2. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
• Plato’s Most Distinguished Pupil
• Teacher of Alexander the Great
• Careful Observer and Brilliant Theorizer
• His Thought Influenced Future Philosophy
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
3. • Socrates Most Famous Student
• Metaphysics called Theory of Forms
• Wrote “Apology, Crito and Phaedo
Plato (428-347 B. C.)
4. Socrates (470-399 B.C.)
• Creator of Socratic Method
• Deemed the Wisest by Delphi Oracle
• Stonemason by Trade
• Never Wrote Down His Dialogues
6. References
• Moore, B, N. & Bruder, K (2008).
Philosophy: The power of ideas (7th
ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
• All Pictures by Google Images
Notes de l'éditeur
Philosophy 105
Author: April Adams
To this day, Aristotle is considered the foremost authority on all things besides religion. This has been an asset to scientific progress because the scientific process itself cannot go simply on a hypothesis because “someone said it was so” (Moore & Bruder 2008 p. 66). Aristotle believed that everything is a combination of “matter and form” (Moore & Bruder 2008 p. 67). Everything is made up of “stuff” and there is a certain form that all stuff takes a certain form. Aristotle believed that there was no way that anything could be made of nothing; therefore all things are made of “stuff” (Moore & Bruder 2008 p. 68). He also believed that though things may change, they become something else, made of new “stuff.” Aristotle was the first to delineate between existence and essence. Once it is decided that something exists, it must be then looked at to decide whether or not it has substance and characteristics. If something has substance and characteristics, it exists. If it only has characteristics, it is assumed that it has essence (Moore & Bruder 2008 p. 70). Aristotle also believed that humans had three souls which shaped into a single unity (Moore & Bruder 2008 p.71).The first was the vegetative soul, the source of nourishment, the second was the animal soul, which was the basis of sensation and movement. The third was Nous or the intelligent or spiritual soul, which was pure (Moore & Bruder 2008 p. 71).
Plato was a student of Socrates. According to Moore & Bruder 2008, Socrates’ Apology made Socrates the chief martyr of reasoning the same way the Gospels made Jesus the martyr of faith (Moore & Bruder 2008 p. 39). He was most famous for not only following and expounding upon Socrates arguments, but by generating his own Theory of Forms.. According to Plato, objects we come across were not in fact real in a sensory experience, but were actually forms. If something does not exist in the physical world, it is considered an example of a form (Moore & Bruder 2008 p. 39). According to Moore and Bruder 2008, Beauty is another example of form, it is an ideal thing but it is not tangible (Moore & Bruder 2008 p. 40). According to Plato, forms are unchanging, unmovable and indivisible (Moore & Bruder 2008 p. 41). Only tangible things can change. The test references a home. The interior and exterior can change its esthetics and become something completely different than what it looked like prior to the change, but forms like beauty and love never change (Moore & Bruder 2008 p. 41). There are many things, Plato reasons, that are considered real, things that we could see, feel and touch, but to him they existed on a “lesser reality “(Moore & Bruder 2008 p. 41). Plato defined love as a “longing for and a striving to attain the object of longing” (Moore & Bruder 2008 p. 46). He felt that love brings about “thought and effort” while chasing something that is missing. (Moore & Bruder 2008 p. 46).
Of all of the philosophers who have made an impact on the future musings or dialogue, Socrates seems to lead the pack. Socrates was not a scholar; he was in fact a stonemason. He seemed to just be a man who had a thirst for knowledge. Not the type of knowledge sought by most scholars of that time; but instead the seeking of knowledge that was gained by discussion and arguments. The arguments were not the type that that caused discourse among the debaters, but it was the sort that encouraged thought and expansion of what was considered the norm. Socrates did not argue with people for the “sake of argument” (Moore & Bruder 2008 p. 37). Socrates’ arguments or what we now call the “Socratic Method or Dialectic Method” consisted of questioning until there was no refutable query he could give to a belief that was based upon actual fact. Basically, he was trying to prove that knowledge itself was more than a strong belief, it was true (Moore & Bruder 2008 p. 37). Socrates was deemed by the Oracle of Delphi to be the “wisest of people” (Moore & Bruder 2008 p. 37) Socrates believed that to mean that “unlike most people”, he “was aware of his ignorance” (Moore & Bruder 2008 p. 37). Using the Socratic Method today, it is easy to see the fallacies and acknowledge and see one’s own lack of true knowledge (Moore & Bruder 2008 p. 37).
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were three of our greatest philosophers. The fact that we still study their ideas today, several centuries later gives credit to their idea and leads one to recognize that most of what we now believe and hold as truths, are due to these men and others questioning the ideas and thoughts of their time and willingness to investigate a little further beyond the boundaries that have been set. The study of philosophy and questioning, not maintaining the status quo and being willing to delve into deeper knowledge of everything, is what has brought us to this point in our existence and what propels us to possibilities still unknown.
