亚里斯多德(前384～西元前322年)

Aristotle

希腊哲学家和科学家。其父曾是马其顿国王亚历山大大帝的祖父的御医，他是柏拉图的学生，後来在柏拉图学园（Plato's Academy）任教二十年。约西元前342年返回马其顿担任亚历山大的老师，西元前335年到雅典开办自己的莱西昂学园（the Lyceum）。他与柏拉图哲学最大的不同点是：不需要假设一个超然而单独存在的理念领域，能知觉事物的世界就是真实的世界。着作丰富，现存的作品包括：《工具篇》（Organon）、《论灵魂》（De Anima）、《物理学》（Physics）、《形上学》（Metaphysics）、《尼科马科斯伦理学》（Nicomachean Ethics）、《欧德摩斯伦理学》（Eudemian Ethics）、《动物志》（Magna Moralia）、《政治学》（Politics）、《修辞学》（Rhetoric）和《诗学》（Poetics）等，其他在自然历史和科学方面的作品也很多（大部分在西元前1世纪时首度刊印）。他把哲学论题划分为伦理、物理和逻辑三方面。对他而言，逻辑是研究每一论题所必需的。亚里斯多德还提出四因：形式因、质料因、动力因、目的因，并主张一个永恒不动的原动力（神）是物理的必要元素。在伦理学方面，他主张对人类（或任何东西）有益的是达成他们的目的或功用，也就是所谓的目的论（teleology）。亚里斯多德和柏拉图被公认是西方哲学的创建者，而他对後来的西方科学和哲学的影响是十分巨大的。

English version：

前384～西元前322年

Aristotle

Greek philosopher and scientist. Son of the court physician to Alexander the Great's grandfather, he became a student of Plato in Athens and taught at Plato's Academy for 20 years. He went back to Macedonia c. 342 to tutor the young Alexander, then returned to Athens in 335 to found his own school, the Lyceum. Aristotle distinguished his philosophy from Plato's by declaring that the assumption of the existence of a separate realm of transcendent Ideas (see form) is unnecessary and that the world of perceived things is the real world. He wrote prolifically; his major surviving works include the Organon, De Anima, Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, Eudemian Ethics, Magna Moralia, Politics, Rhetoric, and Poetics, as well as other works on natural history and science (most were first edited and published in the 1st century BC). Aristotle divides philosophical topics into ethics, physics, and logic. To him, logic was required for the study of every other topic. He distinguished four kinds of cause—material, formal, efficient, and final—and postulated an unmoved mover (God) as a necessary element of physics. In ethics, he argued that “good” for human beings (or anything else) lies in fulfilling their purpose or function, a view that came to be known as teleology. With Plato, Aristotle is considered a founder of Western philosophy, and his influence on later Western science and philosophy has been vast.