Philosophy Aristotle Study Questions

What are the dates of Aristotle's birth and death?

Birth: 384 B.C.

Death: 322 B.C.

Aristotle was a student of

Plato at his school, the Academy.

What is the name of the school Aristotle founded and taught?

The Lyceum.

What is another name for this school, given because Aristotle taught his students while they walked together?

The Peripatetic School.

Who was the most famous student of Aristotle?

Alexander the Great

What was the charge against Aristotle, which lead him to be exiled?

impiety

What are the three disciplines within science of which Aristotle is the father?

1. Biology

2. Physics

3. Astronomy

What are the two forms of logic that Aristotle systematized?

1. Syllogism

2. Enthymeme

How does Aristotle define rhetoric?

The laws of probability.

In his Poetics, what is the term Aristotle uses to describe the cleansing of emotion through the viewing of tragedy?

Catharsis

What is the principle of "balance" that Aristotle describes in his Nicomachean Ethics?

The Golden mean.

Complete Aristotle's famous saying:

"Man is, by nature, a _____ animal."

POLITICAL

Whereas Plato's starting point is in meditation and introspection (of his Ideal-Form), what is Aristotle's starting point?

The sense perception.

Since everything has a cause, how does Aristotle explain the existence of the matter (or the material reality)?

The eternal existence of the matter.

What is the term that Thomas Acquinas uses to explain God as the First Cause?

The 1st Mover.

Name Aristotle's Four Causes.

The MATERIAL Cause: the raw material (substratum) (e.g., wood).

The FORMAL or Essential Cause: the material with intention (e.g., a plan of a table).

The EFFICIENT Cause: an agent working on the material (e.g., a carpenter using wood to build a table).

The FINAL Cause: the completed form (e.g., dining on the table).