Physics: Studies and observations about physical subjects are contained in the works Physics; On the Heavens; On Generation and Corruption; Meteorology; Parts of Animals; Movement of Animals; On the Soul. As can be seen from the titles, these studies cover nature, biology, and theology.
Ontology: The works in question centre on Aristotle's Metaphysics. Plato had arrived at the view that there are two worlds: the world of the Forms - eternal, unchanging - and the world of the senses, sense-objects and variable things. Aristotle, in opposition to this, though without denying the importance of the 'forms', argued that they are inherent in the world of sense, as potentialities that give form to matter. So for Aristotle, it is 'form' and matter that together make up the essence of the world. He had another bone to pick with his Teacher as well: whereas for Plato the Form was the true be-all and end-all, what was primary for Aristotle was the Event. Lastly, Aristotle introduced the analytical method, where scientific observation is required before making a synthesis. This view was akin to that of Democritus, but the difference between the two was the difference in Aristotle's starting-points: the principle of individual free will and the principle of entelechy (the idea that purposive behaviour is inherent in matter). The second of these principles meant that Aristotelian theory was characterized as 'teleological'.
Logic: in Byzantine times, the works of Aristotle that refer to logic and methodology were gathered into a single volume with the title Organon (the Tool). Aristotle drafted the basic laws of logic, the law of identity, the law of (non) contradiction and the law of the excluded middle. Using these laws and his theory of logical categories - concept, judgment, syllogism - he was able to lay the foundations of formal logic.
Politics: Aristotle also
dealt with social and constitutional history. Only one work - the
Politics - has come down to us. The treatise Constitution
of Athens and fragments of works on the constitutions
of cities other than Athens are samples of his school's teaching
programme. In the Politics Aristotle distinguishes three
main forms of government: monarchy, democracy and aristocracy.
Mutants of these three are tyranny, mob-rule, and oligarchy.
Besides looking at forms of government, Aristotle also sets out
here his views on the relationship between household and polis;
relations between the members of the individual household; and
economy. He distinguishes the economy needed to maintain the
independence of a household or a state ("monetary economy")
from the economy which leads to gain ("merchant variety
of monetary economy"). To document his views, Aristotle
cites information that is valuable to us in his book - details of
social oppositions, class war, and other ruling views of his
time. He also sets out the socioeconomic and political reforms in
various cities (both Greek and non-Greek) from the earliest times
up to the
Ethics: His works on ethics comprise three studies: the Eudemian Ethics, the Greater Moralia, and the Nicomachean Ethics. The last named is the work where Aristotle asserts that the goal of every individual is happiness, conceived differently in each case. Without absolutely rejecting other goods, he considers that intellectual goods - those gifted us through our cultivating of virtue - have the greatest value. For him, virtue is not imposed but is dependent on the free will of the individual. Aristotle classified expansiveness and friendship among the chiefer virtues, with love being a species of friendship.
Aesthetics: In Aristotle's philosophy, art was the creative imaging of reality with the aid of the senses. He recognized tragedy as a higher species of art, while characterizing any manual work as 'banausic'. Surviving works of his that deal with topics in aesthetics are: the Poetics, where we find his definition of tragedy; and the Rhetoric, which contains general rules for good style and indications of how a public speaker can express himself in order to carry conviction with his fellow-speakers.
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