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Abraham Lincoln | Native Americans | Native Americans
The Lincoln administration faced difficulties guarding Western settlers, railroads, and telegraph from Native American attacks. On August 17, 1862, the Dakota War broke out in Minnesota. Hundreds of settlers were killed and 30,000 were displaced from their homes. Some feared incorrectly that it might represent a Confederate conspiracy to start a war on the Northwestern frontier. Lincoln ordered thousands of Confederate prisoners of war be sent to put down the uprising. When the Confederacy protested, Lincoln revoked the policy and none arrived in Minnesota. Lincoln sent General John Pope as commander of the new Department of the Northwest. Serving under Pope was Minnesota Congressman Henry Hastings Sibley. Minnesota's governor had made Sibley a Colonel United States Volunteers to command the U.S. force tasked with fighting the war and that eventually defeated Little Crow's forces at the Battle of Wood Lake.
A war crimes trial led by Sibley sentenced 303 Dakota warriors to death. Lincoln pardoned all but 39, and, with one getting a reprieve, the remaining 38 were executed in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Less than four months later, Lincoln issued the Lieber Code, which governed wartime conduct of the Union Army, by defining command responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Congressman Alexander Ramsey told Lincoln in 1864 that he would have gotten more re-election support in Minnesota had he executed all 303. Lincoln responded, "I could not afford to hang men for votes." |
Abraham Lincoln | Second term | Second term
thumb|alt=A large crowd in front of a large building with many pillars|Lincoln's second inaugural address at the nearly completed U.S. Capitol on March 4, 1865 |
Abraham Lincoln | Reelection | Reelection
Lincoln ran for reelection in 1864, while uniting the main Republican factions along with War Democrats Edwin M. Stanton and Andrew Johnson. Lincoln used conversation and his patronage powers—greatly expanded from peacetime—to build support and fend off the Radicals' efforts to replace him. At its convention, the Republican Party selected Johnson as his running mate. To broaden his coalition to include War Democrats as well as Republicans, Lincoln ran under the label of the new National Union Party. Grant's bloody stalemates damaged Lincoln's re-election prospects, and many Republicans feared defeat; Lincoln rejected pressure for a peace settlement. Lincoln prepared a confidential memorandum pledging that, if he should lose the election, he would "co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterward". At the next cabinet meeting, Lincoln "asked each member to sign his name on the back of the document", but he did not allow them to read it.
Victories at Atlanta and in the Shenandoah Valley turned public opinion, and Lincoln was re-elected. On March 4, 1865, Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address. Historian Mark Noll places the speech "among the small handful of semi-sacred texts by which Americans conceive their place in the world;" it is inscribed in the Lincoln Memorial. Lincoln closed his speech with these words: |
Abraham Lincoln | Reconstruction | Reconstruction
Reconstruction preceded the war's end, as Lincoln and his associates considered the reintegration of the nation, and the fates of Confederate leaders and freed slaves. When a general asked Lincoln how the defeated Confederates were to be treated, Lincoln replied, "Let 'em up easy." Lincoln's main goal was to keep the union together, so he proceeded by focusing not on whom to blame, but on how to rebuild the nation. Lincoln led the moderates in Reconstruction policy and was opposed by the Radicals, under Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner and Benjamin Wade, who otherwise remained Lincoln's allies. Determined to reunite the nation and not alienate the South, Lincoln urged that speedy elections under generous terms be held. His Amnesty Proclamation of December 8, 1863, offered pardons to those who had not held a Confederate civil office and had not mistreated Union prisoners, if they signed an oath of allegiance.
As Southern states fell, they needed leaders while their administrations were restored. In Tennessee and Arkansas, Lincoln respectively appointed Johnson and Frederick Steele as military governors. In Louisiana, Lincoln ordered General Nathaniel P. Banks to promote a plan that would reestablish statehood when 10 percent of the voters agreed, and only if the reconstructed states abolished slavery. Democratic opponents accused Lincoln of using the military to ensure his and the Republicans' political aspirations. The Radicals denounced his policy as too lenient, and passed their own plan, the 1864 Wade–Davis Bill, which Lincoln vetoed. The Radicals retaliated by refusing to seat elected representatives from Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee.
After implementing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln increased pressure on Congress to outlaw slavery nationwide with a constitutional amendment. By December 1863 an amendment was brought to Congress. The Senate passed it on April 8, 1864, but the first vote in the House of Representatives fell short of the required two-thirds majority. Passage became part of Lincoln's reelection platform, and after his reelection, the second attempt in the House passed on January 31, 1865. After ratification by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states, it became the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on December 6, 1865.
left|alt=Cartoon of Lincoln and Johnson attempting to stitch up the broken Union|thumb|An 1865 political cartoon, The 'Rail Splitter' At Work Repairing the Union, depicting Vice President Andrew Johnson, a former tailor, and Lincoln, with Johnson saying, "Take it quietly Uncle Abe and I will draw it closer than ever", and Lincoln responding, "A few more stitches Andy and the good old Union will be mended."
Lincoln believed the federal government had limited responsibility to the millions of freedmen. He signed Senator Charles Sumner's Freedmen's Bureau bill that set up a temporary federal agency designed to meet the immediate needs of former slaves. The law opened land for a lease of three years with the ability to purchase title for the freedmen. Lincoln announced a Reconstruction plan that involved short-term military control, pending readmission under the control of southern Unionists. Eric Foner argues:
Lincoln vetoed only four bills during his presidency, including the Wade-Davis Bill with its harsh Reconstruction program. The 1862 Homestead Act made millions of acres of Western government-held land available for purchase at low cost. The 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act provided government grants for agricultural colleges in each state. The Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864 granted federal support for the construction of the United States' first transcontinental railroad, which was completed in 1869. The passage of the Homestead Act and the Pacific Railway Acts was enabled by the absence of Southern congressmen and senators who had opposed the measures in the 1850s. |
Abraham Lincoln | Assassination | Assassination
thumb|right|alt=Painting of Lincoln being shot by Booth while sitting in a theater booth.|An illustration of Lincoln's assassination on April 14, 1865, in the presidential booth at Ford's Theatre, featuring (left to right): assassin John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, Clara Harris, and Henry Rathbone
John Wilkes Booth was a well-known actor and a Confederate spy from Maryland; though he never joined the Confederate army, he had contacts with the Confederate secret service. After attending Lincoln's last public address, on April 11, 1865, in which Lincoln stated his preference that the franchise be conferred on some Black men, specifically "on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers", Booth plotted to assassinate the President. When Booth learned of the Lincolns' intent to attend a play with General Grant, he planned to assassinate Lincoln and Grant at Ford's Theatre. Lincoln and his wife attended the play Our American Cousin on the evening of April 14. At the last minute, Grant decided to go to New Jersey to visit his children instead of attending.
At 10:15 pm, Booth entered the back of Lincoln's theater box, crept up from behind, and fired at the back of Lincoln's head, mortally wounding him. Lincoln's guest, Major Henry Rathbone, momentarily grappled with Booth, but Booth stabbed him and escaped. After being attended by Doctor Charles Leale and two other doctors, Lincoln was taken across the street to Petersen House. After remaining in a coma for nine hours, Lincoln died at 7:22 am on April 15. Stanton said, "Now he belongs to the ages." Lincoln's body was placed in a flag-wrapped coffin, which was loaded into a hearse and escorted to the White House by Union soldiers. President Johnson was sworn in later that same day. Two weeks later, Booth was located, shot and killed at a farm in Virginia by Sergeant Boston Corbett. Secretary of War Stanton had issued orders that Booth be taken alive, so Corbett was initially arrested to be court martialed. Stanton declared him a patriot and dismissed the charge. |
Abraham Lincoln | Funeral and burial | Funeral and burial
From April 19 to 21, Lincoln lay in state, first in the White House and then in the Capitol rotunda. The caskets containing Lincoln's body and the body of his third son Willie then traveled for three weeks on a funeral train following a circuitous route from Washington D.C. to Springfield, Illinois, stopping at many cities for memorials attended by hundreds of thousands. Many others gathered along the tracks as the train passed with bands, bonfires, and hymn singing or in silent grief. Historians emphasized the widespread shock and sorrow, but noted that some Lincoln haters celebrated his death. Poet Walt Whitman composed "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" to eulogize Lincoln. Lincoln's body was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield and now lies within the Lincoln Tomb. |
Abraham Lincoln | Philosophy and religious views | Philosophy and religious views |
Abraham Lincoln | Philosophy of republicanism | Philosophy of republicanism
Lincoln redefined the political philosophy of republicanism in the United States. Lincoln called the Declaration of Independence, which found "self-evident" that all men are created equal and have an "unalienable" right to liberty, the "sheet anchor" of republicanism, at a time when the Constitution, which "tolerated slavery", was the focus of most political discourse. John Patrick Diggins notes, "Lincoln presented Americans a theory of history that offers a profound contribution to the theory and destiny of republicanism itself" in the 1860 Cooper Union speech.
Lincoln expressed his position on the unconstitutionality of secession in his first inaugural address:
As a Whig activist Lincoln was a spokesman for business interests, favoring high tariffs, banks, infrastructure improvements, and railroads, in opposition to Jacksonian democrats. Lincoln shared the sympathies that the Jacksonians professed for the common man, but he disagreed with the Jacksonian view that the government should be divorced from economic enterprise. Nevertheless, Lincoln admired Andrew Jackson's steeliness and patriotism. According to historian Sean Wilentz, "just as the Republican Party of the 1850s absorbed certain elements of Jacksonianism, so Lincoln, whose Whiggery had always been more egalitarian than that of other Whigs, found himself absorbing some of them as well."
William C. Harris found that Lincoln's "reverence for the Founding Fathers, the Constitution, the laws under it, and the preservation of the Republic and its institutions strengthened his conservatism." James G. Randall emphasizes his tolerance and moderation "in his preference for orderly progress, his distrust of dangerous agitation, and his reluctance toward ill digested schemes of reform." Randall concludes that "he was conservative in his complete avoidance of that type of so-called 'radicalism' which involved abuse of the South, hatred for the slaveholder, thirst for vengeance, partisan plotting, and ungenerous demands that Southern institutions be transformed overnight by outsiders." |
Abraham Lincoln | Political philosophy of reunification | Political philosophy of reunification
thumb|upright|alt=Lincoln sitting with his hand on his chin and his elbow on his leg.|Abraham Lincoln
In an 1858 speech, Lincoln alluded to a form of American civic nationalism as closely related to his view of the nature of democracy and originating from the tenets of the Declaration of Independence as a force for national unity. Lincoln stated that it was a method for uniting diverse peoples of different ethnic ancestries into a common nationality:
In Lincoln's first inaugural address, he denounced secession as anarchy and explained that majority rule had to be balanced by constitutional restraints. He said, "A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks, and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people."Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 4 |
Abraham Lincoln | Religious skepticism and providence | Religious skepticism and providence
As a young man Lincoln was a religious skeptic. He was deeply familiar with the Bible, quoting and praising it. He was private about his position on organized religion and respected the beliefs of others. He never made a clear profession of Christian beliefs. Throughout his public career, Lincoln often quoted Scripture. His three most famous speeches—the House Divided Speech, the Gettysburg Address, and his second inaugural—all contain such quotes. In the 1840s Lincoln subscribed to the Doctrine of Necessity, a belief that the human mind was controlled by a higher power. After the death of his son Edward in 1850 he more frequently expressed a dependence on God. He never joined a church, although he frequently attended First Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Illinois, with his wife beginning in 1852. While president, Lincoln often attended services at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.Abraham Lincoln Online
In the 1850s Lincoln rarely used the language or imagery of the evangelicals; instead, he regarded the republicanism of the Founding Fathers with an almost religious reverence. The death of his son Willie in February 1862 may have caused him to look toward religion for solace. After Willie's death, he questioned the divine necessity of the war's severity. He wrote at this time that God "could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest."
Lincoln believed in an all-powerful God who shaped events and by 1865 was expressing that belief in major speeches. By the end of the war, he increasingly appealed to the Almighty for solace and to explain events, writing on April 4, 1864, to a newspaper editor in Kentucky: This spirituality can best be seen in his second inaugural address, in which Lincoln explains that the cause, purpose, and result of the war was God's will. Lincoln's frequent use of religious imagery and language toward the end of his life may have reflected his own personal beliefs or might have been a device to reach his audiences, who were mostly evangelical Protestants. |
Abraham Lincoln | Health and appearance | Health and appearance
Lincoln was described as "ungainly" and "gawky" as a youth. Tall for his age, Lincoln was strong and athletic as a teenager. He was a good wrestler, participated in jumping, throwing, and footraces, and "was almost always victorious." His stepmother remarked that he cared little about clothing. Lincoln dressed as a typical boy from a poor, backwoods family, with a gap between his shoes, socks, and pants that often exposed six or more inches of his shin. His lack of interest in his attire continued as an adult.
Lincoln generally continued to enjoy good health throughout his life. In 1831, Lincoln was described as six feet three or four inches tall, weighing 210 pounds, and having a ruddy complexion. Later descriptions mentioned Lincoln's dark hair and dark complexion, which were also evident in photographs taken during his tenure as president. William H. Herndon described Lincoln as having "very dark skin"; his cheeks as "leathery and saffron-colored"; and "his hair was dark, almost black". Lincoln described himself as "black" and as having "a dark complexion". Lincoln's detractors also remarked on his appearance. For example, during the Civil War, the Charleston Mercury described him as having "the dirtiest complexion" and asked "Faugh! After him what white man would be President?"
Among the illnesses that Lincoln is either documented or speculated to have suffered from are depression, smallpox, and malaria.Sotos, "Sourcebook", paragraphs 2001-2007. He took blue mass pills, which contained mercury, to treat constipation. It is unknown to what extent this may have resulted in mercury poisoning. Several claims have been made that Lincoln's health was declining before the assassination, as photographs of Lincoln appear to show weight loss and muscle wasting. It has also been proposed that he could have had a rare genetic disorder such as Marfan syndrome or multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2B. |
Abraham Lincoln | Legacy | Legacy |
Abraham Lincoln | Historical reputation | Historical reputation
In surveys of U.S. scholars ranking presidents since 1948, the top three presidents are generally Lincoln, George Washington, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, although the order varies. Between 1999 and 2011, Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan were the top-ranked presidents in eight public opinion surveys, according to Gallup. A 2004 study found that scholars in history and politics ranked Lincoln number one, while legal scholars placed him second after Washington.
Lincoln's assassination made him a national martyr. He was viewed by abolitionists as a champion of human liberty. Many, though not all, in the South considered Lincoln as a man of outstanding ability. Historians have said he was "a classical liberal" in the 19th-century sense.Guelzo, Allen C. "A. Lincoln, Philosopher: Lincoln's Place in Nineteenth-Century Intellectual History", in In the New Deal era, liberals honored Lincoln as an advocate of the common man who they claimed would have supported the welfare state, and Lincoln became a favorite of liberal intellectuals across the world. Sociologist Barry Schwartz argues that in the 1930s and 1940s Lincoln provided the nation with "a moral symbol inspiring and guiding American life." Schwartz argues that Lincoln's American reputation grew slowly from the late 19th century until the Progressive Era (1900–1920s), when he emerged as one of America's most venerated heroes, even among white Southerners. The high point came in 1922 with the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. However, Schwartz also finds that since World War II Lincoln's symbolic power has lost relevance, and this "fading hero is symptomatic of fading confidence in national greatness." He suggested that postmodernism and multiculturalism have diluted greatness as a concept.
By the 1970s Lincoln had become a hero to political conservatives—apart from neo-Confederates such as Mel Bradford, who denounced his treatment of the white South—for his intense nationalism, his support for business, his insistence on stopping the spread of slavery, his acting on Lockean and Burkean principles on behalf of both liberty and tradition, and his devotion to the principles of the Founding Fathers. Republicans linked Lincoln's name to their party.
Frederick Douglass stated that in "his company, I was never reminded of my humble origin, or of my unpopular color", and Lincoln has long been known as the Great Emancipator.The origin of the nickname is unknown. "A Civil War Mystery: Who Named Lincoln the 'Great Emancipator'?" Wheeler, Linda, The Washington Post, May 17, 2001. By the late 1960s, however, some Black intellectuals denied that Lincoln deserved that title. Lerone Bennett Jr. won wide attention when he called Lincoln a white supremacist in 1968. He noted that Lincoln used ethnic slurs and argued that Lincoln opposed social equality and proposed that freed slaves voluntarily move to another country. Defenders of Lincoln retorted that he was a "moral visionary" who deftly advanced the abolitionist cause, as fast as politically possible.
David Herbert Donald opined in his 1996 biography that Lincoln was distinctly endowed with the personality trait of negative capability, defined by the poet John Keats and attributed to extraordinary leaders who were "capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason". Lincoln has often been portrayed by Hollywood, almost always in a flattering light. Lincoln has also been admired by political figures outside the U.S., including German political theorist Karl Marx, Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, leader of the Italian Risorgimento, Giuseppe Garibaldi,On August 6, 1863, after Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Garibaldi wrote to Lincoln, "Posterity will call you the great emancipator, a more enviable title than any crown could be, and greater than any merely mundane treasure". Ron Field, Garibaldi: Leadership, Strategy, Conflict, Osprey Publishing, 2011, p. 51. and Libyan revolutionary Muammar Gaddafi. |
Abraham Lincoln | Memorials and commemorations | Memorials and commemorations
Lincoln's portrait appears on two denominations of United States currency, the penny and the $5 bill. He appears on postage stamps across the world. While he is usually portrayed bearded, he did not grow a beard until 1860 at the suggestion of 11-year-old Grace Bedell. He was the first of five presidents to do so. He has been memorialized in many town, city, and county names, including the capital of Nebraska. The United States Navy is named after Lincoln, the second Navy ship to bear his name. The Lincoln Memorial is one of the most visited monuments in the nation's capital and is one of the most visited National Park Service sites in the country. Ford's Theatre, among the most visited sites in Washington, D.C., is across the street from Petersen House, where Lincoln died. Memorials in Springfield, Illinois, include the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Lincoln's home, and his tomb. A portrait carving of Lincoln appears with those of three other presidents on Mount Rushmore, which receives about 3 million visitors a year.
A statue of Lincoln completed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens that influenced later sculptorsChicago Landmarks stands in Lincoln Park, Chicago, with recastings given as diplomatic gifts standing in Parliament Square, London, and Parque Lincoln, Mexico City. Lincoln Portrait is a 1942 classical orchestral work written by the American composer Aaron Copland to commemorate five speeches and writings of Lincoln. In 2019, Congress officially dedicated a room in the United States Capitol to Abraham Lincoln. The room is located off National Statuary Hall and served as the post office of the House while then-Representative Abraham Lincoln served in Congress from 1847 to 1849. Several states commemorate "President's Day" as "Washington–Lincoln Day". |
Abraham Lincoln | See also | See also
Bibliography of Abraham Lincoln
Outline of Abraham Lincoln
Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln family |
Abraham Lincoln | Notes | Notes |
Abraham Lincoln | References | References |
Abraham Lincoln | Sources | Sources
. Second edition, 2022. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
|
Abraham Lincoln | External links | External links
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
Abraham Lincoln Association
Abraham Lincoln: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
Papers of Abraham Lincoln Digital Library from Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library A digitization of all documents written by or to Abraham Lincoln during his lifetime
Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln – complete collected works as edited by Basler et al. (1958) – an online edition available through University of Michigan Library Digital Collections
Lincoln/Net: Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project – Northern Illinois University Digital Library
The Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division in the Library of Congress
"Writings of Abraham Lincoln" from C-SPAN's American Writers: A Journey Through History, June 18, 2001
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Abraham Lincoln | Table of Content | Short description, Family and childhood, Early life, Education and move to Illinois, Marriage and children, Early vocations and militia service, Early political offices and prairie lawyer, Illinois state legislature (1834–1842), U.S. House of Representatives (1847–1849), Early political views, Prairie lawyer, Republican politics (1854–1860), Emergence as Republican leader, 1856 campaign, ''Dred Scott v. Sandford'', Lincoln–Douglas debates and Cooper Union speech, 1860 presidential election, Presidency (1861–1865), First term, Secession and inauguration, Personnel, Commander-in-Chief, Early Union military strategy, General McClellan, Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address (1863), Promoting General Grant, Fiscal and monetary policy, Foreign policy, Native Americans, Second term, Reelection, Reconstruction, Assassination, Funeral and burial, Philosophy and religious views, Philosophy of republicanism, Political philosophy of reunification, Religious skepticism and providence, Health and appearance, Legacy, Historical reputation, Memorials and commemorations, See also, Notes, References, Sources, External links |
Aristotle | Short description | Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, and the arts. As the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy in the Lyceum in Athens, he began the wider Aristotelian tradition that followed, which set the groundwork for the development of modern science.
Little is known about Aristotle's life. He was born in the city of Stagira in northern Greece during the Classical period. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, and he was brought up by a guardian. At around eighteen years old, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty seven (). Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, tutored his son Alexander the Great beginning in 343 BC. He established a library in the Lyceum, which helped him to produce many of his hundreds of books on papyrus scrolls.
Though Aristotle wrote many treatises and dialogues for publication, only around a third of his original output has survived, none of it intended for publication. Aristotle provided a complex synthesis of the various philosophies existing prior to him. His teachings and methods of inquiry have had a significant impact across the world, and remain a subject of contemporary philosophical discussion.
Aristotle's views profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. The influence of his physical science extended from late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance, and was not replaced systematically until the Enlightenment and theories such as classical mechanics were developed. He influenced Judeo-Islamic philosophies during the Middle Ages, as well as Christian theology, especially the Neoplatonism of the Early Church and the scholastic tradition of the Catholic Church.
Aristotle was revered among medieval Muslim scholars as "The First Teacher", and among medieval Christians like Thomas Aquinas as simply "The Philosopher", while the poet Dante called him "the master of those who know". He has been referred to as the first scientist. His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic, and were studied by medieval scholars such as Peter Abelard and Jean Buridan. His influence on logic continued well into the 19th century. In addition, his ethics, although always influential, has gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics. |
Aristotle | Life | Life
In general, the details of Aristotle's life are not well-established. The biographies written in ancient times are often speculative and historians only agree on a few salient points. Aristotle was born in 384 BC in Stagira, Chalcidice,; ; ; about 55 km (34 miles) east of modern-day Thessaloniki.; He was the son of Nicomachus, the personal physician of King Amyntas of Macedon,; ; ; ; ; and Phaestis, a woman with origins from Chalcis, Euboea.; ; ; Nicomachus was said to have belonged to the medical guild of Asclepiadae and was likely responsible for Aristotle's early interest in biology and medicine.; ; ; Ancient tradition held that Aristotle's family descended from the legendary physician Asclepius and his son Machaon.; Both of Aristotle's parents died when he was still at a young age and Proxenus of Atarneus became his guardian.; ; Although little information about Aristotle's childhood has survived, he probably spent some time in the Macedonian capital, making his first connections with the Macedonian monarchy.; ;
thumb|upright=1.2|School of Aristotle in Mieza, Macedonia, Greece
At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Aristotle moved to Athens to continue his education at Plato's Academy.; He became distinguished as a researcher and lecturer, earning for himself the nickname "mind of the school" by his tutor Plato. In Athens, he probably experienced the Eleusinian Mysteries as he wrote when describing the sights one viewed at the Mysteries, "to experience is to learn" (). Aristotle remained in Athens for nearly twenty years before leaving in 348/47 BC after Plato's death.; The traditional story about his departure records that he was disappointed with the academy's direction after control passed to Plato's nephew Speusippus, although it is possible that the anti-Macedonian sentiments in Athens could have also influenced his decision. Aristotle left with Xenocrates to Assos in Asia Minor, where he was invited by his former fellow student Hermias of Atarneus; he stayed there for a few years and left around the time of Hermias' death. While at Assos, Aristotle and his colleague Theophrastus did extensive research in botany and marine biology, which they later continued at the near-by island of Lesbos.; ; During this time, Aristotle married Pythias, Hermias's adoptive daughter and niece, and had a daughter whom they also named Pythias.
thumb|left|upright=0.8|"Aristotle tutoring Alexander" (1895) by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris
In 343/42 BC, Aristotle was invited to Pella by Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor to his thirteen-year-old son Alexander;; ; ; ; ; a choice perhaps influenced by the relationship of Aristotle's family with the Macedonian dynasty.; ; ; Aristotle taught Alexander at the private school of Mieza, in the gardens of the Nymphs, the royal estate near Pella.; ; ; Alexander's education probably included a number of subjects, such as ethics and politics,; as well as standard literary texts, like Euripides and Homer.; It is likely that during Aristotle's time in the Macedonian court, other prominent nobles, like Ptolemy and Cassander, would have occasionally attended his lectures.; ; Aristotle encouraged Alexander toward eastern conquest, and his own attitude towards Persia was strongly ethnocentric. In one famous example, he counsels Alexander to be "a leader to the Greeks and a despot to the barbarians".; Alexander's education under the guardianship of Aristotle likely lasted for only a few years, as at around the age of sixteen he returned to Pella and was appointed regent of Macedon by his father Philip.; During this time, Aristotle gifted Alexander an annotated copy of the Iliad, which is said to have become one of Alexander's most prized possessions.; ; Scholars speculate that two of Aristotle's now lost works, On kingship and On behalf of the Colonies, were composed by the philosopher for the young prince.; provides the alternative translations On Monarchy and Colonists Aristotle returned to Athens for the second and final time a year after Philip II's assassination in 336 BC.
As a metic, Aristotle could not own property in Athens and thus rented a building known as the Lyceum (named after the sacred grove of Apollo Lykeios), in which he established his own school.; ; The building included a gymnasium and a colonnade (), from which the school acquired the name Peripatetic.; Aristotle conducted courses and research at the school for the next twelve years. He often lectured small groups of distinguished students and, along with some of them, such as Theophrastus, Eudemus, and Aristoxenus, Aristotle built a large library which included manuscripts, maps, and museum objects.; ; While in Athens, his wife Pythias died and Aristotle became involved with Herpyllis of Stagira. They had a son whom Aristotle named after his father, Nicomachus.; This period in Athens, between 335 and 323 BC, is when Aristotle is believed to have composed many of his philosophical works.; He wrote many dialogues, of which only fragments have survived. Those works that have survived are in treatise form and were not, for the most part, intended for widespread publication; they are generally thought to be lecture aids for his students. His most important treatises include Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, On the Soul and Poetics. Aristotle studied and made significant contributions to "logic, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, biology, botany, ethics, politics, agriculture, medicine, dance, and theatre."
thumb | upright=0.8 | Portrait bust of Aristotle; an Imperial Roman (1st or 2nd century AD) copy of a lost bronze sculpture made by Lysippos
While Alexander deeply admired Aristotle, near the end of his life, the two men became estranged having diverging opinions over issues, like the optimal administration of city-states, the treatment of conquered populations, such as the Persians, and philosophical questions, like the definition of braveness. A widespread speculation in antiquity suggested that Aristotle played a role in Alexander's death, but the only evidence of this is an unlikely claim made some six years after the death. Following Alexander's death, anti-Macedonian sentiment in Athens was rekindled. In 322 BC, Demophilus and Eurymedon the Hierophant reportedly denounced Aristotle for impiety, prompting him to flee to his mother's family estate in Chalcis, Euboea, at which occasion he was said to have stated "I will not allow the Athenians to sin twice against philosophy"; ; – a reference to Athens's trial and execution of Socrates. He died in Chalcis, Euboea of natural causes later that same year, having named his student Antipater as his chief executor and leaving a will in which he asked to be buried next to his wife. Aristotle left his works to Theophrastus, his successor as the head of the Lyceum, who in turn passed them down to Neleus of Scepsis in Asia Minor. There, the papers remained hidden for protection until they were purchased by the collector Apellicon. In the meantime, many copies of Aristotle's major works had already begun to circulate and be used in the Lyceum of Athens, Alexandria, and later in Rome.; |
Aristotle | Theoretical philosophy | Theoretical philosophy |
Aristotle | Logic | Logic
With the Prior Analytics, Aristotle is credited with the earliest study of formal logic, and his conception of it was the dominant form of Western logic until 19th-century advances in mathematical logic. Kant stated in the Critique of Pure Reason that with Aristotle, logic reached its completion. |
Aristotle | ''Organon'' | Organon
thumb | upright=0.8 | Plato (left) and Aristotle in Raphael's 1509 fresco, The School of Athens. Aristotle holds his Nicomachean Ethics and gestures to the earth, representing his view in immanent realism, whilst Plato gestures to the heavens, indicating his Theory of Forms, and holds his Timaeus.
Most of Aristotle's work is probably not in its original form, because it was most likely edited by students and later lecturers. The logical works of Aristotle were compiled into a set of six books called the Organon around 40 BC by Andronicus of Rhodes or others among his followers. The books are:
Categories
On Interpretation
Prior Analytics
Posterior Analytics
Topics
On Sophistical Refutations
The order of the books (or the teachings from which they are composed) is not certain, but this list was derived from analysis of Aristotle's writings. It goes from the basics, the analysis of simple terms in the Categories, the analysis of propositions and their elementary relations in On Interpretation, to the study of more complex forms, namely, syllogisms (in the Analytics) and dialectics (in the Topics and Sophistical Refutations). The first three treatises form the core of the logical theory stricto sensu: the grammar of the language of logic and the correct rules of reasoning. The Rhetoric is not conventionally included, but it states that it relies on the Topics.
+ One of Aristotle's types of syllogism In words In terms In equations All men are mortal. All Greeks are men.∴ All Greeks are mortal.M a PS a MS a P150px
What is today called Aristotelian logic with its types of syllogism (methods of logical argument), Aristotle himself would have labelled "analytics". The term "logic" he reserved to mean dialectics. |
Aristotle | Metaphysics | Metaphysics
The word "metaphysics" appears to have been coined by the first century AD editor who assembled various small selections of Aristotle's works to create the treatise we know by the name Metaphysics. Aristotle called it "first philosophy", and distinguished it from mathematics and natural science (physics) as the contemplative (theoretikē) philosophy which is "theological" and studies the divine. He wrote in his Metaphysics (1026a16): |
Aristotle | Substance | Substance
Aristotle examines the concepts of substance (ousia) and essence (to ti ên einai, "the what it was to be") in his Metaphysics (Book VII), and he concludes that a particular substance is a combination of both matter and form, a philosophical theory called hylomorphism. In Book VIII, he distinguishes the matter of the substance as the substratum, or the stuff of which it is composed. For example, the matter of a house is the bricks, stones, timbers, etc., or whatever constitutes the potential house, while the form of the substance is the actual house, namely 'covering for bodies and chattels' or any other differentia that let us define something as a house. The formula that gives the components is the account of the matter, and the formula that gives the differentia is the account of the form. |
Aristotle | Immanent realism | Immanent realism
thumb | upright=1.5 | Plato's forms exist as universals, like the ideal form of an apple. For Aristotle, both matter and form belong to the individual thing (hylomorphism).
Like his teacher Plato, Aristotle's philosophy aims at the universal. Aristotle's ontology places the universal () in particulars (), things in the world, whereas for Plato the universal is a separately existing form which actual things imitate. For Aristotle, "form" is still what phenomena are based on, but is "instantiated" in a particular substance.
Plato argued that all things have a universal form, which could be either a property or a relation to other things. When one looks at an apple, for example, one sees an apple, and one can also analyse a form of an apple. In this distinction, there is a particular apple and a universal form of an apple. Moreover, one can place an apple next to a book, so that one can speak of both the book and apple as being next to each other. Plato argued that there are some universal forms that are not a part of particular things. For example, it is possible that there is no particular good in existence, but "good" is still a proper universal form. Aristotle disagreed with Plato on this point, arguing that all universals are instantiated at some period of time, and that there are no universals that are unattached to existing things. In addition, Aristotle disagreed with Plato about the location of universals. Where Plato spoke of the forms as existing separately from the things that participate in them, Aristotle maintained that universals exist within each thing on which each universal is predicated. So, according to Aristotle, the form of apple exists within each apple, rather than in the world of the forms. |
Aristotle | Potentiality and actuality | Potentiality and actuality
Concerning the nature of change (kinesis) and its causes, as he outlines in his Physics and On Generation and Corruption (319b–320a), he distinguishes coming-to-be (genesis, also translated as 'generation') from:
growth and diminution, which is change in quantity;
locomotion, which is change in space; and
alteration, which is change in quality.
thumb | Aristotle argued that a capability like playing the flute could be acquired – the potential made actual – by learning.
Coming-to-be is a change where the substrate of the thing that has undergone the change has itself changed. In that particular change he introduces the concept of potentiality (dynamis) and actuality (entelecheia) in association with the matter and the form. Referring to potentiality, this is what a thing is capable of doing or being acted upon if the conditions are right and it is not prevented by something else. For example, the seed of a plant in the soil is potentially (dynamei) a plant, and if it is not prevented by something, it will become a plant. Potentially, beings can either 'act' (poiein) or 'be acted upon' (paschein), which can be either innate or learned. For example, the eyes possess the potentiality of sight (innate – being acted upon), while the capability of playing the flute can be possessed by learning (exercise – acting). Actuality is the fulfilment of the end of the potentiality. Because the end (telos) is the principle of every change, and potentiality exists for the sake of the end, actuality, accordingly, is the end. Referring then to the previous example, it can be said that an actuality is when a plant does one of the activities that plants do.
In summary, the matter used to make a house has potentiality to be a house and both the activity of building and the form of the final house are actualities, which is also a final cause or end. Then Aristotle proceeds and concludes that the actuality is prior to potentiality in formula, in time and in substantiality. With this definition of the particular substance (i.e., matter and form), Aristotle tries to solve the problem of the unity of the beings, for example, "what is it that makes a man one"? Since, according to Plato there are two Ideas: animal and biped, how then is man a unity? However, according to Aristotle, the potential being (matter) and the actual one (form) are one and the same. |
Aristotle | Epistemology | Epistemology
Aristotle's immanent realism means his epistemology is based on the study of things that exist or happen in the world, and rises to knowledge of the universal, whereas for Plato epistemology begins with knowledge of universal Forms (or ideas) and descends to knowledge of particular imitations of these. Aristotle uses induction from examples alongside deduction, whereas Plato relies on deduction from a priori principles. |
Aristotle | Natural philosophy | Natural philosophy
Aristotle's "natural philosophy" spans a wide range of natural phenomena including those now covered by physics, biology and other natural sciences. In Aristotle's terminology, "natural philosophy" is a branch of philosophy examining the phenomena of the natural world, and includes fields that would be regarded today as physics, biology and other natural sciences. Aristotle's work encompassed virtually all facets of intellectual inquiry. Aristotle makes philosophy in the broad sense coextensive with reasoning, which he also would describe as "science". However, his use of the term science carries a different meaning than that covered by the term "scientific method". For Aristotle, "all science (dianoia) is either practical, poetical or theoretical" (Metaphysics 1025b25). His practical science includes ethics and politics; his poetical science means the study of fine arts including poetry; his theoretical science covers physics, mathematics and metaphysics. |
Aristotle | Physics | Physics
thumb | The four classical elements (fire, air, water, earth) of Empedocles and Aristotle illustrated with a burning log. The log releases all four elements as it is destroyed. |
Aristotle | Five elements | Five elements
In his On Generation and Corruption, Aristotle related each of the four elements proposed earlier by Empedocles, earth, water, air, and fire, to two of the four sensible qualities, hot, cold, wet, and dry. In the Empedoclean scheme, all matter was made of the four elements, in differing proportions. Aristotle's scheme added the heavenly aether, the divine substance of the heavenly spheres, stars and planets.
+ Aristotle's elements Element / / Motion Modern stateof matterEarthDownSolidWaterDownLiquidAirUpGasFireUpPlasmaAether(divinesubstance)—Circular(in heavens)Vacuum |
Aristotle | Motion | Motion
Aristotle describes two kinds of motion: "violent" or "unnatural motion", such as that of a thrown stone, in the Physics (254b10), and "natural motion", such as of a falling object, in On the Heavens (300a20). In violent motion, as soon as the agent stops causing it, the motion stops also: in other words, the natural state of an object is to be at rest, since Aristotle does not address friction. With this understanding, it can be observed that, as Aristotle stated, heavy objects (on the ground, say) require more force to make them move; and objects pushed with greater force move faster. This would imply the equation
,
incorrect in modern physics.
Natural motion depends on the element concerned: the aether naturally moves in a circle around the heavens, while the 4 Empedoclean elements move vertically up (like fire, as is observed) or down (like earth) towards their natural resting places.
thumb | upright=1.5 | Aristotle's laws of motion. In Physics he states that objects fall at a speed proportional to their weight and inversely proportional to the density of the fluid they are immersed in. This is a correct approximation for objects in Earth's gravitational field moving in air or water.
In the Physics (215a25), Aristotle effectively states a quantitative law, that the speed, v, of a falling body is proportional (say, with constant c) to its weight, W, and inversely proportional to the density, ρ, of the fluid in which it is falling:;
Aristotle implies that in a vacuum the speed of fall would become infinite, and concludes from this apparent absurdity that a vacuum is not possible. Opinions have varied on whether Aristotle intended to state quantitative laws. Henri Carteron held the "extreme view" that Aristotle's concept of force was basically qualitative, but other authors reject this.
Archimedes corrected Aristotle's theory that bodies move towards their natural resting places; metal boats can float if they displace enough water; floating depends in Archimedes' scheme on the mass and volume of the object, not, as Aristotle thought, its elementary composition.
Aristotle's writings on motion remained influential until the early modern period. John Philoponus (in late antiquity) and Galileo (in the early modern period) are said to have shown by experiment that Aristotle's claim that a heavier object falls faster than a lighter object is incorrect. A contrary opinion is given by Carlo Rovelli, who argues that Aristotle's physics of motion is correct within its domain of validity, that of objects in the Earth's gravitational field immersed in a fluid such as air. In this system, heavy bodies in steady fall indeed travel faster than light ones (whether friction is ignored, or not), and they do fall more slowly in a denser medium.
Newton's "forced" motion corresponds to Aristotle's "violent" motion with its external agent, but Aristotle's assumption that the agent's effect stops immediately it stops acting (e.g., the ball leaves the thrower's hand) has awkward consequences: he has to suppose that surrounding fluid helps to push the ball along to make it continue to rise even though the hand is no longer acting on it, resulting in the Medieval theory of impetus. |
Aristotle | Four causes | Four causes
thumb | upright=1.5 | Aristotle argued by analogy with woodwork that a thing takes its form from four causes: in the case of a table, the wood used (material cause), its design (formal cause), the tools and techniques used (efficient cause), and its decorative or practical purpose (final cause).
Aristotle suggested that the reason for anything coming about can be attributed to four different types of simultaneously active factors. His term aitia is traditionally translated as "cause", but it does not always refer to temporal sequence; it might be better translated as "explanation", but the traditional rendering will be employed here.
Material cause describes the material out of which something is composed. Thus the material cause of a table is wood. It is not about action. It does not mean that one domino knocks over another domino.
The formal cause is its form, i.e., the arrangement of that matter. It tells one what a thing is, that a thing is determined by the definition, form, pattern, essence, whole, synthesis or archetype. It embraces the account of causes in terms of fundamental principles or general laws, as the whole (i.e., macrostructure) is the cause of its parts, a relationship known as the whole-part causation. Plainly put, the formal cause is the idea in the mind of the sculptor that brings the sculpture into being. A simple example of the formal cause is the mental image or idea that allows an artist, architect, or engineer to create a drawing.
The efficient cause is "the primary source", or that from which the change under consideration proceeds. It identifies 'what makes of what is made and what causes change of what is changed' and so suggests all sorts of agents, non-living or living, acting as the sources of change or movement or rest. Representing the current understanding of causality as the relation of cause and effect, this covers the modern definitions of "cause" as either the agent or agency or particular events or states of affairs. In the case of two dominoes, when the first is knocked over it causes the second also to fall over. In the case of animals, this agency is a combination of how it develops from the egg, and how its body functions.
The final cause (telos) is its purpose, the reason why a thing exists or is done, including both purposeful and instrumental actions and activities. The final cause is the purpose or function that something is supposed to serve. This covers modern ideas of motivating causes, such as volition. In the case of living things, it implies adaptation to a particular way of life. |
Aristotle | Optics | Optics
Aristotle describes experiments in optics using a camera obscura in Problems, book 15. The apparatus consisted of a dark chamber with a small aperture that let light in. With it, he saw that whatever shape he made the hole, the sun's image always remained circular. He also noted that increasing the distance between the aperture and the image surface magnified the image. |
Aristotle | Chance and spontaneity | Chance and spontaneity
According to Aristotle, spontaneity and chance are causes of some things, distinguishable from other types of cause such as simple necessity. Chance as an incidental cause lies in the realm of accidental things, "from what is spontaneous". There is also more a specific kind of chance, which Aristotle names "luck", that only applies to people's moral choices. |
Aristotle | Astronomy | Astronomy
In astronomy, Aristotle refuted Democritus's claim that the Milky Way was made up of "those stars which are shaded by the earth from the sun's rays," pointing out partly correctly that if "the size of the sun is greater than that of the earth and the distance of the stars from the earth many times greater than that of the sun, then... the sun shines on all the stars and the earth screens none of them." He also wrote descriptions of comets, including the Great Comet of 371 BC. |
Aristotle | Geology and natural sciences | Geology and natural sciences
thumb | Aristotle noted that the ground level of the Aeolian islands changed before a volcanic eruption.
Aristotle was one of the first people to record any geological observations. He stated that geological change was too slow to be observed in one person's lifetime.
The geologist Charles Lyell noted that Aristotle described such change, including "lakes that had dried up" and "deserts that had become watered by rivers", giving as examples the growth of the Nile delta since the time of Homer, and "the upheaving of one of the Aeolian islands, previous to a volcanic eruption."'
Meteorologica lends its name to the modern study of meteorology, but its modern usage diverges from the content of Aristotle's ancient treatise on meteors. The ancient Greeks did use the term for a range of atmospheric phenomena, but also for earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Aristotle proposed that the cause of earthquakes was a gas or vapor (anathymiaseis) that was trapped inside the earth and trying to escape, following other Greek authors Anaxagoras, Empedocles and Democritus.
Aristotle also made many observations about the hydrologic cycle. For example, he made some of the earliest observations about desalination: he observed early – and correctly – that when seawater is heated, freshwater evaporates and that the oceans are then replenished by the cycle of rainfall and river runoff ("I have proved by experiment that salt water evaporated forms fresh and the vapor does not when it condenses condense into sea water again.") |
Aristotle | Biology | Biology
thumb | upright=0.8 | Among many pioneering zoological observations, Aristotle described the reproductive hectocotyl arm of the octopus (bottom left). |
Aristotle | Empirical research | Empirical research
Aristotle was the first person to study biology systematically, and biology forms a large part of his writings. He spent two years observing and describing the zoology of Lesbos and the surrounding seas, including in particular the Pyrrha lagoon in the centre of Lesbos. His data in History of Animals, Generation of Animals, Movement of Animals, and Parts of Animals are assembled from his own observations, statements given by people with specialized knowledge, such as beekeepers and fishermen, and less accurate accounts provided by travellers from overseas. His apparent emphasis on animals rather than plants is a historical accident: his works on botany have been lost, but two books on plants by his pupil Theophrastus have survived.
Aristotle reports on the sea-life visible from observation on Lesbos and the catches of fishermen. He describes the catfish, electric ray, and frogfish in detail, as well as cephalopods such as the octopus and paper nautilus. His description of the hectocotyl arm of cephalopods, used in sexual reproduction, was widely disbelieved until the 19th century. He gives accurate descriptions of the four-chambered fore-stomachs of ruminants, and of the ovoviviparous embryological development of the hound shark.
He notes that an animal's structure is well matched to function so birds like the heron (which live in marshes with soft mud and live by catching fish) have a long neck, long legs, and a sharp spear-like beak, whereas ducks that swim have short legs and webbed feet. Darwin, too, noted these sorts of differences between similar kinds of animal, but unlike Aristotle used the data to come to the theory of evolution. Aristotle's writings can seem to modern readers close to implying evolution, but while Aristotle was aware that new mutations or hybridizations could occur, he saw these as rare accidents. For Aristotle, accidents, like heat waves in winter, must be considered distinct from natural causes. He was thus critical of Empedocles's materialist theory of a "survival of the fittest" origin of living things and their organs, and ridiculed the idea that accidents could lead to orderly results. To put his views into modern terms, he nowhere says that different species can have a common ancestor, or that one kind can change into another, or that kinds can become extinct. |
Aristotle | Scientific style | Scientific style
thumb | left | upright=1.4 | Aristotle inferred growth laws from his observations on animals, including that brood size decreases with body mass, whereas gestation period increases. He was correct in these predictions, at least for mammals: data are shown for mouse and elephant.
Aristotle did not do experiments in the modern sense. He used the ancient Greek term to mean observations, or at most investigative procedures like dissection. In Generation of Animals, he finds a fertilized hen's egg of a suitable stage and opens it to see the embryo's heart beating inside.
Instead, he practiced a different style of science: systematically gathering data, discovering patterns common to whole groups of animals, and inferring possible causal explanations from these. This style is common in modern biology when large amounts of data become available in a new field, such as genomics. It does not result in the same certainty as experimental science, but it sets out testable hypotheses and constructs a narrative explanation of what is observed. In this sense, Aristotle's biology is scientific.
From the data he collected and documented, Aristotle inferred quite a number of rules relating the life-history features of the live-bearing tetrapods (terrestrial placental mammals) that he studied. Among these correct predictions are the following. Brood size decreases with (adult) body mass, so that an elephant has fewer young (usually just one) per brood than a mouse. Lifespan increases with gestation period, and also with body mass, so that elephants live longer than mice, have a longer period of gestation, and are heavier. As a final example, fecundity decreases with lifespan, so long-lived kinds like elephants have fewer young in total than short-lived kinds like mice. |
Aristotle | Classification of living things | Classification of living things
thumb|Aristotle recorded that the embryo (fetus pictured) of a dogfish was attached by a cord to a kind of placenta (the yolk sac), like a higher animal; this formed an exception to the linear scale from highest to lowest.
Aristotle distinguished about 500 species of animals, arranging these in the History of Animals in a graded scale of perfection, a nonreligious version of the scala naturae, with man at the top. His system had eleven grades of animal, from highest potential to lowest, expressed in their form at birth: the highest gave live birth to hot and wet creatures, the lowest laid cold, dry mineral-like eggs. Animals came above plants, and these in turn were above minerals. He grouped what the modern zoologist would call vertebrates as the hotter "animals with blood", and below them the colder invertebrates as "animals without blood". Those with blood were divided into the live-bearing (mammals), and the egg-laying (birds, reptiles, fish). Those without blood were insects, crustacea (non-shelled – cephalopods, and shelled) and the hard-shelled molluscs (bivalves and gastropods). He recognised that animals did not exactly fit into a linear scale, and noted various exceptions, such as that sharks had a placenta like the tetrapods. To a modern biologist, the explanation, not available to Aristotle, is convergent evolution. Philosophers of science have generally concluded that Aristotle was not interested in taxonomy, but zoologists who studied this question in the early 21st century think otherwise. He believed that purposive final causes guided all natural processes; this teleological view justified his observed data as an expression of formal design.
+ Aristotle's Scala naturae (highest to lowest) Group Examples(given by Aristotle) Blood Legs Souls(Rational,Sensitive,Vegetative) Qualities(–,–)ManManwith blood2 legsR, S, V, Live-bearing tetrapodsCat, harewith blood4 legsS, V, CetaceansDolphin, whalewith bloodnoneS, V, BirdsBee-eater, nightjarwith blood2 legsS, V, , except eggsEgg-laying tetrapodsChameleon, crocodilewith blood4 legsS, V, except scales, eggsSnakesWater snake, Ottoman viperwith bloodnoneS, V, except scales, eggsEgg-laying fishesSea bass, parrotfishwith bloodnoneS, V, , including eggs(Among the egg-laying fishes):placental selachiansShark, skatewith bloodnoneS, V, , but placenta like tetrapodsCrustaceansShrimp, crabwithoutmany legsS, V, except shellCephalopodsSquid, octopuswithouttentaclesS, V, Hard-shelled animalsCockle, trumpet snailwithoutnoneS, V, (mineral shell)Larva-bearing insectsAnt, cicadawithout6 legsS, V, Spontaneously generatingSponges, wormswithoutnoneS, V, or , from earthPlantsFigwithoutnoneV, MineralsIronwithoutnonenone, |
Aristotle | Psychology | Psychology |
Aristotle | Soul | Soul
thumb | upright=1.5 | Aristotle proposed a three-part structure for souls of plants, animals, and humans, making humans unique in having all three types of soul.
Aristotle's psychology, given in his treatise On the Soul (), posits three kinds of soul (): the vegetative soul, the sensitive soul, and the rational soul. Humans have all three. The vegetative soul is concerned with growth and nourishment. The sensitive soul experiences sensations and movement. The unique part of the human, rational soul is its ability to receive forms of other things and to compare them using the (intellect) and (reason).
For Aristotle, the soul is the form of a living being. Because all beings are composites of form and matter, the form of living beings is that which endows them with what is specific to living beings, e.g. the ability to initiate movement (or in the case of plants, growth and transformations, which Aristotle considers types of movement). In contrast to earlier philosophers, but in accordance with the Egyptians, he placed the rational soul in the heart, rather than the brain. Notable is Aristotle's division of sensation and thought, which generally differed from the concepts of previous philosophers, with the exception of Alcmaeon.
In On the Soul, Aristotle famously criticizes Plato's theory of the soul and develops his own in response. The first criticism is against Plato's view of the soul in the Timaeus that the soul takes up space and is able to come into physical contact with bodies.On the Soul I.3 406b26-407a10. For some scholarship, see Carter, Jason W. 2017. 'Aristotle's Criticism of Timaean Psychology' Rhizomata 5: 51–78 and Douglas R. Campbell. 2022. "Located in Space: Plato's Theory of Psychic Motion" Ancient Philosophy 42 (2): 419–442. 20th-century scholarship overwhelmingly opposed Aristotle's interpretation of Plato and maintained that he had misunderstood him.For instance, W.D. Ross argued that Aristotle "may well be criticized as having taken [Plato's] myth as if it were sober prose." See Ross, William D. ed. 1961. Aristotle: De Anima. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The quotation is from page 189. Today's scholars have tended to re-assess Aristotle's interpretation and been more positive about it.See, e.g., Douglas R. Campbell, "Located in Space: Plato's Theory of Psychic Motion," Ancient Philosophy 42 (2): 419–442. 2022. Aristotle's other criticism is that Plato's view of reincarnation entails that it is possible for a soul and its body to be mis-matched; in principle, Aristotle alleges, any soul can go with any body, according to Plato's theory.On the Soul I.3.407b14–27. Christopher Shields summarizes it thus: "We might think that an old leather-bound edition of Machiavelli's The Prince could come to bear the departed soul of Richard Nixon. Aristotle regards this sort of view as worthy of ridicule." See Shields, C. 2016. Aristotle: De Anima. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The quotation is from page 133. Aristotle's claim that the soul is the form of a living being eliminates that possibility and thus rules out reincarnation.There's a large scholarly discussion of this dialectic between Plato and Aristotle here: Douglas R. Campbell, "The Soul's Tool: Plato on the Usefulness of the Body," Elenchos 43 (1): 7–27. 2022. |
Aristotle | Memory | Memory
According to Aristotle in On the Soul, memory is the ability to hold a perceived experience in the mind and to distinguish between the internal "appearance" and an occurrence in the past. In other words, a memory is a mental picture (phantasm) that can be recovered. Aristotle believed an impression is left on a semi-fluid bodily organ that undergoes several changes in order to make a memory. A memory occurs when stimuli such as sights or sounds are so complex that the nervous system cannot receive all the impressions at once. These changes are the same as those involved in the operations of sensation, Aristotelian , and thinking.
Aristotle uses the term 'memory' for the actual retaining of an experience in the impression that can develop from sensation, and for the intellectual anxiety that comes with the impression because it is formed at a particular time and processing specific contents. Memory is of the past, prediction is of the future, and sensation is of the present. Retrieval of impressions cannot be performed suddenly. A transitional channel is needed and located in past experiences, both for previous experience and present experience.
Because Aristotle believes people receive all kinds of sense perceptions and perceive them as impressions, people are continually weaving together new impressions of experiences. To search for these impressions, people search the memory itself. Within the memory, if one experience is offered instead of a specific memory, that person will reject this experience until they find what they are looking for. Recollection occurs when one retrieved experience naturally follows another. If the chain of "images" is needed, one memory will stimulate the next. When people recall experiences, they stimulate certain previous experiences until they reach the one that is needed. Recollection is thus the self-directed activity of retrieving the information stored in a memory impression. Only humans can remember impressions of intellectual activity, such as numbers and words. Animals that have perception of time can retrieve memories of their past observations. Remembering involves only perception of the things remembered and of the time passed.
thumb | upright=1.5 | Senses, perception, memory, dreams, action in Aristotle's psychology. Impressions are stored in the sensorium (the heart), linked by his laws of association (similarity, contrast, and contiguity).
Aristotle believed the chain of thought, which ends in recollection of certain impressions, was connected systematically in relationships such as similarity, contrast, and contiguity, described in his laws of association. Aristotle believed that past experiences are hidden within the mind. A force operates to awaken the hidden material to bring up the actual experience. According to Aristotle, association is the power innate in a mental state, which operates upon the unexpressed remains of former experiences, allowing them to rise and be recalled. |
Aristotle | Dreams | Dreams
Aristotle describes sleep in On Sleep and Wakefulness. Sleep takes place as a result of overuse of the senses or of digestion, so it is vital to the body. While a person is asleep, the critical activities, which include thinking, sensing, recalling and remembering, do not function as they do during wakefulness. Since a person cannot sense during sleep, they cannot have desire, which is the result of sensation. However, the senses are able to work during sleep, albeit differently, unless they are weary.
Dreams do not involve actually sensing a stimulus. In dreams, sensation is still involved, but in an altered manner. Aristotle explains that when a person stares at a moving stimulus such as the waves in a body of water, and then looks away, the next thing they look at appears to have a wavelike motion. When a person perceives a stimulus and the stimulus is no longer the focus of their attention, it leaves an impression. When the body is awake and the senses are functioning properly, a person constantly encounters new stimuli to sense and so the impressions of previously perceived stimuli are ignored. However, during sleep the impressions made throughout the day are noticed as there are no new distracting sensory experiences. So, dreams result from these lasting impressions. Since impressions are all that are left and not the exact stimuli, dreams do not resemble the actual waking experience. During sleep, a person is in an altered state of mind. Aristotle compares a sleeping person to a person who is overtaken by strong feelings toward a stimulus. For example, a person who has a strong infatuation with someone may begin to think they see that person everywhere because they are so overtaken by their feelings. Since a person sleeping is in a suggestible state and unable to make judgements, they become easily deceived by what appears in their dreams, like the infatuated person. This leads the person to believe the dream is real, even when the dreams are absurd in nature. In De Anima iii 3, Aristotle ascribes the ability to create, to store, and to recall images in the absence of perception to the faculty of imagination, phantasia.
One component of Aristotle's theory of dreams disagrees with previously held beliefs. He claimed that dreams are not foretelling and not sent by a divine being. Aristotle reasoned naturalistically that instances in which dreams do resemble future events are simply coincidences. Aristotle claimed that a dream is first established by the fact that the person is asleep when they experience it. If a person had an image appear for a moment after waking up or if they see something in the dark it is not considered a dream because they were awake when it occurred. Secondly, any sensory experience that is perceived while a person is asleep does not qualify as part of a dream. For example, if, while a person is sleeping, a door shuts and in their dream they hear a door is shut, this sensory experience is not part of the dream. Lastly, the images of dreams must be a result of lasting impressions of waking sensory experiences. |
Aristotle | Practical philosophy | Practical philosophy
Aristotle's practical philosophy covers areas such as ethics, politics, economics, and rhetoric.
+ Virtues and their accompanying vices Too little Virtuous mean Too muchHumblenessHigh-mindednessVaingloryLack of purposeRight ambitionOver-ambitionSpiritlessnessGood temperIrascibilityRudenessCivilityObsequiousnessCowardiceCourageRashnessInsensibilitySelf-controlIntemperanceSarcasmSincerityBoastfulnessBoorishnessWitBuffooneryCallousnessJust resentmentSpitefulnessPettinessGenerosityVulgarityMeannessLiberalityWastefulness |
Aristotle | Ethics | Ethics
Aristotle considered ethics to be a practical rather than theoretical study, i.e., one aimed at becoming good and doing good rather than knowing for its own sake. He wrote several treatises on ethics, most notably including the Nicomachean Ethics.
Aristotle taught that virtue has to do with the proper function (ergon) of a thing. An eye is only a good eye in so much as it can see because the proper function of an eye is sight. Aristotle reasoned that humans must have a function specific to humans, and that this function must be an activity of the psuchē (soul) in accordance with reason (logos). Aristotle identified such an optimum activity (the virtuous mean, between the accompanying vices of excess or deficiency) of the soul as the aim of all human deliberate action, eudaimonia, generally translated as "happiness" or sometimes "well-being". To have the potential of ever being happy in this way necessarily requires a good character (ēthikē aretē), often translated as moral or ethical virtue or excellence.
Aristotle taught that to achieve a virtuous and potentially happy character requires a first stage of having the fortune to be habituated not deliberately, but by teachers, and experience, leading to a later stage in which one consciously chooses to do the best things. When the best people come to live life this way their practical wisdom () and their intellect () can develop with each other towards the highest possible human virtue, the wisdom of an accomplished theoretical or speculative thinker, or in other words, a philosopher. |
Aristotle | Politics | Politics
In addition to his works on ethics, which address the individual, Aristotle addressed the city in his work titled Politics. Aristotle considered the city to be a natural community. Moreover, he considered the city to be prior in importance to the family, which in turn is prior to the individual, "for the whole must of necessity be prior to the part". He famously stated that "man is by nature a political animal" and argued that humanity's defining factor among others in the animal kingdom is its rationality. Aristotle conceived of politics as being like an organism rather than like a machine, and as a collection of parts none of which can exist without the others. Aristotle's conception of the city is organic, and he is considered one of the first to conceive of the city in this manner.
thumb|upright=1.5 | Aristotle's classifications of political constitutions
The common modern understanding of a political community as a modern state is quite different from Aristotle's understanding. Although he was aware of the existence and potential of larger empires, the natural community according to Aristotle was the city (polis) which functions as a political "community" or "partnership" (koinōnia). The aim of the city is not just to avoid injustice or for economic stability, but rather to allow at least some citizens the possibility to live a good life, and to perform beautiful acts: "The political partnership must be regarded, therefore, as being for the sake of noble actions, not for the sake of living together." This is distinguished from modern approaches, beginning with social contract theory, according to which individuals leave the state of nature because of "fear of violent death" or its "inconveniences".
In Protrepticus, the character 'Aristotle' states:
As Plato's disciple Aristotle was rather critical concerning democracy and, following the outline of certain ideas from Plato's Statesman, he developed a coherent theory of integrating various forms of power into a so-called mixed state: |
Aristotle | Economics | Economics
Aristotle made substantial contributions to economic thought, especially to thought in the Middle Ages. In Politics, Aristotle addresses the city, property, and trade. His response to criticisms of private property, in Lionel Robbins's view, anticipated later proponents of private property among philosophers and economists, as it related to the overall utility of social arrangements. Aristotle believed that although communal arrangements may seem beneficial to society, and that although private property is often blamed for social strife, such evils in fact come from human nature. In Politics, Aristotle offers one of the earliest accounts of the origin of money. Money came into use because people became dependent on one another, importing what they needed and exporting the surplus. For the sake of convenience, people then agreed to deal in something that is intrinsically useful and easily applicable, such as iron or silver.
Aristotle's discussions on retail and interest was a major influence on economic thought in the Middle Ages. He had a low opinion of retail, believing that contrary to using money to procure things one needs in managing the household, retail trade seeks to make a profit. It thus uses goods as a means to an end, rather than as an end unto itself. He believed that retail trade was in this way unnatural. Similarly, Aristotle considered making a profit through interest unnatural, as it makes a gain out of the money itself, and not from its use.
Aristotle gave a summary of the function of money that was perhaps remarkably precocious for his time. He wrote that because it is impossible to determine the value of every good through a count of the number of other goods it is worth, the necessity arises of a single universal standard of measurement. Money thus allows for the association of different goods and makes them "commensurable". He goes on to state that money is also useful for future exchange, making it a sort of security. That is, "if we do not want a thing now, we shall be able to get it when we do want it". |
Aristotle | Rhetoric | Rhetoric
Aristotle's Rhetoric proposes that a speaker can use three basic kinds of appeals to persuade his audience: ethos (an appeal to the speaker's character), pathos (an appeal to the audience's emotion), and logos (an appeal to logical reasoning). He also categorizes rhetoric into three genres: epideictic (ceremonial speeches dealing with praise or blame), forensic (judicial speeches over guilt or innocence), and deliberative (speeches calling on an audience to decide on an issue). Aristotle also outlines two kinds of rhetorical proofs: enthymeme (proof by syllogism) and paradeigma (proof by example). |
Aristotle | Poetics | Poetics
Aristotle writes in his Poetics that epic poetry, tragedy, comedy, dithyrambic poetry, painting, sculpture, music, and dance are all fundamentally acts of mimesis ("imitation"), each varying in imitation by medium, object, and manner. He applies the term mimesis both as a property of a work of art and also as the product of the artist's intention and contends that the audience's realisation of the mimesis is vital to understanding the work itself. Aristotle states that mimesis is a natural instinct of humanity that separates humans from animals and that all human artistry "follows the pattern of nature". Because of this, Aristotle believed that each of the mimetic arts possesses what Stephen Halliwell calls "highly structured procedures for the achievement of their purposes." For example, music imitates with the media of rhythm and harmony, whereas dance imitates with rhythm alone, and poetry with language. The forms also differ in their object of imitation. Comedy, for instance, is a dramatic imitation of men worse than average; whereas tragedy imitates men slightly better than average. Lastly, the forms differ in their manner of imitation – through narrative or character, through change or no change, and through drama or no drama.
thumb | upright=1.35 | The Blind Oedipus Commending his Children to the Gods (1784) by Bénigne Gagneraux. In his Poetics, Aristotle uses the tragedy Oedipus Tyrannus by Sophocles as an example of how the perfect tragedy should be structured, with a generally good protagonist who starts the play prosperous, but loses everything through some hamartia (fault).
While it is believed that Aristotle's Poetics originally comprised two books – one on comedy and one on tragedy – only the portion that focuses on tragedy has survived. Aristotle taught that tragedy is composed of six elements: plot-structure, character, style, thought, spectacle, and lyric poetry. The characters in a tragedy are merely a means of driving the story; and the plot, not the characters, is the chief focus of tragedy. Tragedy is the imitation of action arousing pity and fear, and is meant to effect the catharsis of those same emotions. Aristotle concludes Poetics with a discussion on which, if either, is superior: epic or tragic mimesis. He suggests that because tragedy possesses all the attributes of an epic, possibly possesses additional attributes such as spectacle and music, is more unified, and achieves the aim of its mimesis in shorter scope, it can be considered superior to epic. Aristotle was a keen systematic collector of riddles, folklore, and proverbs; he and his school had a special interest in the riddles of the Delphic Oracle and studied the fables of Aesop. |
Aristotle | Gender and sexuality | Gender and sexuality
Aristotle never wrote a specific work on women. However, he asserted the existence of differences between men and women throughout his biological, political, and ethical works. For most female animals, including human women, Aristotle maintains that they are for the most part physically smaller and of a more cowardly constitution.
From these comments in his biological works, he often connects the idea that women are inferior with their need to be ruled over by men. Proponents of feminist philosophy question the extent to which Aristotle's philosophy relies on misogynistic and sexist tenets. Within the same works, however, there is still concern for women's happiness and participation within the city. For instance, women are meant to be consulted on household decisions, are praised for their tenderness to children, and expected to participate in religious festivals. |
Aristotle | Transmission | Transmission
thumb|upright=0.8|Preface to Argyropoulos's 15th century Latin translation of Aristotle's Physics
More than 2300 years after his death, Aristotle remains one of the most influential people who ever lived. He contributed to almost every field of human knowledge then in existence, and he was the founder of many new fields. According to the philosopher Bryan Magee, "it is doubtful whether any human being has ever known as much as he did". Aristotle has been regarded as the first scientist.
Among countless other achievements, Aristotle was the founder of formal logic, pioneered the study of zoology, and left every future scientist and philosopher in his debt through his contributions to the scientific method. Taneli Kukkonen, observes that his achievement in founding two sciences is unmatched, and his reach in influencing "every branch of intellectual enterprise" including Western ethical and political theory, theology, rhetoric, and literary analysis is equally long. As a result, Kukkonen argues, any analysis of reality today "will almost certainly carry Aristotelian overtones ... evidence of an exceptionally forceful mind." Jonathan Barnes wrote that "an account of Aristotle's intellectual afterlife would be little less than a history of European thought".
Aristotle has been called the father of logic, biology, political science, zoology, embryology, natural law, scientific method, rhetoric, psychology, realism, criticism, individualism, teleology, and meteorology.
The scholar Taneli Kukkonen notes that "in the best 20th-century scholarship Aristotle comes alive as a thinker wrestling with the full weight of the Greek philosophical tradition." What follows is an overview of the transmission and influence of his texts and ideas into the modern era. |
Aristotle | His successor, Theophrastus | His successor, Theophrastus
thumb | upright=0.8 | Frontispiece to a 1644 version of Theophrastus's Historia Plantarum, originally written
Aristotle's pupil and successor, Theophrastus, wrote the History of Plants, a pioneering work in botany. Some of his technical terms remain in use, such as carpel from carpos, fruit, and pericarp, from pericarpion, seed chamber.
Theophrastus was much less concerned with formal causes than Aristotle was, instead pragmatically describing how plants functioned. |
Aristotle | Later Greek philosophy | Later Greek philosophy
The immediate influence of Aristotle's work was felt as the Lyceum grew into the Peripatetic school. Aristotle's students included Aristoxenus, Dicaearchus, Demetrius of Phalerum, Eudemos of Rhodes, Harpalus, Hephaestion, Mnason of Phocis, Nicomachus, and Theophrastus. Aristotle's influence over Alexander the Great is seen in the latter's bringing with him on his expedition a host of zoologists, botanists, and researchers. He had also learned a great deal about Persian customs and traditions from his teacher. Although his respect for Aristotle was diminished as his travels made it clear that much of Aristotle's geography was clearly wrong, when the old philosopher released his works to the public, Alexander complained "Thou hast not done well to publish thy acroamatic doctrines; for in what shall I surpass other men if those doctrines wherein I have been trained are to be all men's common property?" |
Aristotle | Hellenistic science | Hellenistic science
After Theophrastus, the Lyceum failed to produce any original work. Though interest in Aristotle's ideas survived, they were generally taken unquestioningly. It is not until the age of Alexandria under the Ptolemies that advances in biology can be again found.
The first medical teacher at Alexandria, Herophilus of Chalcedon, corrected Aristotle, placing intelligence in the brain, and connected the nervous system to motion and sensation. Herophilus also distinguished between veins and arteries, noting that the latter pulse while the former do not. Though a few ancient atomists such as Lucretius challenged the teleological viewpoint of Aristotelian ideas about life, teleology (and after the rise of Christianity, natural theology) would remain central to biological thought essentially until the 18th and 19th centuries. Ernst Mayr states that there was "nothing of any real consequence in biology after Lucretius and Galen until the Renaissance." |
Aristotle | Revival | Revival
Following the decline of the Roman Empire, Aristotle's vast philosophical and scientific corpus lay largely dormant in the West. However, his works underwent a remarkable revival in the Abbasid Caliphate. Translated into Arabic alongside other Greek classics, Aristotle's logic, ethics, and natural philosophy ignited the minds of early Islamic scholars.
Through meticulous commentaries and critical engagements, figures like Al-Farabi and Ibn Sina (Avicenna) breathed new life into Aristotle's ideas. They harmonized his logic with Islamic theology, employed his scientific methodologies to explore the natural world, and even reinterpreted his ethics within the framework of Islamic morality. This revival was not mere imitation. Islamic thinkers embraced Aristotle's rigorous methods while simultaneously challenging his conclusions where they diverged from their own religious beliefs. |
Aristotle | Byzantine scholars | Byzantine scholars
Greek Christian scribes played a crucial role in the preservation of Aristotle by copying all the extant Greek language manuscripts of the corpus. The first Greek Christians to comment extensively on Aristotle were Philoponus, Elias, and David in the sixth century, and Stephen of Alexandria in the early seventh century. John Philoponus stands out for having attempted a fundamental critique of Aristotle's views on the eternity of the world, movement, and other elements of Aristotelian thought. Philoponus questioned Aristotle's teaching of physics, noting its flaws and introducing the theory of impetus to explain his observations.
After a hiatus of several centuries, formal commentary by Eustratius and Michael of Ephesus reappeared in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, apparently sponsored by Anna Comnena. |
Aristotle | Medieval Islamic world | Medieval Islamic world
thumb|upright=0.8|Islamic portrayal of Aristotle (right) in the Kitāb naʿt al-ḥayawān, .
Aristotle is considered the most influential figure in the history of Arabic philosophy and was one of the most revered thinkers in early Islamic theology. Most of the still extant works of Aristotle, as well as a number of the original Greek commentaries, were translated into Arabic and studied by Muslim philosophers, scientists, and scholars. Averroes, Avicenna, and Alpharabius, who wrote on Aristotle in great depth, also influenced Thomas Aquinas and other Western Christian scholastic philosophers. Alkindus greatly admired Aristotle's philosophy, and Averroes spoke of Aristotle as the "exemplar" for all future philosophers. Medieval Muslim scholars regularly described Aristotle as the "First Teacher". The title was later used by Western philosophers (as in the famous poem of Dante) who were influenced by the tradition of Islamic philosophy. |
Aristotle | Medieval Europe | Medieval Europe
With the loss of the study of ancient Greek in the early medieval Latin West, Aristotle was practically unknown there from to except through the Latin translation of the Organon made by Boethius. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, interest in Aristotle revived and Latin Christians had translations made, both from Arabic translations, such as those by Gerard of Cremona, and from the original Greek, such as those by James of Venice and William of Moerbeke.
After the Scholastic Thomas Aquinas wrote his Summa Theologica, working from Moerbeke's translations and calling Aristotle "The Philosopher", the demand for Aristotle's writings grew, and the Greek manuscripts returned to the West, stimulating a revival of Aristotelianism in Europe that continued into the Renaissance. These thinkers blended Aristotelian philosophy with Christianity, bringing the thought of Ancient Greece into the Middle Ages. Scholars such as Boethius, Peter Abelard, and John Buridan worked on Aristotelian logic.
According to scholar Roger Theodore Lafferty, Dante built up the philosophy of the Comedy with the works of Aristotle as a foundation, just as the scholastics used Aristotle as the basis for their thinking. Dante knew Aristotle directly from Latin translations of his works and indirectly through quotations in the works of Albert Magnus.Lafferty, Roger. "The Philosophy of Dante", pg. 4 Dante even acknowledges Aristotle's influence explicitly in the poem, specifically when Virgil justifies the Inferno's structure by citing the Nicomachean Ethics.Inferno, Canto XI, lines 70–115, Mandelbaum translation. Dante famously refers to him as "he / Who is acknowledged Master of those who know".Inferno, Canto IV, lines 115-16 trans., 131 original, Robert Pinksky translation (1994); note to line, p.384 |
Aristotle | Medieval Judaism | Medieval Judaism
Moses Maimonides (considered to be the foremost intellectual figure of medieval Judaism) adopted Aristotelianism from the Islamic scholars and based his Guide for the Perplexed on it and that became the basis of Jewish scholastic philosophy. Maimonides also considered Aristotle to be the greatest philosopher that ever lived, and styled him as the "chief of the philosophers".Levi ben Gershom, The Wars of the Lord: Book one, Immortality of the soul, p. 35.Leon Simon, Aspects Of The Hebrew Genius: A Volume Of Essays On Jewish Literature And Thought (1910), p. 127.Herbert A. Davidson, Herbert A. |q (Herbert Alan) Davidson, Professor of Hebrew Emeritus Herbert Davidson, Moses Maimonides: The Man and His Works, p. 98. Also, in his letter to Samuel ibn Tibbon, Maimonides observes that there is no need for Samuel to study the writings of philosophers who preceded Aristotle because the works of the latter are "sufficient by themselves and [superior] to all that were written before them. His intellect, Aristotle's is the extreme limit of human intellect, apart from him upon whom the divine emanation has flowed forth to such an extent that they reach the level of prophecy, there being no level higher".Menachem Kellner, Maimonides on Judaism and the Jewish People, p. 77. |
Aristotle | Early Modern science | Early Modern science
thumb | William Harvey's , 1628, showed that the blood circulated, contrary to classical thinking.
In the early modern period, scientists such as William Harvey in England and Galileo Galilei in Italy reacted against the theories of Aristotle and other classical era thinkers like Galen, establishing new theories based to some degree on observation and experiment. Harvey demonstrated the circulation of the blood, establishing that the heart functioned as a pump rather than being the seat of the soul and the controller of the body's heat, as Aristotle thought. Galileo used more doubtful arguments to displace Aristotle's physics, proposing that bodies all fall at the same speed whatever their weight. |
Aristotle | 18th and 19th-century science | 18th and 19th-century science
The English mathematician George Boole fully accepted Aristotle's logic, but decided "to go under, over, and beyond" it with his system of algebraic logic in his 1854 book The Laws of Thought. This gives logic a mathematical foundation with equations, enables it to solve equations as well as check validity, and allows it to handle a wider class of problems by expanding propositions of any number of terms, not just two.
Charles Darwin regarded Aristotle as the most important contributor to the subject of biology. In an 1882 letter he wrote that "Linnaeus and Cuvier have been my two gods, though in very different ways, but they were mere schoolboys to old Aristotle". Also, in later editions of the book "On the Origin of Species', Darwin traced evolutionary ideas as far back as Aristotle; the text he cites is a summary by Aristotle of the ideas of the earlier Greek philosopher Empedocles. |
Aristotle | Present science | Present science
The philosopher Bertrand Russell claims that "almost every serious intellectual advance has had to begin with an attack on some Aristotelian doctrine". Russell calls Aristotle's ethics "repulsive", and labelled his logic "as definitely antiquated as Ptolemaic astronomy". Russell states that these errors make it difficult to do historical justice to Aristotle, until one remembers what an advance he made upon all of his predecessors.
The Dutch historian of science Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis writes that Aristotle and his predecessors showed the difficulty of science by "proceed[ing] so readily to frame a theory of such a general character" on limited evidence from their senses. In 1985, the biologist Peter Medawar could still state in "pure seventeenth century" tones that Aristotle had assembled "a strange and generally speaking rather tiresome farrago of hearsay, imperfect observation, wishful thinking and credulity amounting to downright gullibility".
Zoologists have frequently mocked Aristotle for errors and unverified secondhand reports. However, modern observation has confirmed several of his more surprising claims. Aristotle's work remains largely unknown to modern scientists, though zoologists sometimes mention him as the father of biology or in particular of marine biology. Practising zoologists are unlikely to adhere to Aristotle's chain of being, but its influence is still perceptible in the use of the terms "lower" and "upper" to designate taxa such as groups of plants. The evolutionary biologist Armand Marie Leroi has reconstructed Aristotle's biology, while Niko Tinbergen's four questions, based on Aristotle's four causes, are used to analyse animal behaviour; they examine function, phylogeny, mechanism, and ontogeny. The concept of homology began with Aristotle; the evolutionary developmental biologist Lewis I. Held commented that he would be interested in the concept of deep homology. In systematics too, recent studies suggest that Aristotle made important contributions in taxonomy and biological nomenclature. |
Aristotle | Surviving works | Surviving works |
Aristotle | Corpus Aristotelicum | Corpus Aristotelicum
thumb | upright=0.8 | First page of a 1566 edition of the Nicomachean Ethics in Greek and Latin
The works of Aristotle that have survived from antiquity through medieval manuscript transmission are collected in the Corpus Aristotelicum. These texts, as opposed to Aristotle's lost works, are technical philosophical treatises from within Aristotle's school. Reference to them is made according to the organization of Immanuel Bekker's Royal Prussian Academy edition (, Berlin, 1831–1870), which in turn is based on ancient classifications of these works. |
Aristotle | Loss and preservation | Loss and preservation
Aristotle wrote his works on papyrus scrolls, the common writing medium of that era. His writings are divisible into two groups: the "exoteric", intended for the public, and the "esoteric", for use within the Lyceum school. Aristotle's "lost" works stray considerably in characterization from the surviving Aristotelian corpus. Whereas the lost works appear to have been originally written with a view to subsequent publication, the surviving works mostly resemble lecture notes not intended for publication. Cicero's description of Aristotle's literary style as "a river of gold" must have applied to the published works, not the surviving notes. A major question in the history of Aristotle's works is how the exoteric writings were all lost, and how the ones now possessed came to be found. The consensus is that Andronicus of Rhodes collected the esoteric works of Aristotle's school which existed in the form of smaller, separate works, distinguished them from those of Theophrastus and other Peripatetics, edited them, and finally compiled them into the more cohesive, larger works as they are known today.
According to Strabo and Plutarch, after Aristotle's death, his library and writings went to Theophrastus (Aristotle's successor as head of the Lyceum and the Peripatetic school). After the death of Theophrastus, the peripatetic library went to Neleus of Scepsis.
Some time later, the Kingdom of Pergamon began conscripting books for a royal library, and the heirs of Neleus hid their collection in a cellar to prevent it from being seized for that purpose. The library was stored there for about a century and a half, in conditions that were not ideal for document preservation. On the death of Attalus III, which also ended the royal library ambitions, the existence of Aristotelian library was disclosed, and it was purchased by Apellicon and returned to Athens .
Apellicon sought to recover the texts, many of which were seriously degraded at this point due to the conditions in which they were stored. He had them copied out into new manuscripts, and used his best guesswork to fill in the gaps where the originals were unreadable.
When Sulla seized Athens in 86 BC, he seized the library and transferred it to Rome. There, Andronicus of Rhodes organized the texts into the first complete edition of Aristotle's works (and works attributed to him). The Aristotelian texts we have today are based on these. |
Aristotle | Depictions in art | Depictions in art |
Aristotle | Paintings | Paintings
Aristotle has been depicted by major artists including Lucas Cranach the Elder, Justus van Gent, Raphael, Paolo Veronese, Jusepe de Ribera, Rembrandt, and Francesco Hayez over the centuries. Among the best-known depictions is Raphael's fresco The School of Athens, in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, where the figures of Plato and Aristotle are central to the image, at the architectural vanishing point, reflecting their importance. Rembrandt's Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, too, is a celebrated work, showing the knowing philosopher and the blind Homer from an earlier age: as the art critic Jonathan Jones writes, "this painting will remain one of the greatest and most mysterious in the world, ensnaring us in its musty, glowing, pitch-black, terrible knowledge of time." |
Aristotle | Sculptures | Sculptures |
Aristotle | Eponyms | Eponyms
The Aristotle Mountains in Antarctica are named after Aristotle. He was the first person known to conjecture, in his book Meteorology, the existence of a landmass in the southern high-latitude region, which he called Antarctica. Aristoteles is a crater on the Moon bearing the classical form of Aristotle's name. (6123) Aristoteles, an asteroid in the main asteroid belt is also bearing the classical form of his name. |
Aristotle | See also | See also
Aristotelian Society
Conimbricenses
Perfectionism |
Aristotle | References | References |
Aristotle | Notes | Notes |
Aristotle | Citations | Citations |
Aristotle | Sources | Sources
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Aristotle | Further reading | Further reading
The secondary literature on Aristotle is vast. The following is only a small selection.
Ackrill, J. L. (1997). Essays on Plato and Aristotle, Oxford University Press.
These translations are available in several places online; see External links.
Bakalis, Nikolaos. (2005). Handbook of Greek Philosophy: From Thales to the Stoics Analysis and Fragments, Trafford Publishing, .
Bolotin, David (1998). An Approach to Aristotle's Physics: With Particular Attention to the Role of His Manner of Writing. Albany: SUNY Press. A contribution to our understanding of how to read Aristotle's scientific works.
Burnyeat, Myles F. et al. (1979). Notes on Book Zeta of Aristotle's Metaphysics. Oxford: Sub-faculty of Philosophy.
Code, Alan (1995). Potentiality in Aristotle's Science and Metaphysics, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 76.
De Groot, Jean (2014). Aristotle's Empiricism: Experience and Mechanics in the 4th century BC, Parmenides Publishing, .
Frede, Michael (1987). Essays in Ancient Philosophy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Gendlin, Eugene T. (2012). Line by Line Commentary on Aristotle's De Anima , Volume 1: Books I & II; Volume 2: Book III. The Focusing Institute.
Gill, Mary Louise (1989). Aristotle on Substance: The Paradox of Unity. Princeton University Press.
Jori, Alberto (2003). Aristotele, Bruno Mondadori (Prize 2003 of the "International Academy of the History of Science"), .
Knight, Kelvin (2007). Aristotelian Philosophy: Ethics and Politics from Aristotle to MacIntyre, Polity Press.
Lewis, Frank A. (1991). Substance and Predication in Aristotle. Cambridge University Press.
Lord, Carnes (1984). Introduction to The Politics, by Aristotle. Chicago University Press.
Loux, Michael J. (1991). Primary Ousia: An Essay on Aristotle's Metaphysics Ζ and Η. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Maso, Stefano (Ed.), Natali, Carlo (Ed.), Seel, Gerhard (Ed.) (2012) Reading Aristotle: Physics VII. 3: What is Alteration? Proceedings of the International ESAP-HYELE Conference, Parmenides Publishing. .
[Reprinted in J. Barnes, M. Schofield, and R. R. K. Sorabji, eds.(1975). Articles on Aristotle Vol 1. Science. London: Duckworth 14–34.]
Reeve, C. D. C. (2000). Substantial Knowledge: Aristotle's Metaphysics. Hackett.
Scaltsas, T. (1994). Substances and Universals in Aristotle's Metaphysics. Cornell University Press.
Strauss, Leo (1964). "On Aristotle's Politics", in The City and Man, Rand McNally.
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Aristotle | External links | External links
At the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
At the Internet Classics Archive
From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
Collections of works
At Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Perseus Project at Tufts University
At the University of Adelaide
P. Remacle
The 11-volume 1837 Bekker edition of Aristotle's Works in Greek (PDF DJVU)
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Aristotle | Table of Content | Short description, Life, Theoretical philosophy, Logic, ''Organon'', Metaphysics, Substance, Immanent realism, Potentiality and actuality, Epistemology, Natural philosophy, Physics, Five elements, Motion, Four causes, Optics, Chance and spontaneity, Astronomy, Geology and natural sciences, Biology, Empirical research, Scientific style, Classification of living things, Psychology, Soul, Memory, Dreams, Practical philosophy, Ethics, Politics, Economics, Rhetoric, Poetics, Gender and sexuality, Transmission, His successor, Theophrastus, Later Greek philosophy, Hellenistic science, Revival, Byzantine scholars, Medieval Islamic world, Medieval Europe, Medieval Judaism, Early Modern science, 18th and 19th-century science, Present science, Surviving works, Corpus Aristotelicum, Loss and preservation, Depictions in art, Paintings, Sculptures, Eponyms, See also, References, Notes, Citations, Sources, Further reading, External links |
An American in Paris | short description | An American in Paris is a jazz-influenced symphonic poem (or tone poem) for orchestra by American composer George Gershwin first performed in 1928. It was inspired by the time that Gershwin had spent in Paris and evokes the sights and energy of the French capital during the .
Gershwin scored the piece for the standard instruments of the symphony orchestra plus celesta, saxophones, and automobile horns. He brought back four Parisian taxi horns for the New York premiere of the composition, which took place on December 13, 1928, in Carnegie Hall, with Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Philharmonic.Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: Makoto Ozone to Perform Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue in One-Night-Only Concert All-American Program Also to Include Bernstein's Candide Overture and Symphonic Dances from West Side Story Gershwin's An American in Paris: April 22, 2014 at nyphil.org Accessed June 20, 2017 It was Damrosch who had commissioned Gershwin to write his Concerto in F following the earlier success of Rhapsody in Blue (1924)."An American in Paris", by Betsy Schwarm, Encyclopædia Britannica He completed the orchestration on November 18, less than four weeks before the work's premiere. He collaborated on the original program notes with critic and composer Deems Taylor.
On January 1, 2025, An American in Paris entered the public domain. |
An American in Paris | Background | Background
Although the story is likely apocryphal, Gershwin is said to have been attracted by Maurice Ravel's unusual chords, and Gershwin went on his first trip to Paris in 1926 ready to study with Ravel. After his initial student audition with Ravel turned into a sharing of musical theories, Ravel said he could not teach him, saying, "Why be a second-rate Ravel when you can be a first-rate Gershwin?"
Gershwin strongly encouraged Ravel to come to the United States for a tour. To this end, upon his return to New York, Gershwin joined the efforts of Ravel's friend Robert Schmitz, a pianist Ravel had met during the war, to urge Ravel to tour the U.S. Schmitz was the head of Pro Musica, promoting Franco-American musical relations, and was able to offer Ravel a $10,000 fee for the tour, an enticement Gershwin knew would be important to Ravel.
Gershwin greeted Ravel in New York in March 1928 during a party held for Ravel's birthday by Éva Gauthier. Ravel's tour reignited Gershwin's desire to return to Paris, which he and his brother Ira did after meeting Ravel. Ravel's high praise of Gershwin in an introductory letter to Nadia Boulanger caused Gershwin to seriously consider taking much more time to study abroad in Paris. Yet after he played for her, she told him she could not teach him. Boulanger gave Gershwin basically the same advice she gave all her accomplished master students: "What could I give you that you haven't already got?" This did not set Gershwin back, as his real intent abroad was to complete a new work based on Paris and perhaps a second rhapsody for piano and orchestra to follow his Rhapsody in Blue. Paris at this time hosted many expatriate writers, among them Ezra Pound, W. B. Yeats, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and artist Pablo Picasso.LSRI Archives Oral Interview Anita Loos and Mary Anita Loos October 1979 re: letters and Ravel's telegram to Gershwin |
An American in Paris | Composition | Composition
Gershwin based An American in Paris on a melodic fragment called "Very Parisienne", written in 1926 on his first visit to Paris as a gift to his hosts, Robert and Mabel Schirmer. Gershwin called it "a rhapsodic ballet"; it is written freely and in a much more modern idiom than his prior works.
Gershwin explained in Musical America, "My purpose here is to portray the impressions of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city, listens to the various street noises, and absorbs the French atmosphere."
The piece is structured into five sections, which culminate in a loose A–B–A format. Gershwin's first A episode introduces the two main "walking" themes in the "Allegretto grazioso" and develops a third theme in the "Subito con brio". The style of this A section is written in the typical French style of composers Claude Debussy and Les Six. This A section featured duple meter, singsong rhythms, and diatonic melodies with the sounds of oboe, English horn, and taxi horns. It also includes a melody fragment of the song "La Sorella" by Charles Borel-Clerc (1879–1959) (published in 1905).
The B section's "Andante ma con ritmo deciso" introduces the American Blues and spasms of homesickness. The "Allegro" that follows continues to express homesickness in a faster twelve-bar blues. In the B section, Gershwin uses common time, syncopated rhythms, and bluesy melodies with the sounds of trumpet, saxophone, and snare drum. "Moderato con grazia" is the last A section that returns to the themes set in A. After recapitulating the "walking" themes, Gershwin overlays the slow blues theme from section B in the final "Grandioso". |
An American in Paris | Response | Response
Gershwin did not particularly like Walter Damrosch's interpretation at the world premiere of An American in Paris. He stated that Damrosch's sluggish, dragging tempo caused him to walk out of the hall during a matinee performance of this work. The audience, according to Edward Cushing, responded with "a demonstration of enthusiasm impressively genuine in contrast to the conventional applause which new music, good and bad, ordinarily arouses."
Critics believed that An American in Paris was better crafted than Gershwin's Concerto in F. Evening Post did not think it belonged in a program with classical composers César Franck, Richard Wagner, or Guillaume Lekeu on its premiere. Gershwin responded to the critics: |
An American in Paris | Instrumentation | Instrumentation
An American in Paris was originally scored for 3 flutes (3rd doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets in B-flat, bass clarinet in B-flat, 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in B-flat, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, bass drum, triangle, wood block, ratchet, cymbals, low and high tom-toms, xylophone, glockenspiel, celesta, 4 taxi horns labeled as A, B, C, and D with circles around them (but tuned as follows: A=Ab, B=Bb, C=D, and D=low A), alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone (all doubling soprano and alto saxophones), and strings. Although most modern audiences have heard the taxi horns using the incorrect notes of A, B, C, and D, it had been Gershwin's intention to use the notes A4, B4, D5, and A3. It is likely that in labeling the taxi horns as A, B, C, and D with circles, he was referring to the four horns, and not the notes that they played. The correct tuning of the horns in sequence = D horn = low Ab, A horn = Ab an octave higher, B horn = Bb just above the Ab, and C horn = high D above the Bb.
A major revision of the work by composer and arranger F. Campbell-Watson simplified the instrumentation by reducing the saxophones to only three instruments: alto, tenor and baritone; the soprano and alto saxophone doublings were eliminated to avoid changing instruments. This became the standard performing edition until 2000, when Gershwin specialist Jack Gibbons made his own restoration of the original orchestration of An American in Paris, working directly from Gershwin's original manuscript, including the restoration of Gershwin's soprano saxophone parts removed in Campbell-Watson's revision. Gibbons' restored orchestration of An American in Paris was performed at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on July 9, 2000, by the City of Oxford Orchestra conducted by Levon Parikian.
William Daly arranged the score for piano solo; this was published by New World Music in 1929. |
An American in Paris | Preservation status | Preservation status
On September 22, 2013, it was announced that a musicological critical edition of the full orchestral score would be eventually released. The Gershwin family, working in conjunction with the Library of Congress and the University of Michigan, were working to make scores available to the public that represent Gershwin's true intent. It was unknown whether the critical score would include the four minutes of material Gershwin later deleted from the work (such as the restatement of the blues theme after the faster 12 bar blues section), or if the score would document changes in the orchestration during Gershwin's composition process.
The score to An American in Paris was scheduled to be issued first in a series of scores to be released. The entire project was expected to take 30 to 40 years to complete, but An American in Paris was planned to be an early volume in the series.
Two urtext editions of the work were published by the German publisher B-Note Music in 2015. The changes made by Campbell-Watson were withdrawn in both editions. In the extended urtext, 120 bars of music were re-integrated. Conductor Walter Damrosch had cut them shortly before the first performance.
On September 9, 2017, The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra gave the world premiere of the long-awaited critical edition of the piece prepared by Mark Clague, director of the Gershwin initiative at the University of Michigan. This performance was of the original 1928 orchestration. |
An American in Paris | Recordings | Recordings
An American in Paris has been frequently recorded. The first recording was made for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1929 with Nathaniel Shilkret conducting the Victor Symphony Orchestra, drawn from members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Gershwin was on hand to "supervise" the recording; however, Shilkret was reported to be in charge and eventually asked the composer to leave the recording studio. Then, a little later, Shilkret discovered there was no one to play the brief celesta solo during the slow section, so he hastily asked Gershwin if he might play the solo; Gershwin said he could and so he briefly participated in the actual recording. This recording is believed to use the taxi horns in the way that Gershwin had intended using the notes A-flat, B-flat, a higher D, and a lower A.
The radio broadcast of the September 8, 1937, Hollywood Bowl George Gershwin Memorial Concert, in which An American in Paris, also conducted by Shilkret, was second on the program, was recorded and was released in 1998 in a two-CD set.
Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra recorded the work for RCA Victor, including one of the first stereo recordings of the music.
In 1945, Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra recorded the piece for RCA Victor, one of the few commercial recordings Toscanini made of music by an American composer.
The Seattle Symphony also recorded a version in 1990 of Gershwin's original score, before numerous edits were made resulting in the score as we hear it today.
The blues section of An American in Paris has been recorded separately by a number of artists; Ralph Flanagan & His Orchestra released it as a single in 1951 which reached No. 15 on the Billboard chart. Harry James released a version of the blues section on his 1953 album One Night Stand, recorded live at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago (Columbia GL 522 and CL 522). |
An American in Paris | Use in film | Use in film
In 1951, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released the musical film An American in Paris, featuring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron and directed by Vincente Minnelli. Winning the 1951 Best Picture Oscar and numerous other awards, the film featured many tunes of Gershwin and concluded with an extensive, elaborate dance sequence built around the symphonic poem An American in Paris (arranged for the film by Johnny Green), which at the time was the most expensive musical number ever filmed, costing $500,000 .The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study |
An American in Paris | Notes and references | Notes and references |
An American in Paris | Further reading | Further reading
|
An American in Paris | External links | External links
Scores, marked by Leonard Bernstein, Andre Kostelanetz, Erich Leinsdorf; New York Philharmonic archives
1944 recording by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Artur Rodziński
, New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, 1959. archive
Category:1928 compositions
Category:Compositions by George Gershwin
Category:Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients
Category:Music about Paris
Category:Music commissioned by the New York Philharmonic
Category:Symphonic poems
Category:Compositions for symphony orchestra
Category:Concert band pieces |
An American in Paris | Table of Content | short description, Background, Composition, Response, Instrumentation, Preservation status, Recordings, Use in film, Notes and references, Further reading, External links |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | Short description | The Academy Award for Best Production Design recognizes achievement for art direction in film. The category's original name was Best Art Direction, but was changed to its current name in 2012 for the 85th Academy Awards. This change resulted from the Art Directors' branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) being renamed the Designers' branch. Since 1947, the award is shared with the set decorators. It is awarded to the best interior design in a film.
The films below are listed with their production year (for example, the 2000 Academy Award for Best Art Direction is given to a film from 1999). In the lists below, the winner of the award for each year is shown first, followed by the other nominees in alphabetical order. |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | Superlatives | Superlatives
Category Name Superlative Notes Most Awards Cedric Gibbons 11 awards Awards resulted from 39 nominations. Most Nominations 39 nominations Nominations resulted in 11 awards. Most Nominations (without ever winning) Roland Anderson 15 nominations Nominations resulted in no awards. |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | Winners and nominees | Winners and nominees |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | 1920s | 1920s
Year Film Art director(s)1927/28 The Dove William Cameron Menzies Tempest 7th Heaven Harry Oliver Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans Rochus Gliese 1928/29 The 2nd Academy Awards is unique in being the only occasion where there were no official nominees. Subsequent research by AMPAS has resulted in a list of unofficial or de facto nominees, based on records of which films were evaluated by the judges. The Bridge of San Luis Rey Cedric Gibbons Alibi William Cameron Menzies The Awakening Dynamite Mitchell Leisen The Patriot Hans Dreier Street Angel Harry Oliver |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | 1930s | 1930s
Year Film Art director(s)1929/30 King of Jazz Herman Rosse Bulldog Drummond William Cameron Menzies The Love Parade Hans Dreier Sally Jack Okey The Vagabond King Hans Dreier 1930/31 Cimarron Max Rée Just Imagine Stephen Goosson and Ralph Hammeras Morocco Hans Dreier Svengali Anton Grot Whoopee! Richard Day 1931/32 Transatlantic Gordon Wiles Arrowsmith Richard Day À Nous la Liberté Lazare Meerson 1932/33 Cavalcade William S. Darling A Farewell to Arms Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson When Ladies Meet Cedric Gibbons 1934 The Merry Widow Cedric Gibbons and Fredric Hope The Affairs of Cellini Richard Day The Gay Divorcee Van Nest Polglase and Carroll Clark 1935 The Dark Angel Richard Day The Lives of a Bengal Lancer Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson Top Hat Carroll Clark and Van Nest Polglase 1936 Dodsworth Richard Day Anthony Adverse Anton Grot The Great Ziegfeld Cedric Gibbons, Eddie Imazu and Edwin B. Willis Lloyd's of London William S. Darling The Magnificent Brute Albert S. D'Agostino and Jack Otterson Romeo and Juliet Cedric Gibbons, Fredric Hope and Edwin B. Willis Winterset Perry Ferguson 1937 Lost Horizon Stephen Goosson Conquest Cedric Gibbons and William A. Horning A Damsel in Distress Carroll Clark Dead End Richard Day Every Day's a Holiday Wiard Ihnen The Life of Emile Zola Anton Grot Manhattan Merry-Go-Round John Victor Mackay The Prisoner of Zenda Lyle R. Wheeler Souls at Sea Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson Walter Wanger's Vogues of 1938 Alexander Toluboff Wee Willie Winkie William S. Darling and David S. Hall You're a Sweetheart Jack Otterson 1938 The Adventures of Robin Hood Carl Jules Weyl The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Lyle R. Wheeler Alexander's Ragtime Band Bernard Herzbrun and Boris Leven Algiers Alexander Toluboff Carefree Van Nest Polglase The Goldwyn Follies Richard Day Holiday Stephen Goosson and Lionel Banks If I Were King Hans Dreier and John B. Goodman Mad About Music Jack Otterson Marie Antoinette Cedric Gibbons Merrily We Live Charles D. Hall 1939 Gone with the Wind Lyle R. Wheeler Beau Geste Hans Dreier and Robert Odell Captain Fury Charles D. Hall First Love Jack Otterson and Martin Obzina Love Affair Van Nest Polglase and Alfred Herman Man of Conquest John Victor Mackay Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Lionel Banks The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex Anton Grot The Rains Came William S. Darling and George Dudley Stagecoach Alexander Toluboff The Wizard of Oz Cedric Gibbons and William A. Horning Wuthering Heights James Basevi |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | 1940s | 1940s
Year Film Art director(s) Interior decorator(s) 1940 Prior to 1941, only credited art directors and assistant art directors were eligible for nomination. Black-and-White Pride and Prejudice Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse — Arise, My Love Hans Dreier and Robert Usher — Arizona Lionel Banks and Robert Peterson The Boys from Syracuse Jack Otterson Dark Command John Victor Mackay Foreign Correspondent Alexander Golitzen Lillian Russell Richard Day and Joseph C. Wright My Favorite Wife Van Nest Polglase and Mark-Lee Kirk My Son, My Son! John DuCasse Schulze Our Town Lewis J. Rachmil Rebecca Lyle R. Wheeler The Sea Hawk Anton Grot The Westerner James Basevi Color The Thief of Bagdad Vincent Korda — Bitter Sweet Cedric Gibbons and John S. Detlie — Down Argentine Way Richard Day and Joseph C. Wright North West Mounted Police Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson 1941 Republic Pictures submitted Sis Hopkins and it was initially named as a nominee. However, the studio later withdrew the film from consideration and it is not considered an official nominee. Black-and-White How Green Was My Valley Richard Day and Nathan Juran Thomas Little Citizen Kane Perry Ferguson and Van Nest Polglase A. Roland Fields and Darrell Silvera The Flame of New Orleans Martin Obzina and Jack Otterson Russell A. Gausman Hold Back the Dawn Hans Dreier and Robert Usher Samuel M. Comer Ladies in Retirement Lionel Banks George Montgomery The Little Foxes Stephen Goosson Howard Bristol Sergeant York John Hughes Fred M. MacLean The Son of Monte Cristo John DuCasse Schulze Edward G. Boyle Sundown Alexander Golitzen Richard Irvine That Hamilton Woman Vincent Korda Julia Heron When Ladies Meet Cedric Gibbons and Randall Duell Edwin B. Willis Color Blossoms in the Dust Cedric Gibbons and Urie McCleary Edwin B. Willis Blood and Sand Richard Day and Joseph C. Wright Thomas Little Louisiana Purchase Raoul Pene Du Bois Stephen Seymour 1942 Black-and-White This Above All Richard Day and Joseph C. Wright Thomas Little George Washington Slept Here Max Parker and Mark-Lee Kirk Casey Roberts The Magnificent Ambersons Albert S. D'Agostino A. Roland Fields and Darrell Silvera The Pride of the Yankees Perry Ferguson Howard Bristol Random Harvest Cedric Gibbons and Randall Duell Edwin B. Willis and Jack Moore The Shanghai GestureBoris Leven Silver Queen Ralph Berger Emile Kuri The Spoilers John B. Goodman and Jack Otterson Russell A. Gausman and Edward Ray Robinson Take a Letter, Darling Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson Samuel M. Comer The Talk of the Town Lionel Banks and Rudolph Sternad Fay Babcock Color My Gal Sal Richard Day and Joseph C. Wright Thomas Little Arabian Nights Alexander Golitzen and Jack Otterson Russell A. Gausman and Ira S. Webb Captains of the Clouds Ted Smith Casey Roberts Jungle Book Vincent Korda Julia Heron Reap the Wild Wind Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson George Sawley 1943 Black-and-White The Song of Bernadette James Basevi and William S. Darling Thomas Little Five Graves to Cairo Hans Dreier and Ernst Fegté Bertram C. Granger Flight for Freedom Albert S. D'Agostino and Carroll Clark Darrell Silvera and Harley Miller Madame Curie Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt Mission to Moscow Carl Jules Weyl George James Hopkins The North Star Perry Ferguson Howard Bristol Color Phantom of the Opera Alexander Golitzen and John B. Goodman Russell A. Gausman and Ira S. Webb For Whom the Bell Tolls Hans Dreier and Haldane Douglas Bertram C. Granger The Gang's All Here James Basevi and Joseph C. Wright Thomas Little This Is the Army John Hughes George James Hopkins Thousands Cheer Cedric Gibbons and Daniel Cathcart Edwin B. Willis and Jacques Mersereau 1944 United Artists submitted Song of the Open Road and it was initially named as a nominee. However, the studio later withdrew the film from consideration and it is not considered an official nominee. Black-and-White Gaslight Cedric Gibbons and William Ferrari Paul Huldschinsky and Edwin B. Willis Address Unknown Lionel Banks and Walter Holscher Joseph Kish The Adventures of Mark Twain John Hughes Fred M. MacLean Casanova Brown Perry Ferguson Julia Heron Laura Lyle R. Wheeler and Leland Fuller Thomas Little No Time for Love Hans Dreier and Robert Usher Samuel M. Comer Since You Went Away Mark-Lee Kirk Victor A. Gangelin Step Lively Albert S. D'Agostino and Carroll Clark Darrell Silvera and Claude E. Carpenter Color Wilson Wiard Ihnen Thomas Little The Climax John B. Goodman and Alexander Golitzen Russell A. Gausman and Ira S. Webb Cover Girl Lionel Banks and Cary Odell Fay Babcock The Desert Song Charles Novi Jack McConaghy Kismet Cedric Gibbons and Daniel B. Cathcart Edwin B. Willis and Richard Pefferle Lady in the Dark Hans Dreier and Raoul Pene Du Bois Ray Moyer The Princess and the Pirate Ernst Fegté Howard Bristol 1945 Black-and-White Blood on the Sun Wiard Ihnen A. Roland Fields Experiment Perilous Albert S. D'Agostino and Jack Okey Darrell Silvera and Claude E. Carpenter The Keys of the Kingdom James Basevi and William S. Darling Thomas Little and Frank E. Hughes Love Letters Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer The Picture of Dorian Gray Cedric Gibbons and Hans Peters Edwin B. Willis and John Bonar and Hugh Hunt Color Frenchman's Creek Hans Dreier and Ernst Fegté Samuel M. Comer Leave Her to Heaven Lyle R. Wheeler and Maurice Ransford Thomas Little National Velvet Cedric Gibbons and Urie McCleary Edwin B. Willis and Mildred Griffiths San Antonio Ted Smith Jack McConaghy A Thousand and One Nights Stephen Goosson and Rudolph Sternad Frank Tuttle 1946 Black-and-White Anna and the King of Siam William S. Darling and Lyle R. Wheeler Thomas Little and Frank E. Hughes Kitty Hans Dreier and Walter H. Tyler Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer The Razor's Edge Richard Day and Nathan H. Juran Thomas Little and Paul S. Fox Color The Yearling Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse Edwin B. Willis Caesar and Cleopatra John Bryan — Henry V Paul Sheriff and Carmen Dillon 1947 Black-and-White Great Expectations Wilfred Shingleton John Bryan The Foxes of Harrow Lyle R. Wheeler and Maurice Ransford Thomas Little and Paul S. Fox Color Black Narcissus Alfred Junge — Life with Father Robert M. Haas George James Hopkins 1948 Black-and-White Hamlet Roger K. Furse Carmen Dillon Johnny Belinda Robert M. Haas William O. Wallace Color The Red Shoes Hein Heckroth Arthur Lawson Joan of Arc Richard Day Edwin Casey Roberts and Joseph Kish 1949 Black-and-White The Heiress Harry Horner and John Meehan Emile Kuri Come to the Stable Lyle R. Wheeler and Joseph C. Wright Thomas Little and Paul S. Fox Madame Bovary Cedric Gibbons and Jack Martin Smith Edwin B. Willis and Richard A. Pefferle Color Little Women Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore Adventures of Don Juan Edward Carrere Lyle Reifsnider Saraband Jim Morahan and William Kellner Michael Relph |
Academy Award for Best Production Design | 1950s | 1950s
Year Film Art director(s) Set decorator(s) 1950 Black-and-White Sunset Boulevard Hans Dreier and John Meehan Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer All About Eve George W. Davis and Lyle R. Wheeler Thomas Little and Walter M. Scott The Red Danube Cedric Gibbons and Hans Peters Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt Color Samson and Delilah Hans Dreier and Walter H. Tyler Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer Annie Get Your Gun Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse Edwin B. Willis and Richard A. Pefferle Destination Moon Ernst Fegté George Sawley 1951 Black-and-White A Streetcar Named Desire Richard Day George James Hopkins Fourteen Hours Leland Fuller and Lyle R. Wheeler Thomas Little and Fred J. Rode The House on Telegraph Hill John DeCuir and Lyle R. Wheeler Paul S. Fox and Thomas Little La Ronde D'Eaubonne — Too Young to Kiss Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore Color An American in Paris E. Preston Ames and Cedric Gibbons Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason David and Bathsheba George Davis and Lyle R. Wheeler Paul S. Fox and Thomas Little On the Riviera Leland Fuller, Lyle R. Wheeler and Joseph C. Wright (musical settings) Thomas Little and Walter M. Scott Quo Vadis Edward Carfagno, Cedric Gibbons and William A. Horning Hugh Hunt The Tales of Hoffmann Hein Heckroth — 1952 Black-and-White The Bad and the Beautiful Edward Carfagno and Cedric Gibbons F. Keogh Gleason and Edwin B. Willis Carrie Roland Anderson and Hal Pereira Emile Kuri My Cousin Rachel John DeCuir and Lyle R. Wheeler Walter M. Scott Rashomon So Matsuyama H. Motsumoto Viva Zapata! Leland Fuller and Lyle R. Wheeler Claude E. Carpenter and Thomas Little Color Moulin Rouge Paul Sheriff Marcel Vertès Hans Christian Andersen Clavé and Richard Day Howard Bristol The Merry Widow Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse Arthur Krams and Edwin B. Willis The Quiet Man Frank Hotaling John McCarthy Jr. and Charles S. Thompson The Snows of Kilimanjaro John DeCuir and Lyle R. Wheeler Paul S. Fox and Thomas Little 1953 Black-and-White Julius Caesar Edward Carfagno and Cedric Gibbons Hugh Hunt and Edwin B. Willis Martin Luther Paul Markwitz and Fritz Maurischat — The President's Lady Leland Fuller and Lyle R. Wheeler Paul S. Fox Roman Holiday Hal Pereira and Walter H. Tyler — Titanic Maurice Ransford and Lyle R. Wheeler Stuart Reiss Color The Robe George Davis and Lyle R. Wheeler Paul S. Fox and Walter M. Scott Knights of the Round Table Alfred Junge and Hans Peters John Jarvis Lili Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse Arthur Krams and Edwin B. Willis The Story of Three Loves E. Preston Ames, Edward Carfagno, Cedric Gibbons and Gabriel Scognamillo F. Keogh Gleason, Arthur Krams, Jack D. Moore and Edwin B. Willis Young Bess Cedric Gibbons and Urie McCleary Jack D. Moore and Edwin B. Willis 1954 Black-and-White On the Waterfront Richard Day — The Country Girl Roland Anderson and Hal Pereira Samuel M. Comer and Grace Gregory Executive Suite Cedric Gibbons and Edward Carfagno Edwin B. Willis and Emile Kuri Le Plaisir Max Ophüls — Sabrina Hal Pereira and Walter H. Tyler Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer Color 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea John Meehan Emile Kuri Brigadoon Cedric Gibbons and E. Preston Ames Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason Desiree Lyle R. Wheeler and Leland Fuller Walter M. Scott and Paul S. Fox Red Garters Hal Pereira and Roland Anderson Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer A Star Is Born Malcolm Bert and Gene Allen Irene Sharaff and George James Hopkins 1955 Black-and-White The Rose Tattoo Hal Pereira and Tambi Larsen Samuel M. Comer and Arthur Krams Blackboard Jungle Cedric Gibbons and Randall Duell Edwin B. Willis and Henry Grace I'll Cry Tomorrow Cedric Gibbons and Malcolm Brown Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt The Man with the Golden Arm Joseph C. Wright Darrell Silvera Marty Edward S. Haworth and Walter M. Simonds Robert Priestley Color Picnic William Flannery and Jo Mielziner Robert Priestley Daddy Long Legs Lyle R. Wheeler and John DeCuir Walter M. Scott and Paul S. Fox Guys and Dolls Oliver Smith and Joseph C. Wright Howard Bristol Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing Lyle R. Wheeler and George Davis Walter M. Scott and Jack Stubbs To Catch a Thief Hal Pereira and Joseph McMillan Johnson Samuel M. Comer and Arthur Krams 1956 Black-and-White Somebody Up There Likes Me Cedric Gibbons and Malcolm Brown Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason Seven Samurai So Matsuyama — The Proud and Profane Hal Pereira and A. Earl Hedrick Samuel M. Comer and Frank R. McKelvy The Solid Gold Cadillac Ross Bellah William Kiernan and Louis Diage Teenage Rebel Lyle R. Wheeler and Jack Martin Smith Walter M. Scott and Stuart A. Reiss Color The King and I Lyle R. Wheeler and John DeCuir Walter M. Scott and Paul S. Fox Around the World in 80 Days James W. Sullivan and Ken Adam Ross J. Dowd Giant Boris Leven Ralph S. Hurst Lust for Life Cedric Gibbons and Hans Peters and E. Preston Ames Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason The Ten Commandments Walter H. Tyler and Albert Nozaki Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer 1957 In 1957 and 1958, black-and-white and color films competed in a combined Best Art Direction category. Sayonara Ted Haworth Robert Priestley Funny Face Hal Pereira and George Davis Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer Les Girls William A. Horning and Gene Allen Edwin B. Willis and Richard Pefferle Pal Joey Walter Holscher William Kiernan and Louis Diage Raintree County William A. Horning and Urie McCleary Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt 1958 Gigi William A. Horning and E. Preston Ames Henry Grace and F. Keogh Gleason Auntie Mame Malcolm Bert George James Hopkins Bell, Book and Candle Cary Odell Louis Diage A Certain Smile Lyle R. Wheeler and John DeCuir Walter M. Scott and Paul S. Fox Vertigo Hal Pereira and Henry Bumstead Samuel M. Comer and Frank McKelvy 1959 Black-and-White The Diary of Anne Frank Lyle R. Wheeler and George Davis Walter M. Scott and Stuart A. Reiss Career Hal Pereira and Walter H. Tyler Samuel M. Comer and Arthur Krams The Last Angry Man Carl Anderson William Kiernan Some Like It Hot Ted Haworth Edward G. Boyle Suddenly, Last Summer Oliver Messel and William Kellner Scott Slimon Color Ben-Hur William A. Horning and Edward Carfagno Hugh Hunt The Big Fisherman John DeCuir Julia Heron Journey to the Center of the Earth Lyle R. Wheeler, Franz Bachelin and Herman A. Blumenthal Walter M. Scott and Joseph Kish North by Northwest William A. Horning , Robert F. Boyle and Merrill Pye Henry Grace and Frank McKelvy Pillow Talk Richard H. Riedel Russell A. Gausman and Ruby R. Levitt |
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