This one’s a huge chapter.
Aristotle was a man of many ideas, so this reflection may be the longest
yet… we’ll see. First of all, I think
it’s really interesting that I just learned all this stuff about Plato and
Aristotle was actually a pupil at Plato’s Academy. Even more interesting is that fact that in
some cases Aristotle disagreed with Plato.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, because if we all agreed all the time,
life wouldn’t be near the adventure it is.
Anyway, the main disagreement that Aristotle had with Plato
was about the whole world of “ideas”.
Plato believed that the “idea” chicken came before the actual
chicken. He also thought that reality
was what we think with our reason. This
was a hard pill for me to swallow when I first learned of his theory, so I
don’t really mind that Aristotle disagreed.
Aristotle said that each type of thing in the world has a specific
“form”. Though each frog may be
different, they all have the same “form” and that’s why we can classify them as
frogs. Aristotle believed that the
“idea” world was something that humans come up with based on characteristics,
which means “form” comes before “idea”.
He then believed that reason is not the source of reality, but that what
we perceive with our senses is what’s real.
I’m going to have to say that for this round, I’m definitely team
Aristotle.
If we all had these “ideas” of things pounded into our
brains, then how come I cannot simply picture a platypus? If there is an “idea” platypus, I should be
able to picture it right? But even
though I’ve heard of a platypus I cannot come up with a picture of what it
looks like… Now if I had actually seen a platypus, then I could describe it to
you. So personally, I identify much more
with the whole idea of “form.” Humans
are all different in some way. But if
you pass a person in the street, unless that have seven arms or something, you
assume they’re human. That’s because
though we are different, we all have a “form” that classifies us as
humans.
But the next idea is a little harder… What is reality? Is it based on reason or sensory perception?
I had a hard time accepting that we gain knowledge through reason and that was
the only way, but I’m not quite sure why I rejected the idea so strongly. Maybe it’s because I’m not always the most
logical person. Maybe I don’t like the
idea of being built strictly around my brain and my reason. We have all these beautiful senses and ways
to interact with the world around us. If
all we needed to rely on was reason, then why have senses in the first
place? Sometimes when it comes to
reason, senses just get in the way, because sometimes when we are feeling
strongly due to senses, we aren’t thinking clearly. It’s crazy to me to think that reason is all
there is. But at the same time, is reality just our senses as Aristotle
said? I almost think that reality is
different to everyone as an individual.
But I also think that maybe our reality is a combination of what we
think and what we perceive. It doesn’t
have to be one or the other does it? We
have been gifted with both reason and senses, so why narrow it down to just one
being the source of reality?
Aristotle had a knack for organizing things, which is right
up my alley. He also had a way of
breaking things down into multiple parts.
Seriously, this guy gets me, because that’s something I definitely
relate to. He was considered one of the
first great biologists of Europe because he began to categorize and break down
the kingdoms of life. He said that earth
was made up of two categories: Living and Nonliving. Then Living was made up of Creatures and
Plants, and Creatures was made up of Animals and Humans. Simple enough right? In biology, we are learning about all the
different phyla which break down into all the different classes and all the
different orders and so on. It’s all
very complex, and though it’s good to be specific, I can definitely appreciate
the simplicity of Aristotle’s ideas. However, Aristotle believed that all these
things on Earth were governed by the stars and heavenly bodies of space, but
then he also had to come up with a source that set those things in motion. He called this stationary source the “first
mover” or “God”. This idea also makes
sense to me… actually I can connect really well. Before I became really exposed in
Christianity, I used to believe that the sun and moon were the gods of the
universe. I just always loved looking up
at the moon and the stars and I made up this idea in my head that the sun was a
god and the mood a goddess, and I had some other theory about the stars as
well. Then there’s the old saying that a
full moon makes people crazy. Maybe
Aristotle wasn’t so far off. Maybe the
moon and stars and sun do have an effect on the rest of the universe and then
maybe God is just the highest level.
The next thing this chapter talks about is true
happiness. Oh man, isn’t this a good
topic. Everyone wants to know how to be
happy, right? Aristotle’s happiness idea
is that there are three forms of happiness:
Life of pleasure and enjoyment, Life as a free and responsible citizen
and Life as a thinker and philosopher.
Here’s the catch though. He
believed you had to have all three in order to be really happy. I actually
think there’s some truth to that. I mean
if you’re not a free citizen, you’re probably not living a life of pleasure and
enjoyment. And if you are free and you
are living a life of pleasure, if you aren’t thinking for yourself or
understanding what’s happening around you, then you find yourself stuck in a
box and frustrated. So again,
Aristotle’s views make sense to me.
The only thing I really disagree with Aristotle on was his
view of women. He said that women were
incomplete and less than man. He
believed that children get all their characteristics from their father and that
women were simply the environment for growing these babies. So, as much as I admire Aristotle, I will
admit that he was a clueless man like so many others. Maybe I’m a little biased by being a girl,
but come on! Girls can be smart and
think for themselves and study things like philosophy too. Throughout history,
men just underestimate how powerful women can be! Without women, man wouldn’t survive, and that
is all I have to say about that. ;)
Anyway, I told you it was a long one. But ignoring his horrible ideas about women,
I am definitely an Aristotle fan!
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