Aristotle Thread

[Anonymous No.4619421]

Disclaimer: below may seem /blog/-esque. Feel free to disregard everything I say and just use this as a general Aristotle thread.


I'm in my final year of University and am aiming for a first. To do so I need to get a first in all four of my exams in the summer (not sure how this translates to USA quals). I feel confident in doing so, except for my exam on Aristotle. I elected to do the unit thinking it would be slightly different, however it is in fact solely on Aristotle and I'm struggling.

I'm just looking for some guidance on which of the topics are the 'easiest' out of the list below. Ive pretty much specialised in political philosophy so far, and am having trouble with Aristotle wrt different translations and interpretations of his work (I personally find this mind numbing - I prefer to have clear concepts to challenge rather than going around in circles on whether the Greek has been translated right). With that in mind, along with the 'easiness', and the amount of resources available, what do you think are the easiest of the below topics that I am covering.

I know that this is probably frowned on, but they are as follows:

4 types of cause
Nature and the nature of a natural this g
What the soul is
Fatalism
Animals
Perception
Phantasia (imagination, appearance)
Memory and the role of phantasia in thought
Aristotle and functionalise in the philosophy of mind

X

[Anonymous No.4619439]

>>4619421
Why would I read Aristotle and not just finish with Platon and go on about it to newer ones.

[Anonymous No.4619448]

His Metaphysics is by far the most cryptic. A real mess.

[Anonymous No.4619459]

Go for the most interesting subjects.

I'd go for causes and the soul.

Keep in mind that one absolutely must pay attention to the Greek when studying Aristotle, because translations of his work bring historical concepts into the work which do not belong to Aristotle.

[Anonymous No.4619485]

>>4619459
Keep in mind that one absolutely must pay attention to the Hebrew when studying the Bible, because its translations bring historical concepts into the work which do not belong to the Bible.

[Anonymous No.4619492]

>>4619459
I'm quite certain that I will do causes, the soul and animals. They seem relatively ok. We have just covered fatalism and attempting to read secondary literature on that was nearly impossible.

we have 3 questions in the exam, 8 topics come up, so learning 5 is the most efficient way.

[Anonymous No.4619494]

Do universities actually ever quiz people on good philosophy like moral nihilism or is it always greek shit?

[Anonymous No.4619506]

>>4619494
>moral nihilism
>good philosophy

[Anonymous No.4619528]

I'm taking classes on Aristotle, mostly related to philosophy of mind and his De Anima.
You should have a basic understanding of his metaphysics for almost all of these topics and be familiar with his vocabulary (eidos, morphe, entelekia...), but there are some that are definetly harder (imo at least)
Perception, phantasia and memory are probably the hardest. The easiest would be animals, causes and the nature of the soul. The relation between aristotelism and philosophy of mind is a more open and interesting one, and the rest I don't understand

[Anonymous No.4619535]

>>4619528
Thanks, any particular resources you have found useful for studying Aristotle.

[Anonymous No.4619555]

>>4619535
Yes but unless you can read catalan thry won't help you a lot. De Anima is not a very hard read as far as ancient philosophy goes though and it covers all of your topics so it might be worth giving it a shot. The first chapters are basically incomprehensible because he is tackling down on endoxa but the easiness really picks up

[Anonymous No.4619561]

>>4619555
Oh cool, I have a few friends who studied in Barcelona last year, they really enjoyed it. (apart from the pickpockets)

[Anonymous No.4619601]

>>4619485

It's true if you study the bible seriously, but it's even more important when studying a philosopher with an expansive technical vocabulary that has been misappropriated and then taken to be the foundation for western thinking.

[Anonymous No.4621534]

bump because I like aristotle

[Anonymous No.4621547]

>>4619506
B-but nothing else seems rational

[Anonymous No.4621900]

Aristotle is a spook in guise of a philosopher.

[Anonymous No.4621984]

>>4619494
I'm in my final year now, as a dual major I have studied:

Hume
Descartes
Hobbes
Locke
Rawls
Hegel
Taylor

And quite a bit more that I don't remember because I'm a bad student.

Also we only look at very specific parts of philosophers rather than them as a whole

[Anonymous No.4622003]

>>4621984
>>Hegel
lol

[Anonymous No.4622013]

>>4622003
Why do you laugh? :3

[Anonymous No.4623931]

>>4622013
Probably because Marx misappropriated Hegel like a motherfucker so now almost everyone who thinks Marx is shit also thinks the same of Hegel because they're too lazy to do their research.

[Anonymous No.4623945]

Sorry to be so crude, but as a US student I have no idea what the hell a first is. Mind givin me an idea?

[Anonymous No.4624311]

>>4623945
British university system.

First Honours
2:1
2:2
3

[Anonymous No.4624571]

>>4623945
From what I've read:

"First Class Honours (1st): Summa Cum Laude (GPA = 3.7 - 4.0) "

With a first being 70 out of 100, 2:1 being 60 etc.

Although how we do it is retarded, in that first year counts for nothing, second year for 40% and third year for 60%. Additionally you don't actually need to average 70% to get a first, you can average 67.5 and get it as long as you have enough individual units as firsts. This is good for slackers like me, I averaged 62 in second year, but so far in final year have averaged 72.5. This leaves me with a shot of getting a first when I really shouldn't have one.

[Anonymous No.4624580]

>>4623931
Oh well, we only did a very tiny bit of Hegel anyway (Master-Slave dialectic etc.). Has anyone here read the PoS? I did find it entertaining when nearly every secondary source refereed to it as "one of the hardest books ever to interpret".

[Anonymous No.4625257]

>>4624571
why do murricans use all these latin names in their degrees? Does it make them think their institutions are of value?

[Anonymous No.4625285]

>>4619448
>mfw i thought it was a good idea to pick metaphysics as a start into classical philosophical literature

[Anonymous No.4625300]

>>4625257
Uh, no. It's because we're actually cultured and educated and know Latin.