Aristotles Political Theory - Assignment Example

Aristotle Introduction: Aristotle was a Greek philosopher, logician and scientist, who live between the 384BC and 322BC. Aristotle was a pupil of the great Greek thinker Plato. Along with Plato Aristotle is considered to be one of the most influential of the ancient thinkers, whose influence in the field of philosophy and politics stretches even to this day. Aristotle in his younger days studied at Plato’s school in Athens. He left the school after Plato died, and later started his own school at Athens (1) In his school Aristotle taught his pupils to place the greatest emphasis on what they observed around them. For him the basis of science was that theory must follow fact. He believed philosophy to be the understanding of the obvious and unchanging first principles upon which all knowledge was based. To Aristotle logic was the essential tool for making any enquiry. He taught that syllogism was then sequence that any logical thought process followed, and through this brought about the idea of category into logic. He believed that reality could be divided into several categories namely, substance the prime category, quality, quantity, relation determination in time and space, action, passion or passivity, position and condition. To Aristotle to attain knowledge of a thing beyond its classification and description required the explanation of causality or answering why it is so. Thus he proposed the proposed the four principles of explanation, which are the material cause or the substance that makes up the thing; the formal cause or its design, the efficient cause or its maker; and the final cause or its function or purpose. Aristotle’s efficient cause has the maximum impact on modern though, but for Aristotle the final cause was the most important. Aristotle differed from his teacher Plato. These differences arose from his account of causes to examine the relation of form to matter, and the conclusions that were derived from it. Aristotle was firm in his thought that a form, with the exception of the Prime Mover or God had no separate existence, but was rather immanent in matter. Thus the essential difference between the Aristotelian system and the Platonic system is that the Aristotelian system holds that form and matter together constitute concrete individual realities, while to the Platonic system a concrete reality For Aristotle form was the reason for matter to move and defined motion as the process by which the thing itself became the actuality of form or the motion itself. He believed that the Prime Mover or God was pure form and as the stationary mover and final cause remained the objective of all motion. (2) Science of Aristotle: The contributions of Aristotle to science stems from his stress of observing all that occurred around in nature with the objective of attaining knowledge. His own observations and its interpretations form a large volume of literature giving a clear picture of the period in which he lived and contributes to a host of knowledge, which lays the foundation for the manner in which science has developed. His most successful writings are in the field of biology, where his meticulous observations and his belief in classifications led to the differentiation of different species of animals. He classified them into more than five hundred different species. The remarkable feature of his classification was the sound reasoning behind it, and this has led his classification of the animal species to have similarities to the manner in which classification of animal species is done in modern times. His keenness of observation and his belief in it is demonstrated by the fact that he had he had classified dolphins among mammals rather than fish, because of the similarities he had observed between manner in which dolphins and mammals brought forth and nourished their young. He was so ahead of his times in this that for almost two thousand years this observation of his was ignored till it was recognized by biologists. This was not to say that all the conclusions that he came to were satisfying, but some of them were truly remarkable for the period in which he lived. Aristotle has limited acknowledgement in the field of mathematics. Yet, in this field there is one area that he deserves credit, and that is for his thoughts on logic, and may be considered, as the founding father of the systematic study of the branch of mathematics. His contribution was the development with great and satisfying the art of reasoning starting with a statement to a necessary conclusion. In this he demonstrated the validity of a line of thought. This system was to remain as the accepted system till the advent of symbolic logic by Boole in the nineteenth century, which was to make logic into a real branch of mathematics in both form and spirit. (3). However his thought on physical aspects and its leading to the understanding of the concept of God is considered to be the most significant contribution of Aristotle. Aristotle propounds his reasoning on existence as connected to motion. He differentiates the potentiality and the actuality of any matter, and defines motion in relation to them. A thing is in a state of actuality, but also has the potential of becoming something else. Explaining this further Aristotle states “It is the fulfillment of what is potential when it is already fully real and operates not as itself but as movable that is motion. What I mean by as is this: Bronze is potentially a statue. But it is not the fulfillment of bronze as bronze which is motion. For to be bronze and to be a certain potentiality are not the same”. (Physics 3.1; 201a). The actuality of as movable, which signifies its potentiality as moved, is what constitutes motion. If we take the example of a green fruit, it has the potential to turn red or any other color, as it ripens. Its potential changing from a being a green fruit to becoming a becoming a different colored fruit is motion. From his deliberations on the nature of motion Aristotle through logical considerations arrives at the conclusion that has to be in existence an unmoved mover to explain all other motion. For Aristotle motion is eternal, and he argues that motion cannot start without something to impart this motion. This implies that there will be always something in motion, as an inert thing is incapable of causing motion in something else. He goes on to argue that motion has to be eternal, for if that were not so time would not exist, as time is a measurement of motion. He goes on further to state that motion is perpetual, as for motion to cease something must cause it to cease, but then the thing that is the cause o the cessation of motion would also require something to cause the cessation and this chain would continue infinitely. This in the words of Aristotle is “That there never was a time when there was not motion, and never will be a time when there will not be motion" (Physics 252b). He argues against any possibility of self-caused motion by stating that for even in those things where it appears that motion is self-caused there is already a part of the thing already in motion, which is responsible for the motion. This means that motion in that thing is not a result of an external mover, but from the internal motion present. However for the internal movement to begin there needs to be a mover. The postulations of Aristotle that everything is moved by something, and that motion is perpetual, leads to the next logical conclusion that there needs to exist something that imparts motion, without itself being moved. This lack of motion is required, as otherwise there would be an infinite regress of movers and, the moved and instruments of moving, which is an unacceptable state. According to Aristotle, “so it is clear that in all these cases the thing does not move itself, but it contains within itself the source of motion—not of moving something or of causing motion, but of suffering it”. (Physics 8.4; 255b). Thus Aristotle argues in favor of an unmoved mover on that the lack of an unmoved mover would result in no motion, since a moved mover would require a cause for its own motion, and no infinite regress is possible. Aristotle further goes on to argue that since motion is eternal and essential the primary mover needs also to be equally eternal and necessary. Those things involved in the eternal and perpetual motion are not eternal and essential, as they come into existence and perish. As a result there can be only one or many eternal and essential things outside the motion process that is responsible for imparting motion to the things in motion. Aristotle explains this as, “there is something that comprehends them all, and that as something apart from each one of them, and this it is that is the cause of the fact that some things are and others are not and of the continuous process of change”. (Physics 259a). Having established the requirement for one or many eternal things and essential things, Aristotle proceeds to demolish the possibility of the existence of many eternal and necessary things to establish the presence of only one eternal and necessary unmoved mover. Aristotle determines the existence of only one unmoved mover, not just because many unmoved movers are unnecessary, but also because only one mover would be capable of producing continuous motion, in the sense of being an interconnected system of cause and effects. In addition, since motion is perpetual, motion is one. This is one effect that requires a single cause such that the unmoved mover is also one. Aristotle in his conclusion makes out the unmoved mover as eternal, since it is the cause of eternal motion. The Concept of God According to Aristotle: Aristotle identifies the unmoved mover from his observations in science as God. God according to Aristotle is unconcerned about self-movement, and does the best thing and that is to think. Aristotle argues that God is alive because God thinks. In his words “And life also belongs to God; for the actuality of thought is life, and God is that actuality; and Gods self-dependent actuality is life most good and eternal”. (Metaphysics 12.7; 1072b). Through life being the actuality of thought, Aristotle, implies that only living beings can think, which means that if God can think, God is alive. Another aspect of God is that as the unmoved mover there is no movement, and hence God has no matter. To Aristotle God is “We say therefore that God is a living being, eternal, most good, so that life and duration continuous and eternal belong to God; for this is God"(Metaphysics 12.7; 1072b). Aristotle makes out God to be the unmoved move and a substance but differentiates this substance of God from all other substances, as it is "eternal, unmovable and separate from sensible things"(Metaphysics 12.7; 1073a4). The differentiation of God from other substances lies in God being without magnitude, which means that God is without a body and spatial existence. The reason that God can exist without magnitude is that God is responsible for motion through infinite time, which means that God must be infinite. Such an infinite cause calls for an infinite cause, but there cannot be such a thing as infinite magnitude. Thus God is a substance without parts, and as a result is indivisible (4). The crowning part of Aristotle’s philosophy is his use of reasoning to move from his the unmoved mover in his concepts of motion to his posit of God as the unmoved mover. This is a logical necessity as otherwise the search for the cause of motion would go on in a never ending manner. This final cause needs to be causeless and unmoved, but moving all things. Put in a nutshell the God posited by Aristotle is eternal, form without matter pure spirit or intelligence. God exists as the supreme purpose of all things. The desire to realize God is a natural extension of the desire to understand the essentiality of existence. The God of Aristotle resembles in some aspects the God of Hegel in its absolute reality, the being, which provides the meaning, purpose, and value of the whole universe. The God posited by Aristotle however differs from that of Hegel in that it has no requirement for matter. The God of Aristotle has no restrictions, as it is free from all psychological functions understood by human beings. God has perfect intelligence, and has only the action of being and knowing. God is omniscient, and the knowledge of God is total, non-rational, immediate and not a successive process. God is the Goal of live, the unmoved mover, who moves the world not as an external agent, but in the manner that ‘the beloved moves the lover’. (5). Impact of Aristotle on Western Civilization: There are two threads from ancient times that have been the main weave that have gone into the fabric of Western religion, culture and tradition, and through these caused the formation of western civilization. The two threads are Hebrew and Greek thoughts and philosophy. Aristotle, along with Plato, is considered to be the more significant of the thoughts and philosophy of ancient Greece. So it is but natural that the thoughts and philosophy of Aristotle have had an impact on western civilization, which continues down to the modern times. The two areas that Aristotle has influence have been his thoughts and contribution to science, and his contribution to western religious thoughts, through his posit of God. Since the renaissance, science has played an important part in the development of Western civilization. The basis of science has been the observing all that happens in nature, and in the experimentation, which has become natural. Science owes the importance of observation, as a means to attain knowledge to Aristotle, who stressed the importance of observation. Hence the contributions to scientific knowledge through observation, and the advances that have resulted in Western Civilization through the contribution of science and its tool technology have been influence by Aristotle. Christianity is the overwhelming religion of Western civilization. Though the roots of Christian thought and philosophy are based on the Hebrew religious thought, there is a significant impact of Greek thought and philosophy on Christianity. Aristotle through his posit on God has had a part to play on the influence of Greek thought and philosophy on religion. St. Augustine has been responsible to a large extent to the development of Christian religious philosophy. One of his contributions is the concept of God as the perfect being, and this contribution has been attributed to the influence of Greek philosophers including Aristotle and his posit of God as the perfect intelligence. Another important influence on Christian religious philosophy was St. Aquinas. St Aquinas was to further develop the initial demonstrations of the existence of a Prime mover by Maimonides, who followed Aristotle in this line of thought, and go on to establish the requirement of the existence of such a being. Thus the essential contributions to the Christian religion by Aristotle have been in the impact on the Christian belief in the existence of a Supreme entity in God, and the belief that God is perfect. (6). Conclusion: Aristotle was a mix of logician, scientist and philosopher. Each of these attributes helped in his contributions in various fields to humanity. Among these contributions have been his contributions to science and religious thought that mark him out as one among the foremost of Greek philosophers. Works Cited 1. “Aristotle’s Political Theory”. 2002. STANFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHILOSOPHY. 12 April 2007. . 2. “Philosophy: Logic and Metaphysics”. 2005. infoplease. 12 April 2007. . 3. Wilson, L. Fred. “Aristotle: Science and Human Values”. Rochester Institute of Technology. 12 April 2007. . 4. “Aristotle”. 12 April 2007. . 5. Swami Krishnananda. “Studies in Comparative Philosophy”. The Divine Life Society. 12 April 2007. . 6. “Western Concepts of God”. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 12 April 2007. . Read More