Aristotelianism ( ARR-i-stə-TEE-lee-ə-niz-əm) denotes a philosophical tradition stemming from the works of Aristotle, typically characterized by its reliance on deductive logic and an analytical inductive methodology in the study of natural philosophy and metaphysics. This framework also encompasses the treatment of social sciences under a system of natural law. It addresses causal inquiries through a schema of four causes, notably including purpose or teleology, and places significant emphasis on virtue ethics. Aristotle and his school produced treatises across diverse fields, including physics, biology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theatre, music, rhetoric, psychology, linguistics, economics, politics, and government. In its broadest interpretation, any intellectual current adopting one of Aristotle's distinctive positions as its foundational premise may be classified as "Aristotelian." Consequently, various Aristotelian theories (e.g., in ethics or ontology) may exhibit limited substantive commonality beyond their shared intellectual reference to Aristotle.
During Aristotle's epoch, philosophy encompassed natural philosophy, a discipline that preceded the emergence of modern scientific inquiry during the Scientific Revolution. Aristotle's works were initially championed by members of the Peripatetic school and subsequently by the Neoplatonists, who generated numerous commentaries on his writings. Within the Islamic Golden Age, scholars such as Avicenna and Averroes translated Aristotle's corpus into Arabic, and under their influence, alongside philosophers like Al-Kindi and Al-Farabi, Aristotelianism became a cornerstone of early Islamic philosophy.
Moses Maimonides assimilated Aristotelian principles from Islamic scholars, subsequently basing his seminal work, Guide for the Perplexed, on this tradition, which then formed the bedrock of Jewish scholastic philosophy. Although some of Aristotle's logical treatises were known in Western Europe, his complete works and those of his Arabic commentators did not achieve widespread availability until the Latin translations of the 12th century and the subsequent rise of scholasticism. Prominent scholars, including Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, interpreted and systematized Aristotle's writings in alignment with Catholic theology.
Following its decline amidst critiques from modern natural philosophers, the distinctively Aristotelian concept of teleology was transmitted through Wolff and Kant to Hegel, who then applied it to history conceived as a comprehensive totality. However, this particular endeavor faced criticism from Trendelenburg and Brentano, who deemed it non-Aristotelian; nevertheless, Hegel's intellectual impact is frequently recognized as a primary conduit for Aristotelian themes within Marxian thought.
Contemporary Aristotelian ethical and "practical" philosophy, exemplified by the contributions of Gadamer and McDowell, often posits a departure from Aristotelianism's traditional metaphysical or theoretical underpinnings. From this perspective, the early modern republican tradition of political thought, which conceptualizes the res publica, or the public sphere and state, as fundamentally constituted by the virtuous engagement of its citizenry, can be perceived as profoundly Aristotelian.
Alasdair MacIntyre stands as a distinguished modern Aristotelian philosopher, instrumental in the resurgence of virtue ethics through his influential work, After Virtue. MacIntyre reinterprets Aristotelianism by contending that the paramount temporal goods, intrinsic to human existence, are realized through active involvement in communal practices.
Historical Context
Ancient Greek Period
The initial adherents of Aristotle's philosophy constituted the Peripatetic school. Following Aristotle, Theophrastus and Strato of Lampsacus emerged as the most notable members, both extending his investigative endeavors. During the Roman epoch, the school primarily focused on safeguarding and advocating for his intellectual contributions. Alexander of Aphrodisias, a pivotal figure in this period, authored extensive commentaries on Aristotle's texts. The ascendancy of Neoplatonism in the 3rd century marked the cessation of Peripateticism as an autonomous philosophical movement. Nevertheless, Neoplatonists endeavored to integrate Aristotelian philosophy into their own doctrinal framework, resulting in the creation of numerous commentaries on Aristotle.
The Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Aristotelianism developed within the Byzantine Empire during the two decades following 1118, initiated by Princess Anna Comnena. She commissioned numerous scholars to produce commentaries on Aristotle's works that had previously been overlooked. Michael of Ephesus, for instance, authored commentaries on Aristotle's zoological treatises, the Sophistical Refutations—the sole work of the Organon lacking a commentary—and the Politics, thereby completing the comprehensive series of commentaries on Aristotle's extant writings. Additionally, Byzantine philosophers addressed gaps in existing commentaries; Michael of Ephesus completed Alexander of Aphrodisias's commentary on the Metaphysics, of which only the initial five books had survived. He also collaborated with Eustratius to compile and supplement various fragmentary commentaries on the Nicomachean Ethics with their own interpretations.
Islamic World
Within the Abbasid Empire, a significant number of foreign texts were translated into Arabic, extensive libraries were established, and scholars received considerable patronage. The House of Wisdom in Baghdad flourished under the caliphs Harun al-Rashid and his son Al-Ma'mun. The Christian scholar Hunayn ibn Ishaq (809–873) was appointed by the caliph to oversee these translation efforts. During his lifetime, Ishaq translated 116 works, including texts by Plato and Aristotle, into both Syriac and Arabic.
The establishment of the House of Wisdom facilitated access to the entire preserved corpus of Aristotelian works (with the exceptions of the Eudemian Ethics, Magna Moralia, and Politics), alongside their Greek commentators. This comprehensive collection provided a consistent foundation for the development of Islamic Aristotelianism.
Al-Kindi (801–873) is recognized as the inaugural Muslim Peripatetic philosopher, celebrated for his endeavors to introduce Greek and Hellenistic philosophy to the Arab world. He integrated Aristotelian and Neoplatonist concepts into an Islamic philosophical framework, a crucial factor in the dissemination and popularization of Greek philosophy within the Muslim intellectual sphere. In the 9th century, the Persian astrologer Albumasar's Introductorium in Astronomiam served as a pivotal resource for the reintroduction of Aristotle to medieval European scholars.
The philosopher Al-Farabi (872–950) exerted profound influence on science and philosophy for several centuries, and during his era, he was widely considered second only to Aristotle in intellectual prowess, a distinction reflected in his appellation "the Second Teacher." His work, which aimed to synthesize philosophy and Sufism, prepared the ground for the contributions of Avicenna (980–1037). Avicenna emerged as a principal interpreter of Aristotle, and the philosophical school he founded, known as Avicennism, was constructed upon conceptual elements largely derived from Aristotelian and Neoplatonist thought.
In the western Mediterranean region, specifically in Córdoba during the reign of Al-Hakam II (961 to 976), an extensive translation initiative was undertaken, resulting in the conversion of numerous books into Arabic. Averroes (1126–1198), who spent a significant portion of his life in Cordoba and Seville, achieved particular renown as a commentator on Aristotle. He frequently composed multiple commentaries on the same work, with approximately 38 commentaries by Averroes on Aristotle's writings having been identified. Although his works had only a marginal impact in Islamic countries, they would ultimately exert a substantial influence in the Latin West, giving rise to the philosophical movement known as Averroism.
Western Europe
While some familiarity with Aristotle appears to have persisted in the ecclesiastical centers of Western Europe following the collapse of the Roman Empire, by the ninth century, nearly all extant knowledge of Aristotle was confined to Boethius's commentaries on the Organon and a few abridgments produced by Latin authors of the declining empire, such as Isidore of Seville and Martianus Capella. From that period until the close of the eleventh century, there is little evidence of significant advancement in Aristotelian scholarship.
The twelfth-century Renaissance stimulated a significant quest for new knowledge among European scholars. James of Venice, who likely resided in Constantinople for a period, translated Aristotle's Posterior Analytics from Greek into Latin during the mid-twelfth century, thereby rendering the entire Aristotelian logical corpus, known as the Organon, accessible in Latin for the first time. Scholars journeyed to European regions formerly under Muslim governance, which retained considerable Arabic-speaking communities. Central Spain, having reverted to Christian control in the eleventh century, became a prolific source of Latin translations during the twelfth century. Gerard of Cremona (c. 1114–1187) emerged as the most prolific among these translators, completing 87 translations, including numerous Aristotelian texts such as his Posterior Analytics, Physics, On the Heavens, On Generation and Corruption, and Meteorology. Michael Scot (c. 1175–1232) subsequently translated Averroes' commentaries on Aristotle's scientific treatises.
Aristotle's treatises on natural philosophy began to be openly debated. As Aristotelian methodology increasingly influenced theological discourse, these works were deemed sufficiently heterodox to warrant their prohibition in the Condemnations of 1210–1277. The initial condemnation, issued in Paris in 1210, explicitly declared that "neither the books of Aristotle on natural philosophy or their commentaries are to be read at Paris in public or secret, and this we forbid under penalty of ex-communication." Nevertheless, despite subsequent efforts to curtail the dissemination of Aristotelian thought, the proscription against Aristotle's natural philosophy proved ineffectual by 1270.
William of Moerbeke (c. 1215–1286) embarked on a comprehensive translation of Aristotle's corpus, or, in certain instances, a revision of extant translations. He notably produced the first Latin translation of the Politics (c. 1260) directly from Greek. At the time, numerous Latin copies of Aristotle circulating were presumed to have been influenced by Averroes, who was suspected of introducing philosophical and theological inaccuracies into earlier Aristotelian translations. These allegations, however, lacked substantiation, given that Averroes' Alexandrian Aristotelianism adhered to "the strict study of the text of Aristotle, which was introduced by Avicenna, [because] a large amount of traditional Neoplatonism was incorporated with the body of traditional Aristotelianism".
Albertus Magnus (c. 1200–1280) stands as one of the pioneering medieval scholars who integrated Aristotelian philosophy into Christian theology. He authored paraphrases for the majority of Aristotle's works accessible to him. He meticulously analyzed, elucidated, and systematized the entirety of Aristotle's writings, drawing from Latin translations and the annotations of Arabian commentators, all in alignment with ecclesiastical doctrine. His endeavors were instrumental in establishing a Christian interpretation of Aristotle in Western Europe. Albertus did not reject Platonic philosophy; rather, he aligned with the prevailing "concordist tradition" of his predecessors, which aimed to reconcile Aristotle and Plato through interpretive synthesis. Albertus famously articulated:
"Scias quod non perficitur homo in philosophia nisi ex scientia duarum philosophiarum: Aristotelis et Platonis." (Metaphysics, I, tr. 5, c. 5) (It is known that an individual achieves philosophical perfection only through knowledge of both Aristotle and Plato.)
Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), a disciple of Albertus Magnus, authored numerous commentaries on Aristotle's works. Aquinas was a staunch Aristotelian, incorporating Aristotle's analysis of physical entities, his perspectives on spatiality, temporality, and motion, his demonstration of the prime mover, his cosmological framework, his theory of sensory perception and intellectual cognition, and even elements of his ethical philosophy. The philosophical tradition that emerged from Aquinas's contributions, known as Thomism, exerted significant influence, particularly within the Dominican Order and subsequently among the Jesuits.
Drawing upon the commentaries of Albertus and Thomas, in addition to Marsilius of Padua's Defensor pacis, the 14th-century scholar Nicole Oresme translated Aristotle's ethical treatises into French and provided extensive annotations.
Modern Era
The distinctively Aristotelian concept of teleology, having receded following critiques from modern natural philosophers, was subsequently conveyed via Wolff and Kant to Hegel, who then applied it to the entirety of history. Despite Trendelenburg and Brentano's criticisms of this endeavor as non-Aristotelian, Hegel maintained profound admiration for Aristotle, frequently referencing him as an exemplary figure in pivotal sections of his own writings.
Hegel's philosophical impact is frequently cited as a significant conduit for Aristotelian thought into Marx's work. Conversely, postmodern thinkers repudiate Aristotelianism's assertion of its capacity to unveil fundamental theoretical truths. This stance aligns with Heidegger's critique, which identifies Aristotle as the primary progenitor of the entire Western philosophical tradition.
Contemporary
Ethics
Proponents of Aristotelianism interpret it as a critical advancement of Platonic theories. Certain contemporary Aristotelian ethical and practical philosophies, exemplified by the works of Gadamer and McDowell, frequently operate from a premise that rejects Aristotelianism's conventional metaphysical or theoretical underpinnings. Consequently, from this perspective, the early modern political republican tradition—which conceptualizes the res publica, or public sphere/state, as fundamentally shaped by the virtuous actions of its citizens—can be perceived as profoundly Aristotelian.
Mortimer J. Adler characterized Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics as "a unique book in the Western tradition of moral philosophy, the only ethics that is sound, practical, and undogmatic."
The contemporary Aristotelian philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre significantly contributed to the resurgence of virtue ethics through his seminal work, After Virtue. MacIntyre reinterprets Aristotelianism by positing that the supreme temporal goods, inherent to human nature, are realized through engagement in social practices. He contrasts Aristotelianism with the managerial structures of capitalism and its associated state, as well as with competing philosophical traditions—such as those of Hume, Kant, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche—which reject its conception of intrinsic human goods and virtues, instead legitimizing capitalist systems. Consequently, MacIntyre argues that Aristotelianism is not synonymous with the entirety of Western philosophy; instead, he asserts it to be "the best theory so far, [including] the best theory so far about what makes a particular theory the best one." From a political and social standpoint, this perspective has been termed a 'revolutionary Aristotelianism'. This contrasts with more conventional, apolitical, and implicitly conservative applications of Aristotelian thought, as seen in the works of Gadamer and McDowell, for instance. Additional prominent contemporary Aristotelian theorists include Fred D. Miller, Jr., specializing in political philosophy, and Rosalind Hursthouse, focusing on ethics.
Meta-ontology
Within meta-ontology, Neo-Aristotelianism posits that the primary objective of ontology is to ascertain which entities are fundamental and to elucidate the dependency relationships of non-fundamental entities upon them. Fundamentality is typically conceptualized through the lens of metaphysical grounding. Fundamental entities distinguish themselves from non-fundamental ones by virtue of not being grounded in any other entities. For instance, a common assertion is that elementary particles possess greater fundamentality than the macroscopic objects (such as chairs and tables) they constitute. This proposition concerns the grounding relationship between microscopic and macroscopic entities.
These concepts originate from Aristotle's thesis, which asserts that entities belonging to distinct ontological categories exhibit varying degrees of fundamentality. For example, substances are considered to possess the highest degree of fundamentality due to their self-sufficient existence. Conversely, properties are deemed less fundamental, as their existence is contingent upon substances.
Jonathan Schaffer's priority monism represents a contemporary iteration of neo-Aristotelian ontology. Schaffer posits that at the most fundamental ontological level, only one entity exists: the world in its entirety. This thesis does not refute the common-sense intuition that discrete objects, such as cars or other individuals encountered in daily life, possess existence. Rather, it merely denies that these objects possess the most fundamental mode of existence.
Problem of universals
The problem of universals investigates the nature and mode of existence of universals. Both Aristotelians and Platonists affirm the actual, mind-independent existence of universals, thereby rejecting nominalism. However, their perspectives diverge regarding the specific manner of universal existence. Platonists posit that universals reside in a "Platonic heaven," existing independently of their concrete, spatiotemporal instances. Conversely, Aristotelians contend that universals do not exist apart from the spatiotemporal world, a position termed immanent realism. For instance, the universal "red" exists only when red objects are present in the tangible world; without such objects, the "red" universal would not exist. This concept of immanence can be understood through hylomorphism, which views objects as composites of a universal form and the matter it shapes.
David Malet Armstrong emerged as a contemporary proponent of Aristotelianism concerning the problem of universals. In his ontological framework, states of affairs constitute the fundamental elements, comprising both particulars and universals. Armstrong's immanent realism asserts that a universal's existence is contingent upon its being a constituent of at least one actual state of affairs, implying that uninstantiated universals do not belong to the world.
Adopting a realist perspective on universals also facilitates an Aristotelian realist philosophy of mathematics. This philosophical stance posits that mathematics functions as a science dedicated to properties instantiated within the actual world, encompassing both physical and abstract domains, exemplified by quantitative and structural attributes.
Scholarly Annotations
Notes
Bibliographic Citations
- Adler, Mortimer (1985). Ten Philosophical Mistakes: Basic Errors In Modern Thought - How they came about, their consequences, and how to avoid them. Macmillan. ISBN 0-02-500330-5.
- The Re-emergence of the Corpus Aristotelicum and the Genesis of Aristotelianism, accompanied by an annotated bibliography.
- Clayton, Edward. (2005). The Political Philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre, featured in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- The International Society for MacIntyrean Inquiry.