Читать реферат по английскому: "ARISTOTLE Essay Research Paper ARISTOTLE Aristotle is" Страница 3

(Назад) (Cкачать работу)

He defined success in two key ways:

?”Living one’s whole life in a rational way, under the guidance of the best virtues of the rational soul” (Hutchinson 202)

?”Entirely excellent activity, together with moderate good fortune, throughout an entire lifetime” (Hutchinson 203)

Critical to Aristotle’s definitions of success are two concepts:? virtue and rationality.? On virtue, Aristotle is specific.? He created the “doctrine of the mean” that stated “every virtue lies in the middle between two associated vices” (Hutchinson 217).? The most common example used to illustrate this is the virtue of bravery.? Bravery is the balance between cowardice and rashness, with cowardice being too much fear and rashness being too little.? Aristotle thus believed in balance.? Balance, however, was not just the middle point between two vices.? Virtue was largely a continuum, with more or less of the vices necessary for different circumstances (see AGON).

Aristotle deemed the intellectual the rational.? Emotions, in contrast, were irrational.? Aristotle believed rational behavior, that governed by the intellect, to be the higher good and felt that it should determine the moral response and maintain control over the irrational emotions.

Training was also vital to the achievement of success, especially in controlling impulses and emotions.? Aristotle felt this training should be “under the guidance of the community’s laws, customs, and education, and the discipline of the family” (Hutchinson 213).

Despite Aristotle’s belief in the importance of training, he did not reduce virtue to the mere chance of good training.? Rather, he stated “we influence the development of all aspects of our personalities by how we choose to spend our time and what we choose to do” (Huchinson 213).? Thus, a successful life is made visible through a man’s choices.? Aristotle stated, “decisions reveal the man” (Hutchinson 210).

?

?

Thus Aristotle, proclaimed “the master of those who know” by Dante, held that success was the answer to the question “what makes a life worth living?” Rationality and virtue were the underpinnings of his definition of success.? A virtuous man, he asserted, could be observed by his decisions, however no woman, slave, child, or non-property owner could be successful.? He thus excluded these people from his teachings.? Even the select men he taught would find success elusive though.? Training was important to achieving success.? Nonetheless, the attainment? of success remained the responsibility and the possibility of the individual. If successful, the man would be living the life closest to the gods, of the highest good, and the most worthwhile.

?

ARISTOTLE

Aristotle is considered one of the greatest minds of classical Greece. Dante even proclaimed him “the master of those who know.”? He made tremendous contributions in the areas of science and mathematics, not to mention philosophy. In fact, he contributed extensively to chemistry, physics, biology, created formal logic, thoroughly studied systems of government, and developed a biological classification system.? However, the majority of those alive at the time took greater stock in his political philosophies.? It is important to know that Aristotle was one of the first men to explore science, anatomy, and the animal kingdom in depth and to recognize his considerable contribution to philosophy.

LIFE

Aristotle was born in Stageira, a Greek colony in Macedonia, in 384 BC. Generations of Aristotle’s family including his father, Nichomachus, had served as physicians to the Kings of Macedonia. His parents died when he was about ten years old and he was taken in by foster parents: Proxenos and his wife. He moved to Athens at the age of seventeen, and he remained there for some twenty years. This is where he got his first taste of the sciences and actively became a teacher. He studied under Plato, whose influences are most apparent in Aristotle’s theoretical and practical philosophies. He greatly admired Plato all the way to his death, despite the fact that he later opposed some of his most important points.

Aristotle was married twice, first to the foster daughter of his noble friend Hermeias, named Pythias. After her death he married Herpyllis, who came from his birthplace, Stageira. There was some controversy surrounding this marriage because Herpyllis did not have as high a social position as his first wife, Pythias. Herpyllis gave birth to his son Nichomachus and was entrusted with the care of his daughter from his first marriage.

After the death of Alexander the Great, Athens was taken over by people who didn’t like Alexander. They suspected Aristotle of sympathizing with Alexander, and he was exiled from Athens.

Aristotle died in 322 BC at the age of sixty-two in Chalkis on the island of Euboea, which had granted him refuge when he was exiled from Athens.

ARISTOTLE’S SCHOOL

Aristotle began his own education at the Academy in Athens when he first arrived from Macedonia. When he first arrived the Academy had already been open for twenty years. Aristotle would spend twenty more years as a pupil and also as a teacher. The Academy was founded by Plato, but during a great deal of Aristotle’s stay Plato was away in Sicily. Math and science were taught as well as philosophical dialect. The school functioned primarily to examine thought itself and explore its power. It was thought at this time that philosophers were capable of solving the problems of mankind. They were the great thinkers who would

Похожие работы