Aristotelianism

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Aristotelian is the name given to the scientific system that was developed from the ideas of the Greek philosopher Aristotle . His successors are known as the Aristotelian or Peripatetic .

Overview

Aristotle marks the end of a generational development of philosophical thought and was at the same time the founder of a new tradition. He led the thinkers of his time from the heights of the Platonic visions to the fertile lowlands of empirical science . Hence the contradicting judgments about his work in the period that followed. Since then, scholars have studied and interpreted his work. His statements were highly valued, but also misunderstood, sometimes condemned or reformed. Aristotle interpreters first worked in Greece, the Greek-speaking area of ​​the Hellenistic period, Rome and North Africa; later from Persia to Armenia, Syria, Sicily, Spain to the British Isles, and finally in the late Middle Ages scholars all over Europe dealt with Aristotle.

For centuries the main strand of the Aristotle tradition was the Greek-speaking line in the eastern Mediterranean; in the 4th century AD the Latin branch developed, which flourished again in the 9th and 12th centuries in Italy. Also in the 4th century, the schools in Athens and Alexandria developed into fruitful offshoots in Syria and Armenia. From the Syrian branch, in turn, the Islamic Enlightenment grew into an extensive, mostly Arabic-speaking tradition in the 9th century, in which not only Arabs but also Jews, Syrians, Persians and later Turks were active. In the 12th century, both Constantinople and Spain embarked on a new wave that affected Western Europe. After the fall of Constantinople (1453), Greek-speaking experts - and documents - came once more to the West and influenced the philosophy there.

Starting points

Aristotle is still influential today through his logical methodology, empirical testing of traditional opinions and philosophical vocabulary. He is the first to form a system of formal logic : he works out a complete theory of judgments and conclusions , definitions and proofs , scientific classifications and methods. He "invented" the ten categories and four types of causes . He established the rules of thought of identity , contradiction and exclusion and developed the syllogism . This system is - even if formal deficiencies were later demonstrated - “as important as it is admirable” ( Egon Friedell ).

The extent to which Aristotle has influenced the way of thinking in the western world to this day can hardly be overestimated. The critical questioning of doctrines , which the Sophists had already rudimentarily introduced into philosophy, became his method. Not only logical conclusions, but also experience are helpful (turning away from pure speculation , as it has been handed down, for example, by Parmenides ). While in his epistemology general statements should have priority over individual phenomena, in his metaphysics the universals take a back seat to the individual objects. Those are even considered to be superfluous, since they only represent "duplications" of realities. Since God (not “the gods”!) Is the ultimate cause of all action, the world has to keep developing - a positivist religion. The soul is the form of the body, its life principle. This goes down with him. According to the spirit ( nous , thyrathen ) the soul is immortal. Only as a life principle is the soul mortal (separation from the body). The latter is obvious anyway.

Ultimately, his way of thinking had far-reaching influence over the vocabulary (in original Greek or Latin derivatives) that he coined. In addition to word pairs such as energy and potential , matter and its form , substance and essence , quantity and quality , gender and species , subject and predicate , etc., there are forms such as cause ( causa ), relationship ( relatio ) or property ( accident ).

Antiquity

Aristotle's teaching exerted far less influence on his school, the Peripatos , after his death than did Plato's teaching on his academy . Aristotle was given no veneration comparable to that of Plato among the Platonists. This meant on the one hand the ability to criticize, openness and flexibility, on the other hand a lack of substantive cohesion: Aristoxenus built a bridge to Pythagorean teachings, Critolaus came close to the providence doctrine of the Stoics , while Clearchus von Soloi sought a connection with Plato in the doctrine of the soul . The Peripatetic devoted themselves mainly to empirical natural research and dealt among other things. a. also with ethics , the theory of the soul and the theory of the state. Aristotle's pupil Theophrastus , his successor as head of the school, and his successor Straton von Lampsakos came to partially different results than the school's founder. A period of decline began after Straton's death (270/268 BC). Already two generations after his death, the teachings of Aristotle were largely neglected and remained in the shadow of the Stoics, Epicureans and the skeptics during the Hellenistic period .

The study and commentary on the writings of Aristotle was apparently neglected in the Peripatos, in any case far less zealous than the study of Plato in the competing academy. Only in the first century BC Chr. Provided Andronicus of Rhodes for a reliable compilation of "esoteric" treatises (lectures) of Aristotle. The Peripatetics viewed the textbooks as specifically intended for their internal teaching use. The “exoteric” writings intended for the public, especially the dialogues, were popular for a long time, but were lost during the Roman Empire. Cicero still knew it and strongly promoted its spread.

Andronikos of Rhodes and Boethius tried to systematize the writings on the teachings of Aristotle and - especially against the Stoics - to defend them. The renewed turn to Aristotle took place in very different forms (the commentary later developed into the authoritative form) and partly contradicting doctrinal opinions. Aristotle was not (yet) regarded as the authority to be followed without criticism, but as a thinker whose views and conclusions are worth studying in detail. Nikolaos of Damascus, however - in the footsteps of Andronicus - turned it into an Aristotle school.

In the Roman Empire (first half of the second century AD) it was Adrast of Aphrodisias and Aspasios who wrote basic commentaries on the categories ; they were still used by Plotinus and Porphyry three generations later . Aspasius' commentary on ethics is the oldest surviving commentary on an Aristotelian text. Around the turn of the third century AD, the most influential representative of Aristotelianism was Alexander of Aphrodisias , who was soon considered to be the most authentic mediator of Aristotle and who defended the mortality of the soul against the Platonists. Alexander was not the first, but rather the last authentic interpreter of Aristotle, because after him the Neoplatonists took over the further commentary. He did not take an independent position, but tried very loyally to expound the teacher's original thoughts, avoiding any criticism and trying to iron out contradictions. Aristotle, for example, had insisted that the individual object alone was "real", but nevertheless affirmed that the general was the object of our knowledge. Alexander tried the synthesis with the statement that the individual objects had priority over the universals, which in turn were "only" abstractions that only had (subjective) right to exist in the knowing spirit. From this interpretation arose - much later - the classification of Aristotle as the "father of nominalism ".

Although Aristotle attached great importance to the refutation of core elements of Platonism, it was precisely the Neoplatonists who made a significant contribution to the preservation and dissemination of his legacy in late antiquity by adopting his logic, commenting on it and integrating it into their system. They did not want to revive and preserve Aristotle's theories for their own sake, but rather to bring about correspondence between Plato and Aristotle and interpret the teachings of the latter as part of the same theoretical structure (the Platonic). The categories in particular played an important role here, because this - difficult to understand - script was considered a fundamental introduction to philosophy as a whole. With the rise of the Neoplatonists, the number of commentaries on this increased rather than decreased. Porphyrios (Plotin's pupil) and Iamblichus played a particularly important role in this in the 3rd century AD, Proclus in the 5th century and finally Simplikios in the 6th century , who wrote important commentaries on Aristotle. With the Isagogue, Porphyrios wrote a groundbreaking introduction to Aristotelian logic; this later served as a standard work for first-year students in the Byzantine Empire, the Arab world and in the Catholic West. Porphyrios tried to solve the dilemma of the primacy of realities, already dealt with by Alexander, in such a way that he did not classify the categories as a fundamental writing on ontology , but as a writing on the meaning of the objects of knowledge for us. In the 4th century, Themistios wrote paraphrases to works by Aristotle, which - especially in the western Mediterranean (Latin branch) - had a strong aftereffect. He was the only Aristotelian among the late antique commentators; the others sought a synthesis of Platonic and Aristotelian conceptions.

A philosophy student like Proklos first had to deal with the categories , then logic , ethics , politics , and physics . After these non-theological writings came the study of metaphysics , with which the Aristotelian writings were completed. It was only when the student was familiar with Aristotle's concept of God that it was the turn of Plato's dialogues . Aristotle was thus indispensable for the Neoplatonists (similar to earlier for the Stoics), but only methodological preparatory work for Timaeus and Parmenides . In the late 5th century, the Proclus pupil Ammonios went to Alexandria , which at that time was much more liberal than Athens . Christian and pagan researchers could live and work there together.

Aristotle was greatly valued by the prominent ancient church father John of Damascus (who in the western churches is considered to have completed the teaching of the church fathers). John was particularly concerned with metaphysics and logic ( dialectics ). His writings reflect the teaching of Aristotle very precisely, as Emil Dobler has examined in detail. John lived in the Islamic Empire and was trained by an Italian-Greek monk named Kosma more than 100 years before the first Aristotle translation into Arabic. He is considered the first scholastic. His Aristotelianism was the basis of Aristotelianism in Scholasticism, especially its ecdosis and dialectic . John of Damascus was the playmate of the later caliph Yazid I, in whose empire later Islamic interest in Aristotle awoke.

Some Platonizing Church Fathers disliked Aristotle, especially dialectics. They assumed that he considered the universe to be uncreated and immortal and that he doubted the immortality of the soul (or, according to their understanding, denied it). However, the principles of the Isagogue of Porphyrios and the ten categories of Aristotle were used more or less openly by Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita and thus became part of Christian Orthodox theology in the entire Mediterranean region in the subsequent period. The Aristotelian dialectic as well as terms (such as substance, essence, accident, form and matter) also proved to be helpful in formulating Christian dogmas , for example describing God and distinguishing the three elements of the Trinity . And from the three hypostases ( the one , the spirit and the soul ) that appeared in Plotinus and Porphyry, the way to the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity was not far.

On the other hand, some Christian Gnostics and other heretical Christians had a more positive relationship with Aristotle : Arians ( Aëtios , Eunomius ), Monophysites , Pelagians and Nestorians . Nestorian Christians - trained in Athens and Egypt respectively - introduced scholars in Syria and Armenia to Aristotle; Syrians - Monophysite as well as Nestorian - translated the Organon into their language and dealt intensively with it.

In the 6th century it was especially the Neoplatonist Simplikios who continued the Aristotle tradition. After Justinian I closed the pagan (Neoplatonic) school of philosophy in Athens in 529, Simplikios went to Persia with six other philosophers , as the local ruler Chosrau I was said to have a great affinity for Greek philosophy (although the seven philosophers had already returned shortly thereafter returned to the Empire). His commentary on the categories (and their comments), which he wrote there, provides the best and most detailed overview of Aristotle's reception in late antiquity and had the greatest influence. Around the same time, Johannes Philoponos wrote commentaries on Aristotle, in which he also sharply criticized Aristotelian cosmology and physics. With his impetus theory, he was a forerunner of late medieval and early modern criticism of the Aristotelian movement theory .

middle Ages

middle East

Medieval representation of Aristotle

The religious and national movements of the 5th and 6th centuries (especially Nestorians and Monophysites) led to new foundations in Antioch and Edessa , also in the Sassanid Empire . These survived the Islamic invasion after 640 largely unscathed, indeed they were able to increase their influence in the following generations. The effects of Aristotle's works began early in the Islamic world and were broader and deeper than in late antiquity and in the European early and high Middle Ages. Although the application was initially largely limited to the use of logic in theological questions, Aristotelianism soon dominated qualitatively and quantitatively over the rest of the ancient tradition. As early as the 9th century, most of Aristotle's works - mostly translated by Syrian Christians - were available in Arabic, as were ancient commentaries. In addition, there was an abundance of fake ( pseudo-Aristotelian ) literature, some of which had Neoplatonic content. The latter included writings such as the theology of Aristotle and the Kalam fi mahd al-khair ( Liber de causis ). When the caliph Al-Ma'mun established the Arab study center in Baghdad in the 9th century , Syrian Christians were significantly involved. (Four centuries later, the encyclopedist Bar-Hebraeus - called Gregorius or Abu al-Faraj - used the Syrian language of his predecessors for his comprehensive account of the Aristotelian writings.)

The Aristotelian ideas were mixed with Neoplatonic ideas from the beginning, and it was believed - as in late antiquity - that the teachings of Plato and Aristotle were in agreement. In this sense, al-Kindī (9th century for the first time in Arabic) and al-Farabi (10th century) and the later tradition that followed them interpreted Aristotelianism. However, it was only the following philosophers, ibn Sina ( Avicenna ) and ibn Rušd ( Averroes ), who really integrated Aristotelian ideas into Islam.

With ibn Sina in the 11th century the Neoplatonic element came to the fore even more. From Aristotle's work, the systematist ibn Sina created a much more cohesive structure of ideas than any thinker before. A relatively pure Aristotelianism, on the other hand, was represented in Spain in the 12th century by Maure ibn Rušd (Averroes), who wrote numerous commentaries and defended Aristotelian philosophy against al-Ghazali . In contrast to the thinkers of the early Middle Ages, for him philosophy - especially the Aristotelian - was not just a methodological aid for theological considerations and revelation. Rather, in his view, philosophy was synonymous with truth, and Aristotle the pattern of the perfect thinker. For a rationalist like Averroes, faith and scripture ( Quran ) were secondary at best.

Throughout the Middle Ages, Jews also studied Aristotle, primarily in the large Jewish community in Egypt, Israel, Mesopotamia, North Africa, and Spain. The Jewish philosophers Saadia Gaon and Abraham ibn Daud integrate Aristotelianism mixed with Neoplatonism into Jewish philosophy as a reaction to the Islamic kalām . From Saadia Gaon to Maimonides , the Aristotelian philosophy appears in an increasingly prominent form and is integrated with the tradition of Judaism. The main problem for these philosophers was the relationship between philosophy and Judaism. The book of Articles of Faith and Dogmas ( Emunot we-Deot ) by Saadia Gaon and the Leader of the Undecided by Maimonides, which laid the foundations for the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas , and the philosophical (and astronomical) writings of Levi ben Gershon and became particularly well known of Abraham ibn Daud. Isaak ben Salomon Israeli and Solomon ibn Gabirol ( Avicebron ) remained mainly Neoplatonists.

Byzantine Empire

In the Byzantine Empire of the early Middle Ages, Aristotle received comparatively little attention. His influence was mainly felt indirectly, namely through the mostly Neo-Platonic-minded authors of late antiquity who had adopted parts of his teaching. Therefore - as shown above - mixing with Neoplatonic ideas was given from the start. In the case of John of Damascus , an 8th century doctor of the church, the Aristotelian component emerges clearly. The Byzantine renaissance of the 9th century then also led to a renewed interest in Aristotle: Photios I , Patriarch of Constantinople, listed the main features of Aristotelian logic in his encyclopedia. In the 11th and 12th centuries there was a revival of interest in Aristotelian philosophy in Byzantium: Michael Psellos , Johannes Italos and his pupil Eustratios von Nikaia (both condemned for heresy ) as well as the primarily philologically oriented Michael of Ephesus wrote comments. This time the interest wasn't limited to logic; rather, his entire work was discussed and taught at the newly opened academy in Byzantium, such as his politics, ethics and biology. The imperial daughter Anna Komnena promoted these efforts.

Occident

In the Latin Middle Ages, from the Carolingian Renaissance to the 12th century, only a small part of Aristotle's complete works was distributed, namely two of the logical writings ( Categories and De interpretatione ) that Boethius had translated and commented on in the early 6th century, together with the introduction (the isagogue ) of Porphyry to the theory of categories. This literature, later called Logica vetus , formed the basis of logic lessons. Dialectics was seen as an important aid and used for problems such as the Trinity , the change in the Eucharist , but also individuality and universals. Abelard especially thought philosophy was an effective means of illuminating the truth. In doing so, however - like ibn Rušd - he ventured a little too far, because according to the prevailing opinion, the truth should only come from belief.

The narrow limitation to the few logical scripts changed with the great translation movement of the 12th and 13th centuries. After Toledo was retaken by the Christians in 1085, they were able to use the local Islamic-Judeo-Christian translation school. Through the mediation of the Saracen- influenced school in Salerno , people began to be interested in scientific writings and metaphysics at the turn of the 13th century . In the 12th century the previously missing logical writings ( Analytiken , Topik , Sophistici elenchi ) became available in Latin through Jacob of Venice ; they made the Logica nova off. Then one by one almost all of the remaining works were added (some not until the 13th century): Robert Grosseteste with the Nicomachean Ethics , Vom Himmel and Wilhelm von Moerbeke - both with significantly improved translations and revisions. Most of the scriptures have been translated into Latin several times; either from Arabic or - more often and earlier - from Greek. Gerhard von Cremona worked in Toledo , Michael Scotus translated Aristotle's commentaries by Averroes from Arabic. They were eagerly used, which led to the emergence of Latin averroism in the second half of the 13th century , which was a relatively consistent Aristotelianism for the time (especially with Siger von Brabant , who - although legally condemned for heresy - by the Aristotelian Dante im Paradise was placed). In England, Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon were particularly active as commentators on scientific writings.

The “pagan” philosophies of Aristotle and the Arabs as well as Averroism, especially the theses of the eternity of the world and the absolute validity of the laws of nature (exclusion of miracles), gave rise to fears that the Church's teachings would be called into question. As a result, in 1210, 1215, 1231 and 1245 as well as in 1270 and finally on March 7, 1277 by Bishop Étienne Tempier of Paris, ecclesiastical condemnations of so-called "errors" of the Aristotelian teachings. They were directed against the natural philosophical writings or against individual theses, but could only temporarily inhibit the triumph of Aristotelianism. On the contrary: they aroused curiosity and triggered all the more detailed studies and discussions.

In the course of the thirteenth century Aristotle's writings became the standard textbooks for the basis of scholastic science at universities (in the faculty of the liberal arts); In 1255 his logic, natural philosophy and ethics were prescribed as subjects in this faculty of the Paris University. The leading role came to the Paris and Oxford universities. The Aristotle's commentaries by Albertus Magnus were pioneering - although as a Dominican he was particularly committed to the defense of faith and pure doctrine. He also used Arabic sources to make the Aristotelian natural philosophy accessible to all western scholars as far as possible. Writing Aristotle's commentaries became one of the main occupations of the Masters, and many of them considered the commented textbooks to be practically error-free. In addition to the Aristotelian methodology, the theory of science was studied intensively in order to use it as the basis for a hierarchically ordered system of the sciences. Aristotle became “the philosopher” par excellence: with Philosophus (without addition) only he was meant, with Commentator Averroes. Especially in epistemology and anthropology, supporters of the Platonically influenced teachings of Augustine represented opposing positions, especially Franciscans ("Franciscan School"). Finally, the Aristotelian system of teaching ( Thomism ), modified and further developed by the Dominican Thomas Aquinas, prevailed, first in his order and later in the entire church. Thomas had tried very carefully to extract the original Aristotelian ideas. However, he took considerable liberties when he felt it necessary: ​​on questions that Aristotle had left open or when he had to compromise himself. For example with the (old) question of whether the soul is immortal. In such cases he approached the Church Father Augustine or even the Neo-Platonists or Avicenna.

The disputes over the bans soon led to a split in "philosophy": from now on, "truth" was taught at the theological faculty, while "philosophy" was taught at the faculty of the liberal arts . Two kinds of truth thus coexisted: the revealed truth of faith and the truth of logic; analogously there were two different thinkers named Aristotle: that of Averroes and that of Thomas Aquinas.

Independently of these developments, certain Neoplatonic writings were still - wrongly - attributed to Aristotle, which distorted the overall picture of his philosophy.

Even in the 14th century, the various schools of scholastic philosophy had a common basis in Aristotle, even if they interpreted him differently. Not only Thomism, but also the teachings of Duns Scotus or William Ockham were not possible without reference to the basic tenets of Aristotle. In this phase of the awakening rationalism in Europe, the averroistic variant of Aristotelianism was particularly attractive. This was followed by considerations in politics that anticipated Macchiavelli , the socio-political demands of Johann von Jandun or Marsilius von Padua . The Mertonians at Oxford and - in France - Jean Buridan or Nikolaus von Oresme made the first attempts to move from empiricism to mathematical representation, to replace the medieval concept of quality with quantity . (However, this step was only taken by the Aristotle opponents Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton .) After all, considerations about the speed of fall and acceleration laid the basis for the first critical engagement with Aristotelianism. In the conflict between tradition and empiricism , tradition was often tied to Aristotle. With the increasing appreciation of new, verifiable empirical results, the polemic was sometimes associated with assuming that researchers who think differently had excessive adherence to tradition (as the reason for their opinions differing from their own position). Galileo then appeared as an “opponent of Aristotle”, although he - against Johannes Kepler - stuck to the orbit of the heavenly planets.

Modern times

In the 15th century, the focus of the study of Aristotle shifted from Paris and Oxford to Italy. During the Renaissance, humanists produced new, much more readable translations of Aristotle into Latin, and the original Greek texts were also read. In this context, Greeks who had fled from Asia Minor became important manuscript suppliers and translators, such as Bessarion . Even Leonardo Bruni and Lorenzo Valla imported Greek manuscripts. The publisher Aldo Manutio , active in Venice, printed almost all of the writings ascribed to Aristotle shortly before 1500, in the original Greek. The appearance of new translations from Greek, Hebrew and Arabic of both Aristotle's and Averroes' commentaries allowed critical text comparisons for the first time. There was a violent dispute between the Platonists and the Aristotelians, with the majority of the humanists involved tending towards Plato. In the Renaissance, however, there were also important Aristotelians such as Pietro Pomponazzi (1462–1525) and Jacopo Zabarella (1533–1589), and there were more Aristotle commentaries in the West than during the entire Middle Ages, which can be divided into groups according to tendencies Alexandrian , Averroistic or Thomistic . As in the Middle Ages, there was a tendency among many Renaissance scholars to reconcile Platonic and Aristotelian viewpoints with one another and with Catholic theology and anthropology. But since the 15th century, thanks to better access to the sources, it has been possible to better understand the extent of the fundamental contradictions between Platonism, Aristotelianism and Catholicism. The Byzantine philosopher Georgios Gemistos Plethon played an important role in conveying this knowledge . Independently of this, the (new) scholastic Aristotelianism, which continued the medieval tradition, with its method and terminology in schools and universities still prevailed well into modern times.

This was also the case in the Lutheran areas, although Luther rejected the Aristotelianism of late scholasticism. The reason for this was that Philipp Melanchthon's educational reform introduced the students to a teacher of philosophy, especially logic and ethics - regardless of theological concerns. Melanchthon propagated Aristotle not because he believed his teachings to be true, but because he believed his methods to be correct, Augustine Niphus expressed himself similarly .

Francis Bacon (although an opponent of the encrusted late scholasticism) based his methodology on Aristotle; William Harvey lectured on Aristotelian biology. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz admired Aristotle's logic, his theory of monads was derived from Aristotelian considerations on matter and form. During the Counter-Reformation , the teaching system developed by Thomas Aquinas of Aristotle became decisive for Catholic researchers.

In the sixteenth century, Bernardino Telesio and Giordano Bruno launched frontal attacks on Aristotelianism, and Petrus Ramus advocated a non-Aristotelian logic ( Ramism ). Already in 1554 Giovanni Battista Benedetti refuted in his work Demonstratio proportionum motuum localium contra Aristotilem et omnes philosophos in a simple thought experiment the Aristotelian assumption that bodies fall faster the heavier they are: two equal balls, which are pushed by a (massless) When the rod is firmly connected, it will fall at the same speed as either ball alone.

In 1543, in astronomy , Nicolaus Copernicus did not want to deviate from the postulate of circular planetary orbits. In 1572, Tycho Brahe, with his observations of the supernova in the constellation Cassiopeia, shook the Aristotelian assumption that the celestial sphere cannot be changed . And with the comet of 1577 , by measuring the parallax , he recognized that this was not a photometeor in the earth's atmosphere (as postulated by Aristotle), but a structure far beyond the lunar orbit .

But it was not until the 17th century that a new understanding of science slowly supplanted the Aristotelian-scholastic tradition. In physics, Galileo Galilei initiated the turnaround with the redefinition of movement and acceleration with his manuscript called De motu antiquiora , his comprehensible experiments and astronomical observations. The 1604 supernova observed by Johannes Kepler confirmed Brahe's observations about the variability of the fixed star sky. In 1647, Aristotle's hypothesis of the horror vacui was refuted by Blaise Pascal . Only in the book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687) by Isaac Newton was a new foundation of classical mechanics established with the principle of inertia , which led the Aristotelian assumptions to absurdity and at the same time extended the scope of natural laws beyond the sublunar area and beyond the impetus theory that emerged from the Aristotelian movement theory was replaced with it.

In biology and nutritional science, Aristotelian views could hold up into the 18th century.

The aftermath of Aristotle's poetics , especially his theory of tragedy, was very strong and lasting . It shaped the theory and practice of theater throughout the early modern period , with a few important exceptions, particularly in Spain and England (Shakespeare). The poetry was since 1278 before a Latin translation, 1498 and 1536 appeared humanistic translations. The poetics of Julius Caesar Scaliger (1561), the poetry theory of Martin Opitz (1624), the French theater theory of the 17th century ( doctrine classique ) and finally the art of rule required by Johann Christoph Gottsched ( Critische Dichtkunst , 1730) were based on it.

Modern Aristotle research began in the 19th century with the Aristotle Complete Edition of the Berlin Academy , which Immanuel Bekker obtained from 1831. Aristotle is still quoted today according to the number of pages and lines .

Although Aristotle did not influence the philosophy of the 20th century with his system of science, it took individual suggestions from his work, especially in the ontological and ethical field and with regard to the distinction between practical and theoretical reason and science. Especially in the area of virtue ethics , business ethics as well as in the area of ​​political philosophy and biophilosophy, the Aristotelian influence has increased again in recent years. Modern philosophers who explicitly refer to Aristotle are u. a. Philippa Foot , Martha Nussbaum and Alasdair MacIntyre .

literature

General

Ancient Aristotelianism

  • Inna Kupreeva, Michael Schramm: Imperial Aristotelianism. In: Christoph Riedweg et al. (Hrsg.): Philosophy of the imperial era and late antiquity (= outline of the history of philosophy . The philosophy of antiquity. Volume 5/1). Schwabe, Basel 2018, ISBN 978-3-7965-3698-4 , pp. 255–455
  • Richard Sorabji : The Philosophy of the Commentators 200-600 AD. 3 volumes, Duckworth 2004 and Cornell 2005.
  • Richard Sorabji (Ed.): Aristotle Transformed. The Ancient Commentators and Their Influence. 2nd, revised edition. Bloomsbury, London 2016, ISBN 978-1-47258-907-1
  • Paul Moraux : Aristotelianism among the Greeks. 3 volumes. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1973–2001
  • Miira Tuominen: The Ancient Commentators on Plato and Aristotle. Acumen 2009, ISBN 978-0-520-26027-6 ( review by Harold Tarrant)
  • Fritz Wehrli , Georg Wöhrle , Leonid Zhmud : The Peripatos until the beginning of the Roman Empire . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Older Academy, Aristoteles, Peripatos (= outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity. Volume 3). 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Schwabe, Basel 2004, ISBN 3-7965-1998-9 , pp. 493-666

On the conflict between the ancient Platonists and Aristotle

  • Lloyd P. Gerson: Aristotle and other Platonists. Cornell University Press, Ithaca / NY 2005.
  • George E. Karamanolis: Plato and Aristotle in Agreement? Platonists on Aristotle from Antiochus to Porphyry. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2006, ISBN 0-19-926456-2 ( review by Lloyd P. Gerson)

Medieval Aristotelianism

Modern Aristotelianism

  • Paul Richard Blum : Aristotle with Giordano Bruno. Studies on philosophical reception (= The history of ideas and its methods 9). Fink, Munich 1980.
  • Paul Richard Blum (ed.): Sapientiam amemus. Humanism and Aristotelianism in the Renaissance. Fink, Munich 1999.
  • Eckhard Keßler (ed., With Charles H. Lohr and W. Sparn): Aristotelianism and Renaissance. In memoriam Charles B. Schmitt (= Wolfenbütteler Forschungen , Vol. 40), Wiesbaden 1988.
  • Eckhard Keßler (ed., With Charles B. Schmitt and Quentin Skinner ): The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1988.
  • Wolfgang Kullmann : Aristotle and modern science. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-06620-9
  • Charles B. Schmitt : Aristotle and the Renaissance. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) / London 1983.
  • Walter Reese-Schäfer: Aristotle read interculturally. Bautz, Nordhausen 2007.

Web links

Wiktionary: Aristotelianism  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Remarks

  1. ^ Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer : Tradition (s) and empiricism in early modern natural research. In: Helmuth Grössing, Kurt Mühlberger (ed.): Science and culture at the turn of the ages. Renaissance humanism, natural sciences and everyday university life in the 15th and 16th centuries. (= Publications from the archives of the University of Vienna ; 15). V&R unipress, Göttingen 2012, pp. 63–80.