The Greek Philosophers, Vol. 1 (of 2)Benn, Alfred William
Philosophy
The Greek Philosophers, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Benn, Alfred William
Philosophy, Ancient
II. Life of Aristotle, 280—His relation to Plato, 281-Aristotle and
Hermeias; 284—Aristotle and Alexander, 285—Aristotle’s residence
in Athens, flight, and death, 288—His choice of a successor,
288—Provisions of his will, 289—Personal appearance, 289—Anecdotes
illustrating his character, 290—Want of self-reliance and originality,
291.
III. Prevalent misconception of the difference between Aristotle
and Plato, 291—Plato a practical, Aristotle a theoretical genius,
293—Contrast offered by their views of theology, ethics, and politics,
294—Aristotle’s ideal of a State, 296—His want of political insight
and prevision, 297—Worthlessness of his theories at the present day,
298.
IV. Strength and weakness of Aristotle’s _Rhetoric_, 299—Erroneous
theory of aesthetic enjoyment put forward in his _Poetics_, 300—The
true nature of tragic emotion, 303—Importance of female characters
in tragedy, 303—Necessity of poetic injustice, 305—Theory of the
Catharsis, 306—Aristotle’s rules for reasoning compiled from Plato,
307—The _Organon_ in Ceylon, 307.
V. Aristotle’s unequalled intellectual enthusiasm, 308—Illustrations
from his writings, 309—His total failure in every physical science
except zoology and anatomy, 311—His repeated rejection of the just
views put forward by other philosophers, 312—Complete antithesis
between his theory of Nature and ours, 316.
VI. Supreme mastery shown by Aristotle in dealing with the surface of
things, 318—His inability to go below the surface, 319—In what points
he was inferior to his predecessors, 320—His standpoint necessarily
determined by the development of Greek thought, 321—Analogous
development of the Attic drama, 323.
VII. Periodical return to the Aristotelian method, 325—The
systematising power of Aristotle exemplified in all his writings,
326—but chiefly in those relating to the descriptive sciences,
327—His biological generalisations, 328—How they are explained and
corrected by the theory of evolution, 329.
CHAPTER VII.
THE SYSTEMATIC PHILOSOPHY OF ARISTOTLE pages 330-402
I. Homogeneity of Aristotle’s writings, 330—The _Metaphysics_,
331—What are the causes and principles of things? 331—Objections
to the Ionian materialism, 332—Aristotle’s teleology a study of
functions, 332—Illegitimate generalisation to the inorganic world,
333—Aristotle’s Four Causes, 334—Derivation of his substantial Forms
from the Platonic Ideas, 335—His criticism of the Ideal theory,
336—Its applicability to every kind of transcendental realism,
338—Survival of the Platonic theory in Aristotle’s system, 338.
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