Aristotle's life and major contributions

1. Aristotle
“the master of those who know”
“Aristotle stands forth, not only as the
greatest figure in antiquity, but as the
greatest intellect that has ever
appeared upon the face of this earth.”

2. ARISTOTLE’S
LIFE
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“Good habits formed at youth
make all the difference”.
Aristotle
• Aristotle, whose name means "the best purpose" in
Ancient Greek, was born in 384 BC in Stagira.
• His father Nicomachus was the personal physician to
King Amyntas of Macedon. Both of Aristotle's
parents died when he was about thirteen, and
Proxenus of Atarneus became his guardian.
• At the age of seventeen or eighteen,Aristotle moved
to Athens to continue his education at Plato's
“Academy.” He remained there for nearly twenty
years.
• Aristotle then accompanied Xenocrates to the court
of his friend Hermias of Atarneus inAsia Minor.

3. ARISTOTLE’S
LIFE
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“It is the mark of an educated mind
to be able to entertain a thought
without accepting it”.
Aristotle
• After the death of Hermias,Aristotle travelled with
his pupil Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where
together they researched the botany and zoology of
the island and its sheltered lagoon.
• While in Lesbos, Aristotle married Pythias, Hermias's
adoptive daughter or niece.
• He had a daughter with her, whom they also named
Pythias.
• In 343 BC, Aristotle was invited by Philip II of Macedon
to become the tutor to his son Alexander.
• Aristotle encouraged Alexander toward eastern
conquest.

4. ARISTOTLE’S
LIFE
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“Those that know, do.Those that
understand, teach”.
Aristotle
• In one famous example, he counsels Alexander to be "a
leader to the Greeks and a despot to the barbarians,
to look after the former as after friends and relatives,
and to deal with the latter as with beasts or plants".
• By 335 BC, Aristotle returned to Athens and established
his own school there known as the Lyceum. Aristotle
conducted courses at the school for the next twelve
years.
• While in Athens, his wife Pythias died and Aristotle
became involved with Herpyllis of Stagira, who bore him
a son whom he named after his father, Nicomachus.
• One of the Aristotle’s most famous philosophical works –
Nicomachean Ethics – is believed to be a tribute to his
son.

5. ARISTOTLE’S
LIFE
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“The aim of the wise is not to
secure pleasure, but to avoid pain”.
“It is during our darkest moments
that we must focus to see the
light.”
Aristotle
• Near the end of his life, Alexander andAristotle
became estranged over Alexander's relationship with
Persia and Persians.
• FollowingAlexander's death, In 322 BC, Demophilus
reportedly denounced Aristotle for impiety,
prompting him to flee to his mother's family estate in
Chalcis, on Euboea, at which occasion he was said to
have stated: "I will not allow the Athenians to sin
twice against philosophy" – a reference to Athens's
trial and execution of Socrates.
• He died on Euboea of natural causes later that same
year, having named his student Antipater as his chief
executor and leaving a will in which he asked to be
buried next to his wife.

6. ARISTOTLE’S
LIFE
(Summary)
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Born in BC 384 in
Stagira.
In 367 BC, Joined the
famous ‘ACADEMY’ of
the greatest
philosopher Plato at
the age of 17 year.
In 347 BC left
ACADEMY at the age
of 37 year.
In 342 BC became the
tutor of Alexander the
Great at the age of 42
year.
In 335 BC established
‘LYCEUM’ at the age of
49 year.
Died in 322 BC in
Euboea at the age of
62 year.

7. A towering figure in ancient Greek
philosopher, making contribution to
logic, metaphysics, mathematics,
biology, botany, ethics, politics,
agriculture, medicine, dance and
theater.
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• Aristotle was the first to classify areas of
human knowledge into distinct disciplines
such as mathematics, biology, and ethics.
Some of these classifications are still used
today.

8. ARISTOTLE’S
WRITINGS
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• Aristotle’s writings were held by his student
Theophrastus, who had succeeded Aristotle in
leadership of the Peripatetic School.
• The works ofAristotle fall under three headings:
i. Dialogues
ii. Collections of facts and material from scientific
treatment
iii. Systematic works

9. ARISTOTLE’S
METAPHYSICS
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Aristotle’s editors gave the name “Metaphysics” to his
works on first philosophy .
For Aristotle, philosophy arose historically after basic
necessities were secured. It grew out of a feeling of
curiosity and wonder, to which religious myth gave only
provisional satisfaction.Aristotle begins by sketching
the history of philosophy.

10. ARISTOTLE’S
LOGIC
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• As the father of the field of logic, he was the first to
develop a formalized system for reasoning.Aristotle
observed that the validity of any argument can be
determined by its structure rather than its content.
• Aristotle’s writings on the general subject of logic
were grouped by the later Peripatetic under the
name Organon, or instrument. From their
perspective, logic and reasoning was the chief
preparatory instrument of scientific investigation.
Aristotle himself uses the term “logic” as equivalent
to verbal reasoning.

11. ARISTOTLE’S
PHILOSOPHY
OF NATURE
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Aristotle sees the universe as a scale lying between the
two extremes: form without matter is on one end, and
matter without form is on the other end.The passage
from form to matter within nature is a movement
towards ends or purposes. ‘
Everything in nature has its end and function, and
nothing is without its purpose.

12. ARISTOTLE’S
THE SOUL AND
PSYCHOLOGY
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Soul is defined by Aristotle as the perfect expression or
realization of a natural body. It follows that there is a
close connection between psychological states, and
physiological processes. Body and soul are unified in the
same way that wax and an impression stamped on it are
unified.
Soul and body, I suggest react sympathetically upon
each other. A change in the state of soul produces a
change in the shape of body and conversely, a change in
the shape of body produces a change in the state of soul.

13. ARISTOTLE’S
ETHICS
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Greek word, Ethikos, meaning ‘character’. Refers to
customary way to behave in society.
Ethics, as viewed by Aristotle, is an attempt to find out
our chief end or highest good: an end which he
maintains is really final.Though many ends of life are
only means to further ends, our aspirations and desires
must have some final object or pursuit. Such a chief end
is universally called happiness.
Eudaimonia:A happy Life
• A life that is successful
• Want for those we love
• Highest state of Eudaimonia: Having money,
reasonable look and good ancestry

14. ARISTOTLE’S
POLITICS
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Aristotle does not regard politics as a separate science
from ethics, but as the completion, and almost a
verification of it.The moral ideal in political
administration is only a different aspect of that which
also applies to individual happiness. Humans are by
nature social beings, and the possession of rational
speech (logos) in itself leads us to social union.

15. ARISTOTLE’S
ART AND
POETICS
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Art is defined by Aristotle as the
realization in external form of a true
idea, and is traced back to that natural
love of imitation which characterizes
humans, and to the pleasure which we
feel in recognizing likenesses.Art
however is not limited to mere
copying. It idealizes nature and
completes its deficiencies: it seeks to
grasp the universal type in the
individual phenomenon.
“Poetics”
• Short treatise of twenty-six chapters, forty-six pages,
six parts.
• 1-5 :Introductory remarks on poetry and its
classification.
• 6-19 :Tragedy.
• 20-22 :Poetic diction
• 23 :Narrative poetry and tragedy.
• 24-26 :Epic is compared with tragedy.
• 25 :Objections are answered

16. THEORY OF
IMITATION
AND TRAGEDY
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• Theory of imitation
Three ways of imitation
i. Means or medium of imitation (serious action).
sound, form, colour
ii. Objects of imitation (men in action).
iii. Manner of imitation (verse in dialogue).
 narrative
 dramatic

17. Tragedy
&
Formative parts
of Tragedy
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“Tragedy is the imitation of an action
that is serious, complete, and of a
certain magnitude, in a language
embellished with each kind of
artistic ornament, each kind brought
separately in separate parts of the
work, in the form of action and not
in the narrative form, with incidents
arousing fear and pity and
wherewith to accomplish the
catharsis of such emotions”.
• Six formative parts of tragedy
Formative
parts of
Tragedy
Plot
Song
Spectacle
Character
Diction
Thought

18. Plot
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• Plot should be whole
• It should have a magnitude
• Probability and Necessity
• Willing suspension of disbelief
• Organic unity
Plot is the ordering of incidents.
Simple
Plot is simple when the change in the fortunes of the
hero takes place without peripety and discovery.
Complex
Complex plots are those which have Peripety and
Anagnorisis or Discovery or Recognition.
• Peripeteia: Peripeteia means that human actions
produce results exactly opposite to what was
intended: it is working in blindness to one’s own
defeat.
• Anagnorisis:Anagnorisis or recognition is the
realization of truth, the opening of the eyes, the
sudden lightning-flash in the darkness

19. Character
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Characters are the agents for
moving according to plot.
Essential features of characterization
• Characters should be good.
• Characters should be appropriate.
• Characters should be true to life.
• Characters should be consistent.

20. Thought
&
Song
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• Thought
Thought is the intellectual element in a tragedy.
It is the ability of the dramatist to say what is
possible and appropriate.
• Song
Songs is the pleasurable addition to a play. In a
tragedy, song is provided by the chorus.

21. Diction and
Style
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Diction and Style Diction is the
choice and arrangement of words
in a literary composition.
Six types of words
i. Current or ordinary words
ii. Foreign terms borrowed or dialects
iii. Metaphors
iv. Ornamental periphrasis
v. Invented words
vi. Not invented, but made new lengthening or
shortening

22. Spectacle or
Stage effect
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Spectacle is the mode of imitation by which the story is
presented on a stage before an audience. It is the sight
of disaster andAristotle calls this can raise fear and pity
in the spectator.
Types of spectacles
• Plot
• Character
• Anagnorisis (recognition or discovery )
• Hamartia

23. Epic and
Tragedy
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Epic is the narration of an action in
verse
Tragedy is the dramatic
representation of an action.
Epic Tragedy
Narrative Dramatic
Long Must be confined to single
revolution of Sun
Unity of action Three Unities
Use of one metre (Heroic
couplet)
Use various metres
All elements of tragedy except
song and spectacle
Six elements of tragedy

24. Superiority
of Tragedy
over Epic
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• It has all the elements of an epic and has also
spectacle and song which the epic lacks.
• Unity of action only in a tragedy not in an epic.
• Simply reading the play without performing it is
already very potent.
• Tragedy is shorter that is more compact concentrated
effect.

25. Ideal
Tragic Hero
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• He should not be an utter villain.
• He should neither the perfectly good not utterly bad.
• He must be intermediary sort of person.
• He must posses both qualities and weakness.
• He must be a human being.
• Hamartia (tragic flaw).

26. Thank You
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