Bøger af Aristotle

It seems clear that happiness is the ultimate goal to which human life aspires. But what is the true essence of happiness? This thorny question is faced by Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) in the Nicomachean Ethics. Among the many values that can be attributed to the philosopher of Stagira (Macedonia) is this text belonging to the last period of his production and undoubtedly the most influential and elaborate of his writings on Ethics. The result of the selection made by his son Nicomachus, hence the title with the notes that the author himself used for his lessons at the Lyceum, the work summarizes with total clarity the keys to the moral reflection of its author. But even more meritorious is the fact of having been the one who for the first time in universal literature deals with the discipline as an independent philosophical branch. For Aristotle, as Teresa Martinez Manzano points out in her introduction, Ethics, the science of habits and character, is not merely a theoretical knowledge, but also displays a practical dimension in the search for virtue, the most precious good as the patrimony of the soul.

Plato, Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, and Cicero are some of the famous names whose wit and wisdom are included in this audiobook, ‘700 Quotations from Ancient Philosophy’.This group of Greek philosophers, Roman Statesmen and Emperors is responsible for some of the world's best-known quotes, including "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." and "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle." Their wit and wisdom continue to inspire, educate, and entertain to this day thus making this collection ideal for those needing some philosophical guidance. Plato, Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Cicero, Seneca the Younger, and Heraclitus are among histories most famous soldiers, politicians, poets, writers and philosophers. The Ancient Greek philosopher, Plato (c.428-347 B.C.) is one of the most influential figures in the entire history of Western thought.Aristotle (384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher whose works shaped centuries of philosophy. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of all time.Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC – 65 AD), usually known as Seneca, was a philosopher, statesman, and dramatist from Ancient Rome.Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 – 180) was a philosopher and Emperor of the Roman empire.

Baruch Spinoza composed a philosophical work titled The Ethics in Latin. The book is a comprehensive attempt to use Euclid's technique in philosophy. The link between God and the cosmos is discussed in the first section of the book. Additionally, he contends that the cosmos is what it is due to necessity rather than divine will or a religious explanation. According to this perspective, rather than being God's creation, the cosmos is made of God. The human mind and how we come to understand our ideas, as well as those of other bodies, are the main topics of the second section. According to Spinoza, we cannot know our minds any more intimately than we know our bodies. Spinoza contends that all things, including people, try to maintain their perfection of power in being unaffected in the third section of his Ethics. According to Spinoza, power and virtue are equivalent. The fourth section examines human emotions, which, according to Spinoza, are mental faculties that lead us to seek out and avoid pleasure and misery. The fifth section makes the case that reason can control the effects of the pursuit of virtue, which for Spinoza is self-preservation. Only with reason's help can people tell which passions are beneficial to virtue from those that are ultimately destructive.

The first known work of Greek theatrical philosophy is Aristotle's Poetics. The concentration on literary theory makes it the first existing philosophical book to do so. Aristotle categorizes poetry into three categories: lyric poetry, epic poetry, and verses theatre. Although the text is widely accepted in the Western critical tradition, there has been a lot of scholarly discussion over it.According to Aristotle, poetry must have five essential elements in order to be considered well-written. Tragic poetry is seen as being superior than epic poetry since it has all of the elements of the epic, including the usage of the epic meter. Good, relevant, realistic, and consistent characters are a necessary; discovery must take place inside the storyline. The tragic style of poetry is more enjoyable and has a more concentrated impact than one that uses a lot of time to dilute it. A single epic poem can serve as the basis for several tragedies, although imitations of epic poets tend to lack cohesion. Such poetry approximates a knowledge of universals, making it more philosophical than historical.

On the art of Poetry is the collection of the author's various poems. Aristotle divides the art of poetry into poetry drama, including comedy, tragedy, satyr play, and epic. The genres all offer the functions of mimesis, or imitation of life. They are, however, different in three ways that Aristotle describes: beat, agreement, meter, and melody. As per Aristotle, tragedy comes from the attempts of artists to introduce men as' nobler 'or' better 'than they are, in reality. Aristotle outlined six elements of tragedy: plot, character, phrasing, thought, exhibition, and song.

The Nicomachean Ethics is Aristotle's best-known work on ethics, the science of the good for human life, which is the goal or end at which all our actions aim. The aim of the inquiry is political science and the master art of politics. It consists of ten books or scrolls, understood to be based on notes from his lectures at the Lyceum. The title is often assumed to refer to his son Nicomachus, to whom the work was dedicated or who may have edited it (although his young age makes this less likely). Alternatively, the work may have been dedicated to his father, who was also called Nicomachus. The work plays a pre-eminent role in explaining Aristotelian ethics.The theme of the work is a Socratic question previously explored in the works of Plato, Aristotle's friend and teacher, about how men should best live. In his Metaphysics, Aristotle describes how Socrates, the friend and teacher of Plato, had turned philosophy to human questions, whereas pre-Socratic philosophy had only been theoretical. Ethics, as now separated out for discussion by Aristotle, is practical rather than theoretical, in the original Aristotelian senses of these terms. In other words, it is not only a contemplation about good living, because it also aims to create good living. It is therefore connected to Aristotle's other practical work, Politics, which similarly aims at people becoming good. Ethics is about how individuals should best live, while the study of politics is from the perspective of a law-giver, looking at the good of a whole community.The Nicomachean Ethics is widely considered one of the most historically important philosophical works and had an important influence on the European Middle Ages, becoming one of the core works of medieval philosophy. Therefore, it indirectly became of great significance in the development of all modern philosophy as well as European law and theology. Many parts of the Nicomachean Ethics are well known in their own right, within different fields. While various philosophers influenced Christendom since its earliest times, in Western Europe, Aristotle became "the Philosopher". In the Middle Ages, a synthesis between Aristotelian ethics and Christian theology became widespread in Europe, as introduced by Albertus Magnus. The most important version of this synthesis was that of Thomas Aquinas. Other more "Averroist" Aristotelians such as Marsilius of Padua were controversial but also influential. (Marsilius is for example sometimes said to have influenced the controversial English political reformer Thomas Cromwell.)Until well into the seventeenth century, the Nicomachean Ethics was still widely regarded as the main authority for the discipline of ethics at Protestant universities, with over fifty Protestant commentaries published on the Nicomachean Ethics before 1682. During the seventeenth century, however, several authors such as Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes argued forcefully and largely successfully that the medieval and Renaissance Aristotelian tradition in practical thinking had become a great impediment to philosophy in their time. In more recent generations, however, Aristotle's original works (if not those of his medieval followers) have once again become an important source. More recent philosophers influenced by this work include Alasdair MacIntyre, G. E. M. Anscombe, Mortimer Adler, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Martha Nussbaum. (wikipedia.org)