Aristotelianism
Flourishing through cultivated character and practical wisdom.
Discobolus, Roman marble after a Greek bronze · National Roman Museum (photo Livioandronico2013, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Origin
Founded by Aristotle with the Lyceum in Athens, 335 BCE.
Central claims
- Human flourishing is activity of the soul in accordance with virtue.
- Character is formed by habit, guided by practical wisdom.
- Explanation requires attention to purpose as well as material.
Criticism
His biology and cosmology have been superseded, and his views on slavery and women are indefensible; contemporary readers separate his ethics from those claims.
Development
Aristotelianism grew through lecture notes on logic, nature, ethics, politics and metaphysics, then through Arabic commentary and medieval universities. Its method is patient: begin with appearances, classify carefully, and seek causes appropriate to the subject.
Legacy
It remains central wherever ethics asks about character, politics asks about constitutions, or science and metaphysics debate what kind of explanation a thing requires.
In their words
“Man is by nature a political animal.”
“Happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue.”
“We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts.”