Aristotle's scientific school. Aristotle's philosophy in brief: Aristotle's Doctrine of Being

Philosophical school of Aristotle

Aristotle(384 - 322 BC) - ancient Greek philosopher of the classical period, student of Plato, teacher of Alexander the Great.

Aristotle divided philosophy into three types:

‣‣‣ theoretical, studying the problems of existence, various spheres of existence, the origin of all things, the causes of various phenomena (received the name “primary philosophy”);

‣‣‣ practical- about human activity, the structure of the state;

‣‣‣ poetic.

It is believed that in fact Aristotle identified as the fourth part of philosophy logics.

Considering the problem of being, Aristotle came up with criticism of Plato's philosophy, according to which the world was divided into the “world of things” and the “world of pure (incorporeal) ideas”, and the “world of things” as a whole, like each thing separately, was only a material reflection of the corresponding “pure idea”.

Plato's mistake, according to Aristotle, is that he separated the "world of ideas" from real world and considered “pure ideas” without any connection with the surrounding reality, which has its own characteristics - extension, rest, movement, etc.
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According to Aristotle, the bearer of consciousness is the soul. The philosopher identifies three levels of the soul:

‣‣‣ plant soul;

‣‣‣ animal soul;

‣‣‣ rational soul.

Being the bearer of consciousness, the soul also controls the functions of the body.

Vegetable soul responsible for the functions of nutrition, growth and reproduction. The same functions (nutrition, growth, reproduction) are also in charge of animal soul, however, thanks to it, the body is supplemented with the functions of sensation and desire. But only rational (human) soul, covering all the above functions, it also knows the functions of reasoning and thinking. This is what sets a person apart from the entire world around him.

Aristotle takes a materialistic approach to the problem of man. He believes that the Human:

‣‣‣ in biological essence is one of the types of highly organized animals;

‣‣‣ differs from animals in the presence of thinking and reason;

‣‣‣ has an innate tendency to live together with others like themselves (that is, to live in a collective).

It is the last quality - the need to live in a team - that leads to the emergence of society - a large group of people engaged in the production of material goods and their distribution, living in the same territory and united by language, family and cultural ties.

The regulatory mechanism of society (protection from enemies, maintaining internal order, promoting the economy, etc.) is the state.

Aristotle highlights six types of state:

‣‣‣ monarchy;

‣‣‣ tyranny;

‣‣‣ aristocracy;

‣‣‣ extreme oligarchy;

‣‣‣ ochlocracy (mob rule, extreme democracy);

‣‣‣ watered (a mixture of moderate oligarchy and moderate democracy).

Like Plato, Aristotle distinguishes between “bad” forms of state (tyranny, extreme oligarchy and ochlocracy) and “good” ones (monarchy, aristocracy and polity).

The best form of state, according to Aristotle, is polity - a combination of moderate oligarchy and moderate democracy, a state of the “middle class” (Aristotle’s ideal).

Historical meaning Aristotle's philosophy is that he:

‣‣‣ made significant adjustments to a number of provisions of Plato’s philosophy, criticizing the doctrine of “pure ideas”;

‣‣‣ gave a materialistic interpretation of the origin of the world and man;

‣‣‣ defined the essence of matter;

‣‣‣ identified six types of state and gave the concept of an ideal type - polity;

‣‣‣ made a significant contribution to the development of logic (gave the concept deductive method- from the particular to the general, substantiated the system of syllogisms - a conclusion from two or more premises of the conclusion).

Aristotle's philosophical school - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Philosophical School of Aristotle" 2017, 2018.

Aristotle- ancient Greek philosopher (384 - 322 BC), who is usually classified as a classic of philosophical ancient Greek thought along with and. Everything about Aristotle that is known to our history elevates him to the rank of the greatest thinkers of his time. It cannot be said that it was Aristotle who fully became the founder of such scientific disciplines, like geometry, mathematics, physics, metaphysics, medicine, logic, biology and so on, but it was this philosopher who created the necessary scientific and socio-philosophical basis on which the vast majority of current scientific and philosophical disciplines. In addition, Aristotle is famous for being the teacher of the famous commander Alexander the Great.

Aristotle was born on the Chalkidiki peninsula in Northern Greece in the family of a court physician to King Amyntas III of Macedonia. The boy received a good education and, as a young man, decided to continue his studies in Athens, where he became a student at Plato's Academy. Two years later he was already giving lectures on rhetoric. The capable student became close to Plato and entered his circle of Platonist philosophers. Aristotle treated his mentor with deep respect, but allowed himself to criticize his teaching.

Amicus Plato, sed magis arnica Veritas

Plato is my friend but the truth is dearer

These words are attributed to Aristotle, although they first appear in literature in the novel Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra.

Aristotle taught at Plato's Academy for about twenty years. During this time, he created works on logic, physics, rhetoric, and also wrote treatises “Metaphysics” and “On the Soul”.

In 347 BC, after the death of Plato, the philosopher, together with Xenocrates, left Athens and went to Hermias, another student of Plato, who was the ruler of the city of Atarnea in Asia Minor. Aristotle creates his first there philosophical school and marries adopted daughter Hermia. But three years later, after her death, he returned to Macedonia. Aristotle received an invitation from Philip II to educate and educate his son Alexander. The training lasted eight years until Philip II was killed and Alexander had to take power into his own hands. The philosopher returned to Athens and founded his philosophical school there.

Philosophical school of Aristotle

Aristotle founded a school of philosophy (as did Plato in his time) and called his educational institution"Lyceum" (lyceum), because it was located near the Temple of Apollo Lyceum. The thinker created a universal philosophical teaching that incorporated such philosophical and social disciplines as:

• philosophy
• rhetoric
• story
• astronomy
• geography
• policy
• sociology
• ontology
• logics
• physics.

Aristotle abandoned traditional teaching methods - lecturing, preferring discussions during walks. From this method of teaching came another name for the school - peripatetic (in Greek: περιπατέω - walking).

After the representatives of classical ancient philosophy in the person of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle (especially Aristotle), a new stage began in philosophy or new era. Aristotle made the greatest contribution to the development of philosophy, opening the latter to many unexplored paths, paths that completely overturned paradigms and hypotheses until the late Middle Ages.

Philosophical teachings of Aristotle

Aristotle gives the following classification of sciences:

1. Theoretical– the main thesis of this classification: “knowledge for the sake of knowledge”: physics, mathematics
2. Practical— ethics and politics
3. Poetic- creative

Four reasons:

1. Matter- this reason personifies the substrate, that is, the initial product from which something is subsequently created. Matter does not arise or disappear; it is eternal, unchangeable, indivisible. An example of primary matter is air, fire, water, ether, earth.
2. Form- the purpose, the reason for the birth of any things from the substrate (any material)
3. Current or productive cause - a cause that captures a specific moment in time at which a thing is born.
4. Target or final cause - the purpose of every thing must be good.

Aristotle introduced the concept of category into philosophical use, significantly simplifying and complicating to the same extent the subsequent designation of concepts of various kinds. Arguing that “man thinks in categories,” Aristotle defined categories as the most general concepts definitions of things or phenomena, but categories can serve as both general and specific definitions. For example: Earth - common(can mean any earth or planet, although it is not stated that we mean a planet)→ Planet Earth - specific(to be specified). Further, Planet Earth – general → Country Russia – specific. And so on.

Categories were also used by Aristotle and his followers in the Middle Ages to correlate, relate, to show the difference between things, phenomena or any theories. Some modern thinkers, scientists, and philosophers compare Aristotle's doctrine of categories of forms with Plato's theory of ideas, drawing a parallel between them and identifying them from some angles.

Aristotle classified the system of categories, calling the main essence or substance. The remaining categories derived from the substance were signs of the latter.

So, nine parts were initially allocated:

1. Quantity
2. Quality
3. Attitude
4. Place
5. Possession
6. Position
7. Time
8. Action
9. Suffering.

Later, for simplicity, Aristotle left only three of them.

The first concepts of space and time originate precisely from the philosophical views of Aristotle:

• Substantial – space and time of the beginning of the world.
• Relational - According to this theory, space and time are not independent, but entities created from matter.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle was also the first to define philosophy as a system of scientific knowledge.

God as prime mover

According to Aristotle, the movement of the world is a single process. But nothing happens on its own. And the primary cause of the entire earthly process of movement is God. The main prime mover is God. The substrate that creates everything else and is the cause and principle of everything that is on earth, in other words. But this is not at all the God that religion tells us about (Christianity or Islam, although a person not sufficiently familiar with this theory of Aristotle can understand everything in a different light). This principle most likely resembles a clear algorithm for the movement of everything and the relationship between categorical processes that end and begin again. The pattern is scheduled by day and hour. An analogue of this pattern can be the current of fatalism (belief in fate, in the inevitability of what must happen) with shades of determinism. God reveals in himself the pure form and the first essence. The Divine is a hypersensitive entity, all-encompassing. In Aristotle's theory of knowledge, the Divinity occupies the first place.

The idea of ​​the soul

The soul, according to Aristotle, is a certain substance closely connected with the physical organism, which manifests and performs regulatory functionality. Body and soul, according to the philosopher, exist inseparably from each other. The soul, at one time, is also a source (probably accumulating energy in the body shell). The soul is like a form, naturally ordered and harmonious. There is an opinion that Aristotle correlates and to some extent identifies the soul with consciousness and its activities. Being the center of the entire natural human organism, the soul is not only regulatory in nature, but also carries analytical functionality. The soul is the center, the peak, the cause, the means, and the natural mind given to man.

Theory of knowledge and logic

Aristotle believed that knowledge has being as its goal. In the primacy of knowledge, sensuality and sensations have significant character. Being is likened to water frozen in a glass. If you break a glass, the water will hold its shape. Likewise, being is capable of taking objects as a basis, copying them into human consciousness, thus learning, paying attention to all the little things and nuances. The closer the form (being, copy) is to a real object or phenomenon, the more perfect the knowledge and the better the cognitive character.

Aristotle is also famous as the founder of logic. And he, developing the concept of the theory of knowledge, delving into it, created the so-called classical logic. Here Aristotle sculpted the format of thinking. Concept, judgment, inference - a classic diagram of the basis of logical thinking created by Aristotle.

Aristotle's laws of logic:

• Law of Identity
• Law of contradiction
• Law of the excluded middle

In our time, many philosophical, scientific and even theological concepts and theories are built on the three laws of logic derived by Aristotle.

Aristotle's ethical views and the doctrine of virtues

The concept of “ethics” (from the Greek ethos) was also introduced by Aristotle to systematize the designation of the totality of virtues manifested in the character of an individual. In order to distinguish between concepts such as good and evil, good and bad, etc. Also to differentiate the more subtle spiritual facets of morality in the life of society. Ethics created by Aristotle was obliged to emphasize the nature of virtues in a person, thus directing him to the “true path.” Ethical virtues play the role of properties of a person’s character and temperament; they are also sometimes called qualities of the soul.

Aristotle classifies virtues into:

• Moral virtues embody the state of the norm. Asserting: you need to know moderation in everything. Aristotle himself says that “...moral virtues are the mean between excess and deficiency.” Moral virtues include: meekness, generosity, majesty, moderation, courage, generosity, etc.
• Rational virtues appear and develop in parallel with intellectual development.

Aristotle is an ancient Greek thinker, a student who, over time, entered into polemics with him, the founder of the Peripatetic school, and mentor. His contribution to science is invaluable. For more than 2 thousand years, scientists and philosophers have been using the conceptual apparatus he created, his ideas formed the basis natural sciences. Aristotle's legacy includes about 50 books that have come down to us thanks to the efforts of his students and followers.

Childhood and youth

Aristotle was born in the city of Stagira, which is located in the Greek colony of Thrace. Because of the name hometown subsequently Aristotle was often called Stagirsky. He came from a dynasty of healers. His father Nicomachus was the court physician of the Macedonian king Amyntas III. Festida's mother was of noble origin.

Gallerie dell'Accademia

Since the art of medicine was passed down from generation to generation in the family, Nicomachus was going to make his son a doctor as well. Therefore, from childhood, he taught the boy the basics of medicine, as well as philosophy, which the Greeks considered an obligatory science for every doctor. But the father’s plans were not destined to come true. Aristotle was orphaned early and was forced to leave Stagir.

First, the 15-year-old boy went to Asia Minor to his guardian Proxenus, and in 367 BC. e. settled in Athens, where he became a student of Plato. Aristotle studied not only politics and philosophical movements, but also the world of animals and plants. In total, he stayed at Plato's Academy for about 20 years.

Having formed as a thinker, Aristotle rejected his mentor’s teaching about the ideas of the incorporeal essences of all things. The young philosopher put forward his own theory - the primacy of form and matter and the inseparability of the soul from the body. The portrait of two thinkers engaged in an argument was immortalized by a Renaissance master in the fresco “The School of Athens.”

Plato and Aristotle (fragment of the fresco “School of Athens”) / Vatican Museum

In 345 BC. Aristotle leaves for the island of Lesbos, to the city of Mytilene, because of the execution of his friend Hermias, also a former student of Plato, who started a war against the Persians.

After 2 years, Aristotle goes to Macedonia, where King Philip invited him to raise his heir, 13-year-old Alexander. The period of the thinker’s biography, which he devoted to training the future famous commander, lasted almost 8 years. Upon returning to Athens, Aristotle founded his own philosophical school, the Lyceum, which is also known as the Peripatetic school.

Philosophical teaching

Aristotle divided the sciences into theoretical, practical and creative. He included physics, mathematics and metaphysics among the first. These sciences, according to the philosopher, are studied for the sake of knowledge itself. The second includes politics and ethics, since thanks to them the life of the state is built. To the latter he included all types of art, poetry and rhetoric.

Ancient Pages

The central core of Aristotle’s teachings are considered to be 4 main principles: matter (“that from which”), form (“that which”), productive cause (“that from which”) and purpose (“that for which”). Depending on these principles, he defined actions and subjects as good or evil.

The thinker became the founder of the hierarchical system of categories. He identified 10 of them: essence, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, possession, position, action and suffering. Everything that exists is divided into inorganic formations, the world of plants and living beings, the world various types animals and humans.

With the ideas of Aristotle, the fundamental concepts of space and time began to emerge as independent entities and as a system of relations formed by material objects during interaction.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Over the next few centuries, the types of government structures that Aristotle described remained relevant. The philosopher presented the image of an ideal state in his essay “Politics”. According to the thinker’s theory, a person is realized in society, since he lives not only for himself.

He is connected with other individuals by blood, friendship and other ties. Target civil society- not so much economic prosperity and profit for individuals, but rather the common good, “eudaimonism.” It is possible only thanks to the ordering of life by civil law and moral laws.

He identified 3 positive and 3 negative options for government. He considered the monarchy, aristocracy and polity to be right, pursuing the goal of the common good. Among the wrong ones, pursuing the private goals of the ruler, were tyranny, oligarchy and democracy.

Philosopher Aristotle. Artist Paolo Veronese / Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana

The philosopher’s inventions also affected the sphere of art. Your view on development theatrical genre The thinker described the drama in his essay “Poetics”. Only the first part of this work has survived to this day; the second, presumably, contained information about the structure of ancient Greek comedy. Reflecting on theater and art in general, Aristotle puts forward the idea of ​​​​the existence of the phenomenon of imitation, which is characteristic of man and gives him pleasure.

Another fundamental work of the philosopher is called “On the Soul.” In his treatise, Aristotle reveals a number of metaphysical issues related to the life of the soul of any creature, defining the difference between the existence of humans, animals and plants. Also here the philosopher describes 5 senses (touch, smell, hearing, taste and sight) and 3 abilities of the soul (for growth, sensation and reflection).

In addition, Aristotle managed to study and reflect on all the sciences available in his time. He left works on logic, physics, astronomy, biology, philosophy, ethics, dialectics, politics, poetry and rhetoric. The collection of works of the great philosopher is called “Aristotle’s Corpus”.

Personal life

The character of the scientist can be judged from some of the memoirs of his contemporaries. According to Plato's devoted followers, Aristotle did not hold back his emotions when it came to philosophical debate. Once the thinker even quarreled with his mentor so much that Plato began to avoid chance meeting with a student.

Indianapolis Museum of Art

Descendants have scant information about the personal life of the thinker. It is known that Aristotle had two wives and two children. In 347 BC. e., at the age of 37, Aristotle married Pythias, the adopted daughter of a close friend of Hermias, the tyrant of Assos in Troas. Aristotle and Pythias had one daughter, Pythias. After the death of his first wife, the philosopher began to cohabit with the maid Herpellida, who gave him an heir - the boy Nicomachus.

Death

After the death of Alexander the Great, riots against Macedonian rule increase in Athens, and Aristotle himself, as Alexander’s former teacher, is accused of atheism. The philosopher leaves Athens, as he assumed the possibility of repeating the fate of Socrates - poisoning. The phrase he uttered “I want to save the Athenians from a new crime against philosophy” became famous quote.

Monument to Aristotle in Mieza / Carole Raddato, Wikipedia

The Thinker moves to the city of Chalkis on the island of Euboea. To show Aristotle his support, a huge number of his students follow him. But the philosopher did not live in a foreign land for too long. 2 months after the resettlement, he died at the age of 62 from a severe stomach illness, which Lately tormented him.

After the death of his mentor, his Lyceum school was headed by a devoted student, Theophrastus, who developed Aristotle’s teachings on botany, music, and the history of philosophy. He also took care of preserving the thinker’s works.

Philosophical works

• "Categories"
• "Physics"
• "About Heaven"
• "On the Parts of Animals"
• "About the Soul"
• "Metaphysics"
• "Nicomachean Ethics"
• "Policy"
• "Poetics"

Quotes

Gratitude gets old quickly.

Plato is a friend, but truth is more precious.

To awaken the conscience of a scoundrel, you need to slap him in the face.

Clarity is the main virtue of speech.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) Stagerite, because. born in Stageria. Goes to Athens, was a student of Plato until his death. Then he became the teacher of A. Makedonsky. With the troops of A.M. entered Athens and founded his own school there - the Lyceum (lyceum). Aristotle's school was not inferior to the Academy. (Ptolemy - space, universe, Euclidean geometry). Works: “Organon” (a group of works in which formal logic is formalized), “Physics”, “On Heaven”, biol. treatises, political treatises, the main one of which is “Politics”, works on art. Aristotle was the first historian of philosophy (he studied everything that came before him).

Aristotle begins by criticizing Plato: “Plato is my friend, but truth is dearer.” Aristotle took advantage of Plato's self-criticism. The world of ideas is some unity, but at the same time there is a bunch of ideas. Example - the ideas of a cat and an animal are the same thing or not. Aristotle speaks not of ideas, but of concepts. He divides all concepts into concepts of things and concepts of classes of things.

The only one existing world – bodily world and all its diverse manifestations, including humans. All knowledge is only secondary entities, and the entities themselves are primary. The essence is not our thoughts about a thing, but the thing itself. In reality, only concrete entities exist - first entities(ordered substrate). The first essences are what everything says and what says nothing. Judgment: The first entity is the subject of judgment. Example, “Ivan is a man”, Ivan is the first entity. The first entity appears unit of being. The substrate is just a possibility. It becomes a body only when it is ordered by an idea. Idea inherent in a particular thing (this is the grounding of Platonic philosophy).

Each first entity is defined by 4 reasons:

5) Formal the reason is the essence of the thing (the house plan in the architect’s head).

6) Material reason – opportunity (building materials).

7) Propulsion the reason is the factor that binds the particles together (the hands of slaves).

8) Target the reason is what fits this thing into the surrounding world (a house to live in).

Then Europe will leave only one of the 4 - the material reason. This is science.

Aristotle. assumed that there is a reduction towards forms or material.

Example: Copper ball: ball – shape, copper – content.

Prime mover- this is God, entelechy (eternal, immovable, unchanging) - this is the second principle, opposite to the material. He proved the existence of God based on the principle of causality. A series of causes cannot be infinite or beginningless. There must be a cause that determines itself and does not depend on anything: the cause of all causes. The cosmos is built by a deity from chaos based on 4 elements: fire, air, water, earth.

Theory of knowledge

The first essences are the unity of the spiritual and substrate (physical) principles. Man is also a combination spiritual And substrate started. A spirituality- this is a combination passive mind and active mind (entelechy of the soul).

Levels of knowledge:

1. Empiria- the lowest – experience;

2. Techno– skill, generalization on fingers;

3. Epistemia- scientific knowledge - knowledge of the immediate causes of connections and relationships;

4. Sophos- knowledge of final causes, the foundation of the world.

Human. Society. State.

Man is a thing among things, the owner of his own corner in the universe. A person is physical and must live his life with dignity. Human - social being. Life in the state is the natural essence of man. He understands the state developed community of communities, and the community as a developed family. Aristotle considers slavery to be the natural state of social organization. The society of free people consists, according to Aristotle, of three main classes of citizens: rich, extremely poor and middle class. For the prosperous state of the state, the middle strata are of particular importance. In their numerical increase, Aristotle sees the salvation of the slave-owning order.

Society always assumes economic inequality. Question: How to achieve equality? Aristotle says it is necessary equivalent exchange, and for this we need money. He comes to concept of value.

Society can only be formed when there is state. For Plato - man for the state, then for Aristotle - state for people. The state is the integrity, the entelechy of society (the whole that precedes the parts). Man is a political being. He sees the essence of the state in the political community of people who have united to achieve a certain good.

Aristotle distinguishes three good and three bad forms of state, the latter arising as a deformation of the good ones. He considers them good monarchy, aristocracy and polity(rule by one, minority and majority). Bad - tyranny, oligarchy and democracy. Best form states - policy.

Aristotle considers the main tasks of the state to be the prevention of excessive accumulation of property of citizens, excessive growth political power personality and keeping slaves in obedience. He rejects Plato's "ideal state". He considers the ideal state to be one that provides the maximum possible measure happy life for the largest number of slave owners. He considers slaves and the free poor to be politically powerless. The remaining free (wealthy) citizens are obliged to take part in the affairs of the state. The ideal of the state, according to Aristotle, is a society that is based on private property: tools, land and slaves. The state, according to Aristotle, requires certain virtues from a citizen, without which it is impossible to achieve the well-being of society (related to intellectual activity and human character).

Right, serving as a critique of justice, is a regulating form of political communication. Aristotle studies real societies, not builds a utopia. He empirically described 158 state structures. Difference from Plato: history is not about good and bad forms of government. Criterion: if management rules for public benefit, then this form is correct, and if for personal gain– wrong. The board may be one person, few or most.

Peripatetics (from ancient Greek περιπατέω - stroll, walk) - students and followers of Aristotle, his philosophical school. The name of the school arose from Aristotle's habit of walking with his students while lecturing.

Another name for the school is Lyceum (ancient Greek Λύκειον; in medieval or traditional Latin pronunciation - Lyceum) - after the name of the temple of Apollo Lyceum, located near the gymnasium where Aristotle taught, in the eastern part of ancient Athens. Founded in 335/4 BC. e.

In the Middle Ages, scholastics were called peripatetics. Beginning in the 9th century, Peripatetism was adopted and developed in the works of Arabic-speaking thinkers.

The most famous Peripatetics

Aristotle

Theophrastus

Aristoxenus of Tarentum

Athenaeus Mechanic

Adrastus of Aphrodisias

Alexander of Aphrodisias

Boeth of Sidon

Fanius of Eres

Hieronymus of Rhodes

Critolaus

Aristotle (ancient Greek Ἀριστοτέλης; 384 BC, Stagira - October 2 [source not specified 226 days] 322 BC, Chalkis, island of Euboea) - ancient Greek philosopher. Disciple of Plato. From 343 BC e. - teacher of Alexander the Great. In 335/4 BC. e. founded the Lyceum (Ancient Greek: Λύκειο Lyceum, or Peripatetic school). Naturalist of the classical period. The most influential of the dialecticians of antiquity; founder of formal logic. He created a conceptual apparatus that still permeates the philosophical lexicon and the very style of scientific thinking.

Aristotle was the first thinker to create a comprehensive system of philosophy that covered all spheres of human development: sociology, philosophy, politics, logic, physics. His views on ontology had a serious influence on the subsequent development of human thought. The metaphysical doctrine of Aristotle was accepted by Thomas Aquinas and developed by the scholastic method.

What are the main provisions of Aristotle's teaching?

1. Aristotle created the doctrine of categories. It was based on Plato's theory of ideas and the thought of ideas of different qualities. Aristotle distinguished primarily between two categories: essences and qualities. Thus, according to Aristotle, the idea of ​​good and good itself are correlated as essence and quality. The essence exists in itself and not in something else. Quality (and quantity) always corresponds to some entity, and does not exist on its own. Essence is the subject, and quality is the predicate. “Good,” for example, is a category of quality, because it does not exist in itself, but as someone’s property (good people, good deeds). “Redness” is also a category of quality, since it cannot exist on its own, but only as a property (red things).

Aristotle's categories "essence" and "quality" (or "belonging") when translated into Latin language designated by the terms “substance” and “accident” (they are still used in philosophical language).

2. Aristotle's doctrine of matter and form meant the doctrine of two principles of every thing. Aristotle was the first philosopher to introduce the concept of matter, for which he used everyday language and the concept of “material” (for example, wood, building material). For Aristotle, form is not the appearance of an object, but an active principle that forces matter to become a certain thing. Thus, the main, active category for Aristotle was form, not matter. Form is primary, matter is secondary. Subsequently, it was this point of view that formed the basis of theology, religious formalism and scholasticism.

3. His work “Metaphysics” is devoted to the problem of matter and form. Aristotle called philosophy proper (or “first philosophy”) metaphysics. From the 4th century BC. This is how philosophy came to be called. What does “first philosophy” mean, and are there other philosophies, according to Aristotle? The first philosophy, according to Aristotle, is philosophy itself. This is the doctrine of the highest, i.e., the most general, causes or principles of being. Other sciences, or “other philosophies,” unlike it, study only particular causes or principles. Philosophy is a theoretical science that studies existence, not activity. First philosophy, according to Aristotle, studies being in general, and “second philosophies” (for example, physics or mathematics) study only individual aspects of being.

4. The study of existence is possible only with the help of logic, Aristotle believed. He called logic “organic” science. It is a tool (“organon”) for the study of being (later Aristotle’s students called this part of his teaching “Organon”). Logic, according to Aristotle, has methodological significance for knowledge. It helps to separate the general from the particular, truth from false knowledge. Aristotle called the method of deriving the general, with the help of which individual factors can then be explained, induction (deriving the general from the particular). He called the method of evidence from syllogisms, that is, from general conclusions - obtaining derivative judgments, particular ones, deduction.

5. The most important teaching of Aristotle is about the human soul. Aristotelian ethics is based on it. The main advantage of a person is his intelligence, which an animal does not have. Reason is the ability to think in general (that is, the ability to cognize general principles and, on the basis of this knowledge, explain the particular, the individual). This is the basis for the presence of speech in humans (it is in speech that the thought of the general is manifested) and its absence in animals. Further, man has science (i.e. knowledge common principles), and the animal does not have it. Reason determines human action and shapes his will. Will consists of aspirations and presupposes a person’s readiness to make a moral choice (which in turn is based on general knowledge).

Aristotle attached a special meaning to reason; he considered it to be brought from outside into the animal soul and develop the latter. According to Aristotle, in the human soul there are, as it were, two completely different parts: the animal and the mind. Reason is something alien to the individual, it is something general, unchangeable and eternal. Everyone has the same mind, it is alien to individual differences. It is not associated with bodily processes, and therefore the soul is immortal only in its rational part.