| Description |
1 online resource ([v]-xxvi pages, 1 leaf, 333 pages) |
| Summary |
"When Plato was leaving Athens for the journey into Sicily, and which occupied him three years or more, Aristotle appeared in that busy city, then an active, restless youth of seventeen; rich both in money and in knowledge, eager, impetuous, truth-loving, and insatiable in his thirst for philosophy. During the three years of Plato's absence Aristotle was not idle. He prepared himself to be a worthy pupil. Plato returned. His school was opened, and Aristotle joined the crowd of his disciples, amongst whom the penetrating glance of the master soon detected the immortal pupil. Aristotle continued to listen to Plato for twenty years. But he did not confine himself to the Platonic philosophy; nor did he entirely agree with it. Wherein did Plato and Aristotle fundamentally differ? In truth, Aristotle radically opposed the Ideal theory; and the greater part of his criticisms on Plato are criticisms of that theory. He does not deny to Ideas a subjective existence; on the contrary, he makes them the materials of science; he is completely opposed to their objective existence, and calls them empty and poetical metaphors. The distinction between Aristotle and Plato is, that while both admitted science only could be formed from Universals, Aristotle contended that such Universals had purely a subjective existence--i.e., that they were nothing more than the inductions derived from particular facts |
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He therefore made Experience the basis of all Science, and Reason the Architect. Plato made Reason the basis. The tendency of the one was to direct man to the observation and interrogation of Nature; that of the other was to direct man to the contemplation of ideas. In spite of his Method, Aristotle was a Metaphysician, because of his Logic. Those Logical and Metaphysical doctrines which we regard as completely beside the truth were, as is well known, the great source of speculation during many centuries. The influence they exercised is beyond all appreciation; and, although much of that influence was evil, as leading to frivolous subtleties, as misdirecting the energy of the human mind; yet, on the other hand, the constant appeal to experience, and the wondrous acuteness and systematic reasoning which distinguished the Stagirite, did much to keep alive the activity of speculation, and in some respects to give it a proper tone. Aristotle, as the second pillar of Greek Science, must always command attention and respect. His vast learning, his singular acuteness, the wide range of his investigations, and the astonishing number and excellence of his works, will always make him a formidable rival to his more fascinating master"--Introduction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Ethics.
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Ethics
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ethics (philosophy)
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Ethics.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| Author |
Chase, D. P. (Drummond Percy), 1820-1902, translator
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Lewes, George Henry, 1817-1878
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