Aristotelian Reality Part 2

 

Aristotelian Reality Part 2

Aristotle’s tangible, visible, concrete reality, as we discovered in another blog (Aristotelian Reality Part 1), is discovered by the five senses of sight, sound, hearing, tasting and smelling.   The philosophy of Aristotle, then, is the historical beginnings of science.  The scientist uses the five senses, along with reason and mathematics, to discover reality.  Inquiry, hypothesis, experiment, collection of data and conclusions are all experienced through the five senses and through Aristotle’s concrete reality.  Aristotle wrote a number of treatises on Physics (Physics, On The Heavens, Meteorology), Psychology (On The Soul, Logic), Biology (History of Animals, On the Parts of Animals, On the Motion of Animals, On the Gait of Animals, On the Generation of Animals), Metaphysics (that is, Ontology, which is the study of Being and Nonbeing), Ethics (Nicomachean Ethics) and Politics (The Athenian Constitution, Politics).

Most notable is his treatise on Syllogistic Logic, which is the basis of Western thought.  Truth (the affirmation of that which is real), Falsity (the affirmation of that which is not real) and clear logical argument (the science of valid thinking and the revealing of invalid thinking) are all explored and explained thoroughly in his treatise on Logic.

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