Aristotle for Everybody

Aristotle for Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy
	Cover of the first edition
Author	Mortimer J. Adler
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	Aristotle
Publisher	Macmillan Publishers
Publication date	1978
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages	206 (paperback edition)
ISBN	978-0684838236

Aristotle for Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy is a 1978 book about the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle by the philosopher Mortimer J. Adler. It serves as an "introduction to common sense" and philosophic thinking, which is "everybody's business", and for which purpose there is "no better teacher than Aristotle," in his opinion.^[1]

Summary[]

Aristotle was a "common sense" philosopher whose depth and uniqueness of thought made his common sense "uncommon, according to Adler's thesis, in contrast to his teacher Plato, whose ideas may be considered more abstract and esoteric. While Adler criticizes Aristotle for accepting the conventional views of his day regarding the supposed inferiority of women, and greek slavery, he nonetheless asserts that Aristotle is the best introduction to philosophical thinking and a philosopher with insights that are still relevant and useful today. Adler acknowledges that Aristotle's own writings are difficult for a layperson, and so the author decided to create a more accessible introduction to Aristotle's thought.

"Man the Maker" focuses on the use of "productive reason", Aristotle's views on excellence in craftsmanship (the ancient Greek concept of techne). "Man the Doer" on "practical reason", Aristotle's ethics and his concept of moral virtue (both personal and political), and "Man the Knower" on "theoretical reason", knowledge (epistemology) and logic.

The final part of the book is called "Difficult Philosophical Questions," and in it Adler tries to apply Aristotle's views to infinity, eternity, the immateriality of the mind, and the Gods (the Greeks believed in many gods). The book concludes with an epilogue listing the specific writings of Aristotle that Adler drew upon for his book so that interested readers can consult those works directly. This is given in the section below.

Part I: Man the Philosophical Animal[]

Aristotle's Universe of Discourse: His Categories and his Taxonomy

Adler explains that according to Aristotle human beings are distinguished from all other animals by having the ability to ask philosophical questions. Adler also explains how Aristotle excelled at classification, and that identifying distinctive features of phenomena (what makes something uniquely itself and not something else) was a key characteristic of Aristotle's thought.

Philosophical Games[]

Aristotle's Fourfold Classification of Sensible, Material Substances: Inorganic Bodies, Plants, Animals, Men.

Metaphysics I.1
On the Soul I.1 I.5; II.1-3,5,9; III.3,12
History of Animals VIII.1 X.1
Generation of Animals I.1-9 IV.4-6
Parts of Animals I.4-5
Categories V
Metaphysics V.4,11; IX.8

The Three Dimensions of Man[]

Aristotle's classification of three activities of a human being: making, doing, and knowing. Adler titles these sections "Man the Maker," "Man the Doer," and "Man the Knower," respectively.

Part II: Man the Maker[]

In response to the errors and partial truths of:

Parmenides and his disciple Zeno
Heraclitus and his disciple Cratylus

Aristotle developed his theory of change. It involves distinction between rest and movement. In local motion, there is a distinction between natural movement and violent movement. There is also change in quality, such as when a green tomato ripens and becomes red. This type of change can be either natural or artificial, for example a green chair can be painted red. There can be a change in quantity.

There can also be generation and corruption - coming to be and passing away. Aristotle takes note of what we now call conservation of matter.

Part III: Man the Doer[]

Part IV: Man the Knower[]

Part V: Difficult Philosophical Questions[]

References[]

^ pp. ix-xx

Adler, Mortimer (1997) [1978]. Aristotle for Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy. New York: Touchstone. ISBN 0-684-83823-0.
Aristotle (1941). Richard McKeon (ed.). The Basic Works of Aristotle. New York: Random House.
Barnes, Jonathan (2000). Aristotle: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-285408-7.

External links[]

Book Review by Patheos
Interview by Bill Moyers

[1] . ix-xx

[1]