Aristotle

PoeticsAristotle, Poetics
Poetics
Summary
Aristotle introduced poetry (not just verse, but including a story) as a form of imitation, of which different forms are the various arts. He touched on the basic history of poetry and its different kinds. He focused primarily on tragedy, and talked about the various parts of a story. He also discussed what makes for a good plot, and then walked his readers through a plot from start to finish, showing them how to construct a good one. Aristotle spent a considerable time on dic...
Nicomachean EthicsAristotle, Nichomachean Ethics
Nichomachean Ethics
Summary
Books I, II, III
Aristotle begins by saying that everything humans do is for the purpose of one good or another, some of which are higher or better than others. The science or study of what is good is called politics. That good is determined to be happiness, and he concludes that for happiness to be the final good, it must be self-sufficient and an end in itself. Aristotle goes on to talk about moral virtue, that it is a state of character and that it must be a mea...
CategoriesAristotle, Categories
Aristotle, Categories
among many others

Matter is eternal and exists w/o forms
Forms only exist with matter
No sensations, no imagination, no intellect w/o forms, phantasms, or species in the mind
Impressions on a passive mind
- impressions are the things we see, sense
Active intellect perceives passive intellect
We know nothing about a body or its qualities, but as far as we have sensations which resemble those qualities.
Our sensations are the impressions which sensible objects make upon the mind. (Sense PerceptionSense Perception
Sense Perception

You can be good at sensing w/o being able to explain how.
You can be skilled in using your senses & have them still make mistakes sometimes
)
- Like seal on wax
- Impression is the image or form of the soul, without matter in it.
- Impressions must resemble the things from which they are taken
- Every sensation is the image or form of some sensible qualities of the object
Aristotle assumes that bodies and qualities of bodies exist. He infers the nature of sensation.

originative sources (with the example of a chair)

Practical Philosophy (moral virtues / dispositions, practice in affairs)
- goal is to become more moral
Theoretical Philosophy (devoted to intellectual matters, [matter, form, motion])
- goal is to find more knowledge
- types of study (theology & physics are guess-work; math brings truth):
  - theology: invisible motionless deity, separated from perceptible reality, can only be imagined
  - mathematics: form + motion, shape, number; with or w/o senses, attribute of everything
  - physics: material, motion, qualities, sub-lunar, corruptible, senses, mortal

Sense -> Intuition of form -> First principles -> Math -> Scientific Knowledge (Demonstrable)