Aristotle also tended to stratify all aspects of human nature and activity into levels of excellence and, like Plato, he put the pure and unimpassioned intellect on the top level.

Plato and Aristotle agree on some vital literary issues.

Aristotle " says that ' on the subject of reasoning ' he ' had nothing else on an earlier date to speak of '".

The first Greek Christians to comment extensively on Aristotle were John Philoponus, Elias, and David in the sixth century, and Stephen of Alexandria in the early seventh century.

Averroes, Avicenna and Alpharabius, who wrote on Aristotle in great depth, also influenced Thomas Aquinas and other Western Christian scholastic philosophers.

Ayn Rand accredited Aristotle as " the greatest philosopher in history " and cited him as a major influence on her thinking.

The secondary literature on Aristotle is vast.

Essays on Plato and Aristotle, Oxford University Press, USA.

Articles on Aristotle Vol 1.

* Scholarly surveys of focused topics from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: articles on Aristotle, Aristotle in the Renaissance, Biology, Causality, Commentators on Aristotle, Ethics, Logic, Mathematics, Metaphysics, Natural philosophy, Non-contradiction, Political theory, Psychology, Rhetoric

Category: Commentators on Aristotle

Albertus was the first to comment on virtually all of the writings of Aristotle, thus making them accessible to wider academic debate.

The study of Aristotle brought him to study and comment on the teachings of Muslim academics, notably Avicenna and Averroes, and this would bring him in the heart of academic debate.

Two aspects of this attitude deserve to be mentioned: 1 ) he did not only study science from books, as other academics did in his day, but actually observed and experimented with nature ( the rumours starting by those who did not understand this are probably at the source of Albert's supposed connections with alchemy and witchcraft ), 2 ) he took from Aristotle the view that scientific method had to be appropriate to the objects of the scientific discipline at hand ( in discussions with Roger Bacon, who, like many 20th century academics, thought that all science should be based on mathematics ).

On the subject of alchemy and chemistry, many treatises relating to Alchemy have been attributed to him, though in his authentic writings he had little to say on the subject, and then mostly through commentary on Aristotle.

Category: Latin commentators on Aristotle

The press was started by Aldus based on his love of classics, and at first printed new copies of Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek and Latin classics.

Substance and Predication in Aristotle.

The notion of a static unchanging Form and its identity with Substance represents the metaphysical view that has come to be held as an assumption by the vast majority of the Western philosophical tradition since Plato and Aristotle, as it was something they agreed on.

* Thomas Taylor, The Physics or Physical Auscultation of Aristotle: with Copious Notes in Which Is Given the Substance of the Invaluable Commentaries of Simplicius ( 1806 ) ( republished by Prometheus Trust, 2000 ) ISBN 1-898910-18-9

** David Charles, " Aristotle on Substance, Essence and Biological Kinds ," Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy 7 ( 1991 ), 227-61.

In this work, Maimonides, after refuting the propositions of the Motekallamin, considers Creation, the Unity of God, the Attributes of God, the Soul, etc., and treats them in accordance with the theories of Aristotle to the extent in which these latter do not conflict with religion.

* ( co-editor Theodore Scaltsas and Mary Louise Gill ) Unity, Identity and Explanation in Aristotle ’ s Metaphysics ( 1994 )

The word `` mimesis '' ( `` imitation '' ) is usually associated with Plato and Aristotle.

But Aristotle kept the principle of levels and even augmented it by describing in the Poetics what kinds of character and action must be imitated if the play is to be a vehicle of serious and important human truths.

For both Plato and Aristotle artistic mimesis, in contrast to the power of dialectic, is relatively incapable of expressing the character of fundamental reality.

so, e.g. did Aristotle argue, although this may not be an observational reason in favor of circularity.

Additional philosophical considerations, advanced notably by Aristotle, supported further the circularity principle.

By distinguishing superlunary ( celestial ) and sublunary ( terrestrial ) existence, and reinforcing this with the four-element physics of Empedocles, Aristotle came to speak of the stars as perfect bodies, which moved in only a perfect way, viz. in a perfect circle.

Because motion which begins and ends at discrete places would ( e.g. for Aristotle ) be incomplete.

While Aristotle censors literature only for the young, Plato would banish all poets from his ideal state.

Even more important, in his Poetics, Aristotle differs somewhat from Plato when he moves in the direction of treating literature as a unique thing, separate and apart from its causes and its effects.

By the time they reach that age, however, Aristotle no longer worries about the evil influence of comedies.

Throughout the rest of the Poetics, Aristotle continues to discuss the characteristics of these six parts and their interrelationship, and he refers frequently to the standards suggested by his definition of tragedy.

The Chicago contingent of modern critics follow Aristotle so far in this direction that it is hard to see how they can compare one poem with another for the purpose of evaluation.

For one thing, Aristotle mentions that plays may corrupt the audience.

In his study Samuel Johnson, Joseph Wood Krutch takes this line when he says that what Aristotle really means by his theory of catharsis is that our evil passions may be so purged by the dramatic ritual that it is `` less likely that we shall indulge them through our own acts ''.

Both sides claimed that Plato and Aristotle supported their cause.

Rembrandt's `` Aristotle Contemplating Bust of Homer '' brought $2,300,000 at auction the other night.

Both Aristotle and Homer may in spirit be contemplating `` bust '' of the old-fashioned American dollar.

Aristotle (, Aristotélēs ) ( 384 BC – 322 BC ) was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great.

Together with Plato and Socrates ( Plato's teacher ), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy.

Though Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues ( Cicero described his literary style as " a river of gold "), it is thought that the majority of his writings are now lost and only about one-third of the original works have survived.

Aristotle, whose name means " the best purpose ," was born in Stageira, Chalcidice, in 384 BC, about east of modern-day Thessaloniki.

Aristotle was trained and educated as a member of the aristocracy.

Aristotle remained at the academy for nearly twenty years before quitting Athens in 348 / 47 BC.