Aristotle (384 BCE- 322 BCE) was born in Stagirus in north Greece. He was the son of Nichomachus who was court physician to King Amyntas of Macedonia. As a child Aristotle lost his Father and was then living under the guardianship of Proxenus, who later at the age of eighteen had sent Aristotle to study under Plato. Aristotle and Plato’s theory differed in many ways and so, even after staying with Plato for twenty years and becoming highly able and worthy Aristotle was not made the leader of Plato’s Academy. After that Aristotle went to different Kingdoms and studied all the subjects that were present during his time and not only learnt them but also made contributions in every subject either it was zoology, physics, metaphysics, ethics, poetics, …show more content…
His theories were completely different from that of his teacher Plato because Plato believed in the concept of ultimate reality through reason or reflection but Aristotle, on the other hand believed in ultimate eternity. Earlier his works and theories were criticised but then during the later middle ages, Aristotle’s work was rediscovered and adopted by the medieval scholars. Even after thousands of centuries to his death, yet today Aristotle is believed to be one of the most influential people who ever existed in the world. He was the founder to many new fields and also had made contributions in every field that then existed. He laid the foundation for reasoning, established the role of senses, the laws of logic, differentiated plants and animals on the basis of their characteristics and many more things. We shall further discuss about one of his most famous work, Aristotle’s Poetics in detail, discussing about the concept of comedy, epic and tragedy given by …show more content…
He considers Plot or Fable to be the most important of all elements and defines it “as the harmonious arrangement of the incidents”4. He says that a plot should have a proper beginning, middle and end. He divides the plot into two types: complex and simple. According to Aristotle, complex plots are better than simple plots because a complex plot has both recognition and reversal of intention. There are five elements of a plot which include Tragic Hero, Hamartia, Peripeteia, Anagnorisis, Catharsis. A tragic hero is one who arouses the feeling of pity and fear in the audiences. The character of a tragic hero should neither be perfect nor utterly wicked, rather it should be good because seeing a tragedy occur in a perfect man’s life would be unfair and in a wicked man’s life would bring up a feeling of happiness. Aristotle defines hamartia as the ‘tragic flaw’. It is the error in judgement or misstep through which the fortunes of the tragic hero leads to hamartia. Anagnorisis is the moment when the character makes a critical discovery. It originally meant recognition in Greek context. Peripeteia is also called the reversal of fortunes. Aristotle describes catharsis as the purging of emotions of pity and fear that are aroused in the viewer of the tragedy. The story of Oedipus Rex best suits the five elements of plot. He kills his real father and marries
He began to study and collect sea creatures, and eventually extend his ideas to study sea animal to all living things. He created the first library in Greece, which attracted an impressive amount of scholars to the school he taught at called the Lyceum. Students were able to learn every subject imaginable at the time. Aristotle was credited with being the first thinker to recognize that knowledge is compartmentalized. The school was the center for teaching scientific reasoning and scientific research. Aristotle’s theories, at the time were revolutionary, but were later corrected. In his time he was known as “the man who knew everything.” Aristotle’s influence from his time and even after his death, are considered unparalleled, with the exception of his teacher, Plato his works continue to endure. His writings about how people perceived the world continues to underline many principles, and the knowledge people possessed, because of him people around the world share to solve problems.
Aristotle was an ancient Greek scientist and philosopher who sought the answer to our existence and the truth of reality. Aristotle was a pupil of Plato, a Greek philosopher who was famous for his theory of forms, but following his (Plato’s) death, he changed his views from Platonism to empiricism. Where Plato thought that true reality was based in what was abstract and intangible, Aristotle instead thought of
He was the first to study formal logic, founded called the Lyceum and tutored kings. He influenced Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions and beliefs. The Catholic Church took his view of a universal hierarchy and added the divine, the heavenly and the demonic to make their “Great Chain of Being.” Aristotle even had a basic idea of evolution based on God’s plan for the world (IEP). It is possible that he was the last person to know everything there was to know in his own time (Neill 488). His contributions to our understanding of the world are innumerable, despite that only about a third of his work survived. He contributed to philosophy as much as Plato, if not more. He took Plato’s theory of forms and changed it, making it his own, and in the process resolved the problems that he had noted, as well as those pointed out by Plato and others. He called his new theory he called Hylomorphism. Hylomorphism’s way of thinking stands directly opposite that which Plato’s forms encourage. Aristotle did not see the world as a reflection of another filled with forms but as the physical embodiment of the forms. The substances are created by the innate forms in the matter and are the only way we can perceive forms. This means that to Aristotle a substance did not have form only in an abstract world of forms but was contained by the object in and of
The plot of a tragedy usually consists of a tragic hero’s fall from grace. Aristotle describes plot in two ways a simple plot and a complex one. In a simple plot a fall from
In the Poetics, Aristotle provides an outline of how the artist is to portray or represent the perfect Tragedy. A Tragedy, of course, was nothing more than a drama, in which the characters appeared "better" than in real life (in a comedy, they appeared "worse," according to Aristotle). Aristotle's Poetics makes several references to other dramatic works to illustrate his points, but he most commonly calls upon The Odyssey to support his argument for how a dramatic structure should be designed. However, along with the Odyssey, Aristotle extensively references Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. Both poetic works were enormously popular in their time (the former had been passed down orally for generations, and the latter won the top prizes at the dramatic festivals). Therefore, Aristotle is comfortable using both to support his viewpoint concerning Tragedy and the Tragic Hero. This paper will analyze the standards that Aristotle sets out concerning the definition of the Tragic Hero and show how Sophocles' Oedipus exemplifies Aristotle's definition of a Tragic Hero.
Aristotle is a Greek teacher and is credited for establishing the cornerstone of modern philosophy via his book Para Psyche (Biography.com Editors). His work assumes the existence of divine power and tells that the reason the human body exists is to house our
He is considered a man of misfortune that comes to him through error of judgment.” The characteristics of a tragic hero described by Aristotle are hamartia, hubris, peripeteia, anagnorisis, nemesis and catharsis which allows the audience to have a catharsis of arousing feelings.
A tragic hero has many traits and characterized in many lights, but what mainly encompasses a tragic hero six things. The first is called the Hamartia, this is the tragic flaw that causes the downfall of the hero. The second is called the Hubris, this is the excessive pride or,it can also be labeled as over confidence, and their disrespect for natural order. The third thing is called the Peripeteia this is known as the reversal of that the the hero experiences. The fourth thing is called the Anagnorisis, this is the moment in which the hero makes an important discovery. The fifth is known as Nemesis this is the fate of the protagonist. The sixth and final characteristic of a tragic hero is Catharsis and these are the feelings of pity and pity that usually the audience feels for the protagonist after the downfall of the hero. In this book, Oedipus the King, Oedipus posses all of these traits.
Aristotle was one of the most important western philosophers. He was a student of Plato and the teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. I found that his biggest impacts on modern society were in the subject areas of ethics, and zoology.
Aristotle is one of the greatest intellectual figures of Western history. Still today we are using his works in philosophy and sciences. Growing up Alexander was interested in the secrets of medicine. King Philip wanted to give his son the best education he could. He ask Aristotle to teach young Alexander starting at the age of 13. Philip hoped that through the teachings of Aristotle his son would not make the same mistakes that he made. “The medical knowledge he acquired from Aristotle may have saved
The great Greek thinker Aristotle was born in 384 B.C. in Stagirus, a city in ancient Macedonia in northern Greece. At the age of eighteen Aristotle went to Athens to begin his studies at Plato's Academy. He stayed and studied at the Academy for nineteen years and in that time became both a teacher and an independent researcher. After Plato's death in 347 B.C. Aristotle spent twelve years traveling and living in various places around the Aegean Sea. It was during this time that Aristotle was asked by Philip of Macedon to be a private tutor to his son, Alexander. Aristotle privately taught Alexander for three years before he returned to Athens after Philip gained control of the Greek capital. During this period back in Athens Aristotle
Plato, a man who believed by just thinking about it, you could understand and achieve fully, trained Aristotle in philosophy. Aristotle did not agree on Plato’s belief, and soon came up with his own. He believed that in order to understand, you must observe what is being studied by looking, listening or touching it. Aristotle’s method of studying is now the base of contemporary science. Modern scientists are now engineering more efficient and precise ways of observing. In conclusion, Aristotle awoke the world with the study of live, which grew to the study of modern science of phycology.
Aristotle was not just any person. He was one of the most distinguished and important Greek philosophers of all time. Aristotle was born in 384 BCE in the town of Stagira, Greece. His range of work was very broad, covering most of the sciences and many arts such as biology, botany, chemistry, ethics, history, logic, metaphysics, rhetoric, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, physics, poetics, political theory, psychology, and zoology. He was the author of what became the foundation of both Christian Scholasticism and medieval Islamic philosophy. Even after his death in 322 BCE and historic events such as enlightenment, Aristotle’s concepts still remain present in Western thinking and continue to be studied.
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist who lived from 384-322 B.C who was born in Stagira, Macedonia. His father played a major role in society as a physician in the royal court. Young Aristotle took a liking to Plato and decided to go to his academy at the age of seventeen. For the next twenty years, Aristotle remained there first as a student then as a teacher. After the death of Plato, Aristotle moved to Assos in the Asia Minor where he tutored his friend Hermias who was the ruler there and decided to marry his niece. After his death he then tutored Alexander the Great at the capital of Macedonia known as Pella. Later in his life, Aristotle decided to move back to Athens, Greece to open up his own school known as Lyceum.
of the east. The works of Aristotle have left many after him to contemplate his