle, Plato's own student at the Academy, rejected the theory of Forms as an unnecessary duplication of the world, arguing that the form of a thing is realized within the thing itself rather than existing separately in an abstract realm.
In Branch
Influenced By
Aristotle mentions Empedocles more often than any philosopher besides Plato, engaging closely with, and criticizing, his account of the four roots, of Love and Strife as moving causes, and of perception, before adopting and systematizing the four elements himself.
Works Attributed
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Political Atlas: Aristotle, the same subject.
Sources
1. The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
Cambridge University Press, 1995
1. The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
Cambridge University Press, 1995Associated With: Plato, s.v. Aristotle
2. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and InformationQuote
Judged solely in terms of his philosophical influence, only Plato is his peer: Aristotle’s works shaped centuries of philosophy from Late Antiquity through the Renaissance, and even today continue to be studied with keen, non-antiquarian interest.
2. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and InformationAssociated With: Aesthetics, entry: AestheticsView the Source 2. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and InformationAssociated With: Ethics, entry: Aristotle's EthicsView the Source 2. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and InformationAssociated With: Logic, entry: Aristotle's LogicView the Source 2. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and InformationAssociated With: Metaphysics, entry: Aristotle's MetaphysicsView the Source 2. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and InformationAssociated With: Political Philosophy, entry: Aristotle's PoliticsView the Source 2. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and InformationAssociated With: Virtue Ethics, entry: Virtue Ethics, IntroductionQuote, Associated With: Virtue Ethics, entry: Virtue Ethics, Introduction
Virtue ethics is currently one of three major approaches in normative ethics.
2. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and InformationAssociated With: Philosophy of Biology, entry: Philosophy of Biology, Section 3Quote, Associated With: Philosophy of Biology, entry: Philosophy of Biology, Section 3
Aristotle thought that living things exhibit self-motion along with other essential features (De Anima 412a-416b).
2. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and InformationIn Branch: Philosophy of Action, entry: Action, Section 4.1Quote, In Branch: Philosophy of Action, entry: Action, Section 4.1
Aristotle imposed epistemic conditions on voluntary and, a fortiori, intentional action: according to him, to act voluntarily one must know, among other things, what one is doing, to whom, and why
Natural Law Theories (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Associated With: Natural Law Theory
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