Aristotelianism ( ARR-i-stə-TEE-lee-ə-niz-əm)
is a tradition of philosophy that takes its
defining inspiration from the work of Aristotle.
This school of thought is in the modern sense
of philosophy, covering existence, ethics,
mind and related subjects.
In Aristotle's time, philosophy included natural
philosophy, which preceded the advent of modern
science during the Scientific Revolution.
The works of Aristotle were initially defended
by the members of the Peripatetic school and
later on by the Neoplatonists, who produced
many commentaries on Aristotle's writings.
In the Islamic Golden Age, Avicenna and Averroes
translated the works of Aristotle into Arabic
and under them, along with philosophers such
as Al-Kindi and Al-Farabi, Aristotelianism
became a major part of early Islamic philosophy.
Moses Maimonides adopted Aristotelianism from
the Islamic scholars and based his famous
Guide for the Perplexed on it and that became
the basis of Jewish scholastic philosophy.
Although some of Aristotle's logical works
were known to western Europe, it was not until
the Latin translations of the 12th century
that the works of Aristotle and his Arabic
commentators became widely available.
Scholars such as Albertus Magnus and Thomas
Aquinas interpreted and systematized Aristotle's
works in accordance with Christian theology.
After retreating under criticism from modern
natural philosophers, the distinctively Aristotelian
idea of teleology was transmitted through
Wolff and Kant to Hegel, who applied it to
history as a totality.
Although this project was criticized by Trendelenburg
and Brentano as non-Aristotelian, Hegel's
influence is now often said to be responsible
for an important Aristotelian influence upon
Marx.
Postmodernists, in contrast, reject Aristotelianism's
claim to reveal important theoretical truths.
In this, they follow Heidegger's critique
of Aristotle as the greatest source of the
entire tradition of Western philosophy.
Recent Aristotelian ethical and "practical"
philosophy, such as that of Gadamer and McDowell,
is often premissed upon a rejection of Aristotelianism's
traditional metaphysical or theoretical philosophy.
From this viewpoint, the early modern tradition
of political republicanism, which views the
res publica, public sphere or state as constituted
by its citizens' virtuous activity, can appear
thoroughly Aristotelian.
The most famous contemporary Aristotelian
philosopher is Alasdair MacIntyre.
Especially famous for helping to revive virtue
ethics in his book After Virtue, MacIntyre
revises Aristotelianism with the argument
that the highest temporal goods, which are
internal to human beings, are actualized through
participation in social practices.
He juxtaposes Aristotelianism with the managerial
institutions of capitalism and its state,
and with rival traditions — including the
philosophies of Hume and Nietzsche — that
reject Aristotle's idea of essentially human
goods and virtues and instead legitimate capitalism.
Therefore, on MacIntyre's account, Aristotelianism
is not identical with Western philosophy as
a whole; rather, it is "the best theory so
far, [including] the best theory so far about
what makes a particular theory the best one."
Politically and socially, it has been characterized
as a newly "revolutionary Aristotelianism".
This may be contrasted with the more conventional,
apolitical and effectively conservative uses
of Aristotle by, for example, Gadamer and
McDowell.
Other important contemporary Aristotelian
theorists include Fred D. Miller, Jr. in politics
and Rosalind Hursthouse in ethics.
== History ==
=== Ancient Greek ===
The original followers of Aristotle were the
members of the Peripatetic school.
The most prominent members of the school after
Aristotle were Theophrastus and Strato of
Lampsacus, who both continued Aristotle's
researches.
During the Roman era the school concentrated
on preserving and defending his work.
The most important figure in this regard was
Alexander of Aphrodisias who commentated on
Aristotle's writings.
With the rise of Neoplatonism in the 3rd century,
Peripateticism as an independent philosophy
came to an end, but the Neoplatonists sought
to incorporate Aristotle's philosophy within
their own system, and produced many commentaries
on Aristotle.
=== Byzantine Empire ===
Byzantine Aristotelianism emerged in the Byzantine
Empire in the form of Aristotelian paraphrase:
adaptations in which Aristotle's text is rephrased,
reorganized, and pruned, in order to make
it more easily understood.
This genre was allegedly invented by Themistius
in the mid-4th century, revived by Michael
Psellos in the mid-11th century, and further
developed by Sophonias in the late 13th to
early 14th centuries.Leo the Mathematician
was appointed to the chair of philosophy at
the Magnaura School in the mid-9th century
to teach Aristotelian logic.
The 11th and 12th centuries saw the emergence
and twelfth-century Byzantine Aristotelianism.
Before the 12th century, the whole Byzantine
output of Aristotelian commentaries was focused
on logic.
However, the range of subjects covered by
the Aristotelian commentaries produced in
the two decades after 1118 is much greater
due to the initiative of the princess Anna
Comnena who commissioned a number of scholars
to write commentaries on previously neglected
works of Aristotle.
=== Islamic world ===
In the Abbasid Empire, many foreign works
were translated into Arabic, large libraries
were constructed, and scholars were welcomed.
Under the caliphs Harun al-Rashid and his
son Al-Ma'mun, the House of Wisdom in Baghdad
flourished.
Christian scholar Hunayn ibn Ishaq (809–873)
was placed in charge of the translation work
by the caliph.
In his lifetime, Ishaq translated 116 writings,
including works by Plato and Aristotle, into
Syriac and Arabic.With the founding of House
of Wisdom, the entire corpus of Aristotelian
works that had been preserved (excluding the
Eudemian Ethics, Magna Moralia and Politics)
became available, along with its Greek commentators;
this corpus laid a uniform foundation for
Islamic Aristotelianism.Al-Kindi (801–873)
was the first of the Muslim Peripatetic philosophers,
and is known for his efforts to introduce
Greek and Hellenistic philosophy to the Arab
world.
He incorporated Aristotelian and Neoplatonist
thought into an Islamic philosophical framework.
This was an important factor in the introduction
and popularization of Greek philosophy in
the Muslim intellectual world.The philosopher
Al-Farabi (872–950) had great influence
on science and philosophy for several centuries,
and in his time was widely thought second
only to Aristotle in knowledge (alluded to
by his title of "the Second Teacher").
His work, aimed at synthesis of philosophy
and Sufism, paved the way for the work of
Avicenna (980–1037).
Avicenna was one of the main interpreters
of Aristotle.
The school of thought he founded became known
as Avicennism, which was built on ingredients
and conceptual building blocks that are largely
Aristotelian and Neoplatonist.At the western
end of the Mediterranean Sea, during the reign
of Al-Hakam II (961 to 976) in Córdoba, a
massive translation effort was undertaken,
and many books were translated into Arabic.
Averroes (1126–1198), who spent much of
his life in Cordoba and Seville, was especially
distinguished as a commentator of Aristotle.
He often wrote two or three different commentaries
on the same work, and some 38 commentaries
by Averroes on the works of Aristotle have
been identified.
Although his writings had only marginal impact
in Islamic countries, his works would eventually
have a huge impact in the Latin West, and
would lead to the school of thought known
as Averroism.
=== Western Europe ===
Although some knowledge of Aristotle seems
to have lingered on in the ecclesiastical
centres of western Europe after the fall of
the Roman empire, by the ninth century nearly
all that was known of Aristotle consisted
of Boethius's commentaries on the Organon,
and a few abridgments made by Latin authors
of the declining empire, Isidore of Seville
and Martianus Capella.
From that time until the end of the eleventh
century, little progress is apparent in Aristotelian
knowledge.The renaissance of the 12th century
saw a major search by European scholars for
new learning.
James of Venice, who probably spent some years
in Constantinople, translated Aristotle's
Posterior Analytics from Greek into Latin
in the mid-twelfth century, thus making the
complete Aristotelian logical corpus, the
Organon, available in Latin for the first
time.
Scholars travelled to areas of Europe that
once had been under Muslim rule and still
had substantial Arabic-speaking populations.
From central Spain, which had come under Christian
rule in the eleventh century, scholars produced
many of the Latin translations of the 12th
century.
The most productive of these translators was
Gerard of Cremona, (c. 1114–1187), who translated
87 books, which included many of the works
of Aristotle such as his Posterior Analytics,
Physics, On the Heavens, On Generation and
Corruption, and Meteorology.
Michael Scot (c. 1175–1232) translated Averroes'
commentaries on the scientific works of Aristotle.Aristotle's
physical writings began to be discussed openly,
and at a time when Aristotle's method was
permeating all theology, these treatises were
sufficient to cause his prohibition for heterodoxy
in the Condemnations of 1210–1277.
In the first of these, in Paris in 1210, it
was stated that "neither the books of Aristotle
on natural philosophy or their commentaries
are to be read at Paris in public or secret,
and this we forbid under penalty of excommunication."
However, despite further attempts to restrict
the teaching of Aristotle, by 1270 the ban
on Aristotle's natural philosophy was ineffective.William
of Moerbeke (c. 1215–1286) undertook a complete
translation of the works of Aristotle or,
for some portions, a revision of existing
translations.
He was the first translator of the Politics
(c. 1260) from Greek into Latin.
Many copies of Aristotle in Latin then in
circulation were assumed to have been influenced
by Averroes, who was suspected of being a
source of philosophical and theological errors
found in the earlier translations of Aristotle.
Such claims were without merit, however, as
the Alexandrian Aristotelianism of Averroes
followed "the strict study of the text of
Aristotle, which was introduced by Avicenna,
[because] a large amount of traditional Neoplatonism
was incorporated with the body of traditional
Aristotelianism".Albertus Magnus (c. 1200–1280)
was among the first medieval scholars to apply
Aristotle's philosophy to Christian thought.
He produced paraphrases of most of the works
of Aristotle available to him.
He digested, interpreted and systematized
the whole of Aristotle's works, gleaned from
the Latin translations and notes of the Arabian
commentators, in accordance with Church doctrine.
His efforts resulted in the formation of a
Christian reception of Aristotle in the Western
Europe.
Magnus did not repudiate Plato.
In that, he belonged to the dominant tradition
of philosophy that preceded him, namely the
"concordist tradition", which sought to harmonize
Aristotle with Plato through interpretation
(see for example Porphyry's On Plato and Aristotle
Being Adherents of the Same School).
Magnus famously wrote:
"Scias quod non perficitur homo in philosophia
nisi ex scientia duarum philosophiarum: Aristotelis
et Platonis."
(Metaphysics, I, tr. 5, c. 5)
(Know that a man is not perfected in philosophy
if it weren't for the knowledge of the two
philosophers, Aristotle and Plato)
Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the pupil of
Albertus Magnus, wrote a dozen commentaries
on the works of Aristotle.
Thomas was emphatically Aristotelian, he adopted
Aristotle's analysis of physical objects,
his view of place, time and motion, his proof
of the prime mover, his cosmology, his account
of sense perception and intellectual knowledge,
and even parts of his moral philosophy.
The philosophical school that arose as a legacy
of the work of Thomas Aquinas was known as
Thomism, and was especially influential among
the Dominicans, and later, the Jesuits.
=== Modern era ===
After retreating under criticism from modern
natural philosophers, the distinctively Aristotelian
idea of teleology was transmitted through
Wolff and Kant to Hegel, who applied it to
history as a totality.
Although this project was criticized by Trendelenburg
and Brentano as un-Aristotelian, Hegel's influence
is now often said to be responsible for an
important Aristotelian influence upon Marx.
Postmodernists, in contrast, reject Aristotelianism's
claim to reveal important theoretical truths.
In this, they follow Heidegger's critique
of Aristotle as the greatest source of the
entire tradition of Western philosophy.
=== Contemporary Aristotelianism ===
Aristotelianism is understood by its proponents
as critically developing Plato's theories.
Recent Aristotelian ethical and 'practical'
philosophy, such as that of Gadamer and McDowell,
is often premised upon a rejection of Aristotelianism's
traditional metaphysical or theoretical philosophy.
From this viewpoint, the early modern tradition
of political republicanism, which views the
res publica, public sphere or state as constituted
by its citizens' virtuous activity, can appear
thoroughly Aristotelian.The contemporary Aristotelian
philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre is specially
famous for helping to revive virtue ethics
in his book After Virtue.
MacIntyre revises Aristotelianism with the
argument that the highest temporal goods,
which are internal to human beings, are actualized
through participation in social practices.
He opposes Aristotelianism to the managerial
institutions of capitalism and its state,
and to rival traditions—including the philosophies
of Hume, Kant, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche—that
reject its idea of essentially human goods
and virtues and instead legitimize capitalism.
Therefore, on MacIntyre's account, Aristotelianism
is not identical with Western philosophy as
a whole; rather, it is "the best theory so
far, [including] the best theory so far about
what makes a particular theory the best one."
Politically and socially, it has been characterized
as a newly 'revolutionary Aristotelianism'.
This may be contrasted with the more conventional,
apolitical and effectively conservative uses
of Aristotle by, for example, Gadamer and
McDowell.
Other important contemporary Aristotelian
theorists include Fred D. Miller, Jr. in politics
and Rosalind Hursthouse in ethics.In metaphysics,
an Aristotelian realism about universals is
defended by such philosophers as David Malet
Armstrong and Stephen Mumford, and is applied
to the philosophy of mathematics by James
Franklin.
== Criticism ==
Bertrand Russell criticizes Aristotle's logic
on the following points:
The Aristotelian system allows formal defects
leading to "bad metaphysics".
For example, the following syllogism is permitted:
"All golden mountains are mountains, all golden
mountains are golden, therefore some mountains
are golden", which insinuates the existence
of at least one golden mountain.
Furthermore, according to Russell, a predicate
of a predicate can be a predicate of the original
subject, which blurs the distinction between
names and predicates with disastrous consequences;
for example, a class with only one member
is erroneously identified with that one member,
making impossible to have a correct theory
of the number one.
The syllogism is overvalued in comparison
to other forms of deduction.
For example, syllogisms are not employed in
mathematics since they are less convenient.In
addition, Russell ends his review of the Aristotelian
logic with these words:
I conclude that the Aristotelian doctrines
with which we have been concerned in this
chapter are wholly false, with the exception
of the formal theory of the syllogism, which
is unimportant.
Any person in the present day who wishes to
learn logic will be wasting his time if he
reads Aristotle or any of his disciples.
Nonetheless, Aristotle's logical writings
show great ability, and would have been useful
to mankind if they had appeared at a time
when intellectual originality was still active.
Unfortunately, they appeared at the very end
of the creative period of Greek thought, and
therefore came to be accepted as authoritative.
By the time that logical originality revived,
a reign of two thousand years had made Aristotle
very difficult to dethrone.
Throughout modern times, practically every
advance in science, in logic, or in philosophy
has had to be made in the teeth of the opposition
from Aristotle's disciples.
== See also ==
== 
Notes ==
== 
Further reading ==
== 
External links ==
The Rediscovery of the Corpus Aristotelicum
and the Birth of Aristotelianism with an annotated
bibliography
Clayton, Edward.
(2005) Political Philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre,
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
International Society for MacIntyrean Enquiry
