Talk:Aristotle

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Logic

I believe we could improve the section about logic. The "History" part is ok, and I don't really know anything about the topic to make comments on it. I believe, though, that the section called "Analytics and Organon" should be renamed "The Logical Treatises". Also, I think we should supress the word "aristotelian" in the sentence What we call today Aristotelian logic, Aristotle himself would have labelled analytics, for it just confuses: wouldn't Aristotle label as analytics any other philosophy of this kind? After listing the books of the Organon, we could mention that this corpus is called Organon.

Then, we could include a paragraph about syllogisms and another about dialetics, but not go to much into details, since this is the subject of the article about the Organon. Bhvilar

On the Soul

I believe there is a slight error in the section regarding Aristotle's theory of the human soul. If my reading of his Nichomachean Ethics and De Anime is correct, the human soul is a singularity with three parts which constitute the whole soul. Aristotle's description of the Vegetative, Appetitive, and Rational parts of the soul are a means of apprehending the higher level of being in the human as opposed to sentient animals and plants. So far as I can recall the tripartate soul is one "thing" that is intellectually seperable into three different levels of function, or rather of being. Otherwise the section seems to be on the mark. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.50.206.37 (talk) 01:15, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

Counting to six

This article is great! I learnt more about Aristoteles from reading this article than I learnt during my philosophy studies at university.

But in honor of this great thinker, we should respect that he was probably able to count. The article says that "Aristotle taught that tragedy is composed of six elements: plot-structure, character, style, spectacle, and lyric poetry". I see only five elements in this list... Should the hyphen be changed into a comma? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Joreberg (talk • contribs) 19:06, 29 August 2012 (UTC)  Done I changed it based on Poetics (Aristotle) to restore the missing item, dianoia. Wareh (talk) 19:40, 29 August 2012 (UTC)

Image depicting the series

I am wondering why the head of Aristotle on display at the Louvre was chosen for all the pages that are a part of the series on aristotelianism, yet for Plato it is his depiction in The School of Athens which is chosen for this role. I recommend (and won't do it myself unless consensus since this is present on so many pages) cropping Aristotle's depiction in the same painting as the title image for the series, simply out of consistency. VonKreuz (talk) 22:05, 7 November 2012 (UTC)

Dear VonKreuz, I see where you are coming from but I think it is nice to have a different main picture. This way we don't have two repeated pictures on the article (the main + the one heading the Aristotelianism series). Cheers, Zalunardo8 (talk) 14:31, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

New section request 30th November 2012: Causes and Compulsions.

″What I have written here is simply a starting point if people wish to add stuff and change this around or whatever feel free. I think what I've written isn't all that good to be honest so I would welcome further input.″

Aristotle was very important to the world because he was cool. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.44.92.2 (talk) 15:28, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

Aristotle believed that human actions are compulsory when they originate from an external cause distinct from the individual. Aristotle believed that a human action may be involuntary either because of ignorance or because of an external influence that negates choice. The former is fairly basic to understand as without a knowledge of something that is fundamental to a decision no choice can be made. For example, if a human lacks an understanding of the danger that vehicles pose on a highway that individual cannot make a choice on that basis and therefore isn't free. The latter is more perplexing Aristotle provides an example of a captain on a ship that is blown off course by a wind in a particular direction. The captain of the ship has no choice he cannot contribute anything in order to preclude the sudden revolution in direction.

However, Aristotle also recognizes a separate form of external compulsion one that on the face of it may appear less compelling. In certain instances of threats and danger there may still exist a power or ability to resist or ignore a compulsion. Aristotle gives an example of passengers on a ship distressed who must throw their possessions overboard to protect themselves and the ship. Undoubtedly this is an intensely pressurized situation and the desire to conform with our feeling of compulsion is immense but it is not a necessary conformation as what the passengers decide to do is both contemplated and carried out of their own volition. However, though a choice is present Aristotle recognizes the negligible level of choice inherent in such situations. For Aristotle, the greater the force exerted on the individual the lesser the consent. However, it is no longer possible to analyse human actions as distinguished as compelled and voluntary acts but more precisely in terms of the proportion of voluntariness.

Further, Aristotle makes a separate distinction between that of internal and external influences. An internal influence refers to something that is willed by the individual. For example, an individual who makes a conscious informed decision to study philosophy would be internally influenced. An external influence refers something that is willed not by one's own volition but because of an extraneous interference. A government that forces you to go to another country to face criminal charges would represent an external influence as a situation has been imposed on the individual which necessarily has revoked their freedom. Both of the prior situations are caused however one is brought about by an individual's autonomy and the other is based on a lack thereof. — Preceding unsigned comment added by HumphreyBurke (talk • contribs) 18:40:57 30 November 2012

On Though

Change Posterior Analytics to Late Analytics as this specific word means buttox and it is not widely used — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.194.63.155 (talk) 09:56, 2 August 2013 (UTC)

Influence on Marx

It is a well known fact that Aristotle was one of Marx's favourite ancient philosophers. Could someone add Marx under the post-Enlightenment section?

"Yet the differentia specifica of human being that Leopold dismisses is the defining human ontology of "foresight" that distinguishes men from slaves in Marx's favorite ancient philosopher, Aristotle, and of Marx's own regulating principle of human freedom that explains why he regards the working class in capitalism as dehumanized into "wage slavery." "

The Young Karl Marx: German Philosophy, Modern Politics, and Human Flourishing (review) John McMurtry. From: Journal of the History of Philosophy Volume 47, Number 3, July 2009 http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/hph/summary/v047/47.3.mcmurtry.html

There is also Marx's comment that “I always had great interest in the latter philosopher [Heraclitus], to whom I prefer only Aristotle of the ancient philosophers.” Letter to Ferdinand Lassalle. 21 December 1857. Marx-Engels Collected Works, vol. 40. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975. p. 225. In addition, Aristotle receives some minor treatment in Capital, where refers to him as, “the greatest thinker of antiquity” Marx (1990, p.532)