From Logic to Ethics | Aristotle's Complete Philosophy
Aristotle's Complete Philosophy
Aristotle spent twenty years studying under Plato, then walked away and built a rival system that would dominate Western thought for two millennia. This episode traces his life from the court physician's son in Stagira, through the Academy, his years tutoring Alexander the Great, and the founding of the Lyceum in Athens.
It examines his major contributions across logic, metaphysics, ethics, politics, and poetics: the categories of being, hylomorphism, the four causes, the unmoved mover, the function argument, eudaimonia as the highest good, the doctrine of the mean, practical wisdom, and the vision of the good life laid out in the Nicomachean Ethics. Dante called him the Master of Those Who Know, and for centuries no one in the Western or Islamic world could think seriously about the world without first thinking through Aristotle.
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Timestamps
- 00:00:00Introduction
- 00:04:36Aristotle's Early Life and Time at Plato's Academy
- 00:09:21Travels and Tutoring Alexander the Great
- 00:15:47Founding the Lyceum School in Athens
- 00:22:40Logic and the Art of Reasoning
- 00:30:15Understanding Reality: Being and Substance
- 00:38:27Physics: Motion, Change, and the Natural World
- 00:46:10Psychology: The Soul and Human Mind
- 00:53:20Ethics: Virtue and the Good Life
- 01:00:58Politics: Government and the Ideal State
- 01:08:56Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasion
- 01:15:19Poetry and Tragedy: Art and Human Experience
- 01:23:14Knowledge and How We Learn
- 01:30:27Islamic Scholars and Medieval Philosophy
- 01:38:22Renaissance Rediscovery and Modern Interpretations
- 01:45:02Contemporary Aristotelian Philosophy
- 01:52:14Conclusion: Aristotle's Lasting Legacy
Sources & Works Cited
- 1.Aristotle. The Nicomachean Ethics (2020)
- 2.Aristotle. The Politics (1992)
- 3.Aristotle. Poetics (1996)
- 4.Aristotle. Metaphysics (2016)
- 5.Hall, Edith. Aristotle's Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life (2019)
- 6.Natali, Carlo. Aristotle: His Life and School (2013)
- 7.Shields, Christopher (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Aristotle (2012)
- 8.Barnes, Jonathan (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle (1995)
- 9.Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Aristotle
- 10.Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Aristotle
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