which is the most important, and which most truly gives the explanation of an object. The final end (purpose, or teleology) of a thing is realized in the full perfection of the object itself, not in our conception of it. Final cause is thus internal to the nature of the object itself, and not something we subjectively impose on it.
To Aristotle, God is the first of all substances, the necessary first source of movement who is himself unmoved. God is a being with everlasting life, and perfect blessedness, engaged in never-ending contemplation.
7) Aristotle’s Natural Philosophy –
Among Aristotle’s other theoretical works, his treatises do cover a spectrum of subjects, ranging from zoology, astronomy to geology and physics – mostly compiled under the section of Natural Philosophy. One fascinating (and rather correct) observation of Aristotle in the field of astronomy relates to how he pointed out that the “size of sun is greater than that of the earth and the distance of the stars from the earth many times greater than that of the sun, then… the sun shines on all the stars and the earth screens none of them”, thereby refuting the pre-Socratic claim of how the stars in the Milky Way are shaded from the Sun’s rays by the greater mass of the Earth. On the other hand, like many of his contemporaries, Aristotle (wrongly) believed in the geocentric model of the solar system.
Concerning physics, Aristotle particularly made observations on motion and how it both affects the quality of a substance and also relates to the locomotive scope of objects. Pertaining to the first part, it becomes apparent that the philosopher regarded time as a measure of motion, given its role in the beginning phase and final outcome of a substance. Essentially, time was perceived as being depended on motion, with no change in the universe equating to no time. As for the second notion, Aristotle talked about the more primary aspect of motion in line with Classical mechanics – like heavier objects requiring more force to move, while objects affected 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 Pol