1. សាកលវិទ្យាល័យ វេវ្ទើន
Western University
Where quality come first!
Department of Art and Humanity
Lecturer: Mr. Soeung Sopha
Submitted by: Chhit Seyha
Academic Year: 2013 & 2014

2. ARISTOTLE
1. Biography
Aristotle (384-322 B.C), Greek philosopher and scientist, who shares with Plato and
Socrates the distinction of being the most famous of the ancient philosophers. Born at Stagira,
in Macedonia, the son of physician to the royal court, Aristotle moved at the age of 17 to
Athens to study at Plato’s academy. He remained there for 20 years, first as a student then as
a teacher.
2. Methods
Aristotle had great confident in human beings’ ability to arrive at a reasoned
understanding of the world around them. He was committed to the claim that the world itself
makes understanding possible; that it is structured in such a way as to be amenable to rational
inquiry and understanding. Further, the nature of human beings is to have both capacity and
the desire to understand the world. Thus, the world and human nature cooperate in making
understanding possible.
3. Nature
In Aristotle’s view, the nature world is made up of individual plants and animals
occurring fixed natural kinds or species. He denied that the nature world is the product of a
historical creation or the result of some the revolutionary process. The defining the
characteristic of nature or living things is that they are subject to change: the regular
processes of birth, growth, development, and decay that can be observed in the natural world.
Nature things, which exist in nature, have a nature an internal dynamic principle responsible
for the specific pattern of development that each member of a nature species undergoes
consisting of two aspects: a material aspect and formal aspect. The material aspect is the
material of which the plant or animal is composed, and which enables the relevant processes
of development to occur, that is, the “matter” of the plant or animal. The formal aspect of the
nature of a living thing is its identity as the specific kind of thing it is, which, in combination
with the requisite the matter, govern the development of the individual as a member of the
natural species. This aspect is the “form” of the plant or animal. He identified four such
factors, each of which involves either the material or formal aspect of the nature of living
thing. They are (1) the “material cause”, the material of a living thing, the “formal cause”,

3. Its form (3) the “efficient cause” or the “origin of the change”, the male parent of the living
things in question, which transmit the form in reproduction and thereby initiates the
developmental process, (4) the “final cause”, the fully developed living thing, which as an
adult member of its species, has achieved the end to which its earlier processes of
development were directed.
4. Doctrines
a. Physic or Natural Philosophy
According to the ancient philosophy, notably developed by Aristotle, associate with the four
elements (earth, fire, air, and water) that make up Earth was the fifth substance that pervaded
heavenly bodies in the universe beyond the moon, called “quintessence”. This theory about
the origin of the universe was still adhered to in the Middle Age, particularly in the school of
alchemy.
b. Aristotelian Psychology
For Aristotle, psychology was a study of soul. Insisting that “form” (the essence or
unchanging characteristic element in an object) and “matter” (the common undifferentiated
substratum of things) always exist together (except in the case of God and certain other
divine entities)
c. Ethic
Individual’s freedom of choice made an absolutely accurate analysis of human affairs
impossible. “Practical science”, then, such as politics or ethics, was called science only by
courtesy and analogy. The inherent limitations on practical science are made clear in
Aristotle’s concepts of human nature and self-realization. Human nature certainly involves,
for everyone, a capacity for forming habits; but the habits that a particular individual forms
depend on that individual’s culture and repeated personal choices. All human beings want
“happiness”, an active, engaged realization of their innate capacities, but this goal can be
achieved in a multiplicity of ways.
d. Logic
In logic, Aristotle developed rules for chains of reasoning that would, if followed, never lead
from true premises to false conclusions (“validity rules”). In reasoning, the basic links are

4. syllogisms: pairs of propositions that, taken together, provide a new conclusion. In the most
famous example, “All human beings are mortal” and “All Greeks are human beings” yield
the valid conclusion “All Greeks are mortal”.
e. Metaphysics
In his metaphysics, Aristotle argued for the existence of a divine being, described as the
“Prime Mover”, who is responsible for the unity and purposefulness of nature. God is perfect
and therefore the aspiration of all things in the world, because all things desire to share
perfection. Other movers exist as well—the intelligent movers of the planets and stars. The
Prime Mover does not, for example, take an interest in what goes on in the world and did not
create the world. Aristotle limited his “theology”, however, to what he believed science
requires and can establish.
5. Influence
The influence of Aristotle’s philosophy has been pervasive; it has even helped to shape
modern language and common sense. His doctrine of the Prime Mover as the final cause
played an important role in theology. Before the 20th century, logic meant Aristotle’s logic
alone. Until the Renaissance, and even later, astronomers and poets alike esteemed his
concept of the universe. Zoology rested on Aristotle’s work until the British scientist Charles
Darwin modified the doctrine of the changelessness of species in the 19th century. In the 20th
century a new appreciation developed of Aristotle’s method and its relevance to education,
literary criticism, the analysis of human action, and political analysis.
6. Conclusion
Aristotle is a famous philosopher that recognized by many people around the world. He is
a great philosopher of universal knowledge. For centuries Europe acknowledged him as the
master, and no philosopher has ever had such profound and lasting influence on the thought
and life of western world. His method and doctrine have been recognized and practice by all
human being around the world.