![]() We provide excellent essay writing service 24/7. Enjoy proficient essay writing and custom writing services provided by professional academic writers. Introduction Knowledge. Traditionally, the term "philosophy" referred to any body of knowledge. In this sense, philosophy is closely related to religion, mathematics. THE DEATH PENALTY IN THE UNITED STATES This webpage is dedicated to the innocent victims of murder, may they always be remembered.
Summary of Aristotle’s Theory of Human Nature. Aristotle: The Ideal of Human Fulfillment(This is a summary of a chapter in a book I often used in university classes: Twelve Theories of Human Nature. Brackets indicate my comments.)Aristotle (3. BCE) was a student of Plato’s and the tutor of Alexander the Great. Aristotle’s background in biological subjects made him more of an empiricist . His scientific ideas were orthodoxy for 2. For our purposes we will focus on the Nicomachean Ethics, based on lecture notes taken by his students. Metaphysical Background: Forms as Properties, and the Four Kinds of Question – Aristotle is not a classical theist like Augustine or Aquinas, but he does have a conception of an unmoved mover, a changeless cause/sustainer of the processes of the universe. Again this is not a personal god who cares about human beings or is the object of worship. There is something common to things that share a concept x, but that essence/form/pattern/structure is embedded in thing itself. We don’t need to escape from a cave, but see clearly what is in it. The form is the pattern or structure of a thing and the matter is what makes something an individual thing. Everything in the world is a formed matter; that is matter in a certain form. You never find matter without form—which would be like a primordial goo—and you never find form without matter—with the exception of the unmoved mover. Some forms are very primitive—a brick is basically just the shape of heated clay—while others are very complicated—like that of a human being.? Is this form a thing or a quality? Does a given form like health or goodness apply to all healthy or good things? Aristotle thought not. You can be healthy or good in different ways so he doubted that there was a unitary form of goodness. Pleasure, honor, and wisdom may all be good, but they are good in different ways hence there is no single form of goodness. Another way of understanding his metaphysics is to consider the 4 causes, four questions we can ask about a thing in order to understand it: 1) material cause—what something is made of? And 4) final cause—what is its purpose or function? Aristotle is expressing a teleological view of reality—the idea that nature is goal- oriented. Aristotle rejects this. Non- human animals have this structure plus a sensitive structure which uses senses to interact with the environment and initiates desires. Human animals add to this a rational structure which makes them unique. This is its formal cause in his language. Thus some things have a richer or more complex form than other things. Thus the form of something does not exist independently; it is not an entity in itself. Rather it is the specific pattern or structure or form of a thing which defines how it exists and functions. You can’t take it out of the body. Yet it is hard to see how this could be the case. For example even if computers think without bodies their thought still depends on material components. Disembodied thought is conceptually problematic, although many Christians and Islamists who followed Aristotle welcomed the possibility. As for ordinary embodied human beings Aristotle’s major distinction is between their rational component and their emotions and desires. He also distinguished between theoretical and practical reasoning. Aristotle also held that humans are social and political creatures who have activities common to all. However he does not think that women are rational creatures, and his remarks are quite disparaging toward them. Perhaps worst of all, Aristotle advocated a doctrine of natural slavery—the idea that some are naturally slaves. He thinks this is the status of non- Greek barbarians. Still we should not reject the rest of Aristotle’s thought because he was a misogynist, racist, and imperialist. For more see the disputations during that time, particularly those held at the University of Salamanca. Rather than offer an otherworldly account of salvation, he offers one for this world—one more akin to Confucianism or Buddhism. Aristotle begins by asking if there is one thing at which all action aims; if there is one thing all action seeks for its own sake. Aristotle says that eudaimonia is that thing. This is variously translated as happiness, flourishing, well- being, living well, fulfillment, perfection, and more. In his own words “the human good turns out to be activity in the soul . A good pen or a good dog functions as they are supposed to. Humans have both excellences of intellect—theoretical and practical reason—and excellences of character—virtues (excellences) like practical wisdom, knowing what to do in real- life situations by having learned from experience, as well as temperance, courage, and justice. In general he presents these virtues as “the mean between the extremes.” A life of virtue (excellences of character) is the ideal for human life. Unlike Socrates, who thought knowledge was sufficient for virtue (KSV) and Plato, who recognized inner conflict, Aristotle recognized how weakness of will implies that KSV is false. Knowing the good doesn’t mean one will do it. Realization or Prescription: Political Expertise and Intellectual Contemplation – A key is that vice and virtue result from habits, which themselves are the result of past actions and environment, including the social and political environment. In brief Aristotle believed that societies can only survive and flourish if there is some basic agreement about issues of private morality. Not surprisingly he felt the latter was superior. He thought that intellectual contemplation was the highest and best human activity. He says you can confirm this by asking anyone who has experienced both types, and they will prefer intellectual pleasures.
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