Aristotle's Impact

Aristotle, student of Plato, had many different ideas and theories that continue to impact western education as we know it. The basis of education is to simply develop the mind; to acquire knowledge. Even though Aristotle studied under Plato, his ideas on philosophy was entirely obscured from that of Plato, which is why he wasn’t left to be the head of Plato’s school. Aristotle, on one point, taught that in order to have knowledge of a particular object, you must first have knowledge of the substance in the object. An example would be that of knowing what a chair looks like. In order to properly describe a chair and be able to tell someone who has never seen a chair before you must be able to tell them it has four legs; it has a back; it also has a seat for one to sit. If you were to describe a chair merely as a seat, one can bring a wooden stool to sit on, because it is a seat but not a chair. Furthermore, Aristotle’s causes have impacted our way of thinking and in modern western education because it lead us to what we call cause and effect, but a much simpler version of his causes. The four causes basically prove that there is more than one answer to any one question. With the four causes you can describe or talk about the same thing in four different ways. Another aspect where Aristotle leaves his mark is the way that he sees God. To Aristotle, God is the unmoved mover because He [God] is the first of all substances. According to Aristotle, God basically gives everything and everyone else the push to move, but He himself is not moved by anything. And with the idea of God being first, Aristotle also coined the idea of the Great Chain of Being where God is the first in the ladder and then it links everything in the universe. In modern society the idea that everything in the universe is related, is one that people do believe in. The chain basically arranges things form the least to the highest. This is similar to what we do like in what we call a food chain. You will see a leaf eaten by a worm which is eaten by a bird who then is eaten by a cat or snake, and so forth. So the impact of the great chain of being has lead us to the types of conclusions where everything and everyone is linked in one way or another and this can even be witnessed amongst social networks such as Facebook. You can have a mutual friend with someone that you don’t even know and the chain just goes on and on. Aristotle’s ideas have indeed greatly impacted our way of education, because what we learn and how we learn it, is then translated, or rather transferred to our children who continue our legacy.


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