References

Aristotle: A Brief Biography
A short yet informative survey of his life.

Philosophy Talk: Aristotle
Listen to this excellent radio program and take notes. The segment is about one hour. The free Real Player is required for streaming audio.

The Philosophy of Aristotle
A well produced overview of Aristotles main ideas from The Radical Academy.

Aristotle's Ethics: The Theory of Happiness
Mortimer J. Adler

Virtue Theory: Five Virtues (44 min.)
Lawrence M. Hinman (University of San Diego)
lectures on Aristotle's treatment of the virtues courage, compassion, self-love, friendship, and forgiveness. This streaming video requires the RealVideo Player. Be aware that streaming video online is not a perfected medium. It may not, unfortunately, work for you. If it does, then by all means use it!

 

Aristotle (384-322BCE)

Some scholars regard him as the greatest philosopher of all time. Without doubt he was an intellect of immense acuity and creative originality. He was a student of Plato at the Academy and the teacher of Alexander the Great at his own university, The Lyceum. Up to the seventeenth century, Aristotle was regarded in Europe as the main authority on almost everything outside of religion. He wrote penetrating analyses on a vast range of topics, establishing him as the starting point for many contemporary disciplines.

Among many philosophers, Aristotle's most frequently consulted works are The Organon, The Metaphysics, and theNicomachean Ethics. For literary critics and writers,ThePoetics is indispensible and The Rhetoric is important. Most of Aristotle's writing was lost or destroyed after his death; that is an astonishing fact given the power of the works that we do have. Much of the remaining work is in the form of lecture notes. It would be as if the writings of Einstein that we know of were just a minor fraction of his actual work. If that were the case, what world-changing ideas might we have lost? Below is a list of Aristotle's major existing works and the disciplines to which they may appropriately belong.

Logic (The Organon)
Posterior Analytics
Prior Analytics
Categories
Topics
On Sophistical Refutations
On Interpretation
 
Metaphysics
The Metaphysics (in 14 books)
 
Ethics
Nicomachean Ethics
Eudemian Ethics
Virtues and Vices

Psychology
On the Soul
On Dreams
On Prophesying by Dreams
On Sense and the Sensible
On Memory and Reminiscence
On Sleep and Sleeplessness
 
Biology and Natural History
The History of Animals
On the Gait of Animals
On the Motion of Animals
On the Parts of Animals
On Youth and Old Age, On Life and Death, On Breathing
On Longevity and Shortness of Life
On Generation and Corruption
 
Physics
Physics
On the Heavens
Meteorology
 
Politics
The Politics
The Athenian Constitution
 
Art
Poetics
Rhetoric

That is a massive range of subjects to have thought and written about, particularly since Aristotle was at the beginning of many of these areas of investigation. His accomplishments are even more amazing when one discovers the extraordinary care and insight that is evident in all of these works.

Next - Learn about Aristotle's Logic Go to Aristotle's Logic page

 

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