Viator

Aristotle for Everybody: 3: Man’s Three Dimensions

It is revealed that God is Beauty, that God is Truth, and that God alone is Good. These three dimensions of God correspond to the nature of mankind. Philosophy has shown through reason that the nature of humanity is oriented to and is fulfilled by the presence of God!

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Humans have three dimensions that correspond to the greatest goods: the truth, the good, and the beautiful. These three dimensions are making, doing, and knowing.

REFLECTION

Only human beings are persons. While we live in three dimensional space, we have other dimensions. Three important dimensions are (1) making, (2) doing, and (3) knowing. All three dimensions are characterized by thinking.

By "making" Aristotle meant that man is an artist or artisan. Man produces man things: shoes, ships, books, houses, and so on. Only man makes things. Some things are natural to the world; other things are artifacts, or creations from the work of man. Man is alone in this ability.

"Doing" means that man is a moral and social being. Only humans are free to do right or wrong. We in the Church would say that only man can be a sinner or a saint. Animals simply live according to their programming and do not have the freedom to act otherwise.

"Knowing" signifies that man is a learner. We acquire knowledge of all kinds. While animals learn in a rudimentary way, only humans learn for the express purpose of simply understanding.

Man is alone in his ability and desire to know the greatest values in the universe: the truth, the good, and the beautiful. Man's three dimensions correspond to the three greatest goods. Man makes the beautiful; man strives to do the good; man wants to know the truth.

KEY QUOTES

"While, as bodies, we are physical things like all other bodies, we are, as we have just seen, the special kind of thing – the only kind of thing – that is called a person." (AFE, 16)

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!

Analytical Table of Contents

VVV

Aristotle for Everybody: 2: Man the Philosophical Animal

Aristotle's classification scheme expands beyond the physical world. There is also the world of ideas! There is a great divide between things and ideas. It is interesting that the reasoned position of Aristotle is consistent with Revelation: Man is the height of God's creation. We would add that only persons, men and women, can have faith and know God. We are the crown of creation.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

There is more to the universe than physical things. Ideas, concepts, mathematical notions, colors, are all non physical realities whose existence no one would doubt but which cannot be touched. Some characteristics of things are essential, or accidental, others are essential for the nature of a thing to remain. Finally, persons are a special kind of "thing" because we are able to do more than any other thing in our world.

REFLECTION

Physical things are not all that exists. There are other items that have existence: mathematical quantities, shapes, imaginary characters, spirits, God, ideas and theories. There are many other non-physical things that have existence. The great divide is what separates the universe of objects that can be thought of from the group of objects that have physical existence.

When thinking of the world of physical bodies, Aristotle divided its constituents into "bodies" and on their other side, their "characteristics" or attributes. Attributes would include ideas such as colors or odor. Bodies can change but attributes can never change. A ball can be rough and become smooth and still remain a ball. However, roughness can never become smooth without becoming something different. Redness can never become blueness; the redness will leave a thing but it cannot change.

Some attributes of a physical thing are part of its nature and must be present throughout its existence. For example, if roundness leaves a ball, it becomes something else but it ceases being a ball. This is an essential part of the nature of a ball.

We must differentiate among things and persons. We generally do not refer to persons as things. Why? Primarily because persons have more dimensions that all other things. We, like a ball, exist within the three dimensions of space. However, we can do much more than the ball can do by virtue of our nature.

KEY QUOTES

"The universe of objects that can be thought of is much larger than the physical world – the world of bodies, either those now in existence or those that have existed in the past. It includes the world of bodies, but it also includes much else besides. The line that divides bodies from everything else is the great divide." (AFE, 11)

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!

Analytical Table of Contents

VVV

Aristotle for Everybody: 1: Philosophical Games

Why would a Catholic be interested in reading about the philosophy of Aristotle? There are at least three answers. First, Aristotle's view of reality is the one closest to that of the Judeo-Christian world view. We hold that reality and truth are real and that we can know them. Second, Aristotle's way of doing philosophy was taken up by the Church as a method for doing Theology. St. Thomas Aquinas refers to Aristotle as "The Philosopher." Third, we read Aristotle because what he taught was true. Aristotle was wrong about a few things. He was right, however, in his understanding of truth and a person's ability to know it. To understand God, we must understand truth.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Classification is first step in philosophy. Aristotle classified things from inert, to plants, to animals and then humans. Humans are a special case because it is part of our nature to ask questions and to seek answers through observation and thought. The nature of a thing is defined by essential characteristics. Unessential characteristics are called accidental.

REFLECTION

Classification is a first step in philosophy. Aristotle was exceptional in his ability to categorize everything he saw around him. Philosophical thought begins with asking questions; the first question is, "What is that?" One distinction that Aristotle makes is between elementary and composite bodies. Elementary bodies consist of a single kind of matter such as gold, or zinc. Composite bodies are made up of two or more different kinds of matter such as bread or a car. There are other distinctions to be made as well.

A very important distinction is between living things and inert bodies. All living things have certain characteristics: they take nourishment, grow and reproduce. Inert things have mass, weight, physical presence. Plants have all the characteristics that inert things have but they also have the characteristics of living things but cannot move independently from the earth. Animals have the essential characteristics of plants and inert things but also have the ability to move freely under their own means. Additionally, animals have sense organs while plants generally do not.

Human beings are a special kind of animal. We perform certain functions that animals do not. We ask questions and seek answers to those questions through observation and by thought. Animals do not do this.

Each kind of thing has a nature. Nature is that set of characteristics that distinguishes a thing from all other things. For example, all humans have human nature but dogs do not have human nature. Further, every human being has a human nature. However, not every attribute of a thing is fundamental to its kind. For example, human beings with blonde hair are essentially the same as human beings with black hair. Hair color does not differentiate a kind of human; it only defines characteristics of some humans. These kinds of differences are called accidental. The major differences between humans and all other things with a different nature are called essential.

KEY QUOTES

"It is in another way that philosophy is useful – to help us to understand things we already know, understand them better than we now understand them. That is why I think everyone should learn how to think philosophically." (AFE, ix)

"Aristotle's thinking began with common sense, but it did not end there. It went much further. It added to and surrounded common sense with insights and understandings that are not common at all. His understanding of things goes deeper than ours and sometimes soars higher. It is, in a word, uncommon common sense." (AFE, xiv)

"Philosophical thought began with the asking of questions – questions that can be answered on the basis of our ordinary, everyday experience and with some reflection about that experience that results in a sharpening and refinement of our common sense." (AFE, 4)

"At the top of the scale are human beings who perform all the vital functions performed by other animals and who, in addition, have the ability to seek knowledge by asking and answering questions and the ability to think philosophically." (AFE, 7)

St. Thomas Aquinas, Pray for us!

Analytical Table of Contents

VVV