Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/351

Rh ARISTOTELES. niirl nn 'EyKcifxiov A«;7oi'. Among the writings which were foisted upon Aristotle in the middle ages, there were the treatises (in L.itin) : 1. Mys- ticae Ac(iypt.iorum philosop/iiae libr. xiv., a compila- tion from Plotinus, {C/aasical Journal^ vol. xv. p. 279.) 4. De Porno (translated from the Hebrew by Manfred, son of the emperor Frederick II.), a treatise on the immortality of the soul. 3. Secrela secretonim (doctrines on prudence and the art of government), and others. IV. Leading features of Aristotle's Philosophy. All that the Hellenes had as yet attained in the whole compass of science and art, was embraced by the gigantic mind of Aristotle, which, so to say, traversed in thought all that the Hellenic world had up to that time struggled and lived through, and transmitted to posterity in his writings and philosophy the result, as reflected in his mind, of this earlier age. Aristotle stands at the turning point of Hellenic life, when, after the original forms of political existence and art were completed, after the close of the age of production, the period of reflection stept in, and endeavoured by the exercise of thought to possess itself of the immense mass of materials that had been gained. And we cannot but admire th& Divine Providence, which sum- moned to this task a mind like Aristotle's, at the very time when the contemplation of the past was still fresh and lively, and tradition still recent ; and which called forth all his powers by placing him in the midst of the new impetus which the Hellenic mind had received through the Macedonian con- quest of the world Thus did the genius of the age find in Aristotle its first and wonderful in- strument. We have already, in enumerating his works, had occasion to admire the universality of the philosopher, for whom a mythical legend of the foundation of a city was not less attractive than speculations on first causes and highest ends, or observations on animal life and poetry. *' Quot saeculis," exclaims Quintilian (Or. Inst. xii. 11. § 22) in astonishment, " Aristoteles didicit, utnon solum quae ad philosophos et oratores pertinerent scientia complecteretur, sed animalium satonimque naturas omnes perquireret." " Aristotle," says Hegel (Gesch. der Philosophies ii. p. 298), " pene- trated into the whole mass and into everj-- depart- ment of the universe of things, and subjected to the comprehension its scattered wealth ; and the greater number of the philosophical sciences owe to him their separation and commencement. While in this manner science separates itself into a series of definitions, the Aristotelian philosophy at the same time contains the most profound speculative ideas. He is more comprehensive and speculative tlftm any one else. And although his system does not appear developed in its several parts, but the parts stand side by side, they yet form a totality of essentially speculative philosophy." In giving a sketch or "sum" of Aristotle's philosophy, we must be satisfied with a mere out- line, to which an accurate study of Aristotle's works alone can give completeness.* The true and correct apprehension of the nature of Aristotle's philosophy is due to the revolution which philoso- phy itself has undergone in Germany through the influence of Heg«l. The universal conception ARISTOTELES. 333 which had been formed of Aristotle's philosophy up to the time of Hegel, was, that Aristotle had made what is called experience the principle of knowledge and cognition. Accordingly the Aris- totelian philosophy, as realism in the most ordinary sense of the word, was placed in direct opposition to the Platonic idealism. This complete misap- prehension of the Aristotelian philosophy proceed- ed from various causes. Firstly and chiefly, from want of acquaintance with the writings of Aris- totle. Little more than twenty years ago Aristotle was still very little read. We have seen how even the philological study of his writings was neglected for centuries ; and the philosophical study of them fared no better. The properiy speculative writings, the logical and metaphysical works, were scarcely read by any one. Nay, even on certain aesthetical propositions (e. y. on the three unities of the drama) false traditions prevailed, which were utterly unsubstantiated by the Poetics. And 3'et the Poetics was one of the most read and most easily accessible of his writings. To this were added other causes. Very many derived their acquaintance with Aristotelian philosophy from Cicero, in whose works Aristotle appears only as a moral philosopher and natural historian. Others confounded the so-called scholastic Aristo- telisra with the genuine Aristotelian philosophy, which, however, in the schoolmen appears as mere empty formalism. Others, lastly, overlooked in the consideration of the method in which Aristotle philosophized the essential character of the philo- sophy itself. This last circumstance in particular introduced that false conception, according to which common empeiria, experience, was looked upon as the principle of Aristotelian philosophy. We must therefore first endeavour to make clear Aristotle's method. The peculiar method of Aristotle stands in close connexion with the universal direction which he gave to his intellectual exertions, striving to pene- trate into the whole compass of knowledge. In this endeavour he certainly sets out from experi- ence, in order first to arrive at the consciousness of that which really eansts, and so to grasp in thought the multiplicity and breadth of the sensible and spiritual world. Thus he always first lays hold of his subject externally, separates that in it which is merely accidental, renders prominent the contra- dictions which result, seeks to solve them and to refer them to a higher idea, and so at last arrives at the cognition of the ideal intrinsic nature, which manifests itself in every separate object of reality. In this manner he consecutively develops the ob- jects as well of the natural as of the spiritual world, proceeding geneticully ixom the lower to the higher, from the more known to the less known, and translates the world of experience into the Idea. Accordingly he usually first points out how, when an object is produced, it first presents itself to our cognition generally, and then how this general ob- ject branches out into separate species, and first really manifests itself in these. In this way he also develops the origin of science itself geneti- a Hegel's Vorlesungen uber Gesch. der PkUoso- phie, ii. pp. 298—422. b Biese, Die Philosophie des Aristoteles in ihrem Zusammenhanye^ mit besonderer Berucksichiigung des philosophischen Sprachgebrauchsy vol. i., Berliii, 1835, and vol. ii., 1842.
 * The best works upon his philosophy are —