Aristotle
Greek philosopher, founder of the Lyceum (384–322 BCE)
Also known as: Aristoteles
Aristotle (384–322 BCE), Greek philosopher and founder of the Lyceum, is for Quigley the principal classical reference for how a civilization's cognitive system structures its political possibilities. His organic conception of the polis and his teleological metaphysics anchor large sections of Quigley's discussion of Classical Civilization and of the cognitive-systems argument running through Weapons Systems and Political Stability.
The polis as organism
Quigley's central engagement with Aristotle is on the political question of community-as-organism. "To Aristotle, about 350 B.C., the polis was a koinonia, a community. It was not only social and almost total; it was also natural and it was organic, in the same sense that a living body is organic. That is why Aristotle says that no man can live outside the polis; if he does, he is" not really a man at all (WS 335). The lecture-room version makes the same point: Aristotle "told us that the polis is a koinonia or community, that is, an organic structure of dissimilar parts cooperating together for mutual satisfaction of their needs. He said a man cut off from the polis is not a man; he just looks like a man. He's like a thumb cut off from" the body (Lectures 7). Quigley uses Aristotle to identify the organic-political view that, in his analytical scheme, recurs in every civilization that institutionalizes its instruments rather than reforming them.
Aristotelian metaphysics and modern thought
In Needed, A New Revolution in Thinking Quigley argues that the inherited Aristotelian framework persists even where its premises are no longer held. "From such reasoning, given to us from the Greeks through Aristotle, we got the 'final' causes (or goals) and the 'Unmoved Mover' (that which is the first cause of all movement and does not itself move) of Aristotelian metaphysics, and, today, we still use this way of thinking, even though we no longer believe in Aristotle's metaphysics" (Needed New Revolution 5). The argument continues directly: "The now obsolescent mode of thought and cognition just described might be contrasted with a newer method which is, incidentally, closer to the thinking processes of southern and eastern Asia" (Needed New Revolution 6). Aristotle is, in Quigley's reading, both the indispensable point of departure for Western analytical thought and an obstacle to its further development.
Cited in
- weapons-systems-political-stability · p. 335 Quigley
To Aristotle, about 350 B.C., the polis was a koinonia, a community. It was not only social and almost total; it was also natural and it was organic, in the same sense that a living body is organic.
- weapons-systems-political-stability · p. 336 Quigley
At Aristotle's death, a century later (384–322), these erroneous ideas had been partly dispelled by the Sophists' nominalist approach to current problems. But the writings of the Sophists were soon largely eclipsed by the reactionary theories of Plato, Xenophon, and Aristotle.
- evolution-of-civilizations · p. 44 Quigley
The Classical Greeks, like Aristotle, sought to ignore it by merely assuming that everything had a purpose and that everything by its very nature sought to achieve its purpose. This is generally known as a teleological explanation.
- book-reviews · p. 77 Quigley
Plato and Aristotle, as political reactionaries, wished to preserve that condition and the polis itself.
- quigley-lectures · p. 7 Quigley
In the fourth century B.C., Aristotle told us that the polis is a koinonia or community, that is, an organic structure of dissimilar parts cooperating together for mutual satisfaction of their needs.
- needed-new-revolution-thinking · p. 5 Quigley
From such reasoning, given to us from the Greeks through Aristotle, we got the 'final' causes (or goals) and the 'Unmoved Mover'… and, today, we still use this way of thinking, even though we no longer believe in Aristotle's metaphysics.