Aristoteleanism in Six Points

Might as well push my luck, and apply this six-point template again.

1) In anthropology, Aristotle dissented from Plato's dualism, treating the human soul as the form of the human body.

2) In metaphysics, he is remembered for a modified realism about universals. He held that appleness is one and the same fact whether I am speaking of this apple or that apple. BUT he denied that appleness is a fact metaphysically separate from any and all of the particular apples.

3) In epistemology, Aristotle added a note of empiricism to his teacher's critical rationalism. He sought for example to collect what was known about living organisms in his day before drawing conclusions about life processes.

4) In ethics, Aristotle believed that the virtuous man (the great-souled man) will do what is right. The task of ethics is neither laying down duties or deliberating over consequences, but cultivating virtue.

5) In politics, Aristotle believed that the best city is likely to be the city with the largest middle class, because without a middle class as a buffer, rich and poor will always be at war.

6) In aesthetics, Aristotle sought to bring system to the great tragic works staged in Athens over the two generations before his day, creating in the process the classic unities.

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