d by greater force tending to move faster.
Quite fascinatingly, Aristotle also dabbled in the discourse of biology, with his works (entailing both data gathering and discerning patterns) mostly based on the fauna of the Lesbos island – researched during the two years after his unceremonious exit from Asia Minor. There he studied and noted the variation of animal physiology based on their natural habitats, but disregarded the effect of evolution (or mutations) as we understand the concept in our modern era.
8) The Brush with Psychology –
The ‘soul’ was the focus of Aristotle’s treatise On the Soul (peri psychēs). One of his notions prescribed the hierarchy of scale in beings, or basically the ‘soul’ or life-force of organisms. In this categorization, plants belonged to the lowest scale by virtue of their nutritive element (vegetative soul), while animals belonged to a higher scale with their appetitive (or sensitive) nature. The humans were considered the highest on the scale since they have both nutritive and appetitive features, while also possessing the unique ‘power’ of rationality – the combination of nous (intellect) and logos (reason).
Aristotle additionally talked about memory in the aforementioned treatise by mentioning how it is a result of a complex stimuli that is not comprehended at that instant by the nervous system. Consequently, he goes on to describe memory as serving as a mental template (of a perceived experience) or an impression that the mind can retrieve (or revert to) in the future through sensation and other mental channels.
Aristotle also touched upon the subjects of imagination and dreams, by defining the former as “the movement which results upon an actual sensation.” In essence, he interpreted that ‘imagination’ was rather a vehicle for memory, since it was the process through which human mind registers the impression of senses. Similarly, he postulated how dreams (and illusions) also involve sensations, albeit from lasting impressions gathered during the waking phase.
9) Ethics and Politics –
Deviating from Plato’s “self-existing good”, Aristotle based the principles of ethics on practicality – as can be gathered from his work Nicomachean Ethics. Furthermore, he specified how ethics is intrinsic to humanity – much akin to the purpose (or function) of the individual, defined as the “activity of the psuchē (soul or spirit) in accordance with reason (logos)”. This optimized activity of the ‘soul’, which traverses both excesses and deficiencies, becomes the aim of the eudaimonia – the state of ‘well being’ (or roughly translated as ‘happiness’).
Related to ethics, Aristotle also talked about the moral virtue that is unique to humans, since he considered morality as the power to control our appetitive (or animalistic) desires. Interestingly enough, the philosopher clarified that too little or too much regulation of our desires can both result in negative outcomes, with the analogy that “excess or deficiency of gymnastic exercise is fatal to strength.”
As for his treatise aptly titled Politics, Aristotle made the famous statement – “man is by nature a political animal”. To that end, he posited that a community of humans rather reflects humanity’s sense of ethics and morality on a collective scale – as it serves as a vehicle for furthering protection and development of other humans. Consequently, he considered the city or polity as the most important institution for the individual, followed by the family.
10) The ‘Reach’ of Aristotle –
The legacy of the rather informal institution of Lyceum (Aristotle’s school) was carried forth by the Peripatetic school, which was
By 6th century AD, the Eastern Roman Empire inherited the tradition of philosophical discourse, with the leading role being played by the Christian Greek scribes who worked tirelessly over generations to copy and compile the extant manuscripts of Aristotle’s works. Quite intriguingly, Aristotle was also held in high regard in the Islamic world, with a significant number of his ancient Greek commentaries being actively translated (into Arab