comprises plants, and the other creatures. Finally, these “creatures” can also
be divided into two subcategories, namely animals and humans.
You have to admit that Aristotle’s categories are clear and simple. There
is a decisive difference between a living and a nonliving thing, for example a
rose and a stone, just as there is a decisive difference between a plant and an
animal, for example a rose and a horse. I would also claim that there definitely
is a difference between a horse and a man. But what exactly does this
difference consist of? Can you tell me that?
Unfortunately I do not have time to wait while you write the answer down
and put it in a pink envelope with a lump of sugar, so I’ll answer myself. When
Aristotle divides natural phenomena into various categories, his criterion is the
object’s characteristics, or more specifically what it can do or what it does.
All living things (plants, animals, humans) have the ability to absorb
nourishment, to grow, and to propagate. All “living creatures” (animals and
humans) have in addition the ability to perceive the world around them and to
move about. Moreover, all humans have the ability to think—or otherwise to
order their perceptions into various categories and classes.
So there are in reality no sharp boundaries in the natural world. We
observe a gradual transition from simple growths to more complicated plants,
from simple animals to more complicated animals. At the top of this “scale” is
man—who according to Aristotle lives the whole life of nature. Man grows and
absorbs nourishment like plants, he has feelings and the ability to move like
animals, but he also has a specific characteristic peculiar to humans, and that
is the ability to think rationally.
Therefore, man has a spark of divine reason, Sophie. Yes, I did say
divine. From time to time Aristotle reminds us that there must be a God who
started all movement in the natural world. Therefore God must be at the very
top of nature’s scale.
Aristotle imagined the movement of the stars and the planets guiding all
movement on Earth. But there had to e something causing the heavenly
bodies to move. Aristotle called this the “first mover,” or “God.” The “first
mover” is itself at rest, but it is the “formal cause” of the movement of the
heavenly bodies, and thus of all movement in nature.
Ethics
Let us go back to man, Sophie. According to Aristotle, man’s “form”
comprises a soul, which has a plant-like part, an animal part, and a rational
part. And now he asks: How should we live? What does it require to live a
good life? His answer: Man can only achieve happiness by using all his
abilities and capabilities.
Aristotle held that there are three forms of happiness. The first form of
happiness is a life of pleasure and enjoyment. The second form of happiness
is a life as a free and responsible citizen. The third form of happiness is a life
as thinker and philosopher.
Aristotle then emphasized that all three criteria must be present at the
same time for man to find happiness and fulfillment. He rejected all forms of
imbalance. Had he lived today he might have said that a person who only
develops his body lives a life that is just as unbalanced as someone who only
uses his head. Both extremes are an expression of a warped way of life.
The same applies in human relationships, where Aristotle advocated the