Aristotle was the greatest philosopher of ancient Greece. He had succeeded much more than his teacher, Plato, and Plato's teacher, Socrates. Socrates and Plato paved the way for Aristotle, but it was him who improved ideas in different subjects that make him the greatest of the three. Aristotle brought out ideas in many different areas. Logic, physics, psychology, biology, metaphysics, ethics and politics are just some of the topics that Aristotle touched upon. The thoughts of Aristotle help the philosophers of today develop their own ideas and theories.
Before Socrates, ancient Greek philosophers studied nature and the universe. Socrates changed this and started to study of people and moral problems and how life should be lived. Socrates did this by asking people questions over and over again. He showed that these answers that were answered contradicted each other. He concluded that there is no universal definition for any term, such as what evil is or what good is. Socrates also concluded that moral thoughts were needed for a moral life. Eventually Socrates was sentenced to death for not believing in the same gods that the state does, corrupting youth and suggesting new powers.
One of Socrates' most important followers was Plato. Plato worked on both ethics and politics. In both, Plato suggests that the human soul plays a part. Intellect, will and desire were the three parts of the human soul. He says that having moral virtue will lead to happiness. He wrote The Republic, where he suggests his own city and how it should be run. He suggests that the three parts of the city would represent the three sections of the human soul. Philosopher kings are the intellect, the guardians are the will, and the citizens are the desire and appetite. Plato founded the Academy. The most influential philosopher of ancient Greece went here and was taught by Plato.
Aristotle went to the Academy when he was eighteen years old. For twenty years Aristotle stayed at the Academy and was the brightest student according to Plato to go there.
Aristotle left the Academy when Plato died in 347 BC. He went to live with Hermeias and a group of Plato's followers. A few years later he married Hermeias daughter. In 342 BC, Phillip II invited Aristotle to educate Alexander. These teachings stopped in 336 BC when Phillip II was assassinated and Alexander became the ruler of Macedonia.
The Lyceum was founded after Aristotle was finished with Alexander. During this time is when Aristotle made many of his contributions to the world of philosophy. Studying countless subjects in science, philosophy, education, and literature.
Aristotle wrote six books on logic: Categories, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, Posterior Analytics, Topics, and Sophistical Refutations. In Categories,Aristotle states that everything belongs in one of ten categories: a substance, a quantity, a quality, a relative, a place, a time, a position, a having, a doing, or a being affected. This takes objects explanation further than Plato's. Plato said that everything had a form, but he did not say what those things belonged to. On Interpretation deals with the relationship of statements, such as truth statements, which builds on writings of Plato.
Aristotle made new discoveries and improvements to physics. Aristotle was able to understand what was needed for change to happen. He concluded that there was four causes that caused change; material, efficient, formal, final. Material cause is what the object is made from, efficient cause is the builder, formal cause is the plan, and the final cause is the purpose. All natural things are able to change. Scientists and philosophers today can build on this because Aristotle provided the base to this thinking.
Aristotle put some of Plato's work into his own thoughts in psychology. Plato said that the soul had three parts: intellect, will and desire. Aristotle said that the human soul was the cause of life. He realized that there is potentiality and actuality. Everybody has a capacity to do something, but that is only potentially. When knowledge is gained then this is first actualization. Being able to use that knowledge is second actualization. Other philosophers from that time placed the soul in the brain of a human. Aristotle believed that the soul was in the heart. Aristotle placed objects forms in the mind while Plato said that these forms were separate and existed. This is because the mind is able to think that objects forms exist in thought.
Aristotle helped create part of the scientific method that we still use today. Using deductive and inductive reasoning, Aristotle was able to use inductive reasoning as a starting point to have theories on experiments. He added the use of empiricism, or the theory of knowledge, used with induction. He also used syllogism, which is a logical argument that uses inferences. These additions to the scientific method improve upon what Plato used. Plato only used deduction in his method and only used universal ideas to make his theories.
