EssayClub.com - Free College Essays and Term Papers

Aristotle—Learning To Live A Life Governed By Reason

Aristotle—Learning to Live a Life Governed By Reason

 
      One can say without exaggeration that today we live in an Aristotelean world, because

Aristotle, more than any other person, was responsible for defining the foundations of intellect in

all of Western civilization, and his concepts and ideas have remained embedded in Western

thinking for centuries.   With all of history’s great thinkers, and their impact upon the

development of philosophy, how can one man be singled out as the most influential of them all?  

Because as a result of two decades of research, he was able to expand upon all previous

philisophical notions, and to recognize a degree of rationality which he found could be applied

universally.   According to Aristotle, all knowledge is empirical, and as a result of this belief, his

writings and theories covered a wide range of topics including, but not limited to rhetoric, ethics,

politics, physics, mathematics, anatomy, physiology, and logic.  

      Although he studied under Plato, Aristotle fundamentally disagreed with his teacher on just

about everything.   Plato theorized that the ultimate reality is found in ideas or eternal forms, and

is knowable only through reflection and reason.   But, Aristotle believed that the world could be

understood at a fundamental level through the detailed observation and cataloging of  

phenomenon.   As a direct result of his philosophy, science can today be described as;

“accumulated and established knowledge, which has been systematized and formulated with

reference to the discovery of general truths or the operation of general laws; knowledge

classified and made available in work, life, or the search for truth; comprehensive, profound, or

philosophical knowledge,” --a rather suitable summation of Aristotle’s approach to the world.    
  With regard to government, he also developed a philosophy that is contrary to that of Plato,
who...