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The most learned man - Aristotle

The life of the "Spirit of the Academy"

In 384 BC, Aristotle Dodd was born in the Greek settlement of Staqil in Fulakia, a Greek colony adjacent to emerging Macedonia. His father was the court physician to King Philip II of Macedonia. Judging from his family situation, he belongs to the middle class of the slave-owning class. He moved to Athens in 367 BC and studied medicine. He also studied at Plato's Academy in Athens for many years and became an active participant in Plato's Academy.

From the age of eighteen to thirty-eight - the twenty years of studying philosophy with Plato in Athens was a very important stage for Aristotle. This period of study and life It had a decisive influence on his life. Socrates was Plato's teacher, and Aristotle was taught by Plato. These three generations of masters and disciples are all famous figures in the history of philosophy. Aristotle performed so well in Plato's Academy in Athens that Plato called him the "spirit of the Academy." But Aristotle was not a person who only worshiped authority and was academically submissive without having his own ideas. He was different from teachers who talked about mysteries. He worked hard to collect various books and materials, studied diligently, and even built a library for himself. It is recorded that Plato once mocked him as a nerd. While at the academy, Aristotle had ideological differences with his teacher. He once metaphorically said that wisdom will not die with Plato. When Plato reached his later years, the differences between his teacher and his students became even greater, and they often had quarrels.

In 347 BC, Plato died and Aristotle stayed in Athens for two more years. After that, he began to travel around the world. In 343 BC, he was hired by King Philip II of Macedon to serve as the teacher of Prince Alexander. At that time, Alexander was thirteen years old and Aristotle was forty-two. In 338 BC, King Philip II of Macedon defeated the anti-Macedonian coalition composed of Athens, Thebes and other countries, and then dominated Greece. The following year, Philip convened a meeting of the whole of Greece, at which it was agreed that the Greek states would cease war and establish a permanent alliance, with Macedonia as the leader. At the meeting, Philip announced that he would lead the coalition of Greek states in an expedition to Persia. At this point, Macedonia actually controlled the military and political power of all Greece, and the Greek states had ceased to exist in name only and became vassals of Macedonia.

Philip was assassinated in 336 BC. His son, Alexander, who was only twenty years old, became king. In 334 BC, Alexander led the Macedonian army and the coalition forces of the Greek states to conquer Persia. In less than ten years, he defeated the Persian army of millions, and then destroyed the ancient Persian Empire. An unprecedentedly large Alexander Empire—with its territory stretching from Greece in the west to the Indus River in the east, Egypt in the south, and Central Asia in the north—was established. In 323 BC, Alexander died of illness. This great empire, established through military conquest, split into several independent kingdoms after melee.

It was during this turbulent era that Aristotle returned to Athens and lived there for twenty years, that is, from the year before Alexander set out on his expedition to the day of Alexander's death. Year. Although Macedonia controlled Athens militarily and politically during this time, there was considerable anti-Macedonian potential there. Aristotle may have come to Athens with a political mission to persuade the Athenians to submit to Macedonia. Aristotle received a lot of preferential treatment in Athens. In addition to his prominent political position, he also received a large amount of money, materials and land support from Alexander and Macedonian bureaucrats at all levels. The Lyceum Academy he founded occupies a large sports field and garden area near the Temple of Apollo Lyceum. In the academy, there were the first-class libraries and zoological and botanical gardens at that time. He founded his own school here. The teachers and students of this school were accustomed to discussing problems while walking in the garden, hence the name "Xiaoyao School". It is said that Alexander paid eight hundred gold talents for his teacher's research (each talent equaled sixty pounds of gold). Alexander also provided a large amount of manpower for his teachers. He ordered his men to collect plant and animal specimens and other information for Aristotle.

In fact, Aristotle’s vast works cannot be completed by one person. For example, he once summarized and analyzed one hundred and fifty-eight political systems. This work required a large amount of collection and sorting work, which would have been impossible to complete without the assistance of a group of assistants. When the news of Alexander's death reached Athens, anti-Macedonian frenzy immediately set off. The Athenians attacked Aristotle and convicted him of impiety. Socrates was sentenced to death for impiety. . But Aristotle eventually escaped from Athens and died the next year at the age of sixty-three.

The most learned man

Aristotle was first of all a great philosopher. Although he was a student of Plato, he abandoned the idealist views held by his teacher. Plato believed that ideas are prototypes of physical objects and exist independently without relying on physical objects. Aristotle believed that physical objects themselves contain essence. Plato asserted that the senses could not be the source of true knowledge. Aristotle believed that knowledge originated from feeling. These ideas already contain some materialistic elements.

Aristotle, like Plato, believed that rational plans and purposes were the guiding principles of all natural processes. However, Aristotle's views on causality are richer than Plato's, because he accepted some views on this issue from the ancient Greek period. He pointed out that there are four main types of causes. The first is material cause, which is the main substance that forms objects. The second is the formal cause, which is the design pattern and shape given to the primary substance. The third type is efficient cause, which is the mechanism and role provided to realize this type of design. The fourth type is the final cause, which is the purpose for which the object is designed. For example, the pottery's clay provides the pottery with its material cause, while the pottery's design is its formal cause, the potter's wheel and hands are its efficient cause, and the pottery's design purpose is its final cause. . Aristotle himself focused on the formal cause and final cause of objects. He believed that formal causes are contained in all natural objects and effects. These formal causes are latent at first, but once the object or living thing develops, these formal causes become apparent. Finally, the object or organism reaches the completion stage, and its finished products are used to achieve the purpose of the original design, that is, to serve the final cause. He also believed that in concrete things, there is no form without matter, and there is no formless matter. The process of combining matter and form is the movement of transforming potential into reality. This theory expresses the idea of ??spontaneous dialectics.

Aristotle divided science into:

(1) Theoretical science (mathematics, natural science and the first philosophy later called metaphysics);

(2) The science of practice (ethics, politics, economics, strategy and decoration)

(3) The science of creation, that is, poetics.

Aristotle believed that analysis or logic is the tool of all sciences. He is the founder of formal logic. He strives to connect the form of thinking with existence and clarify the categories of logic based on objective reality. Aristotle applied his findings to scientific theory. As an example, he chose the discipline of mathematics, especially geometry, because geometry had already transitioned from the early experimental stage when Thales wanted to give a reasonable explanation of the empirical rules of land measurement to a later stage with a relatively complete deductive form. But the syllogism of logic is of no use to experimental science. Because the goal pursued by experimental science is discovery, not formal proof from recognized premises. Starting from the premise that elements cannot be divided into simpler objects, it might have been possible to come up with a correct table of the known elements in 1890, but by 1920, applying this premise would exclude all radioactive elements. Now that the premise has changed, the meaning of the word "element" has also changed. However, this fact does not prove that syllogism is useless, nor does it conclude that modern physics is wrong. Fortunately, modern experimentalists no longer worry about logical forms, but the scientific community in Greece and the Middle Ages, under the authority of Aristotle, used deduction to describe many erroneous authorities as absolute. correct, and made many false inferences using deceptive forms of logic.

In terms of astronomy, he believed that the moving celestial bodies are material entities. The earth is spherical and is the center of the universe. The earth and celestial bodies are composed of different materials. The materials on the earth are composed of water, air, fire, and earth. Composed of four elements, the celestial body is composed of the fifth element "ether". In terms of physics, he opposed atomic theory and did not admit the existence of vacuum; he also believed that objects can only move when pushed by external forces. When the external force stops, the movement will stop. In biology, he classified more than five hundred different plant and animal species, conducted anatomical studies on at least fifty species of animals, pointed out that whales were viviparous, and examined the development of chick embryos. Alexander the Great often sent him various plant and animal specimens during his expeditions. In terms of education, he believed that the development of rationality was the ultimate goal of education, and advocated that the country should provide fair education to the children of slave owners. So that their body, virtue and wisdom can develop harmoniously. Aristotle also proposed many concepts in mathematics and physics, such as limits, infinite numbers, composition of forces, etc.

Main Works

Aristotle's logic works were later compiled into a book by his annotators, named "On Instruments". They inherited Aristotle's view that logic is neither theoretical knowledge nor practical knowledge, but only a tool for knowledge. "On Instruments" mainly discusses the deduction method, laying the foundation for formal logic and having a profound impact on the development of this science.

Another work by Aristotle, Physics, discusses issues such as natural philosophy, principles of existence, matter and form, motion, time and space. He believed that in order for an object to move continuously, there needs to be a continuously acting cause.

Aristotle began to discuss matter and destructible things in his book "On the Heavens", and then discussed occurrence and destruction. In this process of creation and destruction, the opposing principles of cold and heat, wetness and dryness interact in pairs to produce the four elements of fire, air, earth and water. To these earthly elements he added ether. The ether moves in circles and forms perfect and immortal heavenly bodies. The Meteorology discusses the region between heaven and earth, the zone of planets, comets, and meteors; it also contains some primitive doctrines about vision, color vision, and the rainbow. Book 4 describes some primitive chemical concepts.

Aristotle's meteorology is now far less satisfactory than his biological work, but it was highly influential in the late Middle Ages.

Aristotle's other important works include: "Metaphysics", "Ethics", "Politics" and "Analysis of the First and Second Parts", etc. These works had a great influence on the subsequent development of philosophy and science.

Conclusion

Aristotle showed a turning point in Greek science. Before him, scientists and philosophers strived to propose a complete world system to explain natural phenomena. He was the last person to propose a complete world system. After him, many scientists gave up trying to propose a complete system and turned to studying specific problems. Aristotle concentrated ancient knowledge into one body. Hundreds of years after his death, no one had as systematically investigated and comprehensively mastered knowledge as he did. His works are encyclopedias of antiquity. Engels called him "the most learned man".