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previous: Chapter 26 This webpage reproduces a chapter of A History of Philosophy by Frederick Copleston, S. J. as reprinted by Image Books — Doubleday New York • London • Toronto • Sydney • Auckland 1993 The text, and illustrations except as noted, are in the public domain. next: Chapter 28

Part IV: Aristotle

 p266  Chapter XXVII
Life and Writings of Aristotle

Aristotle was born in 384/3 B.C. at Stageira in Thrace, and was the son of Nicomachus, a physician of the Macedon king, Amyntas II. When he was about seventeen years old Aristotle went to Athens for purposes of study and became a member of the Academy in 368/7 B.C., where for over twenty years he was in constant intercourse with Plato until the latter's death in 348/7 B.C. He thus entered the Academy at the time when Plato's later dialectic was being developed and the religious tendency was gaining ground in the great philosopher's mind. Probably already at this time Aristotle was giving attention to empirical science (i.e. at the time of Plato's death), and it may be that he had already departed from the Master's teaching on various points; but there can be no question of any radical break between Master and pupil as long as the former was still alive. It is impossible to suppose that Aristotle could have remained all that time in the Academy had he already taken up a radically different philosophical position to that of his Master. Moreover, even after Plato's death Aristotle still uses the first person plural of the representatives of the Platonic doctrine of Ideas, and soon after Plato's death Aristotle eulogises him as the man"whom bad men have not even the right to praise, and who showed in his life and teachings how to be happy and good at the same time."​1 The notion that Aristotle was in any real sense an opponent of Plato in the Academy and that he was a thorn in the side of the Master, is scarcely tenable: Aristotle found in Plato a guide and friend for whom he had the greatest admiration, and though in later years his own scientific interests tended to come much more to the fore, the metaphysical and religious teaching of Plato had a lasting influence upon him. Indeed, it was this side of Plato's teaching that would have perhaps a special  p267 value for Aristotle, as offsetting his own bent towards empirical studies. "In fact, this myth of a cool, static, unchanging and purely critical Aristotle, without illusions, experiences, or history, breaks to pieces under the weight of the facts which up to now have been artificially suppressed for its sake."​2 As I shall briefly indicate, when considering Aristotle's writings, the Philosopher developed his own personal standpoint only gradually; and this is, after all, only what one would naturally expect.

After Plato's death Aristotle left Athens with Xenocrates (Speusippus, Plato's nephew, had become headed of the Academy, and with him Aristotle did not see eye to eye; in any case he may not have wished to remain in the Academy in a subordinate position under its new head), and founded a branch of the Academy at Assos in the Troad. Here he influenced Hermias, ruler of Atarneus, and married his niece and adopted daughter, Pythias. While working at Assos, Aristotle no doubt began to develop his own independent views. Three years later he went to Mitylene in Lesbos, and it was there that he was probably in intercourse with Theophrastus, a native of Eresus on the same island, who was later the most celebrated disciple of Aristotle. (Hermias entered into negotiations with Philip of Macedon, who conceived the idea of an Hellenic defeat of the Persians. The Persian general, Mentor, got hold of Hermias by treachery and carried him off to Susa, where he was tortured but kept silence. His last message was: "Tell my friends and companions that I have done nothing weak or unworthy of philosophy." Aristotle published a poem in his honour.​3

In 343/2 Aristotle was invited to Pella by Philip of Macedon to undertake the education of his son Alexander, then thirteen years old. This period at the court of Macedon and the endeavour to exercise a real more on the young prince, who later to play so prominent a part on the political stage and to go down without posterity as Alexander the Great, should have done much to widen Aristotle's horizon and to free him from the narrow conceptions of the ordinary Greek, though the effect does not seem to have been so great as might have been expected: Aristotle never ceased to share the Greek view of the City-State as the centre of life. When Alexander ascended the throne in 336/5, Aristotle left Macedon, his pedagogical activity being now presumably at an  p268 end, and probably went for a time to Stageira, his native city, which Alexander rebuilt as payment of his debt to his teacher. After a time the connection between the philosopher and his pupil became weaker: Aristotle, though approving to a certain extent of Macedonian politics, did not approve of Alexander's tendency to regard Greeks and"barbarians" as on an equal footing. Moreover, in 327, Callisthenes, nephew of Aristotle, who had been taken into the service of Alexander on Aristotle's recommendation, was suspected in taking part in a conspiracy and was executed.

In 335/4 Aristotle had returned to Athens, where he founded his own School. Apart from the fact of his absence from Athens for some years, the development of his own ideas no doubt precluded any return to the Athenian Academy. The new School was in the north-east of the city, at the Lyceum, the precincts of Apollo Lyceus. The school was also known as the Περίπατος, and the members Περιπατητικοί, from their custom of carrying on their discussions while walking up and down in the covered ambulatory or simply because much of the instruction was given in the ambulatory. The School was dedicated to the Muses. Besides education and tuitional work the Lyceum seems to have had, in a more prominent way than the Academy, the character of a union or society in which mature thinkers carried on their studies and research: it was in effect a university or scientific institute, equipped with library and teachers, in which lectures were regularly given.

In 323 B.C. Alexander the Great died, and the reaction in Greece against Macedonian suzerainty led to a charge of ἀσέβεια against Aristotle, who had been so closely connected with the great leader in his younger days. Aristotle withdrew from Athens lest the Athenians should si against philosophy for the second time, he is reported to have said) and went to Chalcis in Euboea, where he lived on an estate of his dead mother. Shortly afterwards, in 322/1 B.C., he died of an illness. The Works of Aristotle

The writings of Aristotle fall into three main periods, (i) the period of his intercourse with Plato; (ii) the years of his activity at Assos and Mitylene; (iii) the time of his headship of the Lyceum at Athens. The works fall also into two groups or kinds, (1) the exoteric works — ἐξωτερικοὶ, ἐκδεδόμενοι λόγοι — which were  p269  written for the most part in dialogue form and intended for general publication; and (ii) the pedagogical works — ἀκροαματικοὶ λόγοι, ὑπομνήματα, πραγματεῖα — which formed the basis of Aristotle's lectures in the Lyceum. The former exist only in fragments, but of the latter kind we possess a large number. These pedagogical works were first made known to the public in the edition of Andronicus of Rhodes (c. 60-50 B.C.), and it is these works which have earned for Aristotle a reputation of baldness of style unembellished by literary graces. It has been pointed out that, though a great inventor of philosophical terms, Aristotle was neglect­ful of style and of verbal beauty, while his interest in philosophy was too serious to admit of his employing metaphor instead of clear reason or of relapsing into myth. Now, this is true of the pedagogical works — that they lack the literary graces, but it is also true that the works which Aristotle himself published, and of which we possess only fragments, did not disdain the literary graces: their fluent style was praised by Cicero,​4 and even myths were occasionally introduced. They do, however, represent Aristotle's earlier work, when he was under direct Platonic influence or working his way towards his own independent position.

(i) In Aristotle's first period of literary activity he may be said to have adhered closely to Palo, his teacher, both in content and, in general at least, in form, though in the Dialogues Aristotle seems to have appeared himself as the leader of the conversation. ". . . sermo ita inducitur ceterorum, ut penes ipsum sit principatus." (So Cic. ad Att. 13.19.4) It is most probable that in the Dialogues Aristotle held the Platonic philosophy, and only later changed his mind. Plutarch speaks of Aristotle as changing his mind (μετατίθεσθαι).​5 Moreover, Cephisodorus, pupil of Isocrates, saddles Aristotle with Plato's theories, » concerning the Ideas.​6

(a) To this period belongs the dialogue of Eudemus, or On the Soul, in which Aristotle shares Plato's doctrine of recollection and the apprehension of the Ideas in a state of pre‑existence, and is in general dominated by the Mayor's influence. Aristotle argues for the immortality of the soul on lines suggested by the Phaedo — the soul is not a mere harmony of the body. Harmony has a contrary, namely, disharmony. But the soul has no contrary. Therefore the soul is not a harmony.​7 Aristotle supposes  p270 pre‑existence and the substantiality of the soul — also Forms. Just as men who fall ill may lose their memories, so the soul, on entering this life, forgets the state of pre‑existence; but just as those who recover health after sickness remember their suffering, so the soul after death remembers this life. Life apart from the body is soul's normal state (κατὰ φύσιν); its inhabitation of the body is really a severe illness.​8 This is a very different view from that afterwards put forward by Aristotle when he had taken up his own independent position.

(b) The Protrepticus also belongs to this period of Aristotle's development. This appears to have been an epistle to Themison of Cyprus and not a dialogue. In this work the Platonic doctrine of Forms is maintained, and the philosopher is depicted as one who contemplates these Forms or Ideas and not the imitations of them (αὐτῶν γὰρ ἐστι θεατὴς ἀλλ’ οὐ μιμημάτων).​9 Again Phronesis retains the Platonic signification, denoting metaphysical speculation, and so having a theoretical meaning and not the purely practical significance of the Nicomachean Ethics. In the Protrepticus Aristotle also emphasises the worthlessness of earthly goods, and depicts this life as the death or tomb of the soul, which enters into true and higher life only through bodily death. This view certainly indicates direct Platonic influence, for in the Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle insists on the necessity of earthly goods, in some degree at least, for the truly happy life, and so even for the philosopher.

(c) It is probable that the oldest parts of the Logical Works, of the Physics, and perhaps also of the De Anima (book Γ) date back to this period. Thus if a preliminary sketch of the Metaphysics (including book Α) dates back to Aristotle's second period, it is to be supposed that Physics (book 2) dates back to his first period, since in the first book of the Metaphysics there is a reference to the Physics, or at least the setting‑out of the theory of the causes is presupposed.​10 It is probable that the Physics fall into two groups of monographs, and the first two books and book 7 are to be ascribed to the earliest period of Aristotle's literary activity.

(ii) In his second period Aristotle began to diverge from his former predominantly Platonic position and to adopt a more  p271  critical attitude towards the teaching of the Academy. He still looked on himself as an Academician apparently, but it is the period of criticism or of growing criticism in regard to Platonism. The period is represented by the dialogue On Philosophy, Περὶ φιλοσοφίας, a work which combines clear Platonic influence with a criticism of some of Plato's most characteristic theories. Thus although Aristotle represents Plato as the culmination of previous philosophy (and indeed as regards pre‑Aristotelian philosophy, Aristotle always held this idea), he criticises the Platonic theory of Forms or Ideas, at least under its later form of development at Plato's hands. "If the Ideas were another kind of number, and not the mathematical, we should have no understanding of it. For who understands another kind of number, at any rate among the majority of us?"​11 Similarly, although Aristotle adopts more or less Plato's stellar theology, the concept of the Unmoved Mover makes its appearance,​12 though Aristotle has not yet adopted the multitudinous movers of his later metaphysics. He applies the term visible god — τοσοῦτον ὁρατὸν θεόν — to the Cosmos or Heaven, a term which is of Platonic derivation.

It is interesting that the argument for the existence of the Divine drawn from the gradations of perfections is found in this dialogue. "In general, wherever there is a better there is also a best. Now, since among the things that are one is better than another, there is also a best thing, and this would be the divine." Aristotle supposes apparently the gradation oral forms.​13 The subjective belief in God's existence is derived by Aristotle from the soul's experience of ecstasies and prophecies in » the state of sleep, and from the sight of the starry heavens, though such recognition of occult phenomena is really foreign to Aristotle's later development.​14 In this lapdog, then, Aristotle combines elements that can have no other source than Plato and his circle with elements of criticism of the Platonic philosophy, as when he criticises the Platonic theory of Ideas or the doctrine of "creation" as given in the Timaeus, asserting the eternity of the world.​15

It appears that a first sketch of the Metaphysics goes back  p272 to this second period in Aristotle's development, the period of transition. This would comprise Book Α (the use of the term"we" denoting the transitional period), Book Β, Book Κ, 1‑8, Book Λ (except C 8), Book Μ, 9‑10, Book Ν. According to Jaeger the attack in the original Metaphysics was directed against Speusippus.​16

The Eudemian Ethics are sometimes thought to belong to this period, and to date from Aristotle's some other at Assos. Aristotle still holds to the Platonic convention of Phronesis, though the object of philosophic contemplation is no longer the Ideal World of Plato but the transcendent God of the Metaphysics.​17 It is also probable that an original Politics dates from this second period, including Books 2, 3, 7, 8, which deal with the Ideal State. Utopia a on the style of the Platonic Republic are criticised by Aristotle.

The writings De Caelo and De Generatione et Corruptione (περὶ οὐρανοῦ and Περὶ γενέσεως καὶ φθορᾶς) are also ascribed to this period with probability.

(iii) Aristotle's Third Period (335‑322) is that of his activity in the Lyceum. It is in this period that there appears Aristotle the empirical observer and scientist, who is yet concerned to raise a sure philosophical building upon a firm foundation sunk deep in the earth. We cannot be the marvel at the power of organising detailed research in the provinces of nature and history that is shown by Aristotle in this last period of his still life. There had, indeed, been in the Academy a practice of classification, mainly for logical purposes, that involved a certain amount of empirical observation, but there was nothing of the sustained and systematic investigation into details of nature and history that the Lyceum carried out under the direction of Aristotle. This spirit of exact research into the phenomena of nature and history really represents something new in the Greek world, and the credit for it must undoubtedly go to Aristotle. But it will not do to represent Aristotle as merely a Positivist in the last phase of his life, as is sometimes done, for there is really no evidence to show that he ever abandoned metaphysics, in spite of all his interest in exact, scientific research.

Aristotle's lectures in the School formed the basis for his "pedagogical" works, which were circulated among the members of the School, and were, as already mentioned, first given to the  p273 public by Andronicus of Rhodes. Most of the pedagogical works belong to this period, except, of course, those portions of works which are possibly to be ascribed to an earlier phase. These pedagogical works have offered many difficulties to scholars, » because of the unsatisfactory connections between books, sections that appear to break the logical succession of thought, and so on. It now appears probable that these works represent lectures of Aristotle which were equivalently published — so far as the School was concerned — by being given as lectures. But this does not imply that each work represents a single lecture or a continuous course of lectures: rather are they different sections or lectures which were later put together and given an external unity by means of a common title. This work of composition can have been only in part accomplished by Aristotle himself: it continued in the following generations of the School and was first completed by Andronicus of Rhodes, if not later.

These works of Aristotle's third period may be divided into:

(a) Logical Works (combined in Byzantine times as the Organon). The Categories or κατηγορίαι (Aristotelian in content at least), the De Interpretatione or Περὶ ἑρμενείας (on proposition and judgment), the Prior Analytics or Ἀναλυτικὰ Πρότερα (two books on inference), the Posterior Analytics or Ἀναλυτικὰ ὕστερα (two books on proof, knowledge of principles, etc.), the Topics or Τοπικά (eight books on dialectic or probable professor), the Sophistical Fallacies or σοφιστικῶν ἐλέγκων.

(b) Metaphysical Works.

The metaphysics, a collection of lectures of different dates, so called from its position in the Aristotelian Corpus, probably by a Peripatetic before the time of Andronicus.

(c) Works on Natural Philosophy, Natural Science, Psychology, etc. The Physics or φυσικὴ ἀκρόασις or φυσικά or τὰ περὶ φύσεως. This work consists of eight books, of which the first two must be referred to Aristotle's Platonic period. Metaphysics Α 983a32‑3 refers to the Physics, or rather presupposes explicitly the setting‑out of the theory of causes in Physics with. Book 7 of the Physics probably belongs also to the earlier work of Aristotle, while Book 8 is really not part of the Physics at all, since it quotes the Physics, with the remark"as we have previously shown in the Physics."​18 The total work would then appear to have consisted originally of a  p274 number of independent monographs, a supposition borne out by the fact that the Metaphysics quotes as"Physics" the two works De Caelo and De Generatione et Corruptione.​19

The Meteorology or Μετεωρολογικά or Περὶ μετεώρων (four books).

The Histories of Animals or Περὶ τὰ ζῷα ἱστορίαι (ten books on comparative anatomy and physiology, of which the last is probably post-Aristotelian).

The Ανατομαί in seven books, which is lost.

The De Incessu Animalium or Περὶ ζῴων πορείας (one book) and the De Motu Animalium or Περὶ ζῴων κινήσεως (one book). The De Generatione Animalium or Περὶ ζῴων γενέσεως (five books).

The De Anima or Περὶ ψυχῆς, Aristotle's Psychology in three books.

The Parva Naturalia, a number of smaller treatises dealing with such subjects as perception (Περὶ αἰσθήσεως καὶ αἰσθητῶν), memory (Περὶ μνήμης καὶ ἀναμνήσεως), sleep and waking (Περὶ ὕπνου καὶ ἐγρηγόρσεως), dreams (Περὶ ἐνυπνίων), long life and short life (Περὶ Μακροβιότητος καὶ Βραχυβιότητος), life and death (Περὶ ζωῆς καὶ θανάτου), breathing (Περὶ ἀναπνοῆς), divination in sleep (Περὶ τῆς καθ’ ὕπνον μαντικῆς).

The Problemata (Προβλήματα) seems to be a collection of problems, gradually formed, which grew up round a nucleus of notes or jottings made by Aristotle himself.

(d) Works on Ethics and Politics.

The Magna Moralia or Ἠθικὰ μεγάλα, in two books, which would seem to be a genuine work of Aristotle, at least so far as the content is concerned.​20 Part would appear to date from a time when Aristotle was still more or less in agreement with Plato.

The Nicomachean Ethics (Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια) in ten books, a work which was edited by Aristotle's son Nicomachus after the philosopher's death.

The Politics (Πολιτικά), of which books 2, 3, 7, 8, would appear to date from the second period of Aristotle's literary activity. Books 4‑6 were, thinks Jaeger, inserted before the first book was prefixed to the whole, for Book 4 refers to 3 as the beginning of the work — ἐν τοῖς πρώτοις λόγοις. "The contents of 2 are merely negative."​21

 p275  Collection of Constitutions of 158 States. That of Athens was found in papyrus in 1891.

(e) Works on Aesthetics, History and Literature.

The Rhetoric (Τέχνη ῥητορική) in three books.

The Poetics (Περὶ ποιητικῆς), which is incomplete, part having been lost.

Records of dramatic performances at Athens, collection of Didascalia, list of victors at Olympic and Pythian games. Aristotle was engaged on a work concerning the Homeric problem, a treatise on the territorial rights of States (Περὶ τῶν τόπων δικαιώματα πόλεων), etc.

There is no need to suppose that all these works, for example the collection of the 58 Constitutions, were by Aristotle himself, but they would have been initiated by him and carried out under his superintendence. He entrusted others with the compilation of a history of natural philosophy (Theophrastus), of mathematics and astronomy (Eudemus of Rhodes), and medicine (Meno). One can but marvel at the catholicity of his interests and the scope of his aims.

The mere list of Aristotle's works shows a rather different spirit to that of Plato, for it is obvious that Aristotle was drawn towards the empirical and scientific, and that he did not tend to treat the objects of this world as semi-illusory or as unfitted to be objects of knowledge. But this difference in tendency, a difference which was no doubt accentuated as time went on, has, when coupled with consideration of such facts as the Aristotelian opposition to the Platonic theory of Ideas and to the Platonic dualistic psychology, led to the popular conception of a radical contrast between the two great philosophers. There is, of course, truth in this view, since there are clear cases of opposition between their tenets and also a general difference in atmosphere (at least if we compare Plato's exoteric works — and we have no other — with Aristotle's pedagogical works), but it can easily be exaggerated. Aristotelianism, historically speaking, is not the opposite of Platonism, but its development, correcting one‑sided theories — or trying to do so — such as the theory of Ideas, the dualistic psychology of Plato, etc., and supplying a firmer foundation in physical fact. That something of value was omitted at the same time is true, but that simply shows that the two philosophies should not be considered as two diametrically opposed systems, but as two complementary philosophical spirits and bodies of doctrine. A  p276 synthesis was later attempted in Neo‑Platonism, and mediaeval philosophy shows the same synthetic spirit. St. Thomas, for instance, though speaking of Aristotle as"the Philosopher," could not, and would not have wished to, cut himself off entirely from the Platonic tradition, while in the Franciscan School even St. Bonaventure, who awarded the palm to Plato, did not disdain to make use of Peripatetic doctrines, and Duns Scotus carried much further the impregnation of the Franciscan spirit with Aristotelian elements.

And it should not be supposed that Aristotle, in his enthusiasm for facts and his desire to set a firm empirical and scientific foundation, was lacking in systematic power or ever renounced his metaphysical interest. Both Platonism and Aristotelianism culminate in metaphysics. Thus Goethe can compare Aristotle's philosophy to a pyramid rising on high in regular form from a broad basis on the earth, and that of Plato to an obelisk or a tongue of flame which shoots up to heaven. Nevertheless, I must admit that, in my opinion, the direction of Aristotle's thought was increasingly directed away from the Platonic position to which he at first adhered, while the results of his new orientation of thought do not always combine harmoniously with those elements of the Platonic theory which he seems to have retained to the last.

---

The Author's Notes:

1 Frag. 623. (Rose, Aristotelis Fragmenta. Berlin, 1870 edit.)

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2 Werner Jaeger, Aristotle. Fundamentals of the History of His Development, p34. (Trans. R. Robinson. Clarendon Press, 1934.)

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3 Diog. Laërt. 5.7 and 8.

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4 Cf. De Orat., I.xi.49.

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5 De virt. mor., c. 7.

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6 Euseb. Prep. Evang., XIV.6, following Numenius.

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7 Frag. 41 (Rose.)

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8 Frag. 35 (Rose.)

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9 Iambl., Protr. assuming that chapters 6‑12 of Iamblichus' work consist of passages from Aristotle's Protrepticus. (Cf. Jaeger, Aristotle, pp60 ff.)

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10 Metaph., Α, 983a33‑4.

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11 Frag. 11 (Rose.)

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12 Frag. 21 (Rose.) It must admitted that this fragment implies that Aristotle had not yet definitely stated the existence of the First Mover or broken with his former views.

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13 Frag. 15 (Rose.) Professor Jaeger thinks that the dialogue contained also the proofs from motion and causality.

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14 Frags. 12 and 14. (Rose.) Cf. Laws, 966d9‑967a5.

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15 Cf. Frag. 17. (Rose.)

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16 Jaeger, Aristotle, p192.

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17 Cf. Eud. Eth., 1249B.

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18 Physics, VIII.251a9, 253b8, 267b21.

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19 Metaph., 989a24.

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20 Cf. H. von Arnim, Die drei arist. Ethiken. (Sitz. Wien. Ak., 2 Abl., 1924.)

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21 Jaeger, Aristotle, p273.

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