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Single Idea 11385

[filed under theme 14. Science / D. Explanation / 1. Explanation / a. Explanation ]

Full Idea

If the principles are universal, they will not be primary beings [ousiai], ...but if the principles are not universal but of the nature of particulars, they will not be scientifically knowable. For scientific knowledge of any thing is universal.

Gist of Idea

Universal principles are not primary beings, but particular principles are not universally knowable

Source

Aristotle (Metaphysics [c.324 BCE], 1003a08)

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'Metaphysics', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,Hugh [Penguin 1998], p.76

A Reaction

Part of the fifteenth aporia (puzzle) of this book. Plato goes for the universal (and hence knowable), but Aristotle makes the particular primary, and so is left with an epistemological problem, which the rest of 'Metaphysics' is meant to solve.

The 1145 ideas from Aristotle

11286 Primary being must be more than mere indeterminate ultimate subject of predication [Politis on Aristotle]
3311 The categories (substance, quality, quantity, relation, action, passion, place, time) peter out inconsequentially [Benardete,JA on Aristotle]
13121 Substance,Quantity,Quality,Relation,Place,Time,Being-in-a-position,Having,Doing,Being affected [Aristotle, by Westerhoff]
16116 Aristotle derived categories as answers to basic questions about nature, size, quality, location etc. [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
16155 Aristotle promoted the importance of properties and objects (rather than general and particular) [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
16154 Aristotle gave up his earlier notion of individuals, because it relied on universals [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
16140 Secondary substances do have subjects, so they are not ultimate in the ontology [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
10965 In earlier Aristotle the substances were particulars, not kinds [Aristotle, by Lawson-Tancred]
16091 Is primary substance just an ultimate subject, or some aspect of a complex body? [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
8287 Earlier Aristotle had objects as primary substances, but later he switched to substantial form [Aristotle, by Lowe]
11280 Primary being is 'that which lies under', or 'particular substance' [Aristotle, by Politis]
12361 Primary substances are ontological in 'Categories', and explanatory in 'Metaphysics' [Aristotle, by Wedin]
3315 Aristotle denigrates the category of relation, but for modern absolutists self-relation is basic [Benardete,JA on Aristotle]
12349 Only what can be said of many things is a predicable [Aristotle, by Wedin]
21345 Aristotle said relations are not substances, so (if they exist) they must be accidents [Aristotle, by Heil]
11032 Some things said 'of' a subject are not 'in' the subject [Aristotle]
11033 Predications of predicates are predications of their subjects [Aristotle]
11034 The differentiae of genera which are different are themselves different in kind [Aristotle]
11035 There are ten basic categories for thinking about things [Aristotle]
11036 A 'primary' substance is in each subject, with species or genera as 'secondary' substances [Aristotle]
11037 Colour must be in an individual body, or it is not embodied [Aristotle]
11038 We call them secondary 'substances' because they reveal the primary substances [Aristotle]
12351 Genus and species are substances, because only they reveal the primary substance [Aristotle, by Wedin]
12350 Things are called 'substances' because they are subjects for everything else [Aristotle]
11039 A primary substance reveals a 'this', which is an individual unit [Aristotle]
11837 Some predicates signify qualification of a substance, others the substance itself [Aristotle]
1694 Substances have no opposites, and don't come in degrees (including if the substance is a man) [Aristotle]
11040 A single substance can receive contrary properties [Aristotle]
11041 Some quantities are discrete, like number, and others continuous, like lines, time and space [Aristotle]
11042 Parts of a line join at a point, so it is continuous [Aristotle]
1695 Without extensive examination firm statements are hard, but studying the difficulties is profitable [Aristotle]
11043 It is not possible for fire to be cold or snow black [Aristotle]
1696 Change goes from possession to loss (as in baldness), but not the other way round [Aristotle]
1697 The contrary of good is bad, but the contrary of bad is either good or another evil [Aristotle]
1698 Both sides of contraries need not exist (as health without sickness, white without black) [Aristotle]
11044 One is prior to two, because its existence is implied by two [Aristotle]
1699 A thing is prior to another if it implies its existence [Aristotle]
18366 Of interdependent things, the prior one causes the other's existence [Aristotle]
18367 A true existence statement has its truth caused by the existence of the thing [Aristotle]
1700 There are six kinds of change: generation, destruction, increase, diminution, alteration, change of place [Aristotle]
16739 Four species of quality: states, capacities, affects, and forms [Aristotle, by Pasnau]
21360 Unobservant thinkers tend to dogmatise using insufficient facts [Aristotle]
13210 Wood is potentially divided through and through, so what is there in the wood besides the division? [Aristotle]
13211 If a body is endlessly divided, is it reduced to nothing - then reassembled from nothing? [Aristotle]
16100 True change is in a thing's logos or its matter, not in its qualities [Aristotle]
16101 A change in qualities is mere alteration, not true change [Aristotle]
16572 Does the pure 'this' come to be, or the 'this-such', or 'so-great', or 'somewhere'? [Aristotle]
16573 Philosophers have worried about coming-to-be from nothing pre-existing [Aristotle]
16595 If each thing can cease to be, why hasn't absolutely everything ceased to be long ago? [Aristotle]
13212 Infinity is only potential, never actual [Aristotle]
13213 All comings-to-be are passings-away, and vice versa [Aristotle]
13214 The substratum changing to a contrary is the material cause of coming-to-be [Aristotle]
12133 If the substratum persists, it is 'alteration'; if it doesn't, it is 'coming-to-be' or 'passing-away' [Aristotle]
13215 If a perceptible substratum persists, it is 'alteration'; coming-to-be is a complete change [Aristotle]
12134 Matter is the substratum, which supports both coming-to-be and alteration [Aristotle]
13216 Matter is the limit of points and lines, and must always have quality and form [Aristotle]
13220 Bodies are endlessly divisible [Aristotle]
13221 Existence is either potential or actual [Aristotle]
17994 The primary matter is the substratum for the contraries like hot and cold [Aristotle]
16717 Which of the contrary features of a body are basic to it? [Aristotle]
16594 The Four Elements must change into one another, or else alteration is impossible [Aristotle]
13223 Fire is hot and dry; Air is hot and moist; Water is cold and moist; Earth is cold and dry [Aristotle]
13224 There couldn't be just one element, which was both water and air at the same time [Aristotle]
13226 An Order controls all things [Aristotle]
13227 Being is better than not-being [Aristotle]
13228 There is no time without movement [Aristotle]
2683 Aristotle has a problem fitting his separate reason into the soul, which is said to be the form of the body [Ackrill on Aristotle]
5507 Aristotle led to the view that there are several souls, all somewhat physical [Aristotle, by Martin/Barresi]
17711 Our minds take on the form of what is being perceived [Aristotle, by Mares]
16646 To understand a triangle summing to two right angles, we need to know the essence of a line [Aristotle]
16647 Demonstration starts from a definition of essence, so we can derive (or conjecture about) the properties [Aristotle]
1710 Emotion involves the body, thinking uses the mind, imagination hovers between them [Aristotle]
24039 All the emotions seem to involve the body, simultaneously with the feeling [Aristotle]
24040 Scientists explain anger by the matter, dialecticians by the form and the account [Aristotle]
1714 Mind involves movement, perception, incorporeality [Aristotle]
24044 Movement can be intrinsic (like a ship) or relative (like its sailors) [Aristotle]
24045 Movement is spatial, alteration, withering or growth [Aristotle]
24046 Understanding is impossible, if it involves the understanding having parts [Aristotle]
24047 An account is either a definition or a demonstration [Aristotle]
24048 Demonstrations move from starting-points to deduced conclusions [Aristotle]
24049 Thinkers place the soul within the body, but never explain how they are attached [Aristotle]
1514 Early thinkers concentrate on the soul but ignore the body, as if it didn't matter what body received the soul [Aristotle]
1717 If the soul is composed of many physical parts, it can't be a true unity [Aristotle]
24050 If soul is separate from body, why does it die when the body dies? [Aristotle]
1718 Does the mind think or pity, or does the whole man do these things? [Aristotle]
24051 Soul is seen as what moves, or what is least physical, or a combination of elements [Aristotle]
24052 From one thing alone we can infer its contrary [Aristotle]
24053 If a soul have parts, what unites them? [Aristotle]
1721 What unifies the soul would have to be a super-soul, which seems absurd [Aristotle]
24055 Matter is potential, form is actual [Aristotle]
12086 Psuché is the form and actuality of a body which potentially has life [Aristotle]
13275 The soul and the body are inseparable, like the imprint in some wax [Aristotle]
16752 Sight is the essence of the eye, fitting its definition; the eye itself is just the matter [Aristotle]
24056 The soul (or parts of it) is not separable from the body [Aristotle]
1724 Perception necessitates pleasure and pain, which necessitates appetite [Aristotle]
24057 What is prior is always potentially present in what is next in order [Aristotle]
16754 The soul is the cause or source of movement, the essence of body, and its end [Aristotle]
24058 The substance is the cause of a thing's being [Aristotle]
1725 Why can't we sense the senses? And why do senses need stimuli? [Aristotle]
1726 We may think when we wish, but not perceive, because universals are within the mind [Aristotle]
1727 Some objects of sensation are unique to one sense, where deception is impossible [Aristotle]
1728 Many objects of sensation are common to all the senses [Aristotle]
1729 We perceive number by the denial of continuity [Aristotle]
1730 Why do we have many senses, and not just one? [Aristotle]
1732 Sense organs aren't the end of sensation, or they would know what does the sensing [Aristotle]
1733 Thinking is not perceiving, but takes the form of imagination and speculation [Aristotle]
23307 Aristotle makes belief a part of reason, but sees desires as separate [Aristotle, by Sorabji]
16723 Perception of sensible objects is virtually never wrong [Aristotle]
5051 The intellect has potential to think, like a tablet on which nothing has yet been written [Aristotle]
4376 Pleasure and pain are perceptions of things as good or bad [Aristotle]
1734 In moral thought images are essential, to be pursued or avoided [Aristotle]
1735 In a way the soul is everything which exists, through its perceptions and thoughts [Aristotle]
24060 Self-controlled follow understanding, when it is opposed to desires [Aristotle]
1738 Practical reason is based on desire, so desire must be the ultimate producer of movement [Aristotle]
24061 If we divide the mind up according to its capacities, there are a lot of them [Aristotle]
1739 If all movement is either pushing or pulling, there must be a still point in between where it all starts [Aristotle]
24062 Self-moving animals must have desires, and that entails having imagination [Aristotle]
24063 What is born has growth, a prime, and a withering away [Aristotle]
1740 Nature does nothing in vain [Aristotle]
24064 If something is pushed, it pushes back [Aristotle]
4326 Aristotle gives a superior account of rationality, because he allows emotions to participate [Hursthouse on Aristotle]
8007 Aristotle never discusses free will [Aristotle, by MacIntyre]
3559 For Aristotle, true self-love is love of the higher parts of one's soul [Aristotle, by Annas]
4371 Seeing particulars as parts of larger wholes is to perceive their value [Achtenberg on Aristotle]
5075 Aristotle said there are two levels of virtue - the conventional and the intellectual [Taylor,R on Aristotle]
18673 Eudaimonia is said to only have final value, where reason and virtue are also useful [Aristotle, by Orsi]
2681 Aristotle is unsure about eudaimonia because he is unsure what people are [Nagel on Aristotle]
4369 It is not universals we must perceive for virtue, but particulars, seen as intrinsically good [Aristotle, by Achtenberg]
3548 Aristotle neglects the place of rules in the mature virtuous person [Annas on Aristotle]
2684 Aristotle needed to distinguish teleological description from teleological explanation [Irwin on Aristotle]
4117 Nowadays we (unlike Aristotle) seem agreed that someone can have one virtue but lack others [Williams,B on Aristotle]
21044 For Aristotle, debates about justice are debates about the good life [Aristotle, by Sandel]
21047 Aristotle thought slavery is just if it is both necessary and natural [Aristotle, by Sandel]
4370 For Aristotle 'good' means purpose, and value is real but relational [Achtenberg on Aristotle]
2682 Aristotle thinks human life is not important enough to spend a whole life on it [Nagel on Aristotle]
20 The good is 'that at which all things aim' [Aristotle]
4380 Not all actions aim at some good; akratic actions, for example, do not [Burnyeat on Aristotle]
21 Moral acts are so varied that they must be convention, not nature [Aristotle]
22 Trained minds never expect more precision than is possible [Aristotle]
23 The masses believe, not unreasonably, that the good is pleasure [Aristotle]
24 Honour depends too much on the person who awards it [Aristotle]
4119 If you aim at honour, you make yourself dependent on the people to whom you wish to be superior [Aristotle, by Williams,B]
25 You can be good while asleep, or passive, or in pain [Aristotle]
26 Wealth is not the good, because it is only a means [Aristotle]
21356 Piety requires us to honour truth above our friends [Aristotle]
5128 Each category of existence has its own good, so one Good cannot unite them [Aristotle]
5129 There should be one science of the one Good, but there are many overlapping sciences [Aristotle]
5130 It is meaningless to speak of 'man-himself', because it has the same definition as plain 'man' [Aristotle]
27 Eternal white is no whiter than temporary white, and it is the same with goodness [Aristotle]
5131 Intelligence and sight, and some pleasures and honours, are candidates for being good in themselves [Aristotle]
28 How will a vision of pure goodness make someone a better doctor? [Aristotle]
18227 We desire final things just for themselves, and not for the sake of something else [Aristotle]
5132 Goods like pleasure are chosen partly for happiness, but happiness is chosen just for itself [Aristotle]
5133 Man is by nature a social being [Aristotle]
30 Happiness is perfect and self-sufficient, the end of all action [Aristotle]
5127 Does Aristotle say eudaimonia is the aim, or that it ought to be? [McDowell on Aristotle]
5134 Perhaps we get a better account of happiness as the good for man if we know his function [Aristotle]
31 If bodily organs have functions, presumably the whole person has one [Aristotle]
33 Each named function has a distinctive excellence attached to it [Aristotle]
34 The good for man is an activity of soul in accordance with virtue [Aristotle]
35 A statement is true if all the data are in harmony with it [Aristotle]
5135 Goods are external, of the soul, and of the body; those of the soul (such as action) come first [Aristotle]
5136 Happiness seems to involve virtue, or practical reason, or wisdom, or pleasure, or external goods [Aristotle]
5137 Many pleasures are relative to a person, but some love what is pleasant by nature, and virtue is like that [Aristotle]
5138 The fine deeds required for happiness need external resources, like friends or wealth [Aristotle]
38 A man can't be happy if he is ugly, or of low birth, or alone and childless [Aristotle]
5139 If happiness can be achieved by study and effort, then it is open to anyone who is not corrupt [Aristotle]
5140 Political science aims at the highest good, which involves creating virtue in citizens [Aristotle]
5142 Oxen, horses and children cannot be happy, because they cannot perform fine deeds [Aristotle]
39 Happiness needs total goodness and a complete life [Aristotle]
5143 Some good and evil can happen to the dead, just as the living may be unaware of a disaster [Aristotle]
5144 Happiness is activity in accordance with complete virtue, for a whole life, with adequate external goods [Aristotle]
4342 Aristotle must hold that virtuous King Priam's life can be marred, but not ruined [Hursthouse on Aristotle]
4381 How can an action be intrinsically good if it is a means to 'eudaimonia'? [Ackrill on Aristotle]
5145 The rational and irrational parts of the soul are either truly separate, or merely described that way [Aristotle]
5146 Everything that receives nourishment has a vegetative soul, with it own distinctive excellence [Aristotle]
4383 Aristotle seems not to explain why the better syllogism is overcome in akratic actions [Burnyeat on Aristotle]
5147 In a controlled person the receptive part of the soul is obedient, and it is in harmony in the virtuous [Aristotle]
5148 The irrational psuché is persuadable by reason - shown by our criticism and encouragement of people [Aristotle]
5149 The two main parts of the soul give rise to two groups of virtues - intellectual, and moral [Aristotle]
5150 Intellectual virtue arises from instruction (and takes time), whereas moral virtue result from habit [Aristotle]
4367 Moral virtue is not natural, because its behaviour can be changed, unlike a falling stone [Aristotle]
43 Nature enables us to be virtuous, but habit develops virtue in us [Aristotle]
44 We acquire virtues by habitually performing good deeds [Aristotle]
21046 The aim of legislators, and of a good constitution, is to create good citizens [Aristotle]
5151 Justice concerns our behaviour in dealing with other people [Aristotle]
5152 Like activities produce like dispositions, so we must give the right quality to the activity [Aristotle]
45 We aim not to identify goodness, but to be good [Aristotle]
46 We must take for granted that we should act according to right principle [Aristotle]
5153 There is no fixed art of good conduct, and each situation is different, as in navigation [Aristotle]
3545 The mean implies that vices are opposed to one another, not to virtue [Aristotle, by Annas]
5154 Excess and deficiency are bad for virtue, just as they are for bodily health [Aristotle]
47 Virtues are destroyed by the excess and preserved by the mean [Aristotle]
4406 Aristotle aims at happiness by depressing emotions to a harmless mean [Nietzsche on Aristotle]
4378 We must practise virtuous acts because practice actually teaches us the nature of virtue [Burnyeat on Aristotle]
49 Character is revealed by the pleasures and pains people feel [Aristotle]
4382 Feelings are vital to virtue, but virtue requires choice, which feelings lack [Kosman on Aristotle]
51 True education is training from infancy to have correct feelings [Aristotle]
52 We choose things for their fineness, their advantage, or for pleasure [Aristotle]
53 Feeling inappropriate pleasure or pain affects conduct, and is central to morality [Aristotle]
5156 How can good actions breed virtues, if you need to be virtuous to perform good actions? [Aristotle]
6793 People can break into the circle of virtue and good action, by chance, or with help [Aristotle]
54 Actions are not virtuous because of their quality, but because of the way they are done [Aristotle]
57 We acquire virtue by the repeated performance of just and temperate acts [Aristotle]
58 If virtues are not feelings or faculties, then they must be dispositions [Aristotle]
5157 If a thing has excellence, this makes the thing good, and means it functions well [Aristotle]
60 The mean is relative to the individual (diet, for example) [Aristotle]
61 Skills are only well performed if they observe the mean [Aristotle]
4388 One drink a day is moderation, but very drunk once a week could exhibit the mean [Urmson on Aristotle]
4373 Virtue is the feeling of emotions that accord with one's perception of value [Achtenberg on Aristotle]
4387 In most normal situations it is not appropriate to have any feelings at all [Urmson on Aristotle]
62 We must tune our feelings to be right in every way [Aristotle]
63 Virtue is a purposive mean disposition, which follows a rational principle and prudent judgment [Aristotle]
64 There is no right time or place or way or person for the committing of adultery; it is just wrong [Aristotle]
5158 Actions concern particular cases, and rules must fit the cases, not the other way round [Aristotle]
5159 The mean is always right, and the extremes are always wrong [Aristotle]
5160 There is a mean of feelings, as in our responses to the good or bad fortune of others [Aristotle]
4333 Contraries are by definition as far distant as possible from one another [Aristotle]
65 The vices to which we are most strongly pulled are most opposed to the mean [Aristotle]
5161 To make one's anger exactly appropriate to a situation is very difficult [Aristotle]
5211 An action is voluntary if the limb movements originate in the agent [Aristotle]
5212 A man should sooner die than do some dreadful things, no matter how cruel the death [Aristotle]
5213 If you repent of an act done through ignorance, you acted involuntarily, not non-voluntarily [Aristotle]
67 Bad people are just ignorant of what they ought to do [Aristotle]
5214 Acts may be forgivable if particular facts (rather than principles) are unknown [Aristotle]
20192 Aristotle assesses whether people are responsible, and if they are it was voluntary [Aristotle, by Zagzebski]
5215 There are six categories of particular cirumstance affecting an action [Aristotle]
5216 An act is involuntary if the particular facts (esp. circumstances and effect) are unknown [Aristotle]
5217 At times we ought to feel angry, and we ought to desire health and learning [Aristotle]
12961 For an action to be 'free', it must be deliberate as well as unconstrained [Aristotle, by Leibniz]
68 The akrates acts from desire not choice, and the enkrates acts from choice not desire [Aristotle]
4318 Virtue is right reason and feeling and action. Akrasia and enkrateia are lower levels of action. [Aristotle, by Cottingham]
4372 Akrasia merely neglects or misunderstands knowledge, rather than opposing it [Achtenberg on Aristotle]
24037 We all assume immortality is impossible [Aristotle]
4391 Opinion is praised for being in accordance with truth [Aristotle]
5218 Some people are good at forming opinions, but bad at making moral choices [Aristotle]
5219 Types of cause are nature, necessity and chance, and mind and human agency [Aristotle]
23320 Choice is not explained by the will, but by the operation of reason when it judges what is good [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
69 We deliberate about means, not ends [Aristotle]
5220 Particular facts (such as 'is it cooked?') are matters of sense-perception, not deliberation [Aristotle]
5221 Deliberation ends when the starting-point of an action is traced back to the dominant part of the self [Aristotle]
5222 A person of good character sees the truth about what is actually fine and pleasant [Aristotle]
4118 A human being fathers his own actions as he fathers his children [Aristotle]
4394 People develop their characters through the activities they pursue [Aristotle]
4384 For Aristotle responsibility seems negative, in the absence of force or ignorance [Irwin on Aristotle]
5223 We are partly responsible for our own dispositions and virtues [Aristotle]
5224 Strictly speaking, a courageous person is one who does not fear an honourable death [Aristotle]
5225 The end of virtue is what is right and honourable or fine [Aristotle]
5226 True courage is an appropriate response to a dangerous situation [Aristotle]
5227 The nature of any given thing is determined by its end [Aristotle]
5228 A suicide embraces death to run away from hardships, rather than because it is a fine deed [Aristotle]
5229 The more virtuous and happy a person is, the worse the prospect becomes of ending life [Aristotle]
5230 There are pleasures of the soul (e.g. civic honour, and learning) and of the body [Aristotle]
71 Licentiousness concerns the animal-like pleasures of touch and taste [Aristotle]
5231 To eat vast amounts is unnatural, since natural desire is to replenish the deficiency [Aristotle]
5232 If beings are dominated by appetite, this can increase so much that it drives out reason [Aristotle]
5233 Honour is clearly the greatest external good [Aristotle]
5234 For the great-souled man it is sometimes better to be dead [Aristotle]
5235 Patient people are indignant, but only appropriately, as their reason prescribes [Aristotle]
5236 It is foolish not to be angry when it is appropriate [Aristotle]
5237 We cannot properly judge by rules, because blame depends on perception of particulars [Aristotle]
5238 The sincere man is praiseworthy, because truth is the mean between boasting and irony [Aristotle]
4389 What emotion is displayed in justice, and what are its deficiency and excess? [Urmson on Aristotle]
5239 When people speak of justice they mean a disposition of character to behave justly [Aristotle]
5240 The word 'unjust' describes law-breaking and exploitation [Aristotle]
5241 We hold that every piece of legislation is just [Aristotle]
5242 Justice is whatever creates or preserves social happiness [Aristotle]
5243 The best people exercise their virtue towards others, rather than to themselves [Aristotle]
23556 Particular justice concerns specific temptations, but universal justice concerns the whole character [Aristotle]
5245 Society collapses if people cannot rely on exchanging good for good and evil for evil [Aristotle]
5246 Natural justice is the same everywhere, and does not (unlike legal justice) depend on acceptance [Aristotle]
72 Assume our reason is in two parts, one for permanent first principles, and one for variable things [Aristotle]
73 Practical intellect serves to arrive at the truth which corresponds to right appetite [Aristotle]
4405 The attainment of truth is the task of the intellectual part of the soul [Aristotle]
76 The object of scientific knowledge is what is necessary [Aristotle]
20212 Practical reason is truth-attaining, and focused on actions good for human beings [Aristotle]
78 Wisdom is scientific and intuitive knowledge of what is by nature most precious [Aristotle]
5247 Prudence is mainly concerned with particulars, which is the sphere of human conduct [Aristotle]
79 Intuition grasps the definitions that can't be proved [Aristotle]
5248 Wisdom does not study happiness, because it is not concerned with processes [Aristotle]
80 Virtue ensures that we have correct aims, and prudence that we have correct means of achieving them [Aristotle]
55 People who perform just acts unwillingly or ignorantly are still not just [Aristotle]
56 A person is good if they act from choice, and for the sake of the actions in themselves [Aristotle]
5249 One cannot be prudent without being good [Aristotle]
4362 Dispositions to virtue are born in us, but without intelligence they can be harmful [Aristotle]
81 For Socrates virtues are principles, involving knowledge, but we say they only imply the principle of practical reason [Aristotle]
82 The one virtue of prudence carries with it the possession of all the other virtues [Aristotle]
4386 Character can be heroic, excellent, controlled, uncontrolled, bad, or brutish [Aristotle, by Urmson]
5250 The three states of character to avoid are vice, 'akrasia' and brutishness [Aristotle]
5251 Gods exist in a state which is morally superior to virtue [Aristotle]
22141 It is enough if we refute the objections and leave common opinions undisturbed [Aristotle]
5252 'Enkrateia' (control) means abiding by one's own calculations [Aristotle]
5254 Some people explain akrasia by saying only opinion is present, not knowledge [Aristotle]
5255 A person may act against one part of his knowledge, if he knows both universal and particular [Aristotle]
23317 Aristotle sees akrasia as acting against what is chosen, not against reason [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
23318 Akrasia is explained by past mental failures, not by a specific choice [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
5256 Some things are not naturally pleasant, but become so through disease or depravity [Aristotle]
5257 Licentious people feel no regret, but weak-willed people are capable of repentance [Aristotle]
5258 While replenishing we even enjoy unpleasant things, but only absolute pleasures when we are replenished [Aristotle]
84 The greater the pleasure, the greater the hindrance to thought [Aristotle]
1665 It is nonsense to say a good person is happy even if they are being tortured or suffering disaster [Aristotle]
5259 If we criticise bodily pleasures as licentious and bad, why do we consider their opposite, pain, to be bad? [Aristotle]
383 God feels one simple pleasure forever [Aristotle]
2686 Aristotle does not confine supreme friendship to moral heroes [Cooper,JM on Aristotle]
5260 Friendship holds communities together, and lawgivers value it more than justice [Aristotle]
5261 Between friends there is no need for justice [Aristotle]
5262 Only lovable things are loved, and they must be good, or pleasant, or useful [Aristotle]
2687 For Aristotle in the best friendships the binding force is some excellence of character [Cooper,JM on Aristotle]
85 Bad men can have friendships of utility or pleasure, but only good men can be true friends [Aristotle]
5263 Most people want to be loved rather than to love, because they desire honour [Aristotle]
5264 Friendship is based on a community of sharing [Aristotle]
86 A bad political constitution (especially a tyranny) makes friendship almost impossible [Aristotle]
87 Democracy is the best constitution for friendship, because it encourages equality [Aristotle]
5265 Even more than a social being, man is a pairing and family being [Aristotle]
88 Nobody would choose all the good things in world, if the price was loss of identity [Aristotle]
5266 It would seem that the thinking part is the individual self [Aristotle]
90 All altruism is an extension of self-love [Aristotle]
91 A man is his own best friend; therefore he ought to love himself best [Aristotle]
5267 Our reasoned acts are held to be voluntary and our own doing [Aristotle]
92 Self-love benefits ourselves, and also helps others [Aristotle]
2689 Good people enjoy virtuous action, just as musicians enjoy beautiful melodies [Aristotle]
2690 Associating with good people can be a training in virtue [Aristotle]
2573 To perceive or think is to be conscious of our existence [Aristotle]
93 Existence is desirable if one is conscious of one's own goodness [Aristotle]
95 If everyone believes it, it is true [Aristotle]
5268 Disreputable pleasures are only pleasant to persons with diseased perception [Aristotle]
4374 For Aristotle, pleasure is the perception of particulars as valuable [Achtenberg on Aristotle]
96 Nobody would choose the mentality of a child, even if they had the greatest childish pleasures [Aristotle]
97 There are many things we would want even if they brought no pleasure [Aristotle]
5269 Pleasure is not the Good, and not every pleasure is desirable [Aristotle]
98 It is right to pursue pleasure, because it enhances life, and life is a thing to choose [Aristotle]
5270 Intellectual pleasures are superior to sensuous ones [Aristotle]
99 If happiness were mere amusement it wouldn't be worth a lifetime's effort [Aristotle]
100 The happy life is in accordance with goodness, which implies seriousness [Aristotle]
101 Slaves can't be happy, because they lack freedom [Aristotle]
103 Wise people can contemplate alone, though co-operation helps [Aristotle]
18229 Only contemplation is sought for its own sake; practical activity always offers some gain [Aristotle]
104 Contemplation (with the means to achieve it) is the perfect happiness for man [Aristotle]
5272 The intellectual life is divine in comparison with ordinary human life [Aristotle]
105 We should aspire to immortality, and live by what is highest in us [Aristotle]
106 The best life is that of the intellect, since that is in the fullest sense the man [Aristotle]
107 A life of moral virtue brings human happiness, but not divine happiness [Aristotle]
108 The virtue of generosity requires money [Aristotle]
109 Clearly perfect conduct will involve both good intention and good action [Aristotle]
18232 The gods live, but action is unworthy of them, so that only leaves contemplation? [Aristotle]
110 Lower animals cannot be happy, because they cannot contemplate [Aristotle]
111 The more people contemplate, the happier they are [Aristotle]
4379 It is very hard to change a person's character traits by argument [Aristotle]
112 Most people are readier to submit to compulsion than to argument [Aristotle]
5865 Happiness involves three things, of which the greatest is either wisdom, virtue, or pleasure [Aristotle]
5866 It is folly not to order one's life around some end [Aristotle]
18230 No one would choose life just for activities not done for their own sake [Aristotle]
5868 Horses, birds and fish are not happy, lacking a divine aspect to their natures [Aristotle]
5869 The thesis of the Form of the Good (or of anything else) is verbal and vacuous [Aristotle]
5870 Everything seeks, not a single good, but its own separate good [Aristotle]
5871 Goods in the soul are more worthy than those outside it, as everybody wants them [Aristotle]
5872 Excellence is the best state of anything (like a cloak) which has an employment or function [Aristotle]
5873 Each thing's function is its end [Aristotle]
20204 Whether the mind has parts is irrelevant, since it obviously has distinct capacities [Aristotle]
5874 Character virtues (such as courage) are of the non-rational part, which follows the rational part [Aristotle]
5875 Character (éthos) is developed from habit (ethos) [Aristotle]
22504 Only a human being can be a starting point for an action [Aristotle]
22505 The two right angles of a triangle necessitate that a quadrilateral has four [Aristotle]
22506 A man is the cause of what is within his power, and what he causes is in his power [Aristotle]
22507 An action is voluntary when it is accompanied by thought of some kind [Aristotle]
23319 We are responsible if our actions reflect our motivation [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
22508 Unlike in inanimate things, in animate things actions have more than one starting point [Aristotle]
22509 What is natural for us is either there at birth, or appears by normal processes [Aristotle]
22512 Acts are voluntary if done knowingly, by the agent, and in his power to avoid it [Aristotle]
22513 Knowing is having knowledge; understanding is using knowledge [Aristotle]
22510 Some emotional states are too strong for human nature [Aristotle]
22514 The deliberative part of the soul discerns explanatory causes [Aristotle]
22515 Choice results when deliberation brings together an opinion with an inclination [Aristotle]
22516 Character is shown by what is or is not enjoyed, and virtue chooses the mean among them [Aristotle]
5876 Virtue is different from continence [Aristotle]
22517 We judge character not by their actions, but by their reasons for actions [Aristotle]
5877 We judge people from their deeds because we cannot see their choices (which matter more) [Aristotle]
23905 Courage follows reason, which tells us to choose what is noble [Aristotle]
23906 Courage from spirit is natural and unconquerable, as seen in the young [Aristotle]
23908 If someone just looks at or listens to beautiful things, they would not be thought intemperate [Aristotle]
23909 Wearing a shoe is its intrinsic use, and selling it (as a shoe) is its coincidental use [Aristotle]
23910 Greatness of soul produces all the virtues - and vice versa [Aristotle]
23911 Possessors of a virtue tend to despise what reason shows to be its opposite [Aristotle]
23912 Honour depends on what it is for, and whether it is bestowed by worthy people [Aristotle]
23913 Nearly all the good and bad states of character are concerned with feelings [Aristotle]
23914 People sometimes exhibit both extremes together, but the mean is contrary to both of them [Aristotle]
23917 Contrary statements can both be reasonable, if they are meant in two different ways [Aristotle]
23918 Akrasia is the clash of two feelings - goodness and pleasure [Aristotle]
23919 Friendship cannot be immediate; it takes time, and needs testing [Aristotle]
23920 Decent people can be friends with base people [Aristotle]
23915 The main function of politics is to produce friendship [Aristotle]
23916 The best cure for mutual injustice is friendship [Aristotle]
5878 Eyes could be used for a natural purpose, or for unnatural seeing, or for a non-seeing activity [Aristotle]
16102 Aether moves in circles and is imperishable; the four elements perish, and move in straight lines [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
394 An unworn sandal is in vain, but nothing in nature is in vain [Aristotle]
395 It seems possible that there exists a limited number of other worlds apart from this one [Aristotle]
396 There has to be some goal, and not just movement to infinity [Aristotle]
1498 Everyone agrees that the world had a beginning, but thinkers disagree over whether it will end [Aristotle]
398 Each thing that has a function is for the sake of that function [Aristotle]
399 If the more you raise some earth the faster it moves, why does the whole earth not move? [Aristotle]
19740 A very hungry man cannot choose between equidistant piles of food [Aristotle]
402 The Earth must be spherical, because it casts a convex shadow on the moon [Aristotle]
403 The earth must be round and of limited size, because moving north or south makes different stars visible [Aristotle]
17463 An element is what bodies are analysed into, and won't itself divide into something else [Aristotle]
20918 Void is a kind of place, so it can't explain place [Aristotle]
15119 Aristotelian explanation by essence may need to draw on knowledge of other essences [Aristotle, by Koslicki]
23301 There is a gradual proceeding from the inanimate to animals, with no clear borderlines [Aristotle]
23302 Plants have far less life than animals, but more life than other corporeal entities [Aristotle]
2337 For Aristotle meaning and reference are linked to concepts [Aristotle, by Putnam]
22272 Aristotle's later logic had to treat 'Socrates' as 'everything that is Socrates' [Potter on Aristotle]
13763 Spoken sounds vary between people, but are signs of affections of soul, which are the same for all [Aristotle]
1701 A prayer is a sentence which is neither true nor false [Aristotle]
1702 Things may be necessary once they occur, but not be unconditionally necessary [Aristotle]
1703 It is necessary that either a sea-fight occurs tomorrow or it doesn't, though neither option is in itself necessary [Aristotle]
21593 In talking of future sea-fights, Aristotle rejects bivalence [Aristotle, by Williamson]
1704 Statements are true according to how things actually are [Aristotle]
1705 It doesn't have to be the case that in opposed views one is true and the other false [Aristotle]
1706 Non-existent things aren't made to exist by thought, because their non-existence is part of the thought [Aristotle]
1707 Maybe necessity and non-necessity are the first principles of ontology [Aristotle]
1708 In "Callias is just/not just/unjust", which of these are contraries? [Aristotle]
9405 Square of Opposition: not both true, or not both false; one-way implication; opposite truth-values [Aristotle]
9728 Modal Square 1: □P and ¬◊¬P are 'contraries' of □¬P and ¬◊P [Aristotle, by Fitting/Mendelsohn]
9729 Modal Square 2: ¬□¬P and ◊P are 'subcontraries' of ¬□P and ◊¬P [Aristotle, by Fitting/Mendelsohn]
9730 Modal Square 3: □P and ¬◊¬P are 'contradictories' of ¬□P and ◊¬P [Aristotle, by Fitting/Mendelsohn]
9731 Modal Square 4: □¬P and ¬◊P are 'contradictories' of ¬□¬P and ◊P [Aristotle, by Fitting/Mendelsohn]
9732 Modal Square 5: □P and ¬◊¬P are 'subalternatives' of ¬□¬P and ◊P [Aristotle, by Fitting/Mendelsohn]
9733 Modal Square 6: □¬P and ¬◊P are 'subalternatives' of ¬□P and ◊¬P [Aristotle, by Fitting/Mendelsohn]
22154 For Aristotle bivalence is a feature of reality [Aristotle, by Boulter]
12080 Essence is not all the necessary properties, since these extend beyond the definition [Aristotle, by Witt]
12339 Aristotle removes ontology from mathematics, and replaces the true with the beautiful [Aristotle, by Badiou]
11199 Aristotelian essence underlies behaviour, or underlies definition, or is the source of existence [Aristotle, by Aquinas]
12304 Aristotelian essence is retained with identity through change, and bases our scientific knowledge [Aristotle, by Copi]
15107 Aristotle doesn't see essential truths or essential properties as necessary [Aristotle, by Koslicki]
16095 Some forms, such as the Prime Mover, are held by Aristotle to exist without matter [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
12345 In 'Metaphysics' Z substantial primacy (as form) is explanatory rather than ontological [Aristotle, by Wedin]
16778 Mature Aristotle sees organisms as the paradigm substances [Aristotle, by Pasnau]
543 All men long to understand, as shown by their delight in the senses [Aristotle]
12038 Translate as 'humans all desire by nature to understand' (not as 'to know') [Aristotle, by Annas]
11245 Many memories make up a single experience [Aristotle]
9088 Skill comes from a general assumption obtained from thinking about similar things [Aristotle]
544 Experience knows particulars, but only skill knows universals [Aristotle]
545 It is not much help if a doctor knows about universals but not the immediate particular [Aristotle]
546 It takes skill to know causes, not experience [Aristotle]
547 The ability to teach is a mark of true knowledge [Aristotle]
11242 Wisdom is knowledge of principles and causes [Aristotle]
548 Knowledge chosen for its own sake, rather than for results, is wisdom [Aristotle]
11241 Wise men aren't instructed; they instruct [Aristotle]
549 All philosophy begins from wonder, either at the physical world, or at ideas [Aristotle]
11247 To know a thing is to know its primary cause or explanation [Aristotle]
11256 Materialists cannot explain change [Aristotle, by Politis]
1576 If each of us can give some logos about parts of nature, our combined efforts can be impressive [Aristotle]
559 Even people who go astray in their opinions have contributed something useful [Aristotle]
560 Mathematical precision is only possible in immaterial things [Aristotle]
11258 We must start with our puzzles, and progress by solving them, as they reveal the real difficulty [Aristotle]
561 Is there cause outside matter, and can it be separated, and is it one or many? [Aristotle]
11262 Aporia 1: is there one science of explanation, or many? [Aristotle, by Politis]
11263 Aporia 2: Does one science investigate both ultimate and basic principles of being? [Aristotle, by Politis]
562 Axioms are the underlying principles of everything, and who but the philosopher can assess their truth? [Aristotle]
11264 Aporia 3: Does one science investigate all being, or does each kind of being have a science? [Aristotle, by Politis]
11265 Aporia 4: Does metaphysics just investigate pure being, or also the characteristics of being? [Aristotle, by Politis]
11266 Aporia 5: Do other things exist besides what is perceptible by the senses? [Aristotle, by Politis]
11267 Aporia 6: Are the basic principles of a thing the kinds to which it belongs, or its components? [Aristotle, by Politis]
11268 Aporia 7: Is a thing's kind the most general one, or the most specific one? [Aristotle, by Politis]
11269 Aporia 8: Are there general kinds, or merely particulars? [Aristotle, by Politis]
566 If nothing exists except individuals, how can there be a science of infinity? [Aristotle]
11270 Aporia 9: Is there one principle, or one kind of principle? [Aristotle, by Politis]
12074 The one in number just is the particular [Aristotle]
16090 Being must be understood with reference to one primary sense - the being of substance [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
11271 Aporia 10: Do perishables and imperishables have the same principle? [Aristotle, by Politis]
11272 Aporia 11: Are primary being and unity distinct, or only in the things that are? [Aristotle, by Politis]
11273 Aporia 12: Do mathematical entities exist independently, or only in objects? [Aristotle, by Politis]
11274 Aporia 13: Are there kinds, as well as particulars and mathematical entities? [Aristotle, by Politis]
11275 Aporia 14: Are ultimate causes of things potentialities, or must they be actual? [Aristotle, by Politis]
11276 Aporia 15: Are the causes of things universals or particulars? [Aristotle, by Politis]
11385 Universal principles are not primary beings, but particular principles are not universally knowable [Aristotle]
568 Some things exist as substances, others as properties of substances [Aristotle]
569 If substance is the basis of reality, then philosophy aims to understand substance [Aristotle]
570 Nothing is added to a man's existence by saying he is 'one', or that 'he exists' [Aristotle]
12347 The immediate divisions of that which is are genera, each with its science [Aristotle]
571 Is Socrates the same person when standing and when seated? [Aristotle]
572 Philosophy has different powers from dialectic, and a different life from sophistry [Aristotle]
573 The axioms of mathematics are part of philosophy [Aristotle]
6561 A thing cannot be both in and not-in the same thing (at a given time) [Aristotle]
574 Not everything can be proven, because that would lead to an infinite regress [Aristotle]
11281 We cannot say that one thing both is and is not a man [Aristotle]
575 If one error is worse than another, it must be because it is further from the truth [Aristotle]
576 If the majority had diseased taste, and only a few were healthy, relativists would have to prefer the former [Aristotle]
581 Dreams aren't a serious problem. No one starts walking round Athens next morning, having dreamt that they were there! [Aristotle]
583 The starting point of a proof is not a proof [Aristotle]
584 If truth is relative it is relational, and concerns appearances relative to a situation [Aristotle]
585 If relativism is individual, how can something look sweet and not taste it, or look different to our two eyes? [Aristotle]
1601 The most certain basic principle is that contradictories can't be true at the same time [Aristotle]
1602 For Aristotle predication is regulated by Non-Contradiction, because underlying stability is essential [Roochnik on Aristotle]
586 Falsity says that which is isn't, and that which isn't is; truth says that which is is, and that which isn't isn't [Aristotle]
19165 Aristotle's truth formulation concerns referring parts of sentences, not sentences as wholes [Aristotle, by Davidson]
588 We exercise to be fit, but need fitness to exercise [Aristotle]
12611 Necessity makes alternatives impossible [Aristotle]
12878 Wholes are continuous, rigid, uniform, similar, same kind, similar matter [Aristotle, by Simons]
12612 Some things have external causes of their necessity; others (the simple) generate necessities [Aristotle]
13272 Things are one to the extent that they are indivisible [Aristotle]
590 Things are one numerically in matter, formally in their account, generically in predicates, and by analogy in relations [Aristotle]
12348 There are four kinds of being: incidental, per se, potential and actual, and being as truth [Aristotle, by Wedin]
11299 Substance [ousia] is the subject of predication and cause [aitia?] of something's existence [Aristotle]
11194 Being is either what falls in the categories, or what makes propositions true [Aristotle, by Aquinas]
12060 Essence (fixed by definition) is also 'ousia', so 'ousia' is both ultimate subject, and a this-thing [Aristotle]
11154 Prior things can exist without posterior things, but not vice versa [Aristotle]
15777 A 'potentiality' is a principle of change or process in a thing [Aristotle]
15778 Things are destroyed not by their powers, but by their lack of them [Aristotle]
15779 Possibility is when the necessity of the contrary is false [Aristotle]
15780 Potentiality in geometry is metaphorical [Aristotle]
13273 Pluralities divide into discontinous countables; magnitudes divide into continuous things [Aristotle]
591 Excellence is a sort of completion [Aristotle]
13274 The contents of an explanatory formula are parts of the whole [Aristotle]
15852 A 'whole' (rather than a mere 'sum') requires an internal order which distinguishes it [Aristotle]
12355 'Plane' is the genus of plane figures, and 'solid' of solids, with differentiae picking out types of corner [Aristotle]
22171 If only natural substances exist, science is first philosophy - but not if there is an immovable substance [Aristotle]
10913 Truth is a matter of asserting correct combinations and separations [Aristotle]
10914 Simple and essential truth seems to be given, with further truth arising in thinking [Aristotle]
11234 The three main candidates for primary being are particular, universal and essence; essence is the answer [Aristotle, by Politis]
11384 We know something when we fully know what it is, not just its quality, quantity or location [Aristotle]
592 The baffling question of what exists is asking about the nature of substance [Aristotle]
11279 Primary being is either universals, or the basis of predication, or essence [Aristotle, by Politis]
10941 A substance is what-it-is-to-be, or the universal, or the genus, or the subject of saying [Aristotle]
10962 It is unclear whether Aristotle believes in a propertyless subject, his 'ultimate matter' [Aristotle, by Lawson-Tancred]
12061 The primary subject seems to be substance, to the fullest extent [Aristotle]
10942 If you extract all features of the object, what is left over? [Aristotle]
595 It is matter that turns out to be substance [ousia] [Aristotle]
16590 Matter is neither a particular thing nor a member of a determinate category [Aristotle]
11290 Matter is not substance, because substance needs separability and thisness [Aristotle]
11289 Understanding moves from the less to the more intelligible [Aristotle]
11291 A thing's essence is its intrinsic nature [Aristotle]
11288 Things are predicated of the basic thing, which isn't predicated of anything else [Aristotle]
10964 Having an essence is the criterion of being a substance [Aristotle, by Lawson-Tancred]
10963 A thing's essence is what is mentioned in its definition [Aristotle, by Lawson-Tancred]
11292 Things have an essence if their explanation is a definition [Aristotle]
10944 A definition must be of something primary [Aristotle]
10945 Some philosophers say that in some qualified way non-existent things 'are' [Aristotle]
10946 Existence requires thisness, as quantity or quality [Aristotle]
12352 Whiteness can only belong to man because an individual like Callias happens to be white [Aristotle]
10947 Whiteness can be explained without man, but femaleness cannot be explained without animal [Aristotle]
596 Only substance [ousias] admits of definition [Aristotle]
11153 A definition is an account of a what-it-was-to-be-that-thing [Aristotle]
10948 Forms are said to be substances to which nothing is prior [Aristotle]
16105 We know a thing when we grasp its essence [Aristotle]
10949 Primary things just are what-it-is-to-be-that-thing [Aristotle]
10950 Things are produced from skill if the form of them is in the mind [Aristotle]
11285 The form of a thing is its essence and its primary being [Aristotle]
16575 Something must pre-exist any new production [Aristotle]
10951 The statue is not called 'stone' but 'stoney' [Aristotle]
597 Is there a house over and above its bricks? [Aristotle]
10952 Unusual kinds like mule are just a combination of two kinds [Aristotle]
10953 The parts of a definition are isomorphic to the parts of the entity [Aristotle]
12360 Definitions need the complex features of form, and don't need to mention the category [Aristotle, by Wedin]
10954 It is unclear whether acute angles are prior to right angles, or fingers to men [Aristotle]
16106 Generalities like man and horse are not substances, but universal composites of account and matter [Aristotle]
10955 Matter is perceptible (like bronze) or intelligible (like mathematical objects) [Aristotle]
11383 A definition is of the universal and of the kind [Aristotle]
10956 If we only saw bronze circles, would bronze be part of the concept of a circle? [Aristotle]
10957 The material element may be essential to a definition [Aristotle]
12301 Every distinct thing has matter, as long as it isn't an essence or a Form [Aristotle]
10958 Perhaps numbers are substances? [Aristotle]
16107 Sometimes parts must be mentioned in definitions of essence, and sometimes not [Aristotle]
10959 The substance is the form dwelling in the object [Aristotle]
10960 If we define 'man' as 'two-footed animal', why does that make man a unity? [Aristotle]
10961 Definition by division is into genus and differentiae [Aristotle]
12356 If the genus is just its constitutive forms (or matter), then the definition is the account of the differentiae [Aristotle]
16142 A substrate is either a 'this' supporting qualities, or 'matter' supporting actuality [Aristotle]
11379 Substance is not a universal, as the former is particular but a universal is shared [Aristotle]
12093 Substance is unified and universals are diverse, so universals are not substance [Aristotle, by Witt]
11380 Two things with the same primary being and essence are one thing [Aristotle]
16143 It is absurd that a this and a substance should be composed of a quality [Aristotle]
16144 Genera are not substances, and do not exist apart from the ingredient species [Aristotle]
16145 Predications only pick out kinds of things, not things in themselves [Aristotle]
12311 Particulars are not definable, because they fluctuate [Aristotle]
17040 If I define you, I have to use terms which are all true of other things too [Aristotle]
16094 You can't define particulars, because accounts have to be generalised [Aristotle]
12094 No universals exist separately from particulars [Aristotle]
599 We may have to postulate unobservable and unknowable substances [Aristotle]
12359 'Categories' answers 'what?' with species, genus, differerentia; 'Met.' Z.17 seeks causal essence [Aristotle, by Wedin]
16134 We can't understand self-identity without a prior grasp of the object [Aristotle]
16135 Real enquiries seek causes, and causes are essences [Aristotle]
11296 The explanation is what gives matter its state, which is the form, which is the substance [Aristotle]
16136 A syllable is something different from its component vowels and consonants [Aristotle]
15840 If a syllable is more than its elements, is the extra bit also an element? [Aristotle]
12362 A thing's substance is its primary cause of being [Aristotle]
15853 A true substance is constituted by some nature, which is a principle [Aristotle]
600 Elements and physical objects are substances, but ideas and mathematics are not so clear [Aristotle]
601 Substance must exist, because something must endure during change between opposites [Aristotle]
16753 Giving the function of a house defines its actuality [Aristotle]
603 How is man a unity of animal and biped, especially if the Forms of animal and of biped exist? [Aristotle]
16108 If men exist by participating in two forms (Animal and Biped), they are plural, not unities [Aristotle]
16109 Things are a unity because there is no clash between potential matter and actual shape/form [Aristotle]
12098 An essence causes both its own unity and its kind [Aristotle]
16110 If partaking explains unity, what causes participating, and what is participating? [Aristotle]
16085 Primary matter and form make a unity, one in potentiality, the other in actuality [Aristotle]
16086 Objects lacking matter are intrinsic unities [Aristotle]
16152 Other types of being all depend on the being of substance [Aristotle]
16113 Potentiality is a principle of change, in another thing, or as another thing [Aristotle]
11938 The Megarans say something is only capable of something when it is actually doing it [Aristotle]
15766 Megaran actualism is just scepticism about the qualities of things [Aristotle]
15767 Megaran actualists prevent anything from happening, by denying a capacity for it to happen! [Aristotle]
15768 An actuality is usually thought to be a process [Aristotle]
15769 Anything which is possible either exists or will come into existence [Aristotle]
14543 When a power and its object meet in the right conditions, an action necessarily follows [Aristotle]
14544 Potentialities are always for action, but are conditional on circumstances [Aristotle]
15770 Some things cannot be defined, and only an analogy can be given [Aristotle]
16118 Nature is an active principle of change, like potentiality, but it is intrinsic to things [Aristotle]
15771 Primary matter is what characterises other stuffs, and it has no distinct identity [Aristotle]
15772 A thing's active function is its end [Aristotle]
15773 Actualities are arranged by priority, going back to what initiates process [Aristotle]
605 The Forms have to be potentialities, not actual knowledge or movement [Aristotle]
15774 We recognise potentiality from actuality [Aristotle]
15775 Truth-thinking does not make it so; it being so is what makes it true [Aristotle]
10916 Truth is either intuiting a way of being, or a putting together [Aristotle]
15776 There is only being in a certain way, and without that way there is no being [Aristotle]
10915 The truth or falsity of a belief will be in terms of something that is always this way not that [Aristotle]
17838 Things may be naturally unified because they involve an indivisible process [Aristotle]
16508 Things are more unified if the unity comes from their own nature, not from external force [Aristotle]
17839 Some things are unified by their account, which rests on a unified thought about the thing [Aristotle]
17840 A unity may just be a particular, a numerically indivisible thing [Aristotle]
17841 The formal cause may be what unifies a substance [Aristotle]
17842 Indivisibility is the cause of unity, either in movement, or in the account or thought [Aristotle]
17843 The idea of 'one' is the foundation of number [Aristotle]
17844 The unit is stipulated to be indivisible [Aristotle]
607 None of the universals can be a substance [Aristotle]
17845 If only rectilinear figures existed, then unity would be the triangle [Aristotle]
17846 The essence of a single thing is the essence of a particular [Aristotle]
17847 You are one with yourself in form and matter [Aristotle]
17848 Things such as two different quadrangles are alike but not wholly the same [Aristotle]
17849 For two things to differ in some respect, they must both possess that respect [Aristotle]
608 There is no middle ground in contradiction, but there is in contrariety [Aristotle]
17850 Each many is just ones, and is measured by the one [Aristotle]
17851 Number is plurality measured by unity [Aristotle]
17852 A thing has a feature necessarily if its denial brings a contradiction [Aristotle]
609 Philosophy is a kind of science that deals with principles [Aristotle]
610 The world can't be arranged at all if there is nothing eternal and separate [Aristotle]
611 Being, taken simply as being, is the domain of philosophy [Aristotle]
9792 Mathematicians study quantity and continuity, and remove the perceptible features of things [Aristotle]
9793 Mathematics studies abstracted relations, commensurability and proportion [Aristotle]
613 Even if the world is caused by fate, mind and nature are still prior causes [Aristotle]
12309 There cannot be a science of accidentals, but only of general truths [Aristotle]
615 The Pre-Socratics were studying the principles, elements and causes of substance [Aristotle]
616 It doesn't explain the world to say it was originally all one. How did it acquire diversity? [Aristotle]
16156 Individuals within a species differ in their matter, form and motivating cause [Aristotle]
617 It is hard to see how either time or movement could come into existence or be destroyed [Aristotle]
618 There is no point at all in the theory of Forms unless it contains a principle that produces movement [Aristotle]
619 Something which both moves and is moved is intermediate, so it follows that there must be an unmoved mover [Aristotle]
620 The first mover is necessary, and because it is necessary it is good [Aristotle]
621 Contemplation is a supreme pleasure and excellence [Aristotle]
622 There must a source of movement which is eternal, indivisible and without magnitude [Aristotle]
12097 There are as many eternal unmovable substances as there are movements of the stars [Aristotle]
623 It is readily agreed that thinking is the most godlike of things in our experience [Aristotle]
624 Absolute thinking is the thinking of thinking [Aristotle]
625 Is excellence separate from things, or part of them, or both? [Aristotle]
626 Everything is arranged around a single purpose [Aristotle]
627 If everything is made of opposites, are the opposed things made of opposites? [Aristotle]
628 Not everything is composed of opposites; what, for example, is the opposite of matter? [Aristotle]
629 Is the good a purpose, a source of movement, or a pure form? [Aristotle]
632 Why are some things destructible and others not? [Aristotle]
633 If you accept Forms, you must accept the more powerful principle of 'participating' in them [Aristotle]
634 Pure Forms and numbers can't cause anything, and especially not movement [Aristotle]
9075 If health happened to be white, the science of health would not study whiteness [Aristotle]
13738 It is a simple truth that the objects of mathematics have being, of some sort [Aristotle]
9076 Mathematics studies the domain of perceptible entities, but its subject-matter is not perceptible [Aristotle]
9791 Science is more accurate when it is prior and simpler, especially without magnitude or movement [Aristotle]
9077 Mathematicians suppose inseparable aspects to be separable, and study them in isolation [Aristotle]
635 The good is found in actions, but beauty can exist without movement [Aristotle]
636 Beauty involves the Forms of order, symmetry and limit, which can be handled mathematically [Aristotle]
640 All attempts to prove the Forms are either invalid, or prove Forms where there aren't supposed to be any [Aristotle]
641 Are there forms for everything, or for negations, or for destroyed things? [Aristotle]
642 What possible contribution can the Forms make to perceptible entities? [Aristotle]
9483 Forms have to be their own paradigms, which seems to fuse the paradigm and the copy [Aristotle]
643 How can the Forms both be the substance of things and exist separately from them? [Aristotle]
17858 Pythagoreans say the whole universe is made of numbers [Aristotle]
17859 Units came about when the unequals were equalised [Aristotle]
4470 Aristotle is not asserting facts about the location of properties, but about their ontological status [Aristotle, by Moreland]
17860 Things are unified by contact, mixture and position [Aristotle]
17861 Two men do not make one thing, as well as themselves [Aristotle]
645 If two is part of three then numbers aren't Forms, because they would all be intermingled [Aristotle]
646 When we count, are we adding, or naming numbers? [Aristotle]
647 There is a confusion because Forms are said to be universal, but also some Forms are separable and particular [Aristotle]
649 The acquisition of scientific knowledge is impossible without universals [Aristotle]
11386 Demonstrations about particulars must be about everything of that type [Aristotle]
12095 Knowledge of potential is universal and indefinite; of the actual it is definite and of individuals [Aristotle]
23310 Animals live by sensations, and some have good memories, but they don't connect experiences [Aristotle]
23311 Aristotle sees reason as much more specific than our more everyday concept of it [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
11228 Wisdom seeks explanations, causes, and reasons why things are as they are [Aristotle, by Politis]
7935 There cannot be uninstantiated properties [Aristotle, by Macdonald,C]
12868 Ultimate matter is discredited, as Aristotle merged substratum of change with bearer of properties [Simons on Aristotle]
11387 The main characteristic of the source of change is activity [energeia] [Aristotle, by Politis]
16084 Is a primary substance a foundation of existence, or the last stage of understanding? [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
16147 In 'Metaphysics' substantial forms take over from objects as primary [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
11244 Metaphysics is the science of ultimate explanation, or of pure existence, or of primary existence [Aristotle, by Politis]
16159 For animate things, only the form, not the matter or properties, must persist through change [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
11287 Essence is what is stated in the definition [Aristotle, by Politis]
12081 Aristotle's definitions are not unique, but apply to a range of individuals [Aristotle, by Witt]
16117 The hallmark of an artefact is that its active source of maintenance is external [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
11378 How a thing is generated does not explain its essence [Aristotle, by Politis]
12068 Standardly, Aristotelian essences are taken to be universals of the species [Aristotle, by Witt]
12070 Individual essences are not universals, since those can't be substances, or cause them [Aristotle, by Witt]
12069 Essence is the cause of individual substance, and creates its unity [Aristotle, by Witt]
12088 Aristotelian essence is not universal properties, but individual essence [Aristotle, by Witt]
11998 Aristotle does not accept individual essences; essential properties are always general [Aristotle, by Kung]
12099 Aristotelian essences are causal, not classificatory [Aristotle, by Witt]
11294 Aristotle says changing, material things (and not just universals) have an essence [Aristotle, by Politis]
11298 Are essences actually universals? [Aristotle, by Politis]
15108 Aristotle's says necessary truths are distinct and derive from essential truths [Aristotle, by Koslicki]
12071 Essences are not properties (since those can't cause individual substances) [Aristotle, by Witt]
11251 Plato says changing things have no essence; Aristotle disagrees [Aristotle, by Politis]
12084 Essential form is neither accidental nor necessary to matter, so it appears not to be a property [Aristotle, by Witt]
16099 The traditional view of Aristotle is God (actual form) at top and prime matter (potential matter) at bottom [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
7603 God is not a creator (involving time and change) and is not concerned with the inferior universe [Aristotle, by Armstrong,K]
16165 For Aristotle God is defined in an axiom, for which there is no proof [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
16119 Aristotle's cosmos is ordered by form, and disordered by matter [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
16088 Aristotle's solution to the problem of unity is that form is an active cause or potentiality or nature [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
12062 Aristotle's form improves on being non-predicable as a way to identify a 'this' [Aristotle, by Wiggins]
12083 Aristotle's essence explains the existence of an individual substance, not its properties [Aristotle, by Witt]
12101 Aristotle wants definition, not identity, so origin is not essential to him [Aristotle, by Witt]
16160 For Aristotle, things are not made individual by some essential distinguishing mark [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
11295 There is no being unless it is determinate and well-defined [Aristotle, by Politis]
13735 Aristotle discusses fundamental units of being, rather than existence questions [Aristotle, by Schaffer,J]
12353 Species and genera are largely irrelevant in 'Metaphysics' [Aristotle, by Wedin]
16153 Aristotle distinguishes two different sorts of generality - kinds, and properties [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
11246 Aristotelian explanations mainly divide things into natural kinds [Aristotle, by Politis]
11282 Aristotle does not take the principle of non-contradiction for granted [Aristotle, by Politis]
16092 In Aristotle, bronze only becomes 'matter' when it is potentially a statue [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
12300 Aristotle's conception of matter applies to non-physical objects as well as physical objects [Aristotle, by Fine,K]
12077 Aristotle's matter is something that could be the inner origin of a natural being's behaviour [Aristotle, by Witt]
12103 Matter is secondary, because it is potential, determined by the actuality of form [Aristotle, by Witt]
12299 Aristotle had a hierarchical conception of matter [Aristotle, by Fine,K]
12001 Aristotle says matter is a lesser substance, rather than wholly denying that it is a substance [Aristotle, by Kung]
16098 I claim that Aristotle's foundation is the four elements, and not wholly potential prime matter [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
15954 Aristotle may only have believed in prime matter because his elements were immutable [Aristotle, by Alexander,P]
16148 Aristotle moved from realism to nominalism about substances [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
16112 A substance is a proper subject because the matter is a property of the form, not vice versa [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
12076 Substance is prior in being separate, in definition, and in knowledge [Aristotle, by Witt]
11231 'Ousia' is 'primary being' not 'primary substance' [Aristotle, by Politis]
11233 In Aristotle, 'proté ousia' is 'primary being', and 'to hupokeimenon' is 'that which lies under' (or 'substance') [Aristotle, by Politis]
12079 Substance is distinct being because of its unity [Aristotle, by Witt]
11293 Non-primary beings lack essence, or only have a derived essence [Aristotle, by Politis]
11297 Primary being is both the essence, and the subject of predication [Aristotle, by Politis]
11232 Primary being ('proté ousia') exists in virtue of itself, not in relation to other things [Aristotle, by Politis]
16158 Form and matter may not make up a concrete particular, because there are also accidents like weight [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
11382 Aristotle takes essence and form as a particular, not (as some claim) as a universal, the species [Aristotle, by Politis]
12092 Aristotle claims that the individual is epistemologically prior to the universal [Aristotle, by Witt]
12091 If definition is of universals, many individuals have no definition, and hence no essence [Aristotle, by Witt]
12090 Actual knowledge is of the individual, and potential knowledge of the universal [Aristotle, by Witt]
11188 The Aristotelian view is that the essential properties are those that sort an object [Aristotle, by Marcus (Barcan)]
12002 Aristotle doesn't think essential properties are those which must belong to a thing [Aristotle, by Kung]
7686 For Aristotle, there are only as many properties as actually exist [Aristotle, by Jacquette]
16161 Properties are just the ways in which forms are realised at various times [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
15109 The 'propriae' or 'necessary accidents' of a thing are separate, and derived from the essence [Aristotle, by Koslicki]
11999 Essential properties explain in conjunction with properties shared by the same kind [Aristotle, by Kung]
11284 It is wrong to translate 'ousia' as 'substance' [Aristotle, by Politis]
16114 Active 'dunamis' is best translated as 'power' or 'ability' (rather than 'potentiality') [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
12096 Universals are indeterminate and only known in potential, because they are general [Aristotle, by Witt]
16164 Forms of sensible substances include unrealised possibilities, so are not fully actual [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
16163 Aristotle says that the form is what makes an entity what it is [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
16141 In 'Met.' he says genera can't be substances or qualities, so aren't in the ontology [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
16097 To be a subject a thing must be specifiable, with some essential properties [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
16103 A subject can't be nothing, so it must qualify as separate, and as having a distinct identity [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
16096 Statues depend on their bronze, but bronze doesn't depend on statues [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
23218 The brain has no responsibility for sensations, which occur in the heart [Aristotle]
11254 Matter is potentiality [Aristotle, by Politis]
11255 In feature-generation the matter (such as bronze) endures, but in generation it doesn't [Aristotle, by Politis]
16972 The four explanations are the main aspects of a thing's nature [Aristotle, by Moravcsik]
22929 Aristotle's infinity is a property of the counting process, that it has no natural limit [Aristotle, by Le Poidevin]
22930 Lengths do not contain infinite parts; parts are created by acts of division [Aristotle, by Le Poidevin]
11250 Four Explanations: the essence and form; the matter; the source; and the end [Aristotle, by Politis]
12045 Aristotle's four 'causes' are four items which figure in basic explanations of nature [Aristotle, by Annas]
17464 When Aristotle's elements compound they are stable, so why would they ever separate? [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry on Aristotle]
11252 The 'form' of a thing explains why the matter constitutes that particular thing [Aristotle, by Politis]
11253 A 'material' cause/explanation is the form of whatever is the source [Aristotle, by Politis]
22885 For Aristotle time is not a process but a means for measuring processes [Aristotle, by Bardon]
5080 We know a thing if we grasp its first causes, principles and basic elements [Aristotle]
9071 We first sense whole entities, and then move to particular parts of it [Aristotle]
13270 Are a part and whole one or many? Either way, what is the cause? [Aristotle]
16644 The features of a thing (whether quality or quantity) are inseparable from their subjects [Aristotle]
5082 Reason grasps generalities, while the senses grasp particulars [Aristotle]
16104 Unity of the form is just unity of the definition [Aristotle]
16172 Substance is not predicated of anything - but it still has something underlying it, that originates it [Aristotle]
16173 Coming to be is by shape-change, addition, subtraction, composition or alteration [Aristotle]
16174 A nature is related to a substance as shapeless matter is to something which has a shape [Aristotle]
16623 We only infer underlying natures by analogy, observing bronze of a statue, or wood of a bed [Aristotle]
5083 Do things come to be from what is, or from what is not? Both seem problematical. [Aristotle]
16574 Coming-to-be may be from nothing in a qualified way, as arising from an absence [Aristotle]
16762 Matter desires form, as female desires male, and ugliness desires beauty [Aristotle]
17041 Natural objects include animals and their parts, plants, and the simple elements [Aristotle]
17042 Natural things are their own source of stability through change [Aristotle]
5084 A thing's nature is what causes its changes and stability [Aristotle]
17043 Form, not matter, is a thing's nature, because it is actual, rather than potential [Aristotle]
9787 Scientists must know the essential attributes of the things they study [Aristotle]
9788 Mathematicians study what is conceptually separable, and doesn't lead to error [Aristotle]
9789 You can't abstract natural properties to make Forms - objects and attributes are defined together [Aristotle]
9790 Geometry studies naturally occurring lines, but not as they occur in nature [Aristotle]
5085 'Nature' refers to two things - form and matter [Aristotle]
5086 The nature of a thing is its end and purpose [Aristotle]
5087 A thing's purpose is ambiguous, and from one point of view we ourselves are ends [Aristotle]
8331 To know something we need understanding, which is grasp of the primary cause [Aristotle]
8332 The four causes are the material, the form, the source, and the end [Aristotle]
20042 We assign the cause of someone's walking when we say why they are doing it [Aristotle]
13106 Maybe there is no pure chance; a man's choices cause his chance meetings [Aristotle]
13107 Causes produce a few things in their own right, and innumerable things coincidentally [Aristotle]
13108 Chance is a coincidental cause among events involving purpose and choice [Aristotle]
13109 Chance is inexplicable, because we can only explain what happens always or usually [Aristotle]
13110 Intrinsic cause is prior to coincidence, so nature and intelligence are primary causes, chance secondary [Aristotle]
16968 There are as many causes/explanations as there are different types of why-question [Aristotle]
16969 Science refers the question Why? to four causes/explanations: matter, form, source, purpose [Aristotle]
16970 A thing's form and purpose are often the same, and form can be the initiator of change too [Aristotle]
17262 Aristotle's formal and material 'becauses' [aitiai] arguably involve grounding [Aristotle, by Correia/Schnieder]
5089 Nature has purpose, and aims at what is better. Is it coincidence that crops grow when it rains? [Aristotle]
5091 Teeth and crops are predictable, so they cannot be mere chance, but must have a purpose [Aristotle]
5092 Nature is a principle of change, so we must understand change first [Aristotle]
5093 Continuity depends on infinity, because the continuous is infinitely divisible [Aristotle]
16115 Change is the implied actuality of that which exists potentially [Aristotle]
20063 Motion fulfils potentiality [Aristotle]
16656 The separation from here to there is not the same as the separation from there to here [Aristotle]
5095 The heavens seem to be infinite, because we cannot imagine their end [Aristotle]
16691 A day, or the games, has one thing after another, actually and potentially occurring [Aristotle]
18090 Without infinity time has limits, magnitudes are indivisible, and numbers come to an end [Aristotle]
5097 If everything has a place, this causes an infinite regress, because each place must have place [Aristotle]
16791 There is no whole except for the parts [Aristotle]
5098 Place is not shape, or matter, or extension between limits; it is the limits of a body [Aristotle]
5099 The universe as a whole is not anywhere [Aristotle]
22956 How can time exist, when it is composed of what has ceased to be and is yet to be? [Aristotle]
5102 If all of time has either ceased to exist, or has not yet happened, maybe time does not exist [Aristotle]
16693 Time has parts, but the now is not one of them, and time is not composed of nows [Aristotle]
22957 We can't tell whether the changing present moment is one thing, or a succession of things [Aristotle]
22958 Nows can't be linked together, any more than points on a line [Aristotle]
22916 Unlike time, change goes at different rates, and is usually localised [Aristotle, by Le Poidevin]
5103 Time is not change, but requires change in our minds to be noticed [Aristotle]
20920 If there were many cosmoses, each would have its own time, giving many times [Aristotle]
8590 Time does not exist without change [Aristotle]
5104 Time is an aspect of change [Aristotle]
22959 Time is not change, but the number we associate with change [Aristotle]
22960 The sophists thought a man in the Lyceum is different from that man in the marketplace [Aristotle]
22961 The present moment is obviously a necessary feature of time [Aristotle]
22962 Two is the least number, but there is no least magnitude, because it is always divisible [Aristotle]
22963 We measure change by time, and time by change, as they are interdefined [Aristotle]
22964 Change only exists in time through its being temporally measure [Aristotle]
22965 Time measures rest, as well as change [Aristotle]
5105 The incommensurability of the diagonal always exists, and so it is not in time [Aristotle]
22966 The present moment is a link (of past to future), and also a limit (of past and of future) [Aristotle]
5106 Would there be time if there were no mind? [Aristotle]
22967 It is unclear whether time depends on the existence of soul [Aristotle]
22968 Circular motion is the most obvious measure of time, and especially the celestial sphere [Aristotle]
9974 Ten sheep and ten dogs are the same numerically, but it is not the same ten [Aristotle]
5107 Predicates are substance, quality, place, relation, quantity and action or affection [Aristotle]
5108 Is ceasing-to-be unnatural if it happens by force, and natural otherwise? [Aristotle]
18833 A continuous line cannot be composed of indivisible points [Aristotle]
5110 Goodness is when a thing (such as a circle) is complete, and conforms with its nature [Aristotle]
5111 All moral virtue is concerned with bodily pleasure and pain [Aristotle]
5113 Nothing natural is disorderly, because nature is responsible for all order [Aristotle]
5114 If movement can arise within an animal, why can't it also arise in the universe? [Aristotle]
5116 When there is unnatural movement (e.g. fire going downwards) the cause is obvious [Aristotle]
5117 Heavy and light are defined by their tendency to move down or up [Aristotle]
5119 The source of all movement must be indivisible and have no magnitude [Aristotle]
16566 Poetry is more philosophic than history, as it concerns universals, not particulars [Aristotle]
22518 The actual must be possible, because it occurred [Aristotle]
2431 Every state is an association formed for some good purpose [Aristotle]
22521 Our method of inquiry is to examine the smallest parts that make up the whole [Aristotle]
22522 To grasp something, trace it back to its natural origins [Aristotle]
2801 Intelligence which looks ahead is a natural master, while bodily strength is a natural slave [Aristotle]
2800 The best instruments have one purpose, not many [Aristotle]
2802 Men imagine gods to be of human shape, with a human lifestyle [Aristotle]
22523 The community (of villages) becomes a city when it is totally self-sufficient [Aristotle]
22524 The nature of each thing is its mature state [Aristotle]
2803 Man is by nature a political animal [Aristotle]
1570 Human beings, alone of the animals, have logos [Aristotle]
1574 Reasoning distinguishes what is beneficial, and hence what is right [Aristotle]
2805 A community must share a common view of good and justice [Aristotle]
22525 The whole is prior to its parts, because parts are defined by their role [Aristotle]
22526 People who are anti-social or wholly self-sufficient are no part of a city [Aristotle]
2806 Man is the worst of all animals when divorced from law and justice [Aristotle]
22527 Justice is the order in a political community [Aristotle]
2807 Some say slavery is unnatural and created by convention, and is therefore forced, and unjust [Aristotle]
21358 Natural slaves are those naturally belonging to another, or who can manage no more than labouring [Aristotle]
22528 The nature of all animate things is to have one part which rules it [Aristotle]
2808 Master and slave can have friendship through common interests [Aristotle]
2809 If nature makes everything for a purpose, then plants and animals must have been made for man [Aristotle]
22529 Men are natural leaders (apart from the unnatural ones) [Aristotle]
22530 Both women and children should be educated, as this contributes to a city's excellence [Aristotle]
22531 We aim to understand the best possible community for free people [Aristotle]
22532 A city can't become entirely one, because its very nature is to be a multitude [Aristotle]
22533 If the people are equal in nature, then they should all share in ruling [Aristotle]
22534 People care less about what is communal, and more about what is their own [Aristotle]
22535 Friendship is the best good for cities, because it reduces factions [Aristotle]
22536 There could be private land and public crops, or public land and private crops, or both public [Aristotle]
22537 Property should be owned privately, but used communally [Aristotle]
2810 Selfishness is wrong not because it is self-love, but because it is excessive [Aristotle]
22538 Owning and sharing property communally increases disagreements [Aristotle]
2811 A state is plural, and needs education to make it a community [Aristotle]
2813 It is quite possible to live a moderate life and yet be miserable [Aristotle]
22539 Election of officials by the elected is dangerous, because factions can control it [Aristotle]
2814 Phaleas proposed equality of property, provided there is equality of education [Aristotle]
22540 Wealth could be quickly leveled by only the rich giving marriage dowries [Aristotle]
2816 If it is easy to change the laws, that makes them weaker [Aristotle]
2817 It is wrong that a worthy officer of state should seek the office [Aristotle]
22541 Kings should be selected according to character [Aristotle]
22542 People who buy public office will probably expect to profit from it [Aristotle]
22543 In large communities it is better if more people participate in the offices [Aristotle]
22544 A citizen is someone who is allowed to hold official posts in a city [Aristotle]
2818 The virtues of a good citizen are relative to a particular constitution [Aristotle]
22545 A person can be an excellent citizen without being an excellent man [Aristotle]
2819 The only virtue special to a ruler is practical wisdom [Aristotle]
2820 People want to live together, even when they don't want mutual help [Aristotle]
22546 A city is a community of free people, and the constitution should aim at the common advantage [Aristotle]
2821 The six constitutions are monarchy/tyranny, aristocracy/oligarchy, and polity/democracy [Aristotle]
22547 Justice is equality for equals, and inequality for unequals [Aristotle]
22548 A city aims at living well [Aristotle]
2823 The many may add up to something good, even if they are inferior as individuals [Aristotle]
2824 The collective judgement of many people on art is better than that of an individual [Aristotle]
22549 In many cases, the claim that the majority is superior would apply equally to wild beasts [Aristotle]
22550 It is dreadful to neither give a share nor receive a share [Aristotle]
22551 Correct law should be in control, with rulers only deciding uncertain issues [Aristotle]
2825 The good is obviously justice, which benefits the whole community, and involves equality in some sense [Aristotle]
22552 The rich can claim to rule, because of land ownership, and being more trustworthy [Aristotle]
22553 Justice is a virtue of communities [Aristotle]
22554 It is said that we should not stick strictly to written law, as it is too vague [Aristotle]
2826 Like water, large numbers of people are harder to corrupt than a few [Aristotle]
22555 The function of good men is to confer benefits [Aristotle]
2827 It is preferable that law should rule rather than any single citizen [Aristotle]
2828 Law is intelligence without appetite [Aristotle]
2829 The law is the mean [Aristotle]
22556 Laws that match people's habits are more effective than mere written rules [Aristotle]
22557 Virtuous people are like the citizens of the best city [Aristotle]
22558 Constitutions specify distribution of offices, the authorities, and the community's aim [Aristotle]
22560 Popular leaders only arise in democracies that are not in accord with the law [Aristotle]
22561 The rich are seen as noble, because they don't need to commit crimes [Aristotle]
2830 We can claim an equal right to aristocratic virtue, as well as to wealth or freedom [Aristotle]
22562 Choosing officials by lot is democratic [Aristotle]
22563 The middle classes are neither ambitious nor anarchic, which is good [Aristotle]
22564 Community is based on friends, who are equal and similar, and share things [Aristotle]
2832 The state aims to consist as far as possible of those who are like and equal [Aristotle]
22565 The best communities rely on a large and strong middle class [Aristotle]
22566 The greed of the rich is more destructive than the greed of the people [Aristotle]
22567 Democracy arises when people who are given equal freedom assume unconditional equality [Aristotle]
22568 Faction is for inferiors to be equal, and equals to become superior [Aristotle]
22569 The Heraeans replaced election with lot, to thwart campaigning [Aristotle]
22570 Rhetoric now enables good speakers to become popular leaders [Aristotle]
22571 'If each is small, so too are all' is in one way false, for the whole composed of all is not small [Aristotle]
2833 Equality is obviously there to help people who do not get priority in the constitution [Aristotle]
22572 Officers should like the constitution, be capable, and have appropriate virtues and justice [Aristotle]
22573 The virtue of justice may be relative to a particular constitution [Aristotle]
22574 A community can lack self-control [Aristotle]
22575 Ultimate democracy is tyranny [Aristotle]
20092 One principle of liberty is to take turns ruling and being ruled [Aristotle]
22576 No office is permanent in a democracy [Aristotle]
2834 It is always the weak who want justice and equality, not the strong [Aristotle]
2835 Any constitution can be made to last for a day or two [Aristotle]
2973 We must decide the most desirable human life before designing a constitution [Aristotle]
22577 What is the best life for everyone, and is that a communal or an individual problem? [Aristotle]
2836 God is not blessed and happy because of external goods, but because of his own nature [Aristotle]
22578 The happiest city is the one that acts most nobly [Aristotle]
22579 The same four cardinal virtues which apply to individuals also apply to a city [Aristotle]
22580 The best constitution enables everyone to live the best life [Aristotle]
2837 Nothing contrary to nature is beautiful [Aristotle]
22581 The size of a city is decided by the maximum self-sufficient community that can be surveyed [Aristotle]
22582 Spirit [thumos] is the capacity by which we love [Aristotle]
22583 The guardians should not be harsh to strangers, as no one should behave like that [Aristotle]
22584 A community should all share to some extent in something like land or food [Aristotle]
22585 Look at all of the citizens before judging a city to be happy [Aristotle]
2840 The whole state should pay for the worship of the gods [Aristotle]
2841 People become good because of nature, habit and reason [Aristotle]
22586 Only humans have reason [Aristotle]
2842 Men learn partly by habit, and partly by listening [Aristotle]
22587 Understanding is the aim of our nature [Aristotle]
2844 Abortions should be procured before the embryo has acquired life and sensation [Aristotle]
22588 A city has a single end, so education must focus on that, and be communal, not private [Aristotle]
22589 Citizens do not just own themselves, but are also parts of the city [Aristotle]
2845 Free and great-souled men do not keep asking "what is the use of it?" [Aristotle]
2846 Music can mould the character to be virtuous (just as gymnastics trains the body) [Aristotle]
2847 The aim of serious childhood play is the amusement of the complete adult [Aristotle]
22590 Virtue is concerned with correct feelings [Aristotle]
12357 Explanation and generality are inseparable [Aristotle, by Wedin]
23309 Aristotle's concepts of understanding and explanation mean he is not a pure empiricist [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
24068 Demonstration is more than entailment, as the explanatory order must match the causal order [Aristotle, by Koslicki]
17310 Aristotle gets asymmetric consequence from demonstration, which reflects real causal priority [Aristotle, by Koslicki]
21359 Aristotle doesn't actually apply his theory of demonstration to his practical science [Leroi on Aristotle]
11994 Aristotelian essences are properties mentioned at the starting point of a science [Aristotle, by Kung]
12072 For Aristotle knowledge is explanatory, involving understanding, and principles or causes [Aristotle, by Witt]
12073 'Episteme' means grasping causes, universal judgments, explanation, and teaching [Aristotle, by Witt]
12363 Everything is either asserted or denied truly [Aristotle]
12364 We understand a thing when we know its explanation and its necessity [Aristotle]
12365 We can know by demonstration, which is a scientific deduction leading to understanding [Aristotle]
1667 Premises must be true, primitive and immediate, and prior to and explanatory of conclusions [Aristotle]
12366 We only understand something when we know its explanation [Aristotle]
12367 What is most universal is furthest away, and the particulars are nearest [Aristotle]
12368 Negation takes something away from something [Aristotle]
1668 An axiom is a principle which must be understood if one is to learn anything [Aristotle]
12369 A unit is what is quantitatively indivisible [Aristotle]
1669 The foundation or source is stronger than the thing it causes [Aristotle]
1670 When you understand basics, you can't be persuaded to change your mind [Aristotle]
1671 Sceptics say justification is an infinite regress, or it stops at the unknowable [Aristotle]
1672 Maybe everything could be demonstrated, if demonstration can be reciprocal or circular [Aristotle]
12370 Some understanding, of immediate items, is indemonstrable [Aristotle]
12371 A demonstration is a deduction which proceeds from necessities [Aristotle]
12372 The essence of a triangle comes from the line, mentioned in any account of triangles [Aristotle]
12373 Something holds universally when it is proved of an arbitrary and primitive case [Aristotle]
10918 Demonstrative understanding rests on necessary features of the thing in itself [Aristotle]
12374 Demonstrations must be necessary, and that depends on the middle term [Aristotle]
12375 Whatever holds of a kind intrinsically holds of it necessarily [Aristotle]
1673 Knowledge proceeds from principles, so it is hard to know if we know [Aristotle]
1674 All demonstration is concerned with existence, axioms and properties [Aristotle]
13004 Aristotle's axioms (unlike Euclid's) are assumptions awaiting proof [Aristotle, by Leibniz]
1675 Separate Forms aren't needed for logic, but universals (one holding of many) are essential [Aristotle]
12376 Demonstrations by reductio assume excluded middle [Aristotle]
12377 Mathematics is concerned with forms, not with superficial properties [Aristotle]
12378 The reason why is the key to knowledge [Aristotle]
16725 Some knowledge is lost if you lose a sense, and there is no way the knowledge can be replaced [Aristotle]
1677 We can forget the Forms, as they are irrelevant, and not needed in giving demonstrations [Aristotle]
12148 Demonstrations are syllogisms which give explanations [Aristotle]
1678 Universals give better explanations, because they are self-explanatory and primitive [Aristotle]
1679 Universal demonstrations are about thought; particular demonstrations lead to perceptions [Aristotle]
1680 Demonstration is better with fewer presuppositions, and it is quicker if these are familiar [Aristotle]
1681 Units are positionless substances, and points are substances with position [Aristotle]
12379 You cannot understand anything through perception [Aristotle]
1683 We learn universals from many particulars [Aristotle]
12380 Universals are valuable because they make the explanations plain [Aristotle]
1684 Two falsehoods can be contrary to one another [Aristotle]
12381 What is necessary cannot be otherwise [Aristotle]
1685 No one has mere belief about something if they think it HAS to be true [Aristotle]
1686 What we seek and understand are facts, reasons, existence, and identity [Aristotle]
12382 What it is and why it is are the same; screening defines and explains an eclipse [Aristotle]
12145 Definitions are of what something is, and that is universal [Aristotle]
12146 Definitions recognise essences, so are not themselves essences [Aristotle]
12147 The principles of demonstrations are definitions [Aristotle]
12383 There must be definitions before demonstration is possible [Aristotle]
1687 Why are being terrestrial and a biped combined in the definition of man, but being literate and musical aren't? [Aristotle]
1688 Properties must be proved, but not essence; but existents are not a kind, so existence isn't part of essence [Aristotle]
1689 Explanation is of the status of a thing, inferences to it, initiation of change, and purpose [Aristotle]
1690 A stone travels upwards by a forced necessity, and downwards by natural necessity [Aristotle]
17039 The predicates of a thing's nature are necessary to it [Aristotle]
1691 Aim to get definitions of the primitive components, thus establishing the kind, and work towards the attributes [Aristotle]
12384 Definition by division needs predicates, which are well ordered and thorough [Aristotle]
9066 You can define objects by progressively identifying what is the same and what is different [Aristotle]
1692 If you shouldn't argue in metaphors, then you shouldn't try to define them either [Aristotle]
12385 Are particulars explained more by universals, or by other particulars? [Aristotle]
1693 Animals may have some knowledge if they retain perception, but understanding requires reasons to be given [Aristotle]
9067 Many memories of the same item form a single experience [Aristotle]
9068 Perception creates primitive immediate principles by building a series of firm concepts [Aristotle]
9069 A perception lodging in the soul creates a primitive universal, which becomes generalised [Aristotle]
9070 We learn primitives and universals by induction from perceptions [Aristotle]
18910 To seek truth, study the real connections between subjects and attributes [Aristotle]
11283 There is pure deductive reasoning, and explanatory demonstration reasoning [Aristotle, by Politis]
12075 An Aristotelian definition is causal [Aristotle, by Witt]
8079 Aristotelian logic has two quantifiers of the subject ('all' and 'some') [Aristotle, by Devlin]
18896 Aristotle places terms at opposite ends, joined by a quantified copula [Aristotle, by Sommers]
3300 Aristotle's logic is based on the subject/predicate distinction, which leads him to substances and properties [Aristotle, by Benardete,JA]
13819 Aristotle's said some Fs are G or some Fs are not G, forgetting that there might be no Fs [Bostock on Aristotle]
22271 Aristotle was the first to use schematic letters in logic [Aristotle, by Potter]
11060 Aristotelian syllogisms are three-part, subject-predicate, existentially committed, with laws of thought [Aristotle, by Hanna]
18909 Aristotelian sentences are made up by one of four 'formative' connectors [Aristotle, by Engelbretsen]
8080 Aristotelian identified 256 possible syllogisms, saying that 19 are valid [Aristotle, by Devlin]
13912 Aristotle replaced Plato's noun-verb form with unions of pairs of terms by one of four 'copulae' [Aristotle, by Engelbretsen/Sayward]
18911 Linguistic terms form a hierarchy, with higher terms predicable of increasing numbers of things [Aristotle, by Engelbretsen]
11149 Affirming/denying sentences are universal, particular, or indeterminate [Aristotle]
11148 Deduction is when we suppose one thing, and another necessarily follows [Aristotle]
9403 There are three different deductions for actual terms, necessary terms and possible terms [Aristotle]
14641 A deduction is necessary if the major (but not the minor) premise is also necessary [Aristotle]
8071 Aristotle listed nineteen valid syllogisms (though a few of them were wrong) [Aristotle, by Devlin]
17949 Inquiry is the cause of philosophy [Aristotle]
5847 It is the role of dialectic to survey syllogisms [Aristotle]
5848 All good things can be misused, except virtue [Aristotle]
5849 Rhetoric is a political offshoot of dialectic and ethics [Aristotle]
5850 Happiness is composed of a catalogue of internal and external benefits [Aristotle]
5851 Pentathletes look the most beautiful, because they combine speed and strength [Aristotle]
5852 The four constitutions are democracy (freedom), oligarchy (wealth), aristocracy (custom), tyranny (security) [Aristotle]
5853 The best virtues are the most useful to others [Aristotle]
1660 It is noble to avenge oneself on one's enemies, and not come to terms with them [Aristotle]
23250 Desired responsible actions result either from rational or from irrational desire [Aristotle]
5854 Nobody fears a disease which nobody has yet caught [Aristotle]
5855 We all feel universal right and wrong, independent of any community or contracts [Aristotle]
5856 Self-interest is a relative good, but nobility an absolute good [Aristotle]
5857 The young feel pity from philanthropy, but the old from self-concern [Aristotle]
5858 Men are physically prime at thirty-five, and mentally prime at forty-nine [Aristotle]
5859 Rich people are mindlessly happy [Aristotle]
5861 People assume events cause what follows them [Aristotle]
5862 A single counterexample is enough to prove that a truth is not necessary [Aristotle]
2675 Reasoning is a way of making statements which makes them lead on to other statements [Aristotle]
2676 Didactic argument starts from the principles of the subject, not from the opinions of the learner [Aristotle]
2677 Dialectic aims to start from generally accepted opinions, and lead to a contradiction [Aristotle]
2674 Competitive argument aims at refutation, fallacy, paradox, solecism or repetition [Aristotle]
16967 'Are Coriscus and Callias at home?' sounds like a single question, but it isn't [Aristotle]
16149 Generic terms like 'man' are not substances, but qualities, relations, modes or some such thing [Aristotle]
11840 Only if two things are identical do they have the same attributes [Aristotle]
12259 Reasoning is when some results follow necessarily from certain claims [Aristotle]
12260 Dialectic starts from generally accepted opinions [Aristotle]
12261 Differentia are generic, and belong with genus [Aristotle]
12262 An 'idion' belongs uniquely to a thing, but is not part of its essence [Aristotle]
12263 'Genus' is part of the essence shared among several things [Aristotle]
12264 An 'accident' is something which may possibly either belong or not belong to a thing [Aristotle]
12265 All water is the same, because of a certain similarity [Aristotle]
12266 'Same' is mainly for names or definitions, but also for propria, and for accidents [Aristotle]
12267 There are ten categories: essence, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, position, state, activity, passivity [Aristotle]
12271 Induction is the progress from particulars to universals [Aristotle]
12272 We describe the essence of a particular thing by means of its differentiae [Aristotle]
12273 Unit is the starting point of number [Aristotle]
12274 Begin examination with basics, and subdivide till you can go no further [Aristotle]
12275 We value friendship just for its own sake [Aristotle]
12276 Justice and self-control are better than courage, because they are always useful [Aristotle]
12277 Friendship is preferable to money, since its excess is preferable [Aristotle]
12278 'Being' and 'oneness' are predicated of everything which exists [Aristotle]
12279 The differentia indicate the qualities, but not the essence [Aristotle]
12280 Genus gives the essence better than the differentiae do [Aristotle]
12281 Man is intrinsically a civilized animal [Aristotle]
12282 An individual property has to exist (in past, present or future) [Aristotle]
12283 In definitions the first term to be assigned ought to be the genus [Aristotle]
12284 Everything that is has one single essence [Aristotle]
11261 Puzzles arise when reasoning seems equal on both sides [Aristotle]
12285 The definition is peculiar to one thing, not common to many [Aristotle]
13269 In the case of a house the parts can exist without the whole, so parts are not the whole [Aristotle]
12286 If two things are the same, they must have the same source and origin [Aristotle]
12287 Two identical things have the same accidents, they are the same; if the accidents differ, they're different [Aristotle]
12288 Numerical sameness and generic sameness are not the same [Aristotle]
12289 The genera and the differentiae are part of the essence [Aristotle]
12290 Destruction is dissolution of essence [Aristotle]
12291 There can't be one definition of two things, or two definitions of the same thing [Aristotle]
12292 Definitions are easily destroyed, since they can contain very many assertions [Aristotle]
12293 We say 'so in cases of this kind', but how do you decide what is 'of this kind'? [Aristotle]
11243 Aristotelian explanations are facts, while modern explanations depend on human conceptions [Aristotle, by Politis]
12000 Aristotle regularly says that essential properties explain other significant properties [Aristotle, by Kung]
23300 Aristotle and the Stoics denied rationality to animals, while Platonists affirmed it [Aristotle, by Sorabji]
6559 Aristotle never actually says that man is a rational animal [Aristotle, by Fogelin]
11150 It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain an idea without accepting it [Aristotle]
3037 Aristotle said the educated were superior to the uneducated as the living are to the dead [Aristotle, by Diog. Laertius]
12058 Aristotle's matter can become any other kind of matter [Aristotle, by Wiggins]
8660 There are potential infinities (never running out), but actual infinity is incoherent [Aristotle, by Friend]
8200 Aristotelian definitions aim to give the essential properties of the thing defined [Aristotle, by Quine]
1589 Aristotle is the supreme optimist about the ability of logos to explain nature [Roochnik on Aristotle]
1575 For Aristotle logos is essentially the ability to talk rationally about questions of value [Roochnik on Aristotle]
19693 There is practical wisdom (for action), and theoretical wisdom (for deep understanding) [Aristotle, by Whitcomb]
4385 Aristotelian definition involves first stating the genus, then the differentia of the thing [Aristotle, by Urmson]
13282 Aristotle relativises the notion of wholeness to different measures [Aristotle, by Koslicki]
4730 For Aristotle, the subject-predicate structure of Greek reflected a substance-accident structure of reality [Aristotle, by O'Grady]
11240 The notion of analytic truth is absent in Aristotle [Aristotle, by Politis]
3320 Aristotle's standard analysis of species and genus involves specifying things in terms of something more general [Aristotle, by Benardete,JA]
5991 For Aristotle, knowledge is of causes, and is theoretical, practical or productive [Aristotle, by Code]
16111 Aristotle wants to fit common intuitions, and therefore uses language as a guide [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
23312 Aristotle is a rationalist, but reason is slowly acquired through perception and experience [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
11239 The notion of a priori truth is absent in Aristotle [Aristotle, by Politis]
13277 The 'form' is the recipe for building wholes of a particular kind [Aristotle, by Koslicki]
13276 The unmoved mover and the soul show Aristotelian form as the ultimate mereological atom [Aristotle, by Koslicki]
16971 Plato says sciences are unified around Forms; Aristotle says they're unified around substance [Aristotle, by Moravcsik]
22729 The concepts of gods arose from observing the soul, and the cosmos [Aristotle, by Sext.Empiricus]