The influence of Aristotle (384-322 BC) on Western ideals, philosophy and society has been a slow and difficult process. I tend to choose direct ways when it comes to business, learning, and problem solving but Aristotelian ideas survived and spread only indirectly.
Before Aristotle’s works became popular in twelve-century Europe, they had been preserved in Eastern countries. Without the studies made by Avicenna (990-1037), I am convinced that some works by Aristotle would have been definitively lost.
Avicenna lived in Persia (today’s Iran), where he laboured to preserve and transmit Aristotelian ideas. His “Handbook of Medicine” borrows heavily from Aristotle’s metaphysics.
In Avicenna’s work, we can find the Aristotelian concepts of material cause, formal cause, efficient cause, final cause, and prime mover. Avicenna named it “Unmoved Mover,” but gave it exactly the same meaning as Aristotle’s prime mover. It is the ultimate cause behind all actions taking place in the world.
Avicenna and Aristotle’s influence on Western philosophy
The meaning given by Avicenna to the “Unmoved Mover” is connected to religion. While Aristotelian philosophy regards the prime mover as a speculation (a potential explanation that still needs to be proven), Avicenna considered the theory of the “Unmoved Mover” as a demonstration of God’s existence and infinite power.
Avicenna’s “Handbook of Medicine” relies on Aristotelian empiricism from beginning to end. It advises physicians to use their senses (smell, touch, vision) to asses symptoms, identify the pattern of sickness, and treat it methodically.
The trial-and-error method outlined by Avicenna was more sophisticated than Aristotle’s incipient empiricism. His deeper understanding of scientific inquiry can be attributed to the fact that he was a practising physician.
In contrast, Aristotle’s observations on zoology and botany had often remained at layman’s level. During his stay at Lesbos in 337 BC, he took extensive notes and later turned them into two books, but I must rate them as superficial if compared with Avicenna’s “Handbook of Medicine.”
Despite the religious tone in Avicenna’s “Unmoved Mover,” I must praise his willingness to adopt Aristotelian ethics almost unchanged. He endorsed Aristotle’s concept of “eudaimonia” (happiness, thriving, flourishing) as main goal of human life, but then added that it can be achieved only with God’s help.
When Aristotelian philosophy spread into Western schools, monasteries and universities a century later, few scholars dared to regard “eudaimonia” as the goal of human life. By that time, Aristotelian morality had been already blended with the Bible.
What about the rest of Aristotelian philosophy? Avicenna also employed Aristotle’s “golden mean” to define virtue. Each virtue (such a courage), stands in the mid-point between doing too much (recklessness) and doing too little (cowardice).
Maimonides and Aristotle’s influence on Western philosophy
Maimonides (1135-1204) also paved the way for receiving Aristotelian philosophy in Europe. He wrote the “Guide for the Perplexed” in 1190 with the goal of reconciling theology and Aristotelian philosophy.
In Maimonides’ case, I am referring to Jewish theology, not to Christianity. Maimonides employed the Aristotelian concept of the “prime mover” to demonstrate God’s existence. I find his arguments very similar to the ones put forward by Avicenna in Persia.
In contrast to Avicenna, Maimonides emphasized character, personality and ethical values as determinant of a man’s future. Just as Aristotle had done, Maimonides regarded virtues as the key factors in moral theory.
While Aristotle had rated virtues as advisable and desirable, Maimonides calls them mandatory and inescapable. If you aim at happiness in this life and rewards in the afterlife, you should practise virtue every day. If you fail to do so, you’ll suffer the consequences.
Averroes, Albertus Magnus, and Aristotle’s influence
I must also mention Averroes (1126-1198) as a great teacher of Aristotelian philosophy. He wrote commentaries on works by Aristotle and presented the key concepts in “Metaphysics,” the “Nicomachean Ethics” and “Politics.”
Which sources used Averroes for writing his commentaries? One can for instance point to Alexander of Aphrodisias, who is reputed to have possessed copies of all works by Aristotle. In the second century, he wrote a commentary on Aristotle’s ideas and earned the merit of being the first to do so.
Albertus Magnus (1200-1280) constitutes the last link in the chain that conveyed Aristotle’s philosophy from ancient Greece to the European Middle Ages.
Albertus was a Dominican monk and bishop, who devoted five decades to translating, commenting and teaching the ideas developed by Aristotle.
His “Commentary on Aristotelian Metaphysics” was widely used as university textbook for more than a century. It gives a great introduction to Aristotle’s ideas, but its scope is narrower than “Summa Theologiae” by Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274).
If you are interested in applying Aristotle’s ideas day by day in any circumstances, I recommend you my book “Rational living, rational working.”
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