Aristotle (384-322 BC)

367-347 BC Studies under Plato at Academy

342-c. 339 BC Tutor to Alexander the Great

335 BC Opens school at Athens (Lyceum)

323 BC Flees to Chalcis

Aristotle (384-322 BC)

Polymath: maths, physics, astronomy, biology,philosophy, politics

Link between study of world and philosophy

Use of empirical evidence, but notexperimental

Use of others’ work

Logic as verbal reasoning

Categories

Substance TimeQuantity SituationQuality ConditionRelation ActionPlace Passion

Objections to Plato’s Theory of Forms

1. Question of change

2. Question of knowledge

3. Questions of substance and form

Four Causes

1. Material Cause(bronze)

2. Efficient Cause(sculptor)

3. Formal Cause(idea)

4. Final Cause(idea)

Doctrine of the Mean

Question of right and wrong linked tocircumstances

Each virtue linked to two vices

Equity

Highest good: exercise of reason

Shift in philosophy to art of living well, butneed to understand world still recognised

Division into schools and popularisation ofphilosophy

Survival of Academy and Lyceum until3rd c. BC

306 BC Epicurus of Samos (341-271 BC),founds school (garden) of the Epicureansat Athens

Titus Lucretius Carus (99-55 BC)

School influential until 4th c. AD

Epicureans

“Pleasure is the beginning and end of a life ofblessedness.”

Philosophy as way to happiness

Epicureans

Fourfold rule of philosophy:

1. To free men from fear of the gods2. To free men from fear of death3. To show that pleasure is easy to attain4. To expose short-lived nature of suffering

and evil

Epicureans

To gain happiness (freedom from care and pain):

Seek pleasures that leave one master ofoneself and imperturbable

Keys to happiness: tranquillity, moderation,self-restraint

Epicureans

c. 300 BC Stoic school founded by Zeno ofCitium in stoa poikile (Painted Portico)in Athens

Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger(4 BC-65 AD)

Stoics

Main goal: pursuit of happiness throughexercise of virtue

Philosophy identified with study of virtues(rational, natural, moral)

Live according to order of universe, acceptevils in life as corrective

Morality based on duty

Detachment from emotions

Stoics

Skeptics: avoid judgments

Cyrenaics: extreme hedonism

Dialecticians: logical paradoxes

Cynics: individual freedom andself-sufficiency, e.g. Diogenesof Sinope (d. 323 BC)