Midterm post #3 Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle

Aristotle (384-322) was another Greek philosopher. He was Plato’s prized student. Aristotle’s father served the grandfather of Alexander the Great as his physician. Presumably, it was his father who taught him to take an interest in the details of natural life.

 Aristotle had many disagreements with Plato about certain philosophies. But when Plato died, Aristotle stayed right next to him. After Plato died, Aristotle met and the only woman he would ever love. Her name was Pythias. Aristotle even requested to be buried next to her when he died.

Like Plato, Aristotle also had his own school. His school of philosophy was located in Athens.
 Aristotle was as much a scientist as a philosopher. He was endlessly fascinated with nature, and went a long way towards classifying the plants and animals of Greece. He was equally interested in studying the anatomies of animals and their behavior in the wild.
Many of our ideas of modern logic originate from Aristotle. There are several ways Aristotle separated his logic from Plato’s. Instead of the belief in phenomena and its effects on an ideal reality, Aristotle suggests that the truth is found inside the phenomena. The universe is inside the particulars. This is what Aristotle refers to as metaphysics.
Aristotle thought there were essence, and its opposites. Not idea or ideal. He called this matter.  He believed that essence and matter need each other. Essence provides the form or purpose to the stuff that is matter. Essence is what makes everything real. The movement from formless stuff, or matter, to complete being is called entelechy or actualization.
The four causes that create movement of entelechy are the material cause, efficient cause, formal cause, and final cause. What something is made of is the material cause. For example the material cause of the mind would be the cells or mater that it is. The motion or energy that changes matter is the efficient cause. The efficient of the mind might be how information is consolidated, maybe how a neuron functions in the brain. The things shape, form, or essence is the definition of the formal cause. The reason the mind functions the way it does might be explained as the intention of the creator; God. The final cause is its purpose or intention. This could be the minds intentions, values, and goals for making decisions.
In his book called Para Psyche, he says the mind or soul is the “first entelechy” of the body. The mind is the cause and functioning of the body.
Aristotle also defines three kinds of souls, the plant soul, animal soul, and the human soul. The plant soul is the nutritional part of our soul. The animal soul is the soul that causes our desires and other feelings that sometimes seem to not have a reason. Then there is the human soul that is the part of us that is defined by reason.

He suggested the concept of the struggle of the id and ego: “There are two powers in the soul which appear to be moving forces -- desire and reason. But desire prompts actions in violation of reason... desire... may be wrong.”

We are creatures endowed with a sense of time. This is why we have desires that conflict with reason. Our ability to act with good reason would not exist if we did not have a sense of the future. While desire makes momentarily pleasant appear absolutely pleasant and absolutely good. Desire doesn’t see the future. This also refers to Plato and Socrates’s theory that people’s reasons are good and the reasons that appear bad are because the person was ignorant to its negativity.

Aristotle believed self-activation is how we begin as matter and develop by reaching for perfection.  This idea was relevant in the philosophies we discussed earlier.

As you can see, Aristotle had many different philosophies than Socrates and Plato. His view was more scientific than philosophical. 
main source
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/athenians.html