REACTION PAPER TO ARISTOTLE’S LIFE AND EDUCATION

Aristotle is a leading figure in ancient Greek, who made major contributions to

logic, criticism, rhetoric, physics, biology, psychology, mathematics, metaphysics,
ethics, and politics. For twenty years he has been a student of Plato but is renowned for
opposing Plato's theory of forms.

The concentration on sound reasoning serves as the backdrop to other

investigations of Aristotle. Aristotle blends reasoning with observation in its natural
philosophy to make common, causal statements. For example, in his biology, Aristotle
uses the concept of species to make empirical claims about the functions and behaviour
of individual animals. However, as revealed in his psychological works, Aristotle is no
reductive materialist. Instead, he thinks of the body as the matter, and the psyche as
the form of each living animal.

Though his natural scientific work is firmly based on observation, Aristotle also
recognizes the possibility of knowledge that is not empirical. In his metaphysics, he
claims that there must be a separate and unchanging being that is the source of all
other beings. In his ethics, he holds that it is only by becoming excellent that one could
achieve eudemonia, a sort of happiness or blessedness that constitutes the best kind of
human life. Aristotle's ethics are based on such concepts as happiness, the
mean, leisure and wisdom, which we also encounter in his theory of education.

For Aristotle the educational goal is similar to man's goal. Evidently all types of
education are geared directly or implicitly to a human ideal. But Aristotle takes the view
that education is necessary to man's full self-realization. The highest good everyone
aspires to is happiness. To Aristotle the happy man is not in his natural state a noble
brute, nor a man, but the learned one. The happy man, the good man, is a decent man
because it is through knowledge that virtue is gained. Ethics and schooling blend in with
each other. The philosophical works of Aristotle teach manuals about the art of living.

Education by habit is related to three notions that should be mentioned: imitation,

memory and experience. Man likes to imitate; all of the arts are based on a natural
imitation. Yet imitation is also an important source of teaching and learning. Teachers are
an essential part of any education system but one about which the Aristotelian texts
have nothing to say. It is particularly curious that when Aristotle lists the various public
functions of the ideal state he makes no reference to the teacher. Likewise, when
describing the general plan of the city, he has nothing to say about the location of the
school. Thus, to a great extent, education through reason coincides with the scientific
approach or theoretical philosophy just as education through habit coincides with
ethical action or practical philosophy. But the goal remains the same: happiness, the
convergence of virtue and wisdom, the contemplative life of the philosopher or sage.
 Therefore, for Aristotle, education isn't something the student will willingly agree
to. It's an action on the contrary that counts. The theory of education here too faithfully
represents the principal lines of Aristotelian thought as a whole. And that action is a
source of pupil pleasure. While Aristotle's work has reached us in an incomplete form
and many important texts are missing, his educational theory can be seen as occupying
a significant position in his entire philosophical thought. If man's objective is one of his
critical concerns, it is only through education that man fully fulfils himself.

Human beings possess unique innate aptitudes but it is only by education that
they know the business of becoming human and become fully human: 'Art and
education try to make good specifically nature's shortcomings. Culture is created
through education. Aristotle's theory of education has lost none of its relevance. His
observations on educational policy and its role in society, his concept of a system of
continuing education and education for peace and leisure, and his educational ideas
have much in common with the concerns of those responsible for education today.

Submitted by:

ALJUN A. DESOYO

Ph. D. - EPM

Contact No.: 0966-4874-114

E-mail: aljundesoyo1992@gmail.com