2. Son of a court physician
Born in Stagira, Chalcidice 384 BC
Died in Euboea 322 BC
Aristotle was Plato’s student and teacher of
Alexander The Great.
Aristotle is one of the most important
founding figures in Western philosophy.
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3. He claimed that complete understanding of a thing
required identifying its “four causes”
He believed that nature is ordered and guided
internally.
He taught that there are three kinds of soul and
that they constitute a hierarchy.
He believed in using factual information and
collecting facts to make a better world
He was a Philosophical Naturalist
Aristotle's form can be abstracted from matter,
but cant exist independently like matter.
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4. The belief that reality consist of the natural
world
Naturalist universe is ordered in that
everything in it follows consistent and
discoverable laws of nature
Nature always acts with a purpose and the key
to understand anything lies in determining its
essential purpose
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5. Believes that human beings are part of the
natural order and behave according to fix
laws and principles
Understanding of nature is necessary to
understanding human nature.
Aristotle based his philosophical positions on
scrutiny, not on the isolated contemplation of
mathematical laws or “pure laws”
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6. Form is the universe divided into the realm of
becoming and the realm of being
Distinguished from content only in thought
never the fact
For Aristotle, form exists within the natural order
embedded in particular things and can not exist
independently.
Aristotelian form is that which is in matter
and makes a thing what it is, but can’t exist
independently.
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7. Matter is the common material stuff found in a
variety of material things; matter has no distinct
characteristics until some form is imparted to it
or until the form inherit in a thing becomes
actualized.
Change is a series of smaller changes in which
matter loses and gains form.
The strongest principle of growth lies in human
choice.
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8. Material Cause is the material (substance)
from which a thing comes and which change
occurs.
Formal Cause is the shape or form into which
matter is changed.
Efficient Cause is the triggering cause that
initiates activity; the substance by which a
change is brought about.
Final Cause is for which activity or process take
place
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9. Entelechy is “Having its end within itself”
Includes nutritive and sensitive soul plus
capacity for analysis, understanding various
forms and making reasoned decisions.
Inner urge that drives all things to blossom into
their own selves. In order or design that governs
all natural processes.
For Aristotle, psyche is the form of the body.
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10. Teleological Thinking is a way of explaining
or understanding a thing in terms of its ultimate
goal, or final cause
Eudemonia often translates as “Happiness”
Aristotle refers to fully realized existence; state
of being fully aware, vital alert
Sophrosyne is wisdom as moderation; finding
the mean between excess and deficiency.
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11. Character is the sum total of a person’s traits including
behavior, habits, likes, and etc.
The mean is the midpoint between two other points; For
Aristotle, moral virtue was characterized as a mean between
too little and too much.
According to Aristotle, we become our best selves in the
process of becoming fully functioning human being.
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