Aristotle

Aristotle (384 BC ^JL – 322 BC ^JL) was an Ancient Greek philosopher who together with Socrates and Plato laid much of the groundwork for western philosophy and science. Throughout his life, Aristotle covered a broad range of topics including: physics, ethics, biology, theatre, music, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, logic, zoology, metaphysics, and aesthetics. Among these, those most relevant to the philosophy of science are his theory of causation, theories on metaphysics, and his method of science - the Aristotelian-medieval method of intuition schooled by experience.

Historical Context

Aristotle was born in Stagira, Chalkidice. After his father’s death, Aristotle was raised by Proxenus of Atarneus.1pp. 253 At the age of 17 or 18, Proxenus sent off Aristotle to Athens to pursue a higher education. In Athens, Aristotle joined Plato’s Academy and remained there until the age of thirty-seven (347 BC). It was in this year, his teacher and great philosophical companion, Plato, had died. Unfortunately, because of the many disputes amongst the two, Aristotle did not receive directorship of Plato’s Academy as he imagined he would.2

Returning home to Macedonia, Aristotle was met with the request of Philip II of Macedon.2 Philip II, asked Aristotle to tutor his son Alexander, soon to be Alexander the great. A subject of great dispute is how long this tutorship lasted. Some speculate Aristotle continued to tutor Alexander for three years, however others posit it may have been as long as eight years.3 A little further down the line, at around 335 BC Alexander succeeded his father and conquered Athens. It was with Alexander’s permission and their previous relationship that Aristotle started Lyceum. The Lyceum would act as a school and a library, where most of his works would be stored. The students of Aristotle who studied at the Lyceum, eventually became known as the Peripatetics.3 The students were called Peripatetics because of their tendency to ‘travel about’ just as the word means.

Remarkably, Aristotle’s association with Alexander the Great also contributed to where he spent the last years of his life. When the pro-Macedonian government was overthrown in 323 BC, Aristotle was to be executed for impiety. His charges were for associating with Alexander, and to avoid them, Aristotle fled to Chalcis, Euboea to remain until he died a year later.

As one of the first writers on method, Aristotle’s ideas on method are found mostly in a body of texts known as Organon. The most important of these ideas to philosophy of science come from Analytica Priora and Analytica Posteriora. In the former, Aristotle discusses deduction, while in the latter, he discusses induction. Out of the two, Analytica Priora forms the basis of most systems of logic found up until the late 19th century, while Analytica Posteriora forms the basis of empirical science to around the same date.4 The philosophies in Analytica Priora worked particularly well in taxonomical frameworks within biology. Beyond mentioned works, the Organon comprises 4 other works, Categoriae, Topica, De Sophisticis Elenchis, and De Interpretatione).

Most of Aristotle’s works on logic can be seen as a direct response to Plato’s views. As his predecessor and friend, Plato formed the foundational questions Aristotle would work from to create his framework of formal logic. Particularly, Plato was interested in raising questions about the nature of definition, the nature of connection between valid arguments and conclusions, and what properties could be called true or false.

Aristotle also stands out as a famous writer on causation. His work on causation is also in response to Plato’s views. Plato had a teleological view of causation perpetuated by his idea of forms. Similarly, Aristotle writes on the teleological account of causation in Physics II 3 and Metaphysics V 2.4 Aristotle’s account of causation is made pertinent by forming the basis of all of his sciences. Each Aristotelian science consists of an investigation of causes within reality – in which an appropriate science would have knowledge of relevant causes. Aristotle’s teleological account of causation was the preferred account until Rene Descartes’ corpuscular mechanicism.5

Major Contributions

Scientific Method

Aristotle’s writings on the scientific method encompass the entire Organon, however, the works forming the basis of most empirical science are Analytica Priora and Analytica Posteriora.

Generally, Aristotle’s method takes heavily from intuition and experience. It implements the requirement to grasp the nature of a thing, a requirement which is abstract in nature. As such, his method acts as an illustration of the capacity of methods to implement different abstract means of assessment. His method can be phrased as “a proposition is acceptable if it grasps the nature of a thing through intuition schooled by experience, or if it is deduced from general intuitive propositions.”6pp. 144

Prior Analytics

In his work Analytica Priora, Aristotle essentially forms the foundation of syllogisms. Before he begins, he defines a few important terms: major premise, minor premise, and conclusion. The major and minor premises act as the antecedents of an argument and should logically follow to form a consequent, the conclusion. If the conclusion follows from the premises, in that it is a logical valid consequence, the logical structure is known as a syllogism (see the first figure for a common example).

It should be noted, Aristotle’s syllogisms draw on modifiers of certainty, e.g. ‘some’, ‘all’, ‘might’, ‘must’, ‘no’. As such, syllogisms can have different forms.

As a consequence of syllogisms Aristotle recognizes an infinite regress of premises cannot provide a foundation of knowledge for science. Additionally, in this work, Aristotle identifies himself against apriori foundationalists, stating apriori knowledge can never form the foundation of knowledge. Instead, Aristotle opts the scientist to look towards observation and memory to form the foundation of their knowledge.

Posterior Analytics

In contrast to Prior Analytics which defined syllogisms with respect to their forms, Aristotle deals with syllogisms’ content in Posterior Analytics. The reason to take a look at the distinction is much akin to why checking the validity of an argument is not enough to ascertain it as a good argument. The form of a syllogism lies in the connection between the premises and conclusion. However, even when there is no problem with the form, the matter of the premises or the conclusion may be problematic. To clarify what type of content is problematic, Aristotle explains what good content looks like.

What Constitutes Knowledge

Primarily, all knowledge must be formed on existing matter. Anything formed outside the scope of what is already known is not useful information.7ch. 3 Knowledge is not opinion and one cannot hold knowledge about something while holding an opinion on it simultaneously.7ch. 33 Furthermore, the existing matter or principles on which information is founded must be demonstrable, and if not demonstrable then they must be self-evident.7ch. 1

Rules of Demonstration

To explain proper demonstration, Aristotle provides some principles and guidance as to how demonstration should be conducted.

• Demonstration should follow the figures of syllogism. When the figures are followed, they assert conclusions as universally affirmative.7ch. 4
• Demonstrated affirmative propositions hold more value than demonstrated negations.7ch. 25
• Content which demonstrates other content cannot be further asserted through that which it demonstrates; if α is used to demonstrate µ, then µ cannot be used to demonstrate α.7ch. 2
• There cannot be an infinite number of premises between the principle which forms the foundation of our knowledge and the conclusion.7ch. 19-20
• The foundation of knowledge, the premises which follow from that foundation, and the conclusion must all be necessarily true. Anything purely contingent or coincidental cannot be used within a syllogism because it can never be consistently demonstrated.7ch. 8
• The foundation on which knowledge is demonstrated should always be more certain than the conclusion.7ch. 27

Explanatory vs Descriptive

Aristotle also makes the value distinction of explanatory theories and descriptive theories. Explanatory theories explain why something happens the way it does, while descriptive theories explain that it happens. Per Aristotle, explanatory theories should be valued more than descriptive theories.7ch. 13

Induction

Aristotle concludes Posterior Analytics with a comment on foundationalism. While dissatisfied with apriori foundationalism, at his core, Aristotle is an aposteriori foundationalist. Knowledge claims cannot infinitely regress, and they must not be formed from apriori principles.

Causation

For Aristotle, scientific knowledge comes from an understanding of a thing in terms of what causes it.7ch. 8 Generally, Aristotle divides causes into four categories:8

1. The material cause: that which an object is made of.
2. The formal cause: the form of an object.
3. The efficient cause: the primary source of change.
4. The final cause: the final reason for why something is being done.

An object may encompass all causes in its production. A statue for example, has all four causes through its production. As someone begins to create a statue, they melt down some metal. Metal is the material cause of the statue as it is what makes up the statue. As the metal is molded into the shape of a statue the shape it takes becomes the formal cause. Simultaneously, since the metal is being molded, the efficient cause is the molding of the metal into a statue. Aristotle makes the distinction here that the efficient cause is not relevant or connected to intention or desire; the artisan making the statue is solely responsible for manifesting specific knowledge. Finally, all the processes which the metal is undergoing are for the sake of producing a statue, the final cause.

In discussing the causes, it seems that Aristotle has provided a teleological account of causation in that the explanation for an object makes reference to the goal or end of the process. It is also of note that this process ignores intentionality and desire.

Criticism

Due to the philosophical influence of Aristotle, he is very popularly debated and criticized, thus his critics are too numerous too list. Here, however, are some famous arguments against Aristotle.

Religious Reconciliation

First and foremost, numerous critiques of Aristotle appear through religious reconciliation of his views. In Christianity, Thomas Aquinas attempted to reconcile Aristotle’s views to form a stronger foundation for his religious beliefs. More specifically, Aquinas adopted Aristotle’s analysis of physical objects, cosmology, time, motion and place, and his views on the prime mover. Aquinas, however, rejected Aristotle’s views on sense perception and intellectual knowledge opting to create his own notions of both.9

In the Islamic world, Al-Kindi was one of the first philosophers to introduce Greek and Hellenistic philosophy into their world. Al-Kindi was particularly interested in applying metaphysics to theology but seemed to conflate the two in his works. Still, the influence of Aristotle is evident in his work.10

Syllogism

An expansion and perhaps some moderate qualms with Aristotle’s syllogisms come from Boole. Boole was very enticed by Aristotle’s logic and in his Laws of Thought sought to re-establish the foundations of Aristotle’s work by giving it a mathematical base. However, despite his enticement Boole had some disagreements with Aristotle. Boole was concerned with what Aristotle had left unsaid in his Analytica Priora. These concerns can be seen in his revisions to Aristotle’s logic. Firstly, Boole did not like that Aristotle’s work was not mathematical, so he converted it into equations. Secondly, Aristotle had never laid out rules for equation solving, thus Boole did this too. Finally, Boole did not like that Aristotle’s logic was limited to only dual term propositions, so he expanded it to allow for more.11pp. 167-169

Scientific Method

Perhaps a problem with the Scientific Method can arise from its empiricism. External world skepticism, perpetuated most famously by David Hume, definitely hurts Aristotle’s method. However, rather than any individual critic, the largest problems with the method were its limitations in scientific fields such as physics, chemistry, and most prominently, cosmology. Aristotle’s earth centered cosmology was called into question by Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton, and his scientific methodology by Descartes, Locke, and Hume. Focusing primarily on intuitive and demonstrable claims, Aristotle’s method did not allow for theories positing unobservable entities nor post hoc explanations. Granted the significance of Rene Descartes claims on the cosmos, and his ideas on rationalism, the inductive method was adopted in place of Aristotle’s method. Herein the biggest hit to Aristotle’s method is not any singular critique but the overall replacement of his method by the scientific community.6pp. 167

Publications

Here are the works of Aristotle included in the bibliographic records of this encyclopedia:

• Aristotle (2015): Aristotle. (2015) De Anima. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (2009): Aristotle. (2009) Topics Books I and VIII. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (2006): Aristotle. (2006) Metaphysics Theta. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (2006b): Aristotle. (2006) Nicomachean Ethics, Books II-IV. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (200): Aristotle. (2000) Aristotle: Metaphysics Books B and K 1–2. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (1999c): Aristotle. (1999) Politics, Books V and VI Animals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (1999d): Aristotle. (1999) Nicomachean Ethics, Books VIII and IX. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (1999a): Aristotle. (1999) Physics, Book VIII. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (1999b): Aristotle. (1999) De Anima II and III. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (1998): Aristotle. (1998) Politics Books VII and VIII. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (1997): Aristotle. (1997) Prior Analytics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (1996b): Aristotle. (1996) Politics: Books I and II. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (1996a): Aristotle. (1996) Politics: Books III and IV. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (1994b): Aristotle. (1994) Metaphysics Books Z and H. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (1994a): Aristotle. (1994) Posterior Analytics, Second Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (1993): Aristotle. (1993) Metaphysics: Books gamma, delta, and epsilon. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (1992b): Aristotle. (1992) Eudemian Ethics Books I, II, and VIII, Second Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (1992): Aristotle. (1992) De Partibus Animalium I and De Generatione Animalium I. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (2002): Aristotle. (1992) On the Parts of Animals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (1988): Aristotle. (1988) Metaphysics Books M and N. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (1984): Aristotle. (1984) Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 1: The Revised Oxford Translation. Princeton University Press.
• Aristotle (1984b): Aristotle. (1984) Physics Books I and II. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (1983a): Aristotle. (1983) Physics Books III and IV. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (1983): Aristotle. (1983) De Generatione et Corruptione. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle (1963): Aristotle. (1964) Categories and De Interpretatione. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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