Aristotle
Born 384 B.C.. Died 321 B.C.
Son of a physician to the King of Macedonia .
At 18 years he came to study at Plato's Academy .
When Plato died Aristotle wandered about the Greek world.
In 343 he became the tutor of Alexander, son of King Philip of Macedonia. Alexander was then 13 years old : He taught him Ethics and Rhetoric.
When Alexander became King in 334 B.C. Aristotle returned to Athens and established the Lyceum where he taught until Alexander's death in 323 .
Then the Athenian democracy, rising against Macedonia, accused Aristotle of impiety and caused him to flee to Euboea where he soon died at the age of 63 years
He was born when Sparta was dominant and Macedonia in decline.
He died when Athens surrendered to the Regent of Macedonia and Demosthenes, orator and patriot, was forced to take poison.
In ancient and medieval times he was venerated as a natural philosopher or physical scientist
He did not carry on Plato's lofty idea of the immortality of the Soul.
He treated the Soul as if it was little more than a faculty or attribute of the body - like the axeness of an axe.
He held that Man is a social animal .
He is made for action and the highest form of action is Thought .
In the savage state, man thinks scarcely at all
Ethics is that aspect of study which emphasises the individual's condition of mind or his character.
Politics is that aspect which emphasises the State as the means for attaining the highest human good.
If the City-State should collapse, even rudimentary morality must disintegrate.
Through his doctrine of the Golden Mean he expressed Homer's and Plato's principle of Nothing to Excess.
This was his chief contribution to the understanding of Order .
His Mean did not mean the average or mediocre but the avoidance of excesses or extremes - a balance in private and public life.
A happy life is an existence of goodness, free from poverty, sickness and restrictions .
He said ‘Be temperate, not greedy or gluttonous’.
Be prudently courageous, not cowardly or rash.
Be self-respecting, not subservient or arrogant’ .
He recognised three systems of government
a - Monarchy - with leadership of one man of excellent virtue under a limiting body of laws .
b - Aristocracy - government by a class of men of high birth, dutiful and filled with the spirit of noblesse oblige.
c - Commonwealth - Exercise of power by a majority, but a virtuous majority, respecting the lawful rights of all classes.
Deviations of government
a - Tyranny - Unconstitutional rule by one man for his own satisfaction
b - Oligarchy - Rule by the few for the good of that few
c - Democracy - rule by the crowd for the benefit of the dominant majority.
In his "Ethics”, Aristotle called for a mixed government - a political mean or Timocracy - consisting of features of Aristocracy and Commonwealth or features of Oligarchy and Democracy because the political mean tends to be dominated by the middle-class whom he regards as composed of citizens, neither rich or poor, and not members of aristocratic families or of the demos or masses - mobs of artisans and sailors without property.
The middle-class would be the class most concerned to maintain a decent and enduring social order as they had suffered most in the civil struggles of the Greeks .
From Oligarchy would come the idea of electing magistrates or public officials.
From Democracy would come the principle that all free-born citizens should have some share in public decisions - all producing a community of friendship based on common affections and common interests. Domination either by the selfish rich or the envious poor would be avoided and popular roguery would be restrained .
The problem was that in most states the middle-class was generally small . This meant that either the owners of property or the masses would gain the advantage and overstep the mean and lead to pure Oligarchy or Democracy.
The Greeks never obtained a world-view.
Their religion, morality and frames of government were all bound up with their compact little city, it's dependent lands and it's protecting gods.
When dominated from outside, they lost their arrogance and acquired servility.
As Greece was degenerating, it was governed by Sophist thought with it's clever relativism instead of the mystical insights of Plato's and Aristotle's search for the Supreme Good.
In 529 A.D. the Schools of Philosophy were closed by the Emperor Justinian.
This was long after they had lost their influence.
The community of friendship advocated by Aristotle became an American ideal in it's founding days when America was mostly made up of middle-class farmers.
Son of a physician to the King of Macedonia .
At 18 years he came to study at Plato's Academy .
When Plato died Aristotle wandered about the Greek world.
In 343 he became the tutor of Alexander, son of King Philip of Macedonia. Alexander was then 13 years old : He taught him Ethics and Rhetoric.
When Alexander became King in 334 B.C. Aristotle returned to Athens and established the Lyceum where he taught until Alexander's death in 323 .
Then the Athenian democracy, rising against Macedonia, accused Aristotle of impiety and caused him to flee to Euboea where he soon died at the age of 63 years
He was born when Sparta was dominant and Macedonia in decline.
He died when Athens surrendered to the Regent of Macedonia and Demosthenes, orator and patriot, was forced to take poison.
In ancient and medieval times he was venerated as a natural philosopher or physical scientist
He did not carry on Plato's lofty idea of the immortality of the Soul.
He treated the Soul as if it was little more than a faculty or attribute of the body - like the axeness of an axe.
He held that Man is a social animal .
He is made for action and the highest form of action is Thought .
In the savage state, man thinks scarcely at all
Ethics is that aspect of study which emphasises the individual's condition of mind or his character.
Politics is that aspect which emphasises the State as the means for attaining the highest human good.
If the City-State should collapse, even rudimentary morality must disintegrate.
Through his doctrine of the Golden Mean he expressed Homer's and Plato's principle of Nothing to Excess.
This was his chief contribution to the understanding of Order .
His Mean did not mean the average or mediocre but the avoidance of excesses or extremes - a balance in private and public life.
A happy life is an existence of goodness, free from poverty, sickness and restrictions .
He said ‘Be temperate, not greedy or gluttonous’.
Be prudently courageous, not cowardly or rash.
Be self-respecting, not subservient or arrogant’ .
He recognised three systems of government
a - Monarchy - with leadership of one man of excellent virtue under a limiting body of laws .
b - Aristocracy - government by a class of men of high birth, dutiful and filled with the spirit of noblesse oblige.
c - Commonwealth - Exercise of power by a majority, but a virtuous majority, respecting the lawful rights of all classes.
Deviations of government
a - Tyranny - Unconstitutional rule by one man for his own satisfaction
b - Oligarchy - Rule by the few for the good of that few
c - Democracy - rule by the crowd for the benefit of the dominant majority.
In his "Ethics”, Aristotle called for a mixed government - a political mean or Timocracy - consisting of features of Aristocracy and Commonwealth or features of Oligarchy and Democracy because the political mean tends to be dominated by the middle-class whom he regards as composed of citizens, neither rich or poor, and not members of aristocratic families or of the demos or masses - mobs of artisans and sailors without property.
The middle-class would be the class most concerned to maintain a decent and enduring social order as they had suffered most in the civil struggles of the Greeks .
From Oligarchy would come the idea of electing magistrates or public officials.
From Democracy would come the principle that all free-born citizens should have some share in public decisions - all producing a community of friendship based on common affections and common interests. Domination either by the selfish rich or the envious poor would be avoided and popular roguery would be restrained .
The problem was that in most states the middle-class was generally small . This meant that either the owners of property or the masses would gain the advantage and overstep the mean and lead to pure Oligarchy or Democracy.
The Greeks never obtained a world-view.
Their religion, morality and frames of government were all bound up with their compact little city, it's dependent lands and it's protecting gods.
When dominated from outside, they lost their arrogance and acquired servility.
As Greece was degenerating, it was governed by Sophist thought with it's clever relativism instead of the mystical insights of Plato's and Aristotle's search for the Supreme Good.
In 529 A.D. the Schools of Philosophy were closed by the Emperor Justinian.
This was long after they had lost their influence.
The community of friendship advocated by Aristotle became an American ideal in it's founding days when America was mostly made up of middle-class farmers.
posted by fergail at 8:42 PM
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