AristotleOne of the greatest thinkers of all time was Aristotle-322 BC, theAncient Greek philosopher. He has practically influenced every area of presentday thinking.
His main focal points were the natural and social sciences. InStagira, a town on the northwest coast of the Aegean Sea, in the year of 384 BCAristotle was introduced to the world. He grew up a wealthy boy. His fatherwas friends with the noble king of Macedonia, and as a young man he spent themajority of his time at the Macedonian court. At the age of seventeen, he wassent away to study in Athens.
It was there that he transformed to a disciple ofPlato. Over time, Aristotle became the “mind of the school”. Later in his life,he followed his mentor and became a teacher in a school on the coast of Asiaminor. Aristotle was the professor of young prince Alexander, who went on tobecome the ruler Alexander the Great.
Aristotle was the first known person to make major advances in thefields of logic, physical works( such as physics, meteorologists, ect. ) ,psychological works,and natural history( modern day biology). His mostfamous studies are in the field of philosophical works. His studies play animportant role in the early history of chemistry. Aristotle was the firstperson to propose the idea of atoms matter and other grand ideas.
Aristotle made the first major advances in the field of philosophy ofnature. He saw the universe as lying between two scales: form without matterand is at one end and matter without form is at the other end. One the mostimportant aspects of Aristotle’s philosophy was the development of potentialityto actuality. That can be explained as something possibility in terms of itsaccuracy. The actual state compare to the potential state is demonstrated interms of the causes which act on things. The four causes include material cause,efficient cause, formal cause, and final cause.
First the material cause isalso defined as the elements out of which matter is created. The way in whichmatter is created is known as efficient cause. Formal cause is called theexpression of what the material actually is . The last cause, appropriatelynamed final cause, is for the end of the substance.
An example, actual compared to potential, can be as simple as bronzestatue. The material cause is plainly the bronze. Its efficient cause is thesculptor . The formal cause is the idea of the statue, as the sculptorenvisions it . The final cause is the perfection of the statue .
These fourstages of creation through termination exist throughout nature. Aristotle’svision of early chemistry created a strong foundation for the chemists of today . Works CitedAristotle (Internet Encylopedia of Philosophy). (Online) Availablehttp://utm.
edu/research/iep/a/aristotl/htmAristotle’s Page. (Online) Available http://eng. ox. ac. uk/jdr/aristo/htmlCompton’s Interactive Encyclopedia.
1995 Compton’s NewMedia, Inc.