The History of Philosophy|S02E07

The Work of Aristotle-1

See, here, how inventions make history: 

for lack of a telescope Aristotle's astronomy is a tissue of childish romance; 

for lack of a microscope his biology wanders endlessly astray. 

Indeed, it was in industrial and technical invention that Greece fell farthest below the general standard of its unparalleled achievements. 

The Greek disdain of manual work kept everybody but the listless slave from direct acquaintance with the processes of production, from that stimulating contact with machinery which reveals defects and prefigures possibilities; 

technical invention was possible only to those who had no interest in it, and could not derive from it any material reward. 

Perhaps the very cheapness of the slaves made invention lag; 

muscle was still less costly than machines. 

And so, while Greek commerce conquered the Mediterranean Sea, and Greek philosophy conquered the Mediterranean mind, Greek science straggled, and Greek industry remained almost where Ægean industry had been when the invading Greeks had come down upon it, at Cnossus, at Tiryns and Mycene, a thousand years before. 

No doubt we have here the reason why Aristotle so seldom appeals to experiment; 

the mechanisms of experiment had not yet been made; 

and the best he could do was to achieve an almost universal and continuous observation. 

Nevertheless the vast body of data gathered by him and his assistants became the groundwork of the progress of science, the textbook of knowledge for two thousand years; 

one of the wonders of the work of man.

Aristotle's writings ran into the hundreds. 

Some ancient authors credit him with four hundred volumes, others with a thousand. 

What remains is but a part, and yet it is a library in itself—conceive the scope and grandeur of the whole. 

There are, first, the Logical works: 

"Categories," "Topics," "Prior" and "Posterior Analytics," "Propositions," and "Sophistical Refutation"; 

these works were collected and edited by the later Peripatetics under the general title of Aristotle's "Organon," —that is, the organ or instrument of correct thinking. 

Secondly, there are the Scientific works: 

"Physics," "On the Heavens," "Growth and Decay," "Meteorology," "Natural History," "On the Soul," "The Parts of Animals," "The Movement of Animals," and "The Generation of Animals." 

There are, thirdly, the Esthetic works: 

"Rhetoric" and "Poetics." 

And fourthly come the more strictly Philosophical works: "Ethics," "Politics," and "Metaphysics."

▍语言点

astray: adj. 迷路的

disdain: vi. 蔑视

manual work: 手工业

listless: adj. 无精打采的；百无聊赖的

prefigure: vt. 预示；预想

lag: n. 滞后

costly: adj. 昂贵的

appeal to: resort to，诉诸于

experiment: n. 实验

mechanism: n. 机制；原理

observation: n. 观察

Organon: n. 工具论；推理法

conceive the scope and grandeur of the whole: 包罗万象

生词好句

astray adj. 迷路的

disdain disdain: vt. 蔑视

manual work 手工业

listless adj. 无精打采的；百无聊赖的

prefigures prefigure: vt. 预示；预想

lag n. 滞后

costly adj. 昂贵的

appeals to appeal to: resort to，诉诸于

mechanisms mechanism: n. 机制；原理

experiment n. 实验

observation n. 观察

conceive the scope and grandeur of the whole conceive the scope and grandeur of the whole: 包罗万象

Organon n. 工具论；推理法