History of Philosophy II
Plato and Aristotle
Summary
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the Author
- About the Book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- Introduction
- Plato
- 1. Life
- 2. Work
- 3. Concept of the Idea
- 4. Anamnésis and Knowledge
- 5. Plato’s Analogies
- 6. Soul and City
- Aristotle
- 1. Life
- 2. Work
- 3. Organon and the Theory of Cognition
- 4. Metaphysics and the Structure of the Cosmos
- 5. Ethics
- List of Abbreviations
- Bibliography
Introduction
In the 5th century BC, through the activities of the sophists, the classical period of Greek philosophy begins, especially the period which is famous thanks to the names of the three renowned men: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. If it is true that Socrates and the sophists focused their attention mainly on the human being at the expense of natural investigations, Plato and Aristotle in their plans achieved a new unity and its deepening in the nascent metaphysics. Sophists strongly questioned the possibility of knowledge and how it is distinguished from opinion, their development of Aporia stated that nothing can be said with certainty, and that the core of a happy life lies rather in the ability to convince than to have expertise, respectively. The highest state of knowledge and proficiency is the ability to convince. In this way they stated the serious issues with which Plato and Aristo ← 7 | 8 → tle dealt. The answer was an effort to develop a complex view, resulting in a vision of the cosmos as a hierarchical regulation of causes. In it a man does not act as the measure of all things, on the contrary, he is understood as something inherently “between“ and is an imperfect being between God and animals and his life is the struggle between the possibilities of low physical life, the life of cattle, as Aristotle says and the high theoretical life in which he most fully develops his possibilities and can then be likened to the divine.
One of Plato’s key answers to the sophists is a concept of the idea, as an eternal and perfect being, according to which it is not created, only perceived by the senses and is an imperfect picture of things, but in ethical behaviour it should serve as a standard by which we should manage and arrange our lives. Thus, the idea is not only a distant metaphysical concept; it touches practical life and not only the life of individuals but also the common, shared, and political life of the city (polis). In contrast, Aristotle develops logic as an instrument of control of our thoughts that reveals misleading arguments, it also points out that we can live our life best, if we devote ourselves to theoretical research. In ethics he adjusts Protagoras’s homo mensura, the thesis that the measure of all things is a capable man who knows how to act properly and wants to act in that way.
Details
- Pages
- 112
- Publication Year
- 2016
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9783653066494
- ISBN (MOBI)
- 9783653958591
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9783653958607
- ISBN (Softcover)
- 9783631674635
- DOI
- 10.3726/978-3-653-06649-4
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2016 (April)
- Keywords
- Metaphysics Analogy Recollection Theory of Knowledge
- Published
- Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2016. 112 pp.
- Product Safety
- Peter Lang Group AG
