ARISTOTLE

LIFE Aristotle was born in 384 BC in a Greek Town of Stagira, which was a seaport on the coast of Macedonia. As the ancient Greeks in Aristotle's time only had one name, they were often also referred to by their place of birth, hence Aristotle was commonly known as "Aristotle of Stagira". His father, Nichomachus, was a court physician to King Amytas of Macedonia, which provided Aristotle his long association with the Macedonian court, which later in his life proved to be a great influence. When he was just a boy of the age of 10, Aristotle's father died and he was taken under the care of a man named Proxenus. Proxenus sent Aristotle at the age of 17 toAthens, which was then the intellectual centre of the world, to complete his education. In Athens, Aristotle joined the famed Plato's Academy and began to be a prominent figure. In the later years of his time there he also began to lecture as well. CONTRIBUTIONS Aristotle wrote a number of works, which themselves have an interesting history. When Aristotle died, they were kept by one of his students, Theophrastus, who also took over the school Aristotle was forced to leave when he fled from Athens. This extensive library of philosophical works was then handed down to Theophrastus' student, Neleus. Neleus's heirs concealed them in a vault to protect them from theft, where they were subsequently partially ruined by dampness

and moths. In 100BC they were discovered by Apellicon, a book lover, who took them to Athens, and they later were taken to Rome after Athens was captured in 86BC. Here, Aristotle's works took the interest of the Roman scholars and this gave a fresh drive to the study of Aristotle and of philosophy.Aristotle's works come under three main headings; dialogues, collections facts by scientific methods, and systematic works. These works included logic, physics, natural science, metaphysics, politics, rhetoric, ethics and even poetry.

Aristotle is considered to be the first scientist, and he started off a revolutionary way of thinking, which has shaped our daily lives. Every thing we do and know in our modern way of life has something to do with scientific thought, which Aristotle first introduced. Science Education has shown a renewed interest in Aristotles works. (1) Today, theories in science are often based on abstract and mathematical models of the world. The development of an idea from Aristotle to the present would make physics more interesting and understandable. (2) Aristotles works are reconstructions from fragmentary notes. He had the most rudimentary of scientific equipment, his measurements were not quantitative; and he considered only things that were observable with the eye. Scientific Method: In ancient times, events in Nature had been explained as the actions of the gods. The early Greek philosophers questioned the role of the gods as the cause of events and by the fifth century B.C. the Greek philosophers, such as Socrates, had separated philosophy from theology. But, if the gods were not the cause of events, what was? Philosophers advanced explanations based on philosophical principles and mathematical forms. Aristotle found that unsatisfactory. He decided the principles of nature could be found within nature and could be discovered using careful observation and inductive reasoning.

Aristotle founded a school in Athens at the Lyceum which provided the worlds first comprehensive study of human knowledge from the perspective of natural philosophy. His lectures followed a pattern that formed the basis of the scientific method. Physics: In his work, Physics, Aristotle examined the nature of matter, space, time, and motion. He had few tools for experimentation and could not measure time or speeds. He would not allow invisible forces so his reasoning did not include gravity. Things fell to Earth and the moon circled the Earth because that was their nature. He proved that infinite linear motion and voids could not exist on Earth. Reading Aristotle reminds one of reading Einstein. He takes the simplest of observations and in it discovers fundamental truths. Force is a push or a pull. A horse can pull a cart and the cart pulls back on the horse and when the horse stops, the cart stops. Rest, then is the natural state of matter and the mover is acted on by that which it moves. These ideas became part of Newtons Laws. He observed that there was both static and kinetic friction that opposed motion by studying shiphaulers. Cosmology: We sometimes forget that Aristotle proved the Earth was a sphere. He observed that the shadow of the Earth on the moon during an eclipse was an arc. That was not conclusive as a disk might give the same shadow. The phases of the Moon and its appearance during eclipses show it to be a sphere and the Earth might be also. As one walks toward the horizon, the horizon falls away; and, as one walks North or South, different stars appear. These are as if one is looking out from a sphere. All things made of Earth fall to Earth in such a way as to be as near the Earth as possible. A sphere is the shape that allows this as it is the shape with the smallest surface for a given volume. All things considered, the Earth must be a sphere. I Aristotle concluded that since all things fall toward the center of the Earth or move round the Earth, that the Earth must be the center of the Universe. The Moon and planets move around

the Earth in circular orbits but must move in circles within circles to explain the variance observed in their orbits. The stars are fixed spheres that rotate around the Earth and the Universe must be finite else the stars at the outer edge would have to move at infinite speed. Aristotle was aware that if the heavenly bodies were made of matter, that they would fly off like a rock from a sling. He therefore added to the elements a fifth element, aether, to compose the heavenly bodies. Aether could not be observed on Earth but objects composed of it could move forever in circles without friction or flying away. (7) Perhaps Aristotle should have stopped with the moon, but the planets and stars were there and needed explaining. In spite of his models imperfections, Aristotle gave us a universe whose laws are invariant and capable of being discovered by observation and understood by reason. Aristotles model of the Universe lasted almost 20 centuries without significant modification and was so compelling that Renaissance philosophers and theologians built it into church doctrine. Scientific Revolution: However, Aristotles model did not fit well with new observations made by 15th century scientists. Copernicus realized that the planetary motions would be simpler and better explained if the Sun were the center of the universe. Tycho Brahes careful observations of planetary motions supported the Copernican model. DEATH When Alexander died in 323 B.C., Aristotle wisely retreated to the pro- Macedonian base of Chalcis. He was reportedly trying to save the Athenians from sinning twice against philosophy (the first sin being the execution of Socrates). He died there in 322 of a disease of the digestive organs. Following Socrates and Plato, Aristotle had a great wealth of knowledge and wisdom to build upon, but he left no successor who could surpass him. His work changed the direction of Western learning and continues to play a very real part in modern studies. His work in the

sciences would inevitably become obsolete, particular in natural philosophy. But his contributions to biology would remain unsurpassed for centuries. On the other hand, his work in the humanities and social sciences continues to provide the basis for debate and guide academic learning. Moreover, he essentially created the field of logic and devised the syllogism. The one major subject that he did not seem to have a large impact on was mathematics, on which the Academy generally led the way. Why do we need logical thinking?
Logical thinking is not a matter of accumulating information. A person with a good

memory and who knows a lot of facts is not necessarily good at logical thinking. A logical thinker is able to deduce consequences from what he knows, and he knows how to make use of information to solve problems, and to seek relevant sources of information to inform himself. Logical thinking should not be confused with being argumentative or being critical of other people. Although critical thinking skills can be used in exposing fallacies and bad reasoning, logical thinking can also play an important role in cooperative reasoning and constructive tasks. logical thinking can help us acquire knowledge, improve our theories, and strengthen arguments. We can use critical thinking to enhance work processes and improve social institutions. At birth. Man is not born either logical or illogical, but somebody who is gifted with natural reason. It is very clear that we need logical thinking for us to train our minds with the basic skills of correct reasoning in order to be logical in a holistic view of educating the human individual.

UNIVERSITY OF MINDANAO College of Business Administration

ARISTOTLE
Birth, Contributions & Death

Submitted to: Prof. Randy Ponteras

Submitted by: Regie G. Birang

September 12, 2011