Science

Major Works

Aristotle's works on logic were collected into the Organon (Instrument, Tool), which is comprised of several treatises, including Categories, On Interpretation, Prior and Posterior Analytics, and Topics. Categories is concerned with the structure of language, and the classification of the various elements that constitute the nature of any entity. On Interpretation also focuses on the structure of language, as well as on the nature of truth. Often considered the more significant treatises of the Organon, the two Analytics treat scientific knowledge and formal logic. In Topics Aristotle discuses the proper analysis of a proposition.

While Aristotle wrote numerous treatises on animals, concerned with their history, parts, and motion, the most frequently discussed of the biological treatises appears to be On the Generation of Animals. This work deals with the contributions of males and females to the creation of new life and also explores the means by which the soul is transmitted to the new individual.

Although On the Generation of Animals, like many of Aristotle's works in other fields, touches in some respect on the soul, De Anima is devoted to this topic. In this treatise, Aristotle formulates his theory of the soul. The work concentrates on sensation, thought, imagination, and reason, and is considered to be the first definitive work on the topic of psychology.

Physics treats what Aristotle referred to as "natural philosophy," and examines such topics as nature, cause, and motion. In this work, Aristotle explicates his doctrine regarding the four causes of physical change.

Textual History

Little is known about the fate of Aristotle's works after his death. It is believed by some scholars that for about two hundred years the works were either lost or hidden. They were discovered by Sulla (178-38 B.C.) and brought to Rome. Modern editions of Aristotle's works derive from Roman editions dating back to the late first century B.C. In the Middle Ages, Latin and Arabic translations broadened the influence of Aristotle's teachings; his philosophy was studied by St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-74) and later by Francis Bacon (1561-1626), who adopted Aristotle's doctrine of the four causes. As relatively few of Aristotle's writings can be

dated with any degree of accuracy, the focus of nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars has been on determining the chronological development of the works.

Critical Reception

Michael V. Wedin opens his discussion of Aristotle's doctrine of the soul with an observation on Aristotle's contribution to logic, noting that he provided "the first virtually complete system of certain kinds of logical inference. It is for this reason that we rank him as the inventor of the science of logic." It seems that few critics dispute this point; rather, they attempt to illuminate Aristotle's logical theories. J. M. E. Moravcsik focused on Aristotle's theory of categories, examining in particular the relationship between language and reality. Moravcsik has argued that while Aristotle did not regard the structure of language as parallel to the structure of reality, he did believe that the correlation between specific items of language and reality revealed a significant link between the two. Similarly, G. E. R. Lloyd has explored the doctrine of categories, as well as the syllogism, and the concept of scientific knowledge. Lloyd praises Aristotle's work on logic as "particularly comprehensive, very largely original, and for the most part eminently lucid." Compared to Moravcsik and Lloyd, Michael T. Ferejohn has offered a decidedly more technical approach in his analysis of Aristotle's doctrine of logical priority and how this doctrine developed from Aristotle's approach to the concept of necessary truth.

Many modern critics approach Aristotle's biological and psychological works from a similar angle: they probe what appears to be revealed in The Generation of Animals and On the Soul as Aristotle's distinctly misogynistic or sexist views. Lynda Lange has argued that Aristotle characterizes women as inferior, particularly as demonstrated in Aristotle's description of the respective contributions of man and woman to the generation of new life. Yet Lange maintains that despite this "unacceptable" characterization, Aristotle nevertheless offers an explanation consistent with his biological theories. Daryl McGowan Tress, on the other hand, has defended Aristotle against such criticism, presenting Aristotle's assertion that the male and female together are the "principles of generation." Tress emphasizes that any seeming inequality between the sexes in Aristotle's theories is a product of Aristotle's attempt to address certain philosophic problems, and does not arise from any sexism or misogyny on his part. Aristotle's treatment of the human soul is similarly dissected. Christine M. Senack has examined Aristotle's division of the soul into rational and irrational parts, as well as his claim that the rational part of the woman's soul does not have authority over the irrational part, thereby making her socially inferior to the man. Senack has concluded that as Aristotle's views on this matter are a product either of inaccurate data produced by the scientific community of his era, or of the cultural bias against women in ancient Greece, he is not to be considered a misogynist. Michael V. Wedin has offered a different approach to Aristotle's doctrine of the soul, providing a technical analysis that focuses on the soul as a functional and cognitive system.

One of the main critical issues regarding Aristotle's Physics focuses on the doctrine of the four causes. After examining the modern resistance to Aristotle's philosophical, non-mathematical approach to physics, Joe Sachs has discussed the content of the treatise, including Aristotle's views on motion and the four causes. The four causes of motion include material, form, the "external source of motion" (which Sachs notes is sometimes inaccurately termed "efficient cause"), and final cause. Sachs briefly touches on the relation of purpose to final cause, a topic to which David Bolotin has devoted much attention. Bolotin has identified final cause as "the end or purpose for which something comes into being or for which it exists." In his analysis of Aristotle's notion of final causality, Bolotin has also called attention to problem areas in Aristotle's treatment of "natural purpose."