Adler, Mortimer J. Aristotle for Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy.
Even with the advances in science, Aristotle’s shadow is unavoidable. We still operate with concepts like “part,” “whole,” “motion,” “change,” etc. Despite modern pedagogy in the university, we still use logic and assume it is valid.
“Great Divide”
First problem: What differentiates “all living organisms from inert bodies” (Adler 5)? From this we draw a line between some living organisms and others. Aristotle keeps drawing these lines and classifying individuals. In order to do this, he posits that each thing has a nature. He finally arrives at the conclusion that man is a rational animal.
On one side of the line are “bodies.” On the other side are “attributes.” The key idea is that an attribute exists in a thing but not of itself. A stone’s weight exists in the stone, but no one thinks that the weight of a stone exists on its own. Moreover, a body changes; the attributes do not. The attribute of hardness doesn’t become “smoothness.” Rather, the stone becomes smooth.
We can best discuss man by seeing him in three different dimensions:
Man is:
Making (Beautiful). This covers the metaphysical angle.
Doing (Good)
Knowing (True)
Man the Maker
A work of art is man-made. It is more accurate to say that man produces; he does not create.
Change and Permanence
The problem is how can something always be in a state of becoming, always in change, yet remain the same. One type of change is motion (a change in place), alteration (a change in quality), and a change in quantity. All of these changes take place in time.
The Four Causes
I can’t do any better than to quote Adler:
1. Material cause: that out of which something is made.
2. Efficient cause: that by which something is made.
3. Formal cause: that into which something is made.
4. Final cause: that for the sake of which something is made
To Be or Not to Be
To understand Aristotle on being, we need a firm grasp of “matter,” “form,” “potentiality” and “actuality” (50).
Privation is a lack of a certain form. Potentiality is when you predicate the words “can be” of a thing. A matter can lack a form but nonetheless have the potentiality for it. “Matter always has a limited potentiality for acquiring other forms” (53).
Man the Doer
Man usually acts towards a goal. This is practical thinking, thinking about means and ends. Means are the ways we achieve our goal or other means. For Aristotle the end to which we aim is “living well.” However, when Aristotle says we are to aim for the right ultimate end, this isn’t relative. There is an actual objective Good to which all seek to aim. People who do not aim for this objective end have disordered passions.
This is happiness. It is important to note that ancient man didn’t consider those who were still living to be truly happy.
Man the Knower
“The senses are the doorway to the mind” (130). They are instruments, and in a nice turn of the phrase, the mind, too, is an instrument. It is the “form of forms” (134). Thinking does more, as it also “relates the ideas it produces.”
The next chapter is on the laws of logic. In some ways, that chapter alone is worthy of an entire review. On the other hand, there isn’t much in it that isn’t also found in other logic texts. Some comments are appropriate, though. For example, the term in both major and minor premises is the middle term. It functions to connect the major premise and the conclusion.
Moreover, if the major premise is negative, the conclusion must be negative. A positive conclusion cannot follow from negative premises.
I recommend this book to any starter in philosophy.
Scholastic Tory 