Moscow State Institute of International Relations
(MGIMO-University)

B.A. in Government and International Affairs
School of Government and International Affairs

Alexander Shishkin Department of Philosophy

The Basics of Philosophy (Philosophy)
Tutorials

Section 2. Cosmocentric and Anthropocentric Philosophy: Classical Greek and Roman Philosophy.

 

Seminar 2.4. Aristotle: The Structure of Reality and the Structure of Knowledge.

 

Summary: Aristotle’s ontology: the structure of reality. Criticism of Plato’s theory of ideas: terminological, logical, and philosophical shortcomings. Aristotle’s main ontological doctrines: the doctrine of matter and form (hylomorphism), the doctrine of potentiality and actuality, the doctrine of causation. The four types of causes: the material cause, the formal cause, the efficient cause, the final cause. te being and its kinds: the ten categories. Aristotle’s epistemology: the structure of knowledge. The five kinds of knowledge: sense perception, experience, art, science, philosophy, The process of cognition: ascent from the particular to the universal; abstraction as the initial procedure of theoretical thought; knowledge of essences and necessities as the goal of science. The Aristotelian model of scientific knowledge: scientific knowledge as knowledge of causes, conceptualisation of change and development; classification as systematisation of knowledge. The Aristotelian concept of truth. Aristotle’s logic: the tool and language of theoretical thought. The principles of logic (the laws of thought): the principle of identity; the principle of non-contradiction; the principle of excluded middle. The forms of thought: concepts, propositions, inferences. The nature and functions of inference. Immediate inferences. Categorical syllogism. Rules, figures, and moods of categorical syllogism. Hypothetical and disjunctive syllogisms. Modal logic.

 

Compulsory readings:

·       Aristotle. The MetaphysicsBook I (A) (translated by Benjamin Jowett); also: translated by Hugh Lawson-Tancred (London: Penguin, 1999), pp. 3ff; see also Internet resources.

·       Biryukov Nikolai. The Basics of Philosophy: A Multimedia Manual. – Lecture 5. Aristotle: The Structure of Reality; Lecture 6. Aristotle: The Structure of Knowledge (MGIMO-University Publishing House, 2016) (MGIMO Books for International Students), pp. 70‑92, 93‑122; see also Internet resources.

·       Kenny Anthony. A New History of Western Philosophy. – Vol. I. Ancient Philosophy. [Ch.] 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press / New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 65‑94; see also Internet resources.

Further readings:

·       Aristotle. Categories (translated by J. L Ackrill). – Ch. 1‑9, in: Aristotle. Categories and De Interpretatione (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 3ff; see also Internet resources.

·       Code Alan. Aristotle’s Logic and Metaphysics, in: Furley David (ed). Routledge History of Philosophy. – Vol. II: From Aristotle to Augustine. – Ch. 2 (London & New York: Routledge, 1999), pp. 40‑71.

·       Copleston Frederick. A History of Philosophy. – Vol. 1: Greece and Rome. From the Pre-Socratics to Plotinus. – Ch. XVII‑XXX, XXXIV (New York et al.: Doubleday, 1993), pp. 266‑331, 372‑378.

·       Furley David. Aristotle the Philosopher of Nature; in: Furley David (ed). Routledge History of Philosophy. – Vol. II: From Aristotle to Augustine. – Ch. 1 (London & New York: Routledge, 1999), pp. 9‑37.

·       Newman A. The Correspondence Theory of Truth. – Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

·       Ross David. Aristotle. – Ch. II, VI (London and New York: Routledge, 1995). pp. 21-64, 162-196.

·       Russell Bertrand. A History of Western Philosophy. – Book I, Ch. XIX‑XXIII (New York et al.: Simon and Schuster, n/y), pp. 159‑207; see also Internet resources.

·       Windelband Wilhelm. A History of Philosophy (authorised translation by James H. Tufts). – §§ 12‑13 (Adamant, 2006), pp. 132‑154; see also Internet resources.

Internet resources:

·       Aristotle. Categories (translated by J. L Ackrill). – Ch. 1‑9; http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/categories/; also: file:///G:/E-Books/=Philosophy/Ancient%20Phiolosophy/Aristotle,%20Categories.htm.

·       Aristotle. Metaphysics (translated by W. D. Ross). – Book I; http://www.classicallibrary.org/aristotle/metaphysics/book01.htm; also: http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/ancient/aristotle-metaphysics.txt; also: http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.1.i.html.

·       Biryukov Nikolai. The Basics of Philosophy. – Lecture 5. Aristotle: The Structure of Reality; Lecture 6. Aristotle: The Structure of Knowledge; http://ed.mgimo.ru/course/view.php?id=81.

·       Cohen S. Marc. Aristotle’s Metaphysics, in: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-metaphysics/.

·       David Marian. The Correspondence Theory of Truth, in: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2020 Edition); https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/truth-correspondence/.

·       Falcon Andrea. Aristotle on Causality, in: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-causality/.

·       Kenny Anthony. A New History of Western Philosophy [e-book]. – Part 1. Ancient Philosophy. [Ch.] 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press / Oxford University Press; 2010), pp. 57‑77; available from: eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost).

·       Parry R. Episteme and Techne. – Aristotle, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2020 Edition; https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/episteme-techne/#Aris

·       Ross David. Aristotle. – Ch. II, VI; https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.536932/mode/2up; pp. 20-61, 154-186.

·       Russell Bertrand. A History of Western Philosophy. – Book I, Ch. XIX‑XXIII; http://archive.org/stream/westernphilosoph035502mbp#page/n191/mode/2up; http://archive.org/stream/westernphilosoph035502mbp#page/n201/mode/2up; http://archive.org/stream/westernphilosoph035502mbp#page/n213/mode/2up; http://archive.org/stream/westernphilosoph035502mbp#page/n225/mode/2up; http://archive.org/stream/westernphilosoph035502mbp#page/n233/mode/2up.

·       Shields Christopher. Aristotle, in: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle/.

·       Smith Robin. Aristotle’s Logic, in: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-logic/.

·       Windelband Wilhelm. A History of Philosophy (authorised translation by James H. Tufts). – §§ 12‑13; http://archive.org/stream/historyofphiloso007974mbp#page/n153/mode/2up; http://archive.org/stream/historyofphiloso007974mbp#page/n159/mode/2up.

 

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