WI: No Aristotle...

Let's say that Aristotle either doesn't survive to adulthood or dies before he leaves Plato's academy, and thus doesn't contribute much to the development of western thought. What would be the implications?

I have my own ideas of course, but I'm not an expert on the man or his works, so I'd like to hear from the crowd first.
 
Let's say that Aristotle either doesn't survive to adulthood or dies before he leaves Plato's academy, and thus doesn't contribute much to the development of western thought. What would be the implications?

I have my own ideas of course, but I'm not an expert on the man or his works, so I'd like to hear from the crowd first.

Well for one, there'd be a lot of happy undergraduates! :rolleyes:

Seriously, no Aristotle would have a huge impact on the development of medieval Abrahamic monotheism. Aristotelian and neo-Aristotelian philosophy heavily influenced medieval Muslim philosophy and theology. In turn, Jewish and Christian scholars in the mixing bowl of Islamic Spain translated and annotated Aristotelian works. Works translated into Latin had an incalcuable impact on the development of western Christianity. Certainly, Thomism would not have even taken off without its strong foundation in Aristotle's Metaphysics.

Perhaps the better question to ask is: in what way would Abrahamic monotheism develop without Aristotelian thought?
 
First, the impact Alexander, who from age 13 to 17 was tutored exclusively by him.

Second, logic (and science as we know it) would have changed. His treatises, which influenced as distant thinkers as Newton, would never be written. Politics, Physics, Metaphysics, Generation of Animals , History of Animals, Nicomachean Ethics (named after his son, Nicomachus, who is thought to have edited his father's work), Rhetoric , Poetics , On the Heavens, Meteorology, and Prior Analytics .

Aristotle developed the processes of scientific observation and experimentation in the material world.

He is credited with establishing systems and categories of scholarly research that have survived to the present day.


I would question, would the scientific method have even come into play at all, or would the world have continued along with a naturalism point of view (Plato's POV)? Even if it did develop, it owuld be much longer.

Incidentally, this rather eliminates Galileo from devising a heliocentric view of the solar system, and his entire schism with the church.

For that matter, wonder what would have become of Leonardo? Likely just another Rembrandt, but still, quite interesting.

Butterflies abound around such an influential figure!
 
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