Aristotle was born in 384 BC in the small city of Stagila in northern Greece. At that time, Stagira was subordinate to Macedonia, a powerful country in northern Greece. Thus, in terms of nationality, Aristotle was Macedonian. His father was alexander's grandfather's court physician. And his mother was also from a famous family. In short, his life is more prominent than Plato's.
In 367 BC, Aristotle turned 17 years old. It was also in this year that he bid farewell to his relatives and friends in his hometown and embarked on a journey to Athens to study. A moment before he was about to leave Athens, his uncle said to him rather sadly: "Don't forget your hometown, and don't forget Macedonia." ”
Athens in Aristotle's time had long since lost its hegemony both economically and politically, and in the near future it would be completely conquered by Alexander's Macedonian legions. But culturally, and especially philosophically, it remains the center of all of Greece. It is a place that all aspiring young people in Greece aspire to.
Shortly after arriving in Athens, Aristotle entered the Agadimi Academy founded by Plato. Soon after entering the Academy, he showed amazing talent. His studies and research often span multiple neighborhoods, and at this point even his teacher Plato can only marvel at himself. Perhaps from the very beginning he was destined to become an encyclopedia of Athens.
Plato also spoke highly of his disciple, calling Aristotle the 'elite of the academy' and saying, "My academy consists of two parts, the bodies of the other students and the brains of Aristotle." ”
"A genius must be a complex hybrid." Aristotle said that in fact, this famous quote of his can also be used to describe himself completely. Although Aristotle, as such a complex hybrid, his historical identity is necessarily complex. However, beneath this complex surface, there are still three identities that dominate. The three identities that dominate this are: Plato's greatest philosophical opponent; The founder of Western science and the enlightening teacher of Alexander the Great.
Next, we follow these three threads to understand Aristotle's main achievements and his entire life.
First of all, we need to understand - Aristotle as a philosopher. It is well known that Aristotle was a disciple of Plato, and he was educated under Plato for 20 years. It can be said that his philosophy is both the most orthodox inheritance of Plato's philosophy and the fiercest rebellion against Plato's philosophy. So, let's focus on the contradiction between Plato's philosophy and Aristotle's philosophy.
First of all, Aristotle, as a realist, was most unaccustomed to Plato's ideal state. In his view, the so-called ideal country is actually a utopian country. Many of Plato's ideas about the Ideal State seem unrealistic to him.
For example, Plato preached in his Republic the idea that everyone is a brother, but Aristotle mocked it: 'If all men are your brothers, then no one is.' For example, in Plato's ideal state, private property is seen as the root of evil. Aristotle also expressed firm opposition to this. He believed that the root of evil did not lie in private property at all, but in human nature itself.
Moreover, Aristotle could not fully understand Plato's communist idea of using the power of the state to relieve the poor. "The vast majority of people are born slackers and fools who sink to the bottom of society in any state system." Aristotle put it this way, "Subsidizing them with state money is like pouring water into a leaking bucket." ”
Of course, Aristotle, after criticizing Plato's ideal state, did not spare Plato's idea. He pointed out directly that the generality and universality of things cannot be the subject of things at all. That is to say, according to Aristotle's view, Plato's perfect state based on the commonality of man cannot exist. In this way, the ideological foundation of Plato's ideal state is shaken, which is equivalent to the negation of Plato's idea.
So far Aristotle has shown such an attitude toward Plato that whatever Plato supports, we oppose. Whatever Plato opposes, we support.
So, is Aristotle's philosophical system and Plato's philosophical system really so inseparable? Not really. Because their philosophical systems, in addition to these obvious opposites, are actually unified at a deeper level.
Although on the philosophical path pioneered by Socrates, Plato turned to the left and Aristotle to the right. But they had the same sky above their heads and their feet on the same piece of ground. The reason why they have the same sky above their heads is that the two of them have the same purpose in establishing a philosophical system, both in order to seek the ontology and to know the truth of the world hidden behind the ontology. The reason they set foot on the same piece of ground is because both of their philosophical systems are based on a common foundation. This basis is logical argumentation. This is also one of the biggest differences between Western philosophy and Eastern philosophy.
Many of Aristotle's criticisms of Plato were well-founded and to the point. But many of his own ideas also contained major flaws. For example, in terms of state institutions, he opposed the Republic but advocated slavery. Another example is the blatant claim that women are slaves to men in the relations between men and women. "Women are like slaves and masters to men." He wrote that "women are unfinished men, at a lower level of development. Although these views of his are easy to arouse the disgust and discomfort of our modern people. But for Athens at that time, it was indeed practical.
Advocacy for slavery and discrimination against women epitomize the conservative and backward side of his philosophy. If the greatest flaw in Plato's philosophy is that it is so idealistic that many of his ideas seem unrealistic. The flaws of Aristotle's philosophy, then, are just the opposite. His philosophy was so realistic that it appeared stubborn and conservative in many ways.
In the history of Western philosophy, Plato's philosophy and Aristotle's philosophy have obvious advantages, but at the same time have fatal flaws. And their respective strengths and weaknesses are often revealed through each other. This also reflects from one side that the philosophical system of the two of them is actually a contradiction. From a dialectical point of view, Aristotle's philosophy is actually the "anti-theme" of Plato's philosophy.
We will end here in the discussion of the contradictory relationship between Aristotle and Plato's philosophy, and the next thing we need to know is Aristotle's scientific system and its identity as the founder of Western science.
From the time of Socrates, ancient Greek philosophy began to have a tendency to value ideals over reality; Emphasis on abstract theory over concrete things; Valuing humanity over nature.
The positive significance of this tendency is that the philosophical study of Socrates and Plato's master and apprentice has reached an unprecedented height. They have achieved many important results in political, ethical, moral and other aspects. However, the so-called success is also Xiao He, and defeat is also Xiao He. The negative significance of this tendency is also impossible to ignore. By referring to the examples of China's modern history, we can imagine the serious consequences that might be brought about if this tendency is allowed to continue to develop.
However, such a catastrophe never happened in the West, in large part because they had Aristotle. Aristotle almost single-handedly reversed the undesirable tendency of ancient Greek philosophy since Socrates to despise the study of natural sciences, and pioneered independent research in astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, logic, and other disciplines.
It can be said that in the above disciplines, being able to independently create any one of them is already a great achievement. Aristotle, however, spanned many fields and built a complete and imposing scientific system.
In many of aristotle's scientific research areas, his greatest achievements were in biology and geography. In astronomy, physics, and chemistry, his research has either stalled or gone in error. The reason for this situation is actually closely related to the backward technical conditions of Athens at that time.
So, let's talk specifically about Aristotle's outstanding contributions in biology and geography.
It is said that Aristotle built a private zoo with the support of his disciple Alexander in order to carry out his biological research. It was also in this zoo that his biological research made breakthroughs.
In his biology paper, Animal Structure, he wrote: "Life is steadily moving towards complexity and strength; With the complexity of the structure and the agility of the form, the intelligence also grows accordingly; Specialized functions gradually arose, and physiological control gradually became more concentrated. Seeing this passage of Aristotle's statement, do you feel an inexplicable sense of familiarity? Because this passage of its discourse is actually very close to the modern Darwinian theory of evolution. Although we cannot rely on this to say that Aristotle discovered the theory of evolution, his achievement is still remarkable. Because this is the first attempt in human history to explore biological evolution from a scientific point of view.
In geography, Aristotle, through his own observations, put forward the following idea: the world is cyclical, the sun evaporates rivers, lakes and seas to form steam, rising steam gathers into clouds, and rain falls to the ground, filling the rivers and oceans. He also believed that Egypt was a 'work' of the Nile, the product of his centuries of sedimentation.
In the face of these knowledge points of geography in middle and high school, you are not equally familiar with it. But who would have thought that this was a contribution from the ancient Greek aristotle thousands of years ago?
In fact, as this copy is written here, the lord himself suddenly has such a doubt: That is, in the field of science, did our backwardness really begin in the Ming and Qing dynasties? How do I feel that since the time of ancient Greece our science has begun to lag behind the West?
Throughout his life, Plato adhered to the ideal that he himself would train a philosophical king. Unfortunately, until his death, his ideal could not be realized in the end.
However, life is like this, and even the greatest people cannot escape the trickery of fate. Plato dreamed of becoming a prince's teacher, but fate did not give him such an opportunity. Then, fate gave this opportunity to Aristotle, who had no intention of cultivating a philosophical king. And the prince who was sent to the door by fate was Alexander the Great, who later became famous.
Alexander studied under Aristotle for three years, during which he did not become a philosopher, but learned from Aristotle the respect and love of ancient Greek culture.
In 334 BC, Alexander began his journey to conquer the world. He unified Greece, conquered Egypt, destroyed Persia, and eventually fought all the way to India. With Alexander's crusade, ancient Greek culture was also spread all the way to the East.
After a long period of the Middle Ages, the ancient Greek culture was relatively intact preserved, and Alexander's crusade played an almost decisive role. This is also Alexander's most important contribution to philosophy.
In 323 BC, Alexander came to the end of his life. On his deathbed, when someone asked who should be his successor, he replied, "The strongest."
After alexander's death, anti-Macedonian forces rose up in Athens. In anger, the Athenians burned the fury of hatred at Alexander's teacher, Aristotle. Faced with the same dangerous situation as Socrates, Aristotle chose to flee. His last words to the students, just before he was about to flee Athens, were: "I cannot give the athenian people a second chance to commit crimes against philosophy." ”
Shortly after fleeing Athens, the great man died in a lonely exile. The best characters have the most tragic endings, which have long been seen in human history.