StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

The Personality of Aristotle - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The author of the paper touches upon the personality of Aristotle. It is mentioned that Aristotle established the basic principles of mathematics, distinguishing between the axiom and the postulate.Besides, the Greek philosopher Aristotle did not confine himself to one subject or discipline…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER95.2% of users find it useful
The Personality of Aristotle
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "The Personality of Aristotle"

February Aristotle established the basic principles of mathematics, distinguishing between the axiom and the postulate. Example: ‘Things equal to the same thing are equal to one another.’ (If 3 x 4 = 6 x 2, and 8 + 4 = 6 x 2, then 3 x 4 = 8 + 4) Abstract The son of a doctor, Aristotle lived and worked at a time when knowledge was starting to branch into different disciplines. Well educated, his fine language skills furnished him with the tools for analysis, calculation, interpretation and reckoning. He defined the basics of logic, upon which the building blocks of science and mathematics have been placed. Aristotelian logic is the mainstay of the methods used to arrive at logical, workable and reasonable conclusions. Born in 384 BC and living until 322 BC, he worked under Alexander the Great at the time when Alexandria in Egypt was a great center of learning. He went on to found his own school, which he named the Lyceum. The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) did not confine himself to one subject or discipline. He studied under Alexander the Great and Plato, at a time when knowledge was grouped together, seen as inter-connected: it was only much later that the various disciplines, simply because so much knowledge had been added and there was so much to learn, were separated to the branches we know today and studied in isolation. Here, an attempt will be made to explore the contribution Aristotle made to the branch of knowledge that was even then known as mathematics. Since his father Nicomachus the doctor died young, Aristotle could not inherit his knowledge and his profession. In those days, knowledge was considered mental, and went orally and practically from father to son, rather than than written in books. But Aristotle was only 10, so instead, he had to study under Proxenus who taught him Greek, poetry and rhetoric, and built upon the biological information gained from his father (JOC/EFR 1999). He travelled to Athens when he was 18 and joined Plato’s Academy, where he studied and later taught. Political events meant he had to move on a number of times, which put him in contact with many learned men and great thinkers such as Xenocrates. This was the Hellenistic period, when important discoveries were being studied and built upon what earlier mathematicians and scientists, such as Pythagoras, had taught. Alexander the Great’s school - in Alexandria, Egypt - was the most important in the Mediterranean basin. It remained the center of mathematics for over a thousand years, until the library was raided by the Muslims in about 700 A.D. (Allen 1997). It is important to remember that the Arabs were among the first to find an arithmetical system. Among those carrying out studies connected with this center were Archimedes, whose principles became well-known and indispensible. Greek was the language of scholarship: it was excellent for reasoning, and since Aristotle was well brought up and educated, his language skills furnished him with the tools for analysis, calculation, interpretation and reckoning. The Hellenistic time was when the rules of geometry were nutted out, together with the ideas for formal proof. In this area, Aristotle did a lot of thinking and discussing - which was the method of teaching of the day. Without formal rules for proving and establishing fact, it would be impossible to formalize mathematics or science, so this was an important time in the history of mathematics. Aristotle was fundamental in establishing the ways of thinking necessary to make mathematical calculation possible, against a set of standards. Another factor that made Aristotle important is his recording of things studied, which provided evidence for those who later wrote histories of mathematics. Part of his contribution, therefore, is his perpetuating fact to enable others to read it (Hodgkin 2005). Fauvel and Gray, two mathematicians who did a lot of research into ancient Greek mathematics, give many extracts from Aristotle’s sources (Hodgkin ibid). Aristotle believed that logic must be applied to the sciences and to mathematics. ‘The sciences - at any rate the theoretical sciences - are to be axiomatised,’ he wrote. How people think mathematically is in part due to his works known as ‘Prior and Posterior Analytics’. In a simple way, this can be explained as a way to analyze, which determines the correct order in which things happen. We know today that this avoids circular reasoning (Allen 1997). In his Metaphysics, Aristotle goes into great details about reality, and how all processes are ultimately material. These are not simple concepts for the student to understand, and the prose of these writings - generally translated by wordy scholars - can be quite daunting. However, it is possible to conduct a simple mathematical search, to count the number of times the word ‘mathematics’ occurs in this, one of Aristotle’s most important works. It is an astonishing fact, that for a philosopher - and for one who is generally not though to have made much of a contribution to the discipline of mathematics - the word occurs over 50 times, scattered evenly over the book. This gives the student a lot to consider: if in works such as Metaphysics, Aristotle pays so much attention to the subject of math, he must certainly have given it a great deal of weight in the way conclusions are reached when making any sort of reasoned argument. His axiomatic way of sorting similarities and differences, for example, must have been sorted out mathematically for it to have given him any reassurance that he was right (Aristotle and Lawson-Tancred 2009). It is not hard to imagine the old haughty philosopher, in the Lyceum, a school he instituted as a counterfoil for the Academy, showing students how logic worked by using mathematical examples on a clay tablet, with his stylus, scribbling numbers and shapes. It is not without cause, therefore, that Aristotle had a significant impact on the way mathematics is practiced. In all other sciences, too, Aristotelian logic is the mainstay of the methods used to arrive at logical, workable and reasonable conclusions that can be repeated, proved and debated, and can be shown to give the same results. Mathematics and science need to be reliable in this way. Aristotle was so confident of his math that he wrote a biography of Pythagoras, which must certainly have contained a number of rational arguments about that mathematician’s conclusions. Unfortunately the work has been lost, but few doubt that he was a good candidate to take on such a daunting task (Hodgkin 2005). No one can mention method and logic without mentioning Aristotle: the disciplines of science and math, and the principles they operate under, are largely the legacy of this philosopher who taught the world how to think. Sources cited Aristotle (2009) Metaphysics Translated by Hugh Lawson-Tancred NuVision Publications Allen, Don (1997) The Origins of Greek Mathematics < http://www.math.tamu.edu/ ~dallen/history/greekorg/greekorg.html> Accessed February 26, 2010 JOC/EFR (1999) Aristotle: Biography School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland Accessed February 26, 2010 Hodgkin, Luke (2005) A History of Mathematics: From Mesopotamia to Modernity Oxford University Press Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Aristotle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2”, n.d.)
Aristotle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/philosophy/1563330-aristotle
(Aristotle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words - 2)
Aristotle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words - 2. https://studentshare.org/philosophy/1563330-aristotle.
“Aristotle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words - 2”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/philosophy/1563330-aristotle.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF The Personality of Aristotle

Aristotles Ethics

Name Instructor Course Date aristotle's Ethics For aristotle, there are two kinds of virtue: moral and intellectual virtue.... Moral virtues are not innate according to aristotle but they are acquired.... According to aristotle, playing the mean is the way of cultivating virtues that includes moral virtues for the attainment of individual happiness.... aristotle believed that his task of ethics was to come up with the highest and the best good that is found in human life....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Roman Aristotle in Philosophia Togata

The paper 'Roman aristotle in Philosophia Togata' discusses one of the greatest and most influential personalities the world has ever produced.... The author states that although there are no exact records of the births and deaths of ancient personalities, yet aristotle's notes transferred to his sculpture demonstrate that he was born in 384 B.... aristotle's biographical records also declare aristotle as the member of an educated Macedonia family....
7 Pages (1750 words) Research Paper

Aristotle on Akrasia

The essay "Aristotle on Akrasia" evaluates a judicious presumption of the position of aristotle on the question of akrasia through a scrupulous discussion of the possible conclusions of the Greek master.... To go beyond these possible conclusions of aristotle, it may be maintained that an exploration of the question why people act wrongly even when they know they should not be, which is a relevant topic for discussion even in the current period, makes it clear that the account of aristotle, at some moment when dealing with the idea of incontinence, is obscure....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Aristotles Classical Theory on Ethics

He explained that the personality of an individual is determined by elements such as individual agents, virtues, vices, and the mode of attaining happiness in life.... This essay provides a detailed analysis of aristotle's ethics by analyzing his moral philosophy.... aristotle argued that it was significant that a person should develop virtues because they will achieve excellence in both character and activities such as their goals and aristotle ical Theory on Ethics aristotle's ical Theory on Ethics aristotle through his ical theory regarded the field of study developed by Socrates and Plato as aristotle's ethics....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Platos and Aristotles Political Ideologies

The essay "Plato's and aristotle's Political Ideologies" focuses on comparing and contrasting Plato's and aristotle's political philosophy works.... Plato and aristotle are the world's oldest philosophers.... Plato was a student of Socrates, another great thinker while aristotle was a student of Plato.... Plato is considered the first writer of philosophical politics, and aristotle is regarded as the first political scientist....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Nicomachean Ethics

The root of aristotle's development of ideas and beliefs in his famous and most celebrated text can be traced back to the formulation of what comprises of ethics and what or who can be identified as an ethical person on the basis of philosophical foundations.... This work called "Nicomachean Ethics" focuses on aristotle's concept of 'virtue' as supported by the argumentation that has been developed in Nicomachean Ethics.... Asserting aristotle's assumptions of ethics, Sherman brings the concept of the vicious versus the virtuous person in the dynamic....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Interpretation of Aristotle's Work

This work called "Interpretation of aristotle's Work" describes the real human condition, traditional forms of life namely: a life of virtue, a life of contemplation, and a life of pleasure.... The author outlines aristotle's beliefs, the concept of prudence, or practical intelligence, the results to the guidance of human actions.... Happiness or felicity is bound to both virtue and man's function in life (aristotle 1176b).... To aristotle, a contemplative life is the perfect virtue that leads to the happiest life and fulfills man's function more perfectly in the universe....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

A Comparison of Plato and Aristotle on the Meaning and Significance of Political Life

This paper ''A Comparison of Plato and aristotle on the Meaning and Significance of Political Life'' tells that politics and the state are part of society since it began.... aristotle was a Greek truth seeker, a logician, while Plato was a scientist and a teacher.... Even though both the philosophers campaigned for harmonious living in the society, their views differed in a way that Plato focused on philosophical reality, while aristotle's views touched on the citizens and political institutions....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us