Aristotle for Everybody

Aristotle for Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy by Mortimer J. Adler, Touchstone, 1997. 

In plain language, this book presents the basics of the philosophy of Aristotle. Adler writes that Aristotle’s philosophy begins with common sense, but it does not end there. Aristotle was an expert at enumerating and classifying things. Not just objects, such as sea animals, but also abstract things, such as causes.

Aristotle asked the question: Are there goals one seeks as ends in themselves, rather than merely a means to a further end? Aristotle’s answer was: Yes, people seek happiness as an end in itself. In order to achieve happiness, people need moral virtue. Moral virtue includes two complementary virtues called courage and temperance. Courage is the willingness to endure short-term suffering to obtain long-term gain. Temperance means restraining oneself from indulging in a short-term pleasure, in order to avoid suffering a long-term loss. Moral virtue is the habit of making the right choices. Aristotle asked: Is living a morally virtuous life sufficient for achieving happiness? His answer was: No, one also needs good luck in obtaining good health, good family and friends, and enough money to satisfy ones material needs.

A third moral virtue involves other people and is called justice. The individual is morally obligated not to harm strangers, but is not morally obligated to help strangers in need. All that we owe strangers is to promote a just society, which, in turn, will promote the welfare of its members. Aristotle made a major mistake: he approved of slavery, which was commonplace in the society in which he lived. Aristotle believed that some people were not capable of managing their own lives, therefore they must be slaves to someone else who will make decisions for them.

Aristotle founded the science of logic. Aristotle asserted that an object cannot both have and not have a particular attribute. This is both a law of reality and a law of thought. Aristotle regarded this as being self-evident. Aristotle also invented syllogisms. A syllogism has three parts. For example:

• Major premise: All animals are mortal

• Minor premise: All men are animals

• Conclusion: All men are mortal

Mortimer Adler explains Aristotle’s ideas of potentiality and actuality. A tree is potentially a chair, but it is not actually a chair. This helps us understand how things come into existence, and go out of existence. 

The infinite exists potentially, but not actually. There are two kinds of infinity: (a) Infinity of Division (cutting something in half, then cutting each half in half, and so on), (b) Infinity of Addition (adding one, then adding one again, and so on).

Aristotle believed not only that the universe will last forever, but also that it extended infinitely into the past, that is, it had no beginning.

Aristotle classified all causes into four categories:

• Efficient cause

• Material cause

• Formal cause

• Final cause

What we usually call the cause is what Aristotle calls the efficient cause. The efficient cause precedes the event and the final cause occurs after the event. Being struck by a club is the efficient cause of the golf ball flying through the air. Landing in the hole is the final cause of the golf ball flying through the air, the goal to be achieved, the purpose for its flight. Besides explaining motion, Aristotle’s four causes also explain change. The wood of a tree is changed into a chair. The wood is the material cause, and the shape of the chair is the formal cause. The actions of the lumberjack and furniture maker are the efficient cause of the chair. A place to sit is the final cause of the chair. Aristotle distinguished two kinds of final causes: (a) the person whose interest is served, and (b) the goal to be achieved.

The study of final causation is called teleology. Modern science is mainly about the material, formal, and efficient causes. There is little in modern science concerning teleology, which has remained in the province of religion and philosophy.

Matter he equates with potentiality, and form he equates with actuality. Pure actuality (form without matter) can exist, but pure potentiality (matter without form) cannot exist. 

Aristotle equated pure form (form without matter) with immateriality. In order to identify similar objects, the mind abstracts their forms from their matter, and compares their forms. In order for the mind to be able to compare immaterial forms, it must itself be immaterial. 

God is purely immaterial. God is the final cause of the universe: Its purpose, not its creator (efficient cause). Remember, in Aristotle’s cosmology, the universe had no beginning, so there is no need for a creator.