Aristotle - biography, information, personal life. Aristotle: short biography, philosophy and main ideas What Aristotle wrote

Aristotle's surviving works date mainly from his time teaching at the Lyceum, but they retain ideas and direct passages from earlier works, indicating a certain integrity of his views after leaving the Academy. Many fragments of works relating to the first, Platonic, period of the philosopher’s development (during and immediately after his apprenticeship at Plato’s Academy) have also been preserved. The question of the chronological sequence of Aristotle's works is extremely difficult, since they bear the imprint of different times. However, there is no doubt that the earlier works are permeated with Platonism. Thus, the fragmentarily preserved dialogue “Eudemus,” or “On the Soul,” contains evidence of the immortality of the soul, similar to the arguments of Plato’s “Phaedo.” Following Plato's doctrine of the soul, he proclaims the soul to be form (eidos), and therefore praises here (cf. Aristotle. On the soul, III, 429a) those who consider it as the seat of ideas. Again, in accordance with Plato, he writes that “life without a body seems to be a natural state for the soul, [while connection with the body is a disease]” (fr. 41).

Aristotle. Sculpture by Lysippos

Another major early work of Aristotle, which has come down to us in a significant number of fragments, is “Protrepticus” (“Exhortation” is a subsequently widespread genre of philosophical works inviting the study of philosophy and encouraging a contemplative life; a significant part of Aristotle’s work is contained in the “Protrepticus” of the Neoplatonist Iamblichus). Sharing Plato's theory of ideas, Aristotle appeals to the “contemplative life”, and proclaims “thinking” (phronesis) to be the highest good. Moreover, he uses this word in its Platonic meaning of the penetration of the philosophical mind into the highest reality - the world of ideas. Subsequently, this term began to mean simply worldly wisdom.

Aristotle and Plato. Sculptor Lucca della Robbia

Only in the work “On Philosophy,” which some researchers attribute to the second period of Aristotle’s work, are significant deviations from the teachings of Plato revealed. Thus, he criticizes the theory of ideas, reducing, like Speusippu, ideas for mathematical entities - numbers. “If therefore ideas mean some other number than mathematical numbers,” he writes, “then this is completely inaccessible to our understanding. For how can a simple person understand [some] other number?” (fr. 9). At the same time, Aristotle also refutes the views of the Pythagoreans and Plato, arguing that neither lines, nor even bodies, can be formed from incorporeal points.

Aristotle's mature works, which amounted toCorpusAristotelicum, traditionally divided into eight groups:

Aristotle was born in Greece on the island of Euboea, in 384 BC. e. His father was engaged in medicine, and he instilled in his son a passion for studying science. At the age of 17, Aristotle became a student of Plato's Academy; a few years later he began teaching himself and joined the community of Platonist philosophers.

After Plato's death in 347 BC. e. Aristotle left the academy, having worked in it for 20 years, and settled in the city of Atarnaeus, where Plato-Hermias ruled. After some time, Tsar Philip II invited him to become a teacher for his son Alexander. Aristotle visited the royal house and taught little Alexander the basics of ethics and politics, and had conversations with him on topics of medicine, philosophy and literature.

School in Athens

In 335 BC. Aristotle returned to Athens, and his former student ascended the throne. In Athens, the scientist founded his school of philosophy not far from the temple of Apollo Lyceum, which became known as the “Lyceum”. Aristotle gave lectures in the open air, walking along the paths of the garden, the students listened attentively to their teacher. So another name was added - “Peripatos”, which is translated from Greek as “walk”. Aristotle's school began to be called peripatetic, and its students - peripatetics. In addition to philosophy, the scientist taught history, astronomy, physics and geography.

In 323 BC, preparing for the next campaign, Alexander the Great fell ill and died. At this time, an anti-Macedonian revolt begins in Athens, Aristotle falls out of favor and flees the city. The scientist spends the last months of his life on the island of Euboea, located in the Aegean Sea.

Aristotle's achievements

An outstanding philosopher and scientist, the great dialectician of antiquity and the founder of formal logic, Aristotle was interested in many sciences and created truly great ones: “Metaphysics”, “Mechanics”, “Economics”, “Rhetoric”, “Physiognomy”, “Great Ethics” and many others . His knowledge covered all branches of the sciences of ancient times.

It is with the works of Aristotle that the emergence of the basic concepts for space and time is associated. His “Doctrine of the Four Causes,” which was developed in “Metaphysics,” marked the beginning of attempts at deeper research into the origins of all things. Paying great attention to the human soul and its needs, Aristotle stood at the origins of psychology. His scientific work “On the Soul” became the main material for the study of psychic phenomena for many centuries.

In his works on political science, Aristotle created his classification of correct and incorrect government structures. In fact, it was he who laid the foundations of political science as an independent science of politics.

By writing his essay “Meteorology,” Aristotle presented the world with one of the first serious works on physical geography. He also identified the hierarchical levels of all things, dividing them into 4 classes: “inorganic world”, “plant world”, “animal world”, “man”.

Aristotle created a conceptual-categorical apparatus, which is still present in the philosophical vocabulary and style of scientific thinking today. His metaphysical teaching was supported by Thomas Aquinas and subsequently developed by the scholastic method.

Aristotle's handwritten works reflect the entire spiritual and scientific experience of Ancient Greece; they had a significant influence on the development of human thought.

Aristotle is the greatest philosopher of ancient Greece, the creator of the Peripatetic school, and a scientist. Plato's favorite student and mentor of Alexander the Great is also Aristotle.

Brief biography for children: about youth

In 384 BC. e. In Stagira, a Greek colony near Athos, Aristotle was born - one of the great philosophers of all times and peoples.

The parents of the future scientist, who was often called Stagirite, had a noble origin. Nicomachus, the father of the future scientist, a hereditary physician, served as a court physician and taught his heir the basics of medical art and philosophy, which at that time was inseparable from medicine. From childhood, Aristotle was closely associated with the Macedonian court and knew very well his peer, the son of King Amyntas III, Philip.

While still a child, Aristotle was orphaned and was raised by his relative Proxenus. The latter placed the care of the young man on his shoulders: he helped in obtaining an education, encouraged the teenager’s curiosity in every possible way, and spent money on purchasing books, which at that time were a very expensive pleasure, almost a luxury. Such expenses were facilitated by the fortune left after the death of the parents. The biography of Aristotle, a brief summary of which arouses genuine interest among modern youth, truly inspires deep respect for this man, who placed on his shoulders the responsibility for educating other people interested in the favorable future of their country.

Plato is my friend

The biography of Aristotle briefly tells how, in order to study philosophy in 367 BC. e. Aristotle moved to Athens, where he remained for two decades. In the famous Greek city, a young man entered the Academy opened by the great philosopher Plato as a student. The mentor, paying attention to the brilliant mental qualities of the student, began to distinguish him from the rest of the listeners.

Aristotle gradually began to retreat from the views and ideas of his teacher and rely on his own worldview. Plato did not really like this, but the difference in views did not affect the personal relationship of the two geniuses. Most of all, the opinions of the two great minds diverged in the doctrine of ideas, which, as Plato believed, formed the incorporeal world. For his student Aristotle, ideas were just the essence of ongoing material phenomena, clothed in these very ideas. Regarding this dispute, Aristotle voiced a famous phrase, which in an abbreviated version sounds like: “Plato is my friend, but the truth is dearer.” Aristotle’s incredible respect for his beloved mentor Plato can be judged by the fact that the young man, who already had an established worldview system, and therefore the prerequisites for organizing his own philosophical school, did not do this during his mentor’s lifetime.

Aristotle's biography briefly describes that in 347 BC. e., after the passing of the great teacher into another world, his place as the head of the Academy was taken by his nephew Speusip. Aristotle, who was among those dissatisfied with this circumstance, left Athens and, at the invitation of the tyrant Hermias (a student of Plato), went to the city of Assos, located in Asia Minor. 2 years later, for active opposition to the Persian yoke, Hermias was betrayed and crucified, and therefore Aristotle had to quickly leave Assos. Pythias, a relative of Hermia, who later became the wife of the Greek philosopher, also fled. Refuge for the young couple was found in the city of Mytilene (Lesbos island). It was here that Aristotle was invited to become a mentor to Philip's son, Alexander, at that time a 13-year-old teenager.

About Aristotle's pupil

The biography of Aristotle briefly shows that the influence of the Greek philosopher on the character of his student and his way of thinking, who later gained the fame of the greatest commander, was enormous.

Aristotle, skillfully moderating the passion of the soul of his ward, directed the young man to serious thoughts, awakened noble aspirations for accomplishing feats and glory, and instilled a love for the Iliad - the book of Homer, which accompanied Macedonsky throughout his life. Alexander received a classical education, in which the emphasis was on the study of politics and ethics. The young commander was also well versed in literature, medicine and philosophy.

Founding of the school

Aristotle's biography briefly describes how the Greek philosopher, leaving his nephew Callisthenes with the Macedonian, in 335 BC. e. returned to Athens, where he founded the philosophical school Lyceum (lyceum), otherwise called “peripatetic” (from “peripatos” - a covered gallery around a courtyard, a walk). This characterized the location of the lessons or the teacher’s manner in the process of presenting information - walking back and forth. Representatives of the Peripatetic school, along with philosophy, studied various sciences: physics, geography, astronomy, history. The morning classes, called “acroamatics,” were attended by the most prepared students; after lunch, anyone could listen to the philosopher.

This period in the biography of the Greek philosopher is a crucial stage, because it was during this time that many important discoveries were made in the process of research and a colossal part of the works was created, which largely determined and directed the development of world science in the right direction. During these years, his wife Pythias died. Aristotle married her former slave Herpyllis for the second time.

last years of life

The biography of Aristotle briefly and clearly describes that the ancient Greek philosopher, enthusiastically occupied with the world of science, was completely far from political events, but after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. e. A wave of anti-Macedonian persecution and repression began in the country, and the sky thickened over the head of the Greek philosopher. Aristotle was charged with disrespect for the gods and blasphemy, which forced the scientist, who understood the bias of the upcoming trial, to leave with some students to Chalkis, on the island of Euboea, which became the last refuge in his life. The 62-year-old philosopher died of a hereditary stomach disease. Aristotle was replaced as head of the Lyceum by his best student, Theophrastus. The family of the great scientist was continued by his daughter Pythiala (the son of Nicomachus, according to some assumptions, was killed in the war in his young years).

Aristotle: short biography and his discoveries

There is an opinion that the great Aristotle was a short and sickly man. His speech was very fast and with defects: the philosopher mixed some sounds, which in no way detracted from his tremendous contribution to science.

Like most thinkers of ancient times, Aristotle, in addition to philosophy, diligently studied various sciences and became the founder of some sections: logic, scientific rhetoric, and grammar. Also, the great thinker established a large number of important facts in anatomy and zoology, and was the first to create a philosophy of art and a theory of poetry. The most important and famous works of Aristotle are “Politics”, “Metaphysics”, “Poetics”, “Physics”. The philosophical system of the Greek enlightener affected various aspects of humanity and globally influenced the subsequent development of scientific thinking.

In geography, Aristotle expressed the idea of ​​the integrity and boundlessness of the World Ocean. In biology, the scientist described about five thousand species of animals and founded a zoological taxonomy, the first in scientific history. Studying animals, he divided them into 2 groups: bloodless and animals with blood (putting humans at the head), which practically corresponds to today’s concept: vertebrates and invertebrates. The great philosopher is considered the father of meteorology (this term was first mentioned in a treatise on celestial phenomena).

Of all the works of Aristotle, only a quarter of his works have survived to this day. According to some assumptions, after his death the philosopher’s rich library passed to Theophrastus and his descendants, who, being uneducated people, dumped the books in boxes and locked them in the basement. Dampness and worms completed what had been started.

“Wisdom is the most accurate of sciences. You can make mistakes in different ways, but you can do right only in one way, that’s why the first is easy, and the second is difficult; it’s easy to miss, it’s difficult to hit the target.” Aristotle.

The genius of ancient Greece

Ancient philosophy is a subject of debate among many historians and researchers. It is divided into ancient Greek and ancient Roman. It was the Greeks who achieved the greatest success in the field of philosophy when they began to consider it as an independent science, separating it from the previous mythological teachings, which initially had a huge influence on the Hellenic understanding of the world. Among the most famous philosophers known throughout the world are Socrates, Plato and, of course, Aristotle. The latter, being a student of Plato, was not inferior to him either in intelligence or personality, and concentrated his life on research. It is about Aristotle, his life and ideas that we will talk today.

Who is Aristotle? One of the greatest philosophers and minds of mankind was born in 384 BC. e., in the city of Stagir, in a family close to the royal dynasty. The family of the future philosopher belonged to the true Hellenes. His father Nicomachus served as the chief physician of the Macedonian king Amyntas II, so Aristotle was familiar with the royal palace from an early age.

Biography of Aristotle

For 20 years (from the age of 17), Aristotle lived in Athens and studied at Plato's school, called the Academy. The name comes from the statue of the hero Akademus, where Plato conducted classes with his students. Aristotle in those years was called the “reader”, since he sought the truth not in endless conversations between students and the teacher, but in books, considering them the source of wisdom. Plato singled him out among his other students, seeing his extraordinary mind and thirst for knowledge.

Over time, Plato noticed that Aristotle was moving away from his teachings, calling him "a foal that pushes away its mother." Despite the fact that Plato and Aristotle maintained friendly relations throughout the former’s life, the future genius preferred to explore the world on his own. The search for truth was important to him. He rethought any information received, looking for a logical explanation for certain facts and assumptions.

For a long time, Aristotle lived in Asia and was the favorite teacher of Alexander the Great. However, the long and close friendship with the great conqueror was broken by tragedy: Aristotle’s nephew was executed on charges of conspiracy by Alexander himself. Rumor has it that it was the philosopher who sent him poison, which caused the death of Macedonian. Although such a theory has not been confirmed in any way.

After Plato's death, Aristotle opened his own school, which he called the Lyceum. He collected information about everything, not dividing the world into sciences, but trying to unite it, understanding that everything in the world is closely interconnected. And for this he had to become not only a philosopher, but also a doctor, physicist, biologist, and teacher. When answering the question of who Aristotle is, one cannot fail to mention his amazing ability to work. It is believed that he wrote about four hundred books, including works on astronomy, poetry, ecology, physics, ethics and politics. His works have been studied for hundreds of years. Who is Aristotle for modern researchers? This is a person with the greatest abilities and desire to learn new things.

Of course, Aristotle was often mistaken in his judgments. However, errors with such a volume of work and research, coupled with the lack of modern research methods, were inevitable. However, among Aristotle's discoveries there are many true ones - he was one of the first to determine the spherical shape of the Earth and its satellite, noticed the similarities between monkeys and people, and began conducting experiments on animals.

What are Aristotle's teachings?

Who is Aristotle? This is a researcher who was interested in literally everything. He looked for facts that confirmed this or that theory, and based his conclusions only on them.

Aristotle's teaching stated that learning should begin with the sensory perception of things. Thus, Plato was sure that the world of ideas (consciousness) is an independent, separate world that the soul contemplates before it goes to live in a mortal body. Aristotle was sure that our souls are pure - and only when we come to earth, inscriptions in the form of our life experience begin to appear on them. He was convinced that he was not interested in any special world of ideas; there are material things to which we give meaning in our minds.

Also, the philosopher had no doubt that the soul of a person is his integral part, which cannot exist separately from the body.

If we consider the philosophy that Aristotle formed, we can briefly conclude that it was he who founded logic - and in all his conclusions he was based on it.

Aristotle's doctrine of 4 causes

Matter. Matter is eternal, indestructible and immense. It decreases and increases, and its formless form is nothingness. Primary matter is the path of the elements - earth, fire, air, water and the celestial substance called ether.

Form. Essence, purpose, reason. Existence is the fusion of form and matter.

Cause. The moment a thing appears. The beginning of all things is God. Any thing initially has a cause that has energetic force, and only then does it have a beginning and a purpose.

Target. Every thing has its purpose. The highest goal is Good.

Conclusion

Who is Aristotle? A genius, of course, although many contemporaries called him an evil and envious person. Whether they were based on facts, like Aristotle himself, or whether they were based on their envy, we will now never know. However, many of the ideas of the genius have remained with us to this day.

ARISTOTLE

ARISTOTLE

(Aristoteles) (384-322 BC) - great ancient Greek. and scientist, creator of logic, founder of psychology, ethics, politics, poetics as independent sciences. Born in the north-east of Greece (Staghira), he spent 20 years at Plato's Academy ( cm. ACADEMY) in Athens. After Plato's death he lived in Greek. Asia Minor, then in Macedonia as a teacher of Alexander the Great. Then again in Athens as the head of his philosophy. schools - Lyceum. The second and third periods of A.'s life each take 12 years. A. owns a large number of works, mainly those that have come down to us: on philosophy, physics, biology, psychology, logic, ethics, politics, poetics.
As a student of Plato, A. deeply criticized, rejecting Plato's teaching about ideas as general essences-standards that exist before the objects of the material world and are only reflected in them. A. hesitated in understanding the essence of the individual, species and genus. His two criteria of essence are contradictory: it must exist independently, but only individuals exist in this way, and it must be definable, have its own, but only (a species) exists in this way, individuals do not have their own concept. Rejecting genera (they exist through species) and Platonic qualities, quantities, relationships, actions, etc. into independent ideas, A. was inclined to recognize the primacy of the species relative to the individual and the genus, designating it as “morphe” (Latin “”), “first essence” (only in “Metaphysics” and in “Categories” the first essence designates individuals), “what was and what is”, i.e. stable in time (in the translation “the essence of being”, “whatness”).
In the doctrine of possibility and reality (potential and actual), A. gave forms to active forces that shape internally and externally and reshape the passive (“hyule”, matter), giving rise to objects of the sensory physical world. Formal and material universal principles and causes are complemented by driving and target causes.
Wisdom (“”) is about first principles and first causes and about existence as such. The source of movement is God as immovable. General - ; everything strives for its own good, and ultimately for God. However, God is alien to the world, he is closed in on himself, he is “self-thinking.” There is much in the sensory world that is not fitting for God to see.
In scientific teaching, A. emphasized “theoretical” (contemplative, without going into the utilitarian practice they despised) knowledge. Theoretical knowledge includes: wisdom, “first” (later -), (“second philosophy”) and. “Practical”, inauthentic knowledge (in which, due to the complexity of the subject, one has to choose, whereas in theoretical sciences there is no choice: either knowledge or lies): ethics and politics; “creative” sciences limited to art. A. does not pay attention to the industrial activities that remain with him - an aristocratic slave owner, without attention. The physics of astrology, which treats such topics as its types, problems of space and time, and the source of motion, is speculative. In mathematics itself, A. did not give anything new. In the philosophy of mathematics, he understood mathematical subjects not as coinciding with physical subjects (Pythagoreans) and not as primary for physical subjects (Platonism), but as the abstracting work of a mathematician. The cosmology of Africa, with its geocentrism, the division of space into the supralunar (ethereal) and sublunar (earth, water, air and fire) worlds, with its ending of the world in space, played a negative role in the history of science. A. was interested in biology, described about five hundred species of living organisms, and was engaged in biological classification.
In psychology, A. broke with Plato's teaching about the immortality of personal souls, about their transmigration from the body into, about their existence in an ideal world, allowing only a universal active intellect, equally inherent in people. On the question of the source of knowledge, A. hesitated between feelings and mind. To understand the general nature of nature, both are necessary and active. In the rational soul, inherent only to man (plants have a plant soul; animals have both plant and animal; - plant, animal and rational), all forms are potential, so what is common in nature is the forms potentially inherent in the soul (a relic of Plato’s doctrine of knowledge as the recollection of what souls contemplated in the ideal world before they entered bodies).
A. formulated contradictions: it is impossible to express opposing judgments about the same thing in the same respect and in the same way, because in reality, objects cannot have opposite essences, qualities, quantities, relationships, perform opposite actions, etc. A. gave three different meanings to this law: ontological, epistemological and logical. At the level of possibility, this law does not apply (in possibility a person can be both sick and healthy; in reality, as a matter of fact, he is either healthy or sick). Having created logic (called “analytics”), A. “discovered” its figures and modes. A. distinguished between the reliable (apodeictic), the probable (dialectic) and the deliberately false (sophistry).
In the doctrine of categories, A. identified the category of essence as a general designation of a really existing carrier of independently non-existent qualities (quality), the category of quantity (quantitative characteristics), the category of relationships, the category of place and the category of time, the category of action, the category of suffering (susceptibility to influence). In “Categories” A. this list is supplemented by the categories of position and possession.
In ethics, A. distinguished between “ethical” virtues of behavior as the mean between extremes as vices (for example, generosity - as the mean between extravagance and stinginess) and dianoetic virtues of knowledge. Ethical A. is a contemplative philosopher: this is how the true God lives.
In politics, A. saw in man a “political animal” that cannot live outside the society of his own kind, he defined the state as a historically emerged people, which, unlike such communities as pre-state “villages”, has a political structure - as correct, i.e. .e. serving the common good (aristocracy, polity), and wrong (tyranny, oligarchy, democracy), where the propertied serve only their own interests. A. criticized Plato's communist political ideal. Man is an owner by nature, property alone brings the unspeakable, while the common cause will all be blamed on each other. Distinguishing between necessary and constituent parts in the state, A. classified slaves as the first, understanding the slave mainly as a natural element of nature. Thinking that virtue is necessary, A. did not recognize the rights of citizens for workers, but he wanted all Greeks to be citizens in the state he himself was designing. A. saw the way out of this contradiction in having barbarian slaves replace the Greeks in all types of labor. A. approached Alexander the Great with this project, but to no avail.

Philosophy: Encyclopedic Dictionary. - M.: Gardariki. Edited by A.A. Ivina. 2004 .

ARISTOTLE

Stagirite, ancient Greek. philosopher and encyclopedist scientist, founder of the Peripatetic school. In 367-347 - at Plato's Academy, first as a listener, then as a teacher and an equal member of the community of Platonist philosophers. Years of wandering (347-334) : V G. Asse in Troas (M. Asia), in Mitylena on O. Lesvos; from 343/342 teacher of 13-year-old Alexander the Great (probably up to 340). During the 2nd Athenian period (334-323) A. teaches at the Lyceum. A complete set of all ancient biographical works. evidence of A. with comments: I. During, Aristotle in the ancient biographical tradition, 1957.

Genuine Op. A. fall into three classes: 1) publ. during life and literary treatment (so-called exoteric, i.e. popular science), Ch. arr. dialogues; 2) all kinds of collections of materials and extracts - empirical. theoretical base treatises; 3) so-called esoteric op.- scientific treatises (“pragmatism”), often in the form of "lecture notes" (during A.’s lifetime they were not published, until 1 V. before n. e. were little known - about their fate cm. in Art. Peripatetic school). All that have come down to us are genuine. Op. A. (Corpus Aristoteli-cum - vault preserved in Byzantine manuscripts under the name A., also includes 15 inauthentic Op.) belong to 3rd class (except for the Athenian Polity), Op. first two classes (and judging by antique catalogues, part Op. 3rd class) lost. Some fragments are given about the dialogues - quotes from later authors (there are three general editions: V. Rose, 18863; R. Walzer, 19632; W. D. ROSS, 1955 and many dept. publications with attempts at reconstructions).

The problem relates. chronological Op. A. is closely intertwined with the problem of evolution Philosopher views A. According to genetic. concepts German scientist V. Yeager (1923), academician. period A. was an orthodox Platonist who recognized the “separateness” of ideas; only after the death of Plato, having experienced the worldview. , he criticized the theory of ideas and then, until the end of his life, evolved towards natural science. empiricism. Accordingly Yeager and his school dated Op. A. according to the degree of “remoteness” from Platonism. Yeager's theory, which predetermined the development of Aristotelian science in the 20s V., nowadays, time is shared by few people in its pure form. According to the concept Swede. scientist I. Dühring (1966), A. was initially an opponent of the transcendence of ideas; his harshest tone was in the early Op., on the contrary, in its mature ontology (“Metaphysics” G - Z - N - ?) he essentially returned to platonic. problems of supersenses. reality.

Dating Op. A. according to Dühring. Up to 360 (parallel to Plato's Phaedrus, Timaeus, Theaetetus, Parmenides): “About ideas” (controversy with Plato and Eudoxus), dialogue “On Rhetoric, or Grill” and etc. 1st floor. 50's gg. (parallel to Plato's Sophist and Politics); "Categories", "Hermeneutics", "Topic" (book 2-7, 8, 1, 9) , "Analysts" (cm."Organon"), dialogue “On Philosophy” (one of the most important lost Op., basic source of information about A. philosophy in Hellenistic. era; book 1: humanity from the primitive state to the development of sciences and philosophy, reaching its pinnacle in the Academy; book 2: Plato's teachings on principles, ideal numbers and ideas; book 3: A. - “Timaeus”); notes from Plato's lectures “On the Good”; And "Metaphysics"; “About Poets”, “Homeric Questions”, original version of "Poetics", book 1-2 "Rhetoric", original version of “Big Ethics”. From 355 to Plato's death in 347 (parallel to Philebus, Laws, 7th letter of Plato): "Physics" (book 1, 2, 7, 3-4) , “About the sky”, “About creation and destruction”, “Meteorology” (book 4) , controversy over ideas (“Metaphysics”, M 9 1086 b 21 - N, A, ?, ? 1-9, B), recycling book 1-2 and book 3 “Rhetoricians”, “Evdemova”, dialogue “Evdem” (about the immortality of the soul), "Protreptic" (“Admonition” to Philosophy, used in Cicero’s “Hortensia” and Iamblichus’ “Protrepticus”) And etc. Period of wanderings in Assos, Mytilene, Macedonia (347-334) : "Animal History" (book 1-6, 8) , “On the parts of animals”, “On the movement of animals”, “Meteorology” (book 1-3) , first drafts of small natural sciences. Op. and “About the Soul.” The joint work with Theophrastus according to the description of 158 probably dates back to the same period state devices ("Polytius") Greek policies and the lost “Description of non-Greek. customs and institutions." "Policy" (nor. 1, 7-8), excerpts from Plato's Laws. 2nd Athenian period (from 334 until death): "Rhetoric" (recycling), "Policy" (book 2, 5, 6, 3-4) , first philosophy (“Metaphysics”, G, ?, ?, ?, ?), "Physics" (probably, book 8) , “On the Birth of Animals”, probably the surviving edition of small natural sciences. Op. and the treatise “On the Soul”, “Nicomachean”.

Philosophy is divided into A. theoretical (speculative), the goal of which is knowledge for the sake of knowledge, practical, the goal of which is knowledge for the sake of activity, and noetic (creative), the goal of which is knowledge for the sake of creativity. Theoretical philosophy is divided into physical, mathematical. and the first (in “Metaphysics”? - “theological.”) philosophy. Physical subject philosophy is something that exists “separately” (i.e. substantially) and moves; mathematical - something that does not exist “separately” (i.e. abstractions) and motionless; first, or philosophy proper (Also " "), - that which exists “separately” and motionless. To practical philosophies include ethics and poetry, and poetics. Logic is not independent. science, but to the entire complex of sciences. Theoretical sciences have a value primacy over practical ones. and poyetic. sciences, first philosophy is above the rest of the theoretical. sciences.

The ontology of A. is based on: 1) existence (?? ??) , or the doctrine of being-than; 2) causal substance; 3) the doctrine of possibility and reality, or the theory of not-yet-being.

Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary. 2010 .

ARISTOTLE

(Ἀριστοτέλης) (384–322 BC) – ancient Greek. philosopher and scientist. A. lived and acted in the era when the slave owner. democracy in Athens was declining and when a fierce party took place within the Athenian polis, and in philosophy - a struggle between materialism and idealism. A. occupied an intermediate position in this struggle, wavering “between idealism and materialism” (V.I. Lenin, Philosophical Notebooks, 1947, p. 267). Engels considered A. the most universal head among the ancient Greeks. philosophers, a thinker who explored “the most essential forms of dialectical thinking” (Anti-Dühring, 1957, p. 20).

A. gen. in Stagira (hence the name A. - “Stagirite”), Greek. colonies on the Thracian coast of Chalkidiki. His father Nicomachus was the court physician of the Macedonian king Amyntas II. In 367 A. went to Athens and became a student of Plato. During this first period of his activity, A. was a member of Plato’s Academy, remaining in it for 20 years, until Plato’s death (347). In 343 A. was invited by Philip, the king of Macedonia, to the capital Pella to raise his son, Alexander. When Alexander became king, A. returned to Stagira, and in 335 - to Athens. In this second period, philosophy. A.’s activities matured the criticality that had developed even earlier. attitude towards Plato's idealism and, apparently, the foundations of their own were found. Philosopher systems. Upon returning to Athens, where he created his own school, known as the Lyceum, or, the third period of philosophy begins. A.'s activities. This period lasted until A.'s death in Chalkis on Euboea, where he fled to avoid manifestations of intense hostility among members of the anti-Macedonian party and persecution on charges of a crime against religion (impiety). Not being a native of Athens, A. lived there as a meteka - a foreigner who does not have citizenship rights. A. was neither a supporter of the Athenian aristocracy nor the Athenian democratic system, considering it an incorrect form of government. A. was a supporter of moderate democracy.

Modern researchers distinguish between A.'s works: 1) written and published during A.'s collaboration at Plato's Academy; 2) written after leaving A. Academy. The first were widely known in ancient times and were highly valued for their lit. merits. They have not survived and only their names are known and little else is known. fragments, as well as reviews of them by ancient writers. The latter as a whole constitute what has come down to us under the name A. Some of them are also lost, some are forged and written at a later time. According to the content, A.'s treatises are divided into 7 groups.

1. Logical treatises. They are united in a code, which received (not from A. himself, but from his commentators) the name “Organon”. This name shows what A. saw in the logic (or method) of research. The "Organon" included treatises: "Categories" (Russian translation, 1859, 1939); “On Interpretation” (Russian translation, 1891) – theory of judgment; “The First and Second Analysts” (Russian translation, 1952; there is a Russian translation, “The First Analytics”, 1894) – logic in its own right. meaning of the word; "Topic" (about probable argumentation and about general concepts, on the basis of which ordinary topics are interpreted) and adjacent to the "Topic" "Refutation of sophistic arguments."

2. Physical treatises. In them, general physics corresponds to lectures on nature and motion. Treatises are devoted to these issues: “Physics”, “On Origin and Destruction”, “On Heaven”, “On Meteorological Issues”. The treatises adjacent to this group - "Problems", "Mechanics", etc. - are of later origin.

3. Biological treatises. Their common basis is formed by the treatise “On the Soul” (Russian translation, 1937). To biological essays in their own sense of the word include: “History of Animals”, “On the Parts of Animals” (Russian translation 1937), “On the Origin of Animals” (Russian translation 1940), “On the Movement of Animals” and some others.

4. Op. about “first philosophy” is called the work of A., considering existence as such. Scientific editor and publisher of the 1st century. BC. Andronicus of Rhodes placed this group of treatises by A. behind the group of his physics. works "after physics" (τά μετά τά φυσικά). On this basis, the collection of treatises on “first philosophy” subsequently received the name “Metaphysics”.

5. Ethical essays. so-called “Nicomachean Ethics” (dedicated to A.’s son, Nikomachus) (Russian translation, 1884, republished in 1908; other translation, 1900) and “Eudemus Ethics” (dedicated to A.’s student and collaborator, Eudemus). Three books from both of these works coincide verbatim, but between the two there is a correspondence that does not reach the point of identity. "Nicomachean Ethics", apparently, reproduces A.'s lectures on ethics, given at the Lyceum; "Eudemic Ethics" is the first, early edition of the ethical. teachings of A. There is also the so-called ascribed to A. "Great ethics", but it arose later and bears traces of the influence of Stoicism.

6. Socio-political and historical works: “Politics” (Russian translation 1865, 1911) – a collection of treatises or lectures on sociology. topics related to each other; "Polities" – constitutions 158 Greek. cities-states; Of these, only the “Athensian Polity” (Russian translation, 1891, 1937), found in 1890 in Egypt, has reached us. papyrus.

7. Works on art, poetry and rhetoric: “Rhetoric” (Russian translation, 1894) and the incompletely extant “Poetics” (Russian translation, 1854, 1855, 1893, reprinted 1927, 1957) .

The question of the time of writing of individual op. A. in a number of cases is difficult and allows only hypothetical. solution. It has been established that many op. A. were not created in the text that has come down to us by A. himself, but represent codes or collections that arose for the purpose of teaching at the Lyceum. It can be considered probable that in the period between 347 and 335 A. most of his courses were developed: first “Topics” (Books I and VIII of it may have appeared later), then, apparently, “Categories” and “On Interpretation " and, finally, "Analysts" - the most mature logical. work. They were followed by "Physics" (Russian translation, 1936) (for the most part); treatises "On Heaven" and "On Origin and Destruction"; Book 3 of the treatise “On the Soul”; the first parts of “Metaphysics”: I, IV, eight initial chapters of the X book, XI book. (except for the end) and XIII, “Politics” (Books II, III, VII and VIII). In the period after 335 A. worked on special. questions of physics, biology, psychology and history. The development of certain specialties for students dates back to this time. questions of philosophy: about reality and possibility, about the one and the many, the result of which were the VIII and IX books of the Metaphysics. At the same time, in books II, III, V of “Metaphysics” A. developed what was set out in the first part of the X book, and in the XII book he gave a new version of the I and XIII books.

With his research, A. covered almost all branches of knowledge available at that time. A. divided philosophy into three branches: 1) theoretical - about being and parts of being, highlighting “first philosophy” as the science of the first causes and principles; 2) practical - about human activity, and 3) poetic. In this division, A. does not specifically mention logic, although he is the creator of this science. A.’s followers, not without reason, attributed to him that, according to him, logic is considered not as a special branch of philosophy, but as an instrument of any scientific. knowledge.

In his “first philosophy,” also called “metaphysics,” A. subjected Plato’s teaching about ideas to sharp criticism, ch. arr. for the idealist the position about the separation of the idea-essence from the sensually perceived thing. A. gave here his solution to the question of the relationship in existence between the general and the individual. According to A., this is something that exists only “somewhere” and “now”; it is sensually perceived. The general is what exists in any place and at any time (“everywhere” and “always”), manifesting itself under certain conditions in the individual. It is the subject of science and is cognizable by the mind. Moreover, the general exists only in the individual (if there were no individual, there would be no general) and is cognized only through the sensory perceived individual (it is impossible to comprehend the general without induction, and impossible without sensory perception).

To explain what exists, A. accepted four reasons: 1) the essence and essence of being, by virtue of which every thing is what it is (formal), 2) matter and the subject (substrate) - that from which something - arises (material cause), 3) the driving cause, the beginning of movement, 4) the target cause - that for the sake of which something is carried out. Although A. recognized matter as one of the first causes and considered it a kind of essence, he saw in matter only a passive principle (only the possibility of something), nevertheless he attributed everything to the other three causes, and he also attributed immutability to the essence of being - form, and He considered the source of all movement to be a motionless, but all-moving principle - God. Movement, according to A., is the transition of something from possibility to reality. In accordance with the doctrine of categories, A. distinguished the following types of movement:

2) quantitative – increase and decrease,

3) movement – ​​spaces. movement. They are joined by a fourth genus, which can be reduced to the first two—origin and destruction.

According to A., every really existing individual thing is “matter” and “form”. “Form” is not an otherworldly cause, but a “shape” inherent in the substance itself, which it takes on. Thus, a copper ball is the unity of substance (copper) and shape (sphericity), which is given to copper by a master, but in a really existing ball it is one with the substance. One and the same object of feelings. the world can be considered both as “matter” and as “form”. Copper is “matter” in relation to the ball, which is cast from copper. But the same copper is a “form” in relation to those physical. elements, the compound of which, according to A., is the substance of copper. “Form” is the reality of that of which “matter” is the possibility. “Matter” is, firstly, the absence (“deprivation”) of form and, secondly, the possibility of that of which “form” is the reality. According to A.’s thought, all reality turned out to be a sequence of transitions from “matter” to “form” and from “form” to “matter”. These categories, as Engels noted, became “fluid” for A. (“Dialectics of Nature,” 1935, p. 159). Nowhere does A. “have any doubts about the reality of the external world” (V.I. Lenin, Philosophical Notebooks, 1947, p. 305).

A. understood the relationship between “form” and “matter” not as the separation of supersenses. "ideas" and feelings. "substances". A.’s criticism of Plato’s “ideas,” in which Lenin saw “materialistic features” (ibid., p. 263), “is a criticism of idealism, as idealism in general” (ibid., p. 264). And yet, as Lenin noted, the criticism of Plato’s idealism was not carried through to the end. Climbing the ladder of forms, A. reached the highest “form” - a god who is outside the world. God A. is the “prime mover” of the world, the highest goal of all developing on their own. laws of forms and formations. Thus, A.’s doctrine of “form” is the doctrine of objective idealism. However, as Lenin showed, in many respects “it is more objective and more distant, more general than Plato’s idealism, and therefore in natural philosophy more often = materialism” (ibid.); “Aristotle comes close to materialism” (ibid., p. 267) - in A., a single sensory thing is affirmed as a really existing “essence”, as a unity of “matter” and “form”. From this view of a thing flowed A.’s view of knowledge. Although, like Plato, Aristotle considered the general to be the subject of knowledge, he at the same time argued that the general should be revealed to thought aimed at individual things of the sensory world.

Basic The content of logic and A. is the theory of deduction, although he expounded the doctrine of other forms of inference. The basis of this theory is a detailed theory of categorical syllogism. Although A.’s logic is formal, it is directly connected with the doctrine of truth and with the theory of knowledge in general, as well as with the doctrine of being, for A. understood, at the same time, how the forms of being (see V.I. Lenin, Philosophical notebooks, 1947, p. 304).

In the doctrine of knowledge and its types, A. distinguished between “dialectical” and “apodeictic” (apodeictic) knowledge. A. defined the area of ​​“dialectical” as the area of ​​“opinion” that could be this or that, “apodeictic” – as the area of ​​reliable knowledge (see Apodeictic). At the same time, in expressing results through language ("logos"), "apodictic" and "dialectical" are interconnected. Consideration of the question of whether an opinion can be affirmed as true is the subject of “dialectical” research. The “dialectician” moves in the region of incompatible opposites and establishes positions, either subsuming many under unity, or dividing unity into many. In the treatise "Topika" A. examined the tricks of sophistry, with the help of which a victory in an argument can be won, and the methods by which a "dialectician" can convey the greatest value to one or another opinion obtained from general experience. This goal, according to A., leads to the opinions of the people, as well as to the opinions of scientists, in order to more confidently rely on the completeness of experience confirming this opinion. At the same time, A. recommended comparing different opinions and making them logical. conclusions, compare these conclusions with each other and between already established provisions. However, even if tested by all available means and given a relatively high degree of probability, “opinions” do not become unconditionally reliable. Therefore, experience is not, according to A., the final authority for justifying the highest premises of science. The mind directly contemplates the highest and directly perceives them. At the same time, A. believed that the speculatively contemplated general principles of knowledge are by no means innate to man, although they are potentially in the mind as an opportunity to be acquired. To really acquire them, it is necessary to collect facts, direct thought to these facts, and only in this way trigger the process of thinking. contemplation of higher truths, or premises of contemplation. Since science proceeds from the most general and, as a result, has the task of exhausting everything related to the essence of an object, A. recognized the object as the goal of science. A complete definition can be achieved, according to A., only by combining deduction and induction: 1) knowledge about each individual property must be acquired from experience; 2) that this is essential must be proven by a special logical conclusion. forms - categorical. syllogism. Study categorical syllogism, carried out by A. in "Analytics", became, along with the doctrine of evidence, the center. part of it is logical. teachings. A. understood the three terms of a syllogism as a connection between the effect, the cause and the bearer of the cause. Basic the principle of syllogism expresses the connection between genus, species and individual thing. because Science has certain general principles and develops from them all particular truths, then it exhausts the entire set of concepts related to its field. However, according to A., this body of scientific knowledge cannot be reduced to a single integral system of concepts. According to A., there is no such concept that could be a predicate of all other concepts: various concepts are so different from each other that they cannot be generalized into a single genus common to them all. Therefore, for A. it turned out to be necessary to indicate all the higher genera, to which the remaining genera of existence are reduced. These higher genera have been studied in special studies. treatise "Categories".

The cosmology of A., for all its achievements (reduction of the entire sum of visible celestial phenomena and movements of the luminaries into a coherent theory), in some parts was backward in comparison with the cosmology of the Democritus and Pythagorean schools. A.'s influence on the development of the doctrine of the world survived until Copernicus. A. cosmology is geocentric. A. was guided by the planetary theory of Eudoxus of Cnidus, but attributed real physical existence to the planetary spheres: the Universe consists of a number of concentric - crystal - moving at different speeds and set in motion by the outermost sphere of fixed stars. The last source of movement, the unmoving prime mover, is God. According to the teachings of A., “sublunar”, i.e. the region between the orbit of the Moon and the center of the Earth is a region of constant variability and random uneven movements, and all bodies in this region consist of the four lower elements: earth, water, air and fire. The earth, as the heaviest element, occupies the center. . Above the Earth, shells of water, air and fire are successively located. The "supralunar" world, i.e. the region between the orbit of the Moon and the outer sphere of the fixed stars is a region of eternally uniform movements, and the stars themselves consist of the fifth - the most perfect element - ether. The superlunar world is the region of the perfect, the imperishable, the eternal.

No less influential was A.'s doctrine of biological expediency. The source for its development were observations of the appropriate structure of living organisms, as well as analogies with the nature of art. activities in which the implementation of a form presupposes the appropriate use and subordination of the material. Although A. extended the principle of expediency to all of existence and even raised it to God, his teaching, in contrast to Plato’s teaching about the conscious, goal-directing soul of the world, put forward the concept of the expediency of nature. For A., ​​organic facts were an example of such expediency. development, in which he saw a natural process of revealing the inherent structural features of living bodies, which they achieve in adulthood. A. considered such facts to be the development of organic. structures from the seed, various manifestations of the expediently acting instinct of animals, mutual adaptability of their organs, etc. In their biological works (“On the Parts of Animals”, “Description of Animals”, “On the Origin of Animals”), which served for a long time as the basis. source of information on zoology, A. gave a classification and description of numerous. species of animals. Life presupposes its own matter and form, matter is the body, form is what A. called “entelechy.” According to the three kinds of living beings (plants, animals, humans), A. distinguished three souls or three parts of the soul: 1) plant, 2) animal (sensing) and 3) rational. Their psychological A. outlined research that was also significant from the point of view of the theory of knowledge in three books “On the Soul.”

In Etik e A. is captured typical of the Greek. 4th century thinker BC. a look at the relationship between practice and theory. Without denying the beauty and greatness of political and military virtues and other “ethical” virtues, conditioned by inclinations to appropriate actions, A. placed contemplation even higher. The activity of the mind (“dianoetic” virtues), which, in his opinion, contains within itself the pleasure characteristic of it alone, which enhances energy. This ideal reflected what was characteristic of slave owners. Greece 4th century BC. department of physics labor, which was the share of the slave, from mental labor, which was the privilege of the free. The moral ideal of A. is God - the most perfect philosopher, or “self-thinking thinking.” Ethical virtue, by which A. understood the reasonable regulation of one’s activities, A. defined as the middle between two extremes. For example, generosity is the middle ground between stinginess and extravagance.

Ethical A.'s ideals determine the principles of his pedagogy and aesthetics. A. subordinated the tasks of organizing education as the highest goal to the formation of a personality capable of enjoying intellectual leisure and rising above any profession. specialization. This task determines the boundaries of art. training acceptable for children from free classes. On the one hand, for an enlightened judgment about works of art and enjoyment of them, it is necessary to a certain extent to be practical. possession of the claim, and therefore corresponding. On the other hand, this training should not cross the line beyond which art classes acquire the character of professional skill associated with remuneration.

But if practical. The occupation of lawsuits is greatly limited in A. in accordance with the rules adopted in the slaveholding. circles with views on professional work and leisure, then from a “consumer” point of view, A. gave a very high assessment of art. According to his view of a thing as a unity of form and matter, A. viewed art as a special type of cognition based on imitation (see Mimesis). At the same time, it was proclaimed - as an activity depicting what could be - a more valuable type of knowledge than historical knowledge, which, according to A., has as its subject the reproduction of one-time individual events in their bare factuality. Incorrect regarding history. This view of science allowed A. in the field of aesthetics - in "Poetics" and "Rhetoric" - to develop a deep theory of art, approaching realism, the doctrine of the arts. activities and about the genres of epic and drama (see Catharsis, Aesthetics).

A.'s teachings on society and the types of state set out in "Politics". authorities reflected the crisis of the Athenian slave owners. state and the beginning of the decline of slave ownership. classes. In the eyes of A., farmers seem to be the best of all classes of society, because due to his lifestyle and territorial dispersion, he is not able to actively intervene in issues of government management, which should be the privilege of the middle-income classes of society.

Cell: best editions of Greek. texts of individual treatises in the series: Oxford Classical Texts and Collection G. Bude (P.); rus. trans. - Aristotle. Op. in 4 volumes, ed. V. F. Asmus, 3. H. Mikeladze, I. D. Rozhansky, A; I. Dovatura. M., 1975-84; Athenian watered, trans. S. I. Radtsig. M.-L., 1936; On parts of animals, trans. V. P. Karpova. M., 1937; On the Origin of Animals, trans. .IN. P. Karpova, M.-L., 1940; Rhetoric, book. 1-3, lane N. Platonova.-In collection. Ancient rhetoric. M., 1978; Rhetoric, book. 3, per. S. S. Averintseva.-In collection. Aristotle and ancient literature. M., 1978, p. 164-228; History of Animals, trans. V. P. Karpova, preface. B. A Starostina. M., 1996.

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Political science. Dictionary.