ARISTOTLE AND THE EARLIER PERIPATETICS vol.I by Eduard Zeller, B.F.C.Costelloe 1897

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THE PHILOSOPHY QF ARISTOTLE 165
Finally, Aristotle is at one with Plato also in this, that
both of them proclaim Philosophy to be the mistress of
all other sciences, and Science in general to be the
highest and best that man can reach, and the most
essential element of his happiness. 1
Nevertheless, it is also true that the Aristotelian
notion of Philosophy does not completely coincide with
the Platonic. To Plato, Philosophy, regarded as to its
content, is a term which includes all spiritual and
moral perfection, and it comprehends therefore the
practical as well as the theoretic side ; and yet, when
regarded as to its essence, he distinguishes it very
sharply from every other form of human activity.
Aristotle, on the contrary, marks it off more strictly
from the practical side of life ; while, on the other
__ h. i. 2, 982, b, 4 afiilviav 5' ovS^'ia ; xii. 7, 1072,
apxiKwraTTi Se rwv hrio'TrifjLuv, Kal b, 24 : 7) Qewpia to t)Sigtov Kal
faaXKov apxucij Trjs irnipeToiaiis, f) &piaTov. In Eth. JV.x.7:' theoria
yvwptfavaa vivos eveKev eori irpa- is the most essential ingredient
kt4ov ettaarov touto • 5' iffrl T&r/a- of perfect happiness ; cf. e.g.
Bbv iv kxiaTois. But that science 1117, b, 30 : ei Si) Btiov 6 vovs
is one which investigates the irpbs rbv &v6panrov, Kal 6 Kara
highest reasons and causes, since tovtov liilos detos irpbs rbv avftpdnrivov
'the good' and 'tie highest $iov oi xph *e Kara tous irapatend
' are included among these, vovvras avBp&inva (ppoveiv HvBpamov
Hid. 1. 24 : SrjAov oiv, us Si' fivra oiiSe BvTjra rbv dyryrbv, aAV
ovSefiiav ' aiirrtv ^ryrovuev xp €iap *' Scrov Si) Siaelvai,
. . . oiire rrjs TOia{nt]s &AAr)v relvei r) deovpla, Kal r) evSaiuovla.
Xph vopifav TtuuTtpav r) yap Cf. c. 9, 1179, a, 22, Eth. End.
Beiordrr) Kal tijuiojtotij . . . avay- vii. 15 fin. See further in chapter
Kaidrepai ftev olv naaai rairns, xii., infra,
166 ARISTOTLE
hand, he brings it into a closer relation with the
experimental sciences. His view is that Philosophy is
exclusively an*affair of the theoretic faculty. He distinguishes
from it very sharply the practical
activities
(n-pagisr), which hav.e their end in that which they produce
(not, like Philosophy, in the activity itself), and which
belong not purely to thought but also to opinion and
the ' unreasoning part of the soul.' He distinguishes
also the artistic creative effort Qiroin^a-is) which is
likewise directed to something outside itself. 1 With
Experience, on the
other hand, he connects Philosophy
more closely. Plato had banished all dealings with
the sphere of change and becoming out of the realm
of ' Knowledge ' into that of ' Opinion.' Even as to
the -passage from the former to
the latter, he had only
the negative doctrine that the contradictions of opinion
and 'fancy ought to lead us to go further and to pass
to the pure treatment of Ideas. Aristotle, as we shall
presently see, allows to Experience a more positive
relation to Thought. The latter, with him, proceeds
out of the former by an affirmative movement— that,
namely, in which the data given in Experience are
brought together into a unity.
Furthermore, we find that Plato was but little
interested in the descent from the treatment of the Idea
to the individual things of the world of appearance
the phenomena. To him, the pure Ideas are the one
1
Besides the passage just Be Ccelo, iii. 7, 306, a, 16. The
given, see Eth. N. vi. 2, o. 5, same is repeated by Eudemus
1140, a, 28, b, 25; x. 8, 1178, b, Eth. i 5 fin., and by the author
20 ; vi. 1, 1025, b, 18 sqq. ; xi. 7 of Metaph. ii. 1, 993, b, 20.
De An. iii. 10, 433, a, 14 ; and