Aristotle (384–322 BC)

Abstract

Aristotle (384–322 bc), born in Stagira, is the most influential philosopher of antiquity apart from Plato. Extensive studies in Plato's Academy were the basis for Aristotle's own positions in the theoretical sciences (philosophy of nature, metaphysics), the practical sciences (ethics, politics) and the productive sciences or arts (rhetoric, poetics). He formulated the first system of formal logic (syllogistics) and collected rules for dialectical and rhetorical argumentation (topoi). He also laid the foundations of sciences such as anatomy, biology, psychology, and geology. His practical philosophy is of particular relevance for the social sciences. The Nicomachean Ethics and the Politics are classical texts in ethics and political theory. Aristotle's ethics focuses on conditions constitutive of flourishing as an individual human being inhabiting a polis (eudaimonia). This involves an extensive analysis of forms of excellence as a human being (virtues). His political inquiries analyze conditions on which the well-being of the city-state as a whole is based, including a study of societal institutions, state constitutions, correct and deviant forms of government and reasons for political stability or revolution. He favors a mixed constitution (polity) providing for peace. For Aristotle, both rhetoric (as the medium of practical reasoning and decision-making in the polis) and poetical works such as tragedies (which purify citizens' profoundest attitudes to living), have fundamental roles to play in the public attempt to live a good life. His Rhetoric and the Poetics provide an initial theoretical framework for understanding the structure and political function of public reasoning and of drama.