Aristotle v. Plato

(Originally written October 2, 2006 in History I)

Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)
-educated at Plato's Academy
-Founded a rival school: The Lyceum

The Corpus: Explanation of the textual problems
1. The Corpus is not his writings, but actually his students' notes on his teaching
2. The Corpus is actually Aristotle's lecture notes
3. The originals were lost, recovered and poorly pieced back together

Aristotle's relation to his predecessors:

Biggest influences:
1. Heraclitus' doctrine of flux
2. Plato's theory of forms

Conception of the sciences:
1. Contemplative science (Theoretikos: what cannot be otherwise than it is)
-Math
-Metaphysics
-Nature
2. Practical science (Praktikos: what is subject to human deliberation)
-Politics
-Ethics
3. Productive science (Poietikos)
-involves productive use of reason
-the arts
-rhetoric

Criticism of Plato's Doctrine of Forms:

Plato: Eternal Forms + Matter

Aristotle:

Two senses of substance
1. Primary substance (ousia) - a particular (This is the most real for Aristotle)
2. Secondary substance - an essence of a thing (universal) (This is the most real for Plato)

Aristotle's distinction:
Matter - material stuff that things are made of
Form - overall shape, essence or patterns

The Categories:
1. Substance: what kind of a thing is it?
2. Quantity
3. Quality
4. Relatedness
5. Place
6. Time
7. Position/Posture
8. What it possesses
9. In what way is it active?
10. In what way is it passive?

Criticizes Plato's Doctrine of Forms: in order to know that two things are similar we would need to know a third thing to make the comparison

"Evil has no form, it is merely the absence of goodness or perfection in forms relating to morality". Ha! Yes!

Forms:
1. Otherworldly (Plato)/ Belong to this world (Aristotle)
2. Exist as universals (Plato)/Embedded in particulars (Aristotle)
3. Ontologically distinct (Plato)/Conceptually distinct (Aristotle)
4. Abstract (Plato)/Concrete (Aristotle)
5. Sensed particulars provide no knowledge (Plato)/Sensed particulars are a source of knowledge (Aristotle)
6. Matter changes, forms are permanent (Plato)/Matter is enduring, forms change (Aristotle)
7. Knowledge via reason (Plato)/Knowledge via senses (Aristotle)