Talk:Aristotle/Archives/2013

Image depicting the series
I am wondering why the head of Aristotle on display at the Louvre was chosen for all the pages that are a part of the series on aristotelianism, yet for Plato it is his depiction in The School of Athens which is chosen for this role. I recommend (and won't do it myself unless consensus since this is present on so many pages) cropping Aristotle's depiction in the same painting as the title image for the series, simply out of consistency. VonKreuz (talk) 22:05, 7 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Dear VonKreuz, I see where you are coming from but I think it is nice to have a different main picture. This way we don't have two repeated pictures on the article (the main + the one heading the Aristotelianism series). Cheers, Zalunardo8 (talk) 14:31, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

New section request 30th November 2012: Causes and Compulsions.
″What I have written here is simply a starting point if people wish to add stuff and change this around or whatever feel free. I think what I've written isn't all that good to be honest so I would welcome further input.″

Aristotle was very important to the world because he was cool. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.44.92.2 (talk) 15:28, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

Aristotle believed that human actions are compulsory when they originate from an external cause distinct from the individual. Aristotle believed that a human action may be involuntary either because of ignorance or because of an external influence that negates choice. The former is fairly basic to understand as without a knowledge of something that is fundamental to a decision no choice can be made. For example, if a human lacks an understanding of the danger that vehicles pose on a highway that individual cannot make a choice on that basis and therefore isn't free. The latter is more perplexing Aristotle provides an example of a captain on a ship that is blown off course by a wind in a particular direction. The captain of the ship has no choice he cannot contribute anything in order to preclude the sudden revolution in direction.

However, Aristotle also recognizes a separate form of external compulsion one that on the face of it may appear less compelling. In certain instances of threats and danger there may still exist a power or ability to resist or ignore a compulsion. Aristotle gives an example of passengers on a ship distressed who must throw their possessions overboard to protect themselves and the ship. Undoubtedly this is an intensely pressurized situation and the desire to conform with our feeling of compulsion is immense but it is not a necessary conformation as what the passengers decide to do is both contemplated and carried out of their own volition. However, though a choice is present Aristotle recognizes the negligible level of choice inherent in such situations. For Aristotle, the greater the force exerted on the individual the lesser the consent. However, it is no longer possible to analyse human actions as distinguished as compelled and voluntary acts but more precisely in terms of the proportion of voluntariness.

Further, Aristotle makes a separate distinction between that of internal and external influences. An internal influence refers to something that is willed by the individual. For example, an individual who makes a conscious informed decision to study philosophy would be internally influenced. An external influence refers something that is willed not by one's own volition but because of an extraneous interference. A government that forces you to go to another country to face criminal charges would represent an external influence as a situation has been imposed on the individual which necessarily has revoked their freedom. Both of the prior situations are caused however one is brought about by an individual's autonomy and the other is based on a lack thereof. — Preceding unsigned comment added by HumphreyBurke   (talk • contribs)  18:40:57 30 November 2012

On Though
Change Posterior Analytics to Late Analytics as this specific word means buttox and it is not widely used — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.194.63.155 (talk) 09:56, 2 August 2013 (UTC)

Influence on Marx
It is a well known fact that Aristotle was one of Marx's favourite ancient philosophers. Could someone add Marx under the post-Enlightenment section?

"Yet the differentia specifica of human being that Leopold dismisses is the defining human ontology of "foresight" that distinguishes men from slaves in Marx's favorite ancient philosopher, Aristotle, and of Marx's own regulating principle of human freedom that explains why he regards the working class in capitalism as dehumanized into "wage slavery." "

The Young Karl Marx: German Philosophy, Modern Politics, and Human Flourishing (review) John McMurtry. From: Journal of the History of Philosophy Volume 47, Number 3, July 2009  http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/hph/summary/v047/47.3.mcmurtry.html

There is also Marx's comment that “I always had great interest in the latter philosopher [Heraclitus], to whom I prefer only Aristotle of the ancient philosophers.” Letter to Ferdinand Lassalle. 21 December 1857. Marx-Engels Collected Works, vol. 40. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975. p. 225. In addition, Aristotle receives some minor treatment in Capital, where refers to him as, “the greatest thinker of antiquity” Marx (1990, p.532) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ditc (talk • contribs) 05:45, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Rhetoric
Aristotle's book, The Rhetoric and Poetics is mentioned in the article but is incomplete. I hope someone would be able to input some information on the sections discussing Rhetoric. His work on Rhetoric remains one of the most accurate and effective analysis on persuasion, most of his observations stand today, Including a discussion of the ethics of persuasion. (I wish I were qualified to review the work for Wikipedia. I studies this book in college in 1997 and have forgotten too much to do it justice.)12.54.200.100 (talk) 00:26, 18 October 2013 (UTC)Bill Letson

13 fallacies
Accident (fallacy) mentions "It is one of the thirteen fallacies originally identified by Aristotle." Would anyone know if this list of 13 appears somewhere on Wikipedia? I couldn't find fallacies mentioned on this page. If it's present I was hoping we could link to it in some way. Ranze (talk) 13:54, 30 October 2013 (UTC)

Spelling Error
While reading i found out that at the second paragraph second line that the word library was spelled wrongly it was spelled as libraary instead. Please change it thank you :) JackMaster2 (talk) 12:40, Dated 13 November 2013 (UTC)
 * done--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 13:58, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

Also: In first paragraph, it should be constitutes, rather than constitute.