Lecture 5 - Aristotle (and a bit of Alexander The Great) Flashcards
Aristotle 385-322 BC: his life
- A Greek from Macedonian city of Stagira
- His father - a court physician to the king Amyntas III,
grandfather of Alexander
367 BC. Studying and later teaching in the Academy
347 BC Plato died. Aristotle moved to Lesbos
343 BC Back on the Macedonian court as a tutor of the
future Alexander T.G.
338 BC Phillip of Macedonia conquers Athens
336 BC Alexander proclaimed king of M. & Greece
339 BC Aristotle opens the Lyceum (school)
near the temple to Apollo Lykeios
Empirical Zeitgeist
Alexander The Great: the conquest up to India and
propagation of Hellenic culture
dies in Babylon city (323 BC)
Anti-Macedonian attitudes in Athens
Aristotle escapes to Euboea island and
dies a year later (322 BC)
Plato’s student
Most talented student but Plato did not nominate to be next leader of Academy
Not Athenian citizen
Tradition in his family was medicine
Opened his won school… Lyceum
Empirical observations
Dualist
Aristotle: “psychology”
Epistemological empiricim and rationalism:
From sensory observations & experience
to generalization,
classification and
abstract essence
Ontological dualism (hylomorphism):
The sensible world of things is real
The essence of a thing is in its form and
in its belonging to the abstract class (category)
universals
Matter + form = a meaningful thing
Body + soul = a human
Status of: Potential being vs. Actual being
Teleology: striving for the ultimate purpose of existence,
to become, to happen (final cause of …)
entelechy ἐντελέχεια entelékheia entelechia
The universe on the Scala Naturae (ladder of nature)
All things are striving for becoming:
from pure potentiality (matter) to pure actuality
(God)
- from meaningless, unformed matter to
meaningfully formed material objects
- from vegetative soul, animal soul, and human soul
to divine soul
Humans are the closest to the divine actuality
The essence of objects and living organisms:
The form = is the essence of sculptured marble
The vegetative soul = is the essence of a plant
The sensitive soul = is the essence of an animal
The rational soul = is the essence of a human being
The essence determines object’s or organism’s
meaningful definition and characteristics
Three forms of the soul (psyche): Used the term psyche, not psychology
* Rational (Active) in humans; immortal: proactive plans & decisions
* Sensitive (Passive) in humans & animals: reactive orientation & response (just responding to stimuli)
* Nutritive (Vegetative) in humans, animals & plants: life maintaining, reproduction
Rational soul is the only one that never dies
Rational (active m) immortal only humans, Sensitive (passive psyche)
mortal, humans & animals, Nutritive m. humans, animals and plant
In the active mind, there is the passive psyche, composed of the special senses (vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell…) and common sense (imagination, memory)
Proposed the notion of common sense: imagination and memory
Aristotelian cognitive psychology
* Sensation - an effect of the motion of a medium
Five senses with specific sensitivity to the motion of
different medium: light (for vision), air (for smell),
flesh (for touch, vibration-hearing and temperature)
* Perception - an effect of integration of many sensory
inputs by the common sense.
* Memory :
- a repository of images from the past experiences
- an act of associating, recognizing and recollecting
Recognition in the identification Recollection in a search
Laws of association:
- Similarity
- Contrast
- Contiguity
- Frequency
Dreams
Motivation:
Plants, animals and humans: the appetites
Animals and humans: the urges and needs
In humans only: the intentions and desires
Catharsis κάθαρσις purification, cleansing, ventilating
… noticed people still talked about a play after… vented their emotions
-other examples: talking with friends, priest, confession, with psychologist…
Aristotle: ethics and politics
Aristotle “Nicomachean Ethic”
eudaimonia - good spirit and happiness
based on achieved virtues (arête)
Wisdom: prudence, maturity
Courage: integrity
Temperance: self-control
Justice: righteousness
Piety: caring, humility, devotion, spirituality
- The virtues resulting from “study and care”
- Transformation from pleasure-seeking to virtue-seeking
conduct, based on rational intentions and choices - Rational supervision over appetites, urges, needs and
passions
Best way to happiness is self-perfection… perfecting yourself… becoming more and more virtuous
Politics:
Spartan discipline, duty, responsibility, and social harmony
Strong leadership of enlightened and ethically decent
public servants (meritocracy preferred over democracy)
Good summary of Aristotle (read because very helpful)
The best student, and later, the teacher in the Platonian Academy.
Invited to Macedonian royal court to be tutor of the future
Alexander the Great
Athens was annexed to the Macedonian Kingdom; Aristotle returned
to Athens and established his stationary school - the Lyceum.
Lyceum focused on empirical observations (botanical, zoological,
medical, geography and technology), mathematical exercises and
philosophical debates.
Alexander the Great conquers the regions of Persia, Afghanistan and
India. He propagated Hellenic values and lifestyle (Hellenization)
there.
Epistemological empiricim and rationalism:
From sensory observations & experience
to generalization, classification and abstract essence
Ontological dualism (hylomorphism: mater + form = an object)
The sensible world of things is real.
The essence of a thing is in its form and in its belonging to the
universals
(abstract categories). The essence of the human person is
the rational immortal soul.
Teleology: everything in the universe undergoes the Entelechia –
a process of striving to become something, i.e. transforming from
the status of the Potential Being (an unformed, meaningless piece
of material) into the status of an Actual Being (meaningful object
in its completion, fruition, actualization).
Everything in the universe is placed on the Scala Naturae scale or
ladder of striving to become from a piece of matter to a meaningful
object, from seeds to plans, from embryo to organism. Humans
while striving for perfection experience a sense of happiness or
fulfilment (Eudaimonion) in their desire to approach the divine
perfection. God is the perfect actualization.
Nota bene: The concept of self-actualization will appear later in the
psychology of A. Adler, K. Horney, A. Maslow and C. Rogers.
Aristotelian animism: the notion of anima extended to all living
organisms: people, animals and plants.
Three forms of the soul (psyche):
* Vegetative Soul: mortal, in plants, animals and humans
* Sensitive (Passive) Soul: mortal, in animals and humans
* Rational (Active) Soul: immortal, in humans only
Peri Psyches (De Animae) – Three books (30 chapters) contain his
elaborated theory of cognition (sensation, perception, imagination,
intuition, locomotion, dreaming, reasoning, emotions desires, and
personality virtues.
Five basic senses (vision, touch, smell, hearing, and taste)
integrated by Common Sense and in cooperation with
Imagination and memory contribute to the conscious recognition
of perceived objects.
Recognition versus recollection
Learning and the laws of association: similarity, contrast,
contiguity and frequency.
Types of motivation: appetites, urges, needs, intentions and
desires
Psychotherapeutic role of catharsis
Five major virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance, justice and
piety
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle –
defended and preferred meritocracy over democracy or autocracy.
