ARISTOTLE
717
ARISTOTLE
tellect to be parts, or phases, of the individual mind;
(2) accordinK to the Arabians ami some earlier com-
mentators, the first of these, perhaps, being Aristocles,
fie understood the Active Intelleet tti be a divine
Koinething, or at least something transcending the
individual mind; (3) accoriling to some interpreters,
the Passive Intellect is not properly an intellectual
faculty at all, but merely the aggregate of sensations
out of which ideas are made, as the statue is made
out of the marble. Krom the fact that the soul in
its intellectual operations attains a knowledge of the
abstract and universal, and thus transcends matter
and material conditions, Aristotle argues that it is
immaterial and inunortal. The will, or faculty of
choice, is free, as is proved by the recognized volun-
tariness of virtue, and the existence of reward and
punishment.
(U) Malhnnatics was recognized by .\ristotle as a division of philo.sophv. co-orilina(e wi(h physics and metaphysics, and is defined as the science of immov- able ueing. That is to say, it treats of quantitive being, and does not, like physics, confine its attention to being endowed with motion.
III. Practio.\l Philo.soi'iiy. — This includes ethics and politics. The starting-point of etliical inquiry is the question: In what docs happiness consist? Aris- totle answers that man's happiness is determined by the end or purpose of his existence, or in other words, that his happmess consists in the "good proper to his rational nature". For man's prerogative is rea- son. His happiness, therefore, must consist in living conformably to rea.son, that is, in living a life of virtue. Virtue is the perfection of reason, and is naturally two-fold, according as we consider reason in relation to the lower powers (moral virtue) or in relation to it.self (intellectual, or tlieoretical, virtue). Moral virtue is defined " a certain habit of tiie faculty of choice, consisting in a mean suital)le to our nature, and fixed by rea-son, in the manner in which pru- dent men wnuld fi.x it". It is of the nature of moral virtues, tlicrefore, to avoid all excess as well as de- fect; ba.shfuliiess, for example, is as much opposed to the virtue of modesty as sliamelessne.ss is. The intellectual virtues (understanding, science, wisdom, art, and practical wi.sdom) are perfections of reason it.self, without relation to the lower faculties. It is a peculiarity of .\ristotle's ethical system that he places the intellectual virtues above the moral, the theoretical above the practical, the contemplative above the active, the dianoetical above the ethical. .\n important constituent of happiness, according to .\ristotle, is friendship, the bond between the indi- vitlual and the .social aggregation, between man and the State. Man is essentially, or by nature, a "social animal", that is to say, he cannot attain complete happiness except in social and political de- pendence on his fellow-man. This is the starting- jKiint of political science. That the State is not ab- solute, as Plato tauglit, that there is no ideal State, but that our knowledge of political organization is to be accjuireil by studying anil comparing different constitutions of States, that the l)est form of govern- ment is that which best suits the cliaracter of the people — these are some of the most characteristic of .\ristotle's political <loctrincs.
IV. PoETic.vi. Philosophy. — Under this head came .Aristotle's tlicory of art and his analysis of the beau- tiful. When .\ristotle defines the purpose of art to be " the imitation of nature", he does not mean that the pla.stic arts and poetry should merely copy nat- ural productions; his meaning is that as nature em- bodies the idea .so also does art, but in a higher and more perfect fonn. Hence his famous saying that fKietry is " more pliilosophical and elevatefl than his- tory". Hence his equally famous doctrine that the aim of art is the calming, purifying {xiOapctt) and ennobling of the affections. For this reason, he pre-
fcTS music to the plastic arts becaiise it possesses a
higher ethical value. .Aristotle's conception of
beauty is vague and undefined. At one time he
enumerates order, symmetrj', and limitation, at an-
other time merely order and grandeur, as constitu-
ents of the beautiful. The.se latter qualities he finds
especially in moral beauty. It is im|M)ssible here to
give an estimate of .Vristotle's pliilo.sophy as a whole,
or to trace its influence on subsequent pliilosophical
.systems. Suffice it to say that, taken as a system
of knowledge, it is scientific ratlier than metaphysi-
cal; its starting-point is observation rather than in-
tuition; and its aim, to find tlic ultimate cause of
things rather than to determine the value (ethical
or aesthetic) of things. Its infiueiice extended, and
still extends, beyonii the realms of science and phi-
losophy. Our thoughts, even on subjects far removed
from science and philosophy, fall naturally into the
(lategiiries aii<l formulas of .Ari.stoteleani.sni, and (fteii
find expression in terms which Aristotle invented,
.so that "the half-understood words of .Aristotle have
become laws of thought to other ages".
The Aristotki.i:.\.\ School. — The identity of the Aristotelean School was preserved from the time of Aristotle's death tlown to the third century of the Christian era by the succession of •Srholarcha, or official heads of the school. The first of the.se. Theophr.astus. as well ius his immediate sueces.sor Sfrato, devoted sjjccial attention to developing Aris- totle's physical doctrines. I'nder their ^idance, also, the .school interested itself in the history of philosophical and scientific problems. In the first century n. c. .Andronicus of Rhodes edited Aristotle's works, and tliercuflcr the school produced the most famous of its commciitMt-ors, .Aristoclc; of Messene and Alexander of .Aphroilisias (about .\. d. 200). In the third century the work of commentating was continued by the Neo-Platonic and Eclectic philos- ophers, the most famous of whom was Porphyry. In the fifth and sixth centuries the chief commen- tators were John Philoponus and Simplicius, the latter of whom was teaching at .Athens when, in the year .")29. the .Athenian School w.is closed by order of the Kmperor Justinian. .After the close of the .Athe- nian Scliool the exiled philo.soiihcrs found temporary refuge in Persia. There, as well as in Armenia and Syria, the works of Aristotle were translated and explained. Uranius. David the .Armenian, the Chris- tians of the Schools of Nisibis and Kde.ssa, and final- ly Honain ben Isaac, of the School of Bagdad, were especially active as translators and commentators. It was from the hust-named school that, about the middle of the ninth century, the Arabians, who un- der the reign of the .Aba.ssi(lcs. experienced a literary revival similar to that of Western ICurope under Charlemagne, obtained their knowle<lge of .Aristotle's writings. Meantime there hati been preserved at Byzantium a more or less intennittent tratlition of Aristotelean learning, which, having been represented in successive centuries by Michael P.sellus, Photius, Arethas, Niceta-s, Johannes Italus. and .Anna Com- nena. obtained its highest dcvclopnient in the twelfth century-, through the inducnce of Michael Kphesius. In that century the two currents, the one coming down through Persia, Syria, .Arabia, and Moorisli Spain, and the other from -Athens through Constan- tinople, met in the Christian schools of Western Euroix>, especially in the I'niversily of Paris. The Christian writers of the patristic age were, with few- exceptions. Platonists, who regarded .Aristotle with suspicion, anil generally underrated him:us a phi- losopher. The exceptions to be found were John of Damascus, who in his "Source of Science" epitomizes .Aristotle's "Categories" and "Metaphysics", and Porphyry's "Introduction"; Nemesius, Bishop of Eme.sa, who in his "Nature of Man" follows in the footsteps of John of Damascus; and Boethius, who
