Aristotle's Ethical Theory and How It Conflicts, If at All, with Our Contemporary Worldview

Aristotle's ethical theory and how it conflicts, if at all, with our contemporary worldview.

Aristotle is one of the most well known philosophers in history. He was born in 384 BC in Stagira, which is in Macedonia. His father was personal physician to the king of Macedonia at that time, Amyntas. He lived until 322 BC when he died at a family estate in Euboea. Aristotle is credited with many great accomplishments during his time. He was pupil to a great mind, as well as a teacher to great leaders. Aristotle's thinking was beyond his time and rivaled the worldview at the time.

Aristotle is well known for his teachings to the son of the king of Macedonia at the time, Philip. The king's son was named Alexander; now known as Alexander the Great. When Alexander became king of Macedonia, Aristotle left for Athens where he began lecturing at the Lyceum. Aristotle was at the Lyceum for twelve years, during which he created the notes which are now known as some of his greatest works. Sadly, a small amount of Aristotle's works are all that survived these many years. One of his writings was named "Physics," which is his writing on astronomy, meteorology, plants, and animals. Writings like these have changed the way we have thought and lived throughout history. His pieces of literature encompassed all of the major areas of thought; These being: science, logic, metaphysics, politics, and ethics.

Aristotle was quite simply a genius for his, or any other, time. Many people did not agree with this statement, but it is evident through his many writings. Many of the ideas and concepts he anticipated in his writings were so far ahead of his time, others questioned his motives. As noted before, Aristotle learned from the best. He also taught the best, which in effect, caused for many of his ideas to always be challenged. This, however, drove him to gain more knowledge and wisdom. Aristotle is without a doubt considered to be one of the best philosophers in history, which is reflected by his many achievements.

One of the Aristotle's most famous contributions was a new idea of causality(Cause and Effect). He thought that each thing or event has more than one reason that helps to explain what, why, and where that thing or event is. Greek thinkers from earlier on thought that only one kind of cause could explain itself. Aristotle, on the other hand, said four could. The four causes he spoke of were: material cause, efficient cause, formal cause, and the final cause. For example, he would say that the material cause of a house is the supplies from which it was built. The efficient cause