3 most Famous ARISTOTLE'S theories?

1. His most famous theory at present is what most people call the "theory" of syllogistic reasoning. But it is not a "theory" in the modern sense of "theories" as repetitively CONFIRMED hypotheses. It is more correctly understood as a DOCTRINE, because the syllogism deals entirely with CATEGORICAL reasoning and NOT with the HYPOTHETICAL form of reasoning --- also known as the "conditional" [IF...THEN...] or "scientific" form of reasoning. The distinction between DOCTRINE and "modern theory" is, arguably, why one of your answerers wrote that Aristotle is responsible for "Scholastic Dogma" even though there are all kinds of "non-Aristotelian" (even anti - Aristotelian) scholastics.

2. His most important DOCTRINE in ancient times [less well understood today] is the DOCTRINE of the 4 CAUSES of BEING, which are (1) The FORMAL cause; (2) The MATERIAL cause; (3) The EFFICIENT cause and (4) The FINAL cause. Permutations and combinations of those 4 CAUSES underlie everything about which Aristotle thought and wrote --- or, at minimum, his students took notes about during his lectures over the years at, perhaps, The Academy and, more certainly, at The Lyceum at Athens.

COMMENTS:

It is Aristotle's thesis that understanding those 4 causes with respect to any given SUBSTANCE --- [primarily the individual unit and the individual being; although he does talk a lot about "2ndary Substance" which are CLASSES of individual units and individual beings AND which are "QUALITATIVELY-differentiated" from one another; --- in contrast individual SUBSTANCES, like Socrates, for example, are MATERIALLY DISTINCT from other individuals, like Aristotle, for example, who are members of the same GENUS and SPECIES (classes; 2ndary Substance) --- ie. Human animals --- ie. HOMO (Genus) SAPIENS (Species) --- in the cases of Socrates & Aristotle.] ---- which enables us to understand BEING in all its diverse "forms".

His doctrine of the 4 Causes of Being is not very complicated. But if you get one of those 4 Causes wrong, the doctrine is difficult --- and most "modern philosophers" completely "foul up" on MATERIAL CAUSATION --- while modern scientists have been having remarkable successes in investigating both MATERIAL and EFFICIENT causation ever since the 17th Century, without "modern philosophers" being able to "explain WHY" modern scientists have been so successful! Aristotle, were he alive, would UNDERSTAND exactly "Why."

3. His third most important DOCTRINE --- which has been almost entirely ignored by most "modern philosophers", since the 17th century --- is his ethical and political doctrine. Unlike any modern ethical "theorists" [Hume; Kant; Mill; Marx; and their off-shoots] Aristotle founds both ethics and politics on a SELF-EVIDENT rational first PRINCIPLE --- which almost every "ethical/political" theorist CATEGORICALLY DENIES the existence thereof. But, at the same time, the U.S. Constitution --- which grounds the most powerful and "successful" STATE in modern history --- is written, almost literally, out of Book IV, Ch. 14, 15 and 16 of Aristotle's Politics.

It is not that the American "founders" followed Aristotle in every literal detail in drafting the U.S. Constitution. They didn't. They were more inclined to the Roman Republic's political "model". But they followed his PRINCIPLES of government almost to the letter. One of the big reasons for that was, I think, Charles Carrol "of Carrolton", along with Jefferson AND Hamilton, Madison and Jay of the "Federalist Papers".

The primary so-called "Aristotelian" PRINCIPLE [which was certainly not Aristotle's "principle" alone --- it was common to all of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle along with most other ancient Greeks] of GOVERNMENT, which was perfectly adopted and adapted by the American founders of the U.S. government, was that any "government" where the peculiar interests of the "rulers or governors" was considered more important than the "common interests" of the ruled was (is and will be) a PERVERSION of good government "of, for and by the people."

The original American founders, the best of the ancient Greeks and the fully developed Republican Romans all actually and correctly UNDERSTOOD "Constitutional Government" to be the rule of free men UNDER LAW and never/not/ever the "rulings" of personal rulers which all 3 kinds of "Constitutionalists" correctly considered to be TYRANTS.

Of course, the Romans "forgot" their roots and, eventually, corrupted their fully Constitutional Government into the tyrannies of various Caezars or Emperors. Greeks in various City States often adapted and adopted various benevolent tyrants --- which eventually led to governments by malevolent tyrants or military dictators --- especially after the successes of Alexander The Great and his generals (Ptolemy in Egypt; Antiochus in Syria etc.). These days Americans are expecting way too much from their Presidents and giving them and their military "people" way too much power. That, quite often, happens simply because most people don't take the time to understand why efficient systems (of any sort) are actually effective.

But the PRINCIPLE of "rule by Constitional Law" and not by "personal rulers" always remains unaffected by what actual people DO, in contempt of, or in contravention of, such a 1st Principle of rational government "of, for and by the people, UNDER RATIONAL LAW."

Kevin

Aristotle Theories

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RE:

3 most Famous ARISTOTLE'S theories?

Ethics~ Doctrine of the Mean

Metaphysics~ His Hierarchy of Being and Actuality vs Potentiality

Logic~ Syllogistic Logic

the dogma of scholastic philosophy

Aristotle's theories about drama, in particular the idea of the dramatic unities, also influenced later playwrights, especially in France.