As I read Aristotle, it feels like some of what he says is blatantly obvious. And this reminds of something, someone once said about Nietzsche. To paraphrase: that Nietzsche's philosophy changed the way people thought so dramatically, that his philosophy seemed obvious to the modern man . But then I wonder if it seems obvious because his analysis is so blatantly correct, that all you have to do is think back onto your own experiences to know that is true.
Again while reading Aristotle I am reminded of the words of another. Aristotle says: "all the vaulable qualities that youth and age divide between them are united in the prime of life.... the body is in its prime from thirty to thirty-five"(book II ch 14). My brother (who, if he has read Aristotle, it has been decades) said to me this year, "your thirties are great. Everyone respects you, you make more money, and life is generally easier". I turn 30 this year so I really hope he and Aristotle are correct. But was my brother influenced by Aristotle or was Aristotle just right? I kind of think both. My brother did benefit from educational systems influenced by Aristotle, but I also think that Aristotle was just an astute guy.
So which is it, did Aristotle influence the world into becoming as he saw, or did he see the world as it truly is? What do you think?
This made me think of one of Aristotle's own quotes from this section, “One great advantage of Maxims to a speaker is due to the want of intelligence in his hearers, who love to hear him succeed in expressing as a universal truth the opinions which they hold themselves about particular cases.” If you take it on a broader scale, you kind of have to wonder about what Aristotle is doing throughout this whole book.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I think it's both. The ideas Aristotle is expressing are the foundation of a lot of our common sense -- after all this is a classic that would not only have had a lot of influence in the ancient world but also in the Renaissance world when Greek texts were rediscovered and studied as the foundation of what would eventually become modernity. And a lot of this is simply truism based on biology. After all, the 30s is when you have gained significant experience and education but your body hasn't reached the "peak" that is middle age, so naturally it's going to be a good period in your life.