History & Culture : Aristotle

Besides Aristotle's belief regarding Plato's "ideas" he supports other "ideas" too. He does not deny pleasure, but he prefers the one that stems from intellectuality. The purpose of human acts, according to Aristotle, is happiness, which he defines as an action in total agreement with virtue. When the virtue dominates our passions and urges it regulates them by playing the part of the measure between two ends, that is the exaggeration and the deficiency. Thus, "calm" for example is a virtue which stands between anger and insensitivity, the "bravery" as it stands between audacity and cowardliness, and "disgrace" because it stands between impudence and wonder, which are two ends. Supplementary to virtue are the goods of the body (power, health, beauty), and fortune goods (wealth, noble origins, e.t.c).According to all these the man who is happy is the man that acts under the command of virtue and at the same time receives a small share of the other goods, the so-called "apart from goods".
Aristotle swings between idealism and materialism. Every thing, according to him, is consisted of material and spirit that are unbrokenly united. Material is pathetic, is the possibility of every thing, while the spirit is energetic, that is the power that transforms possibility into reality.
The world according to him is united and eternal, while the universe is globe shaped and the earth is its center. When it receives the origin of knowledge by the senses it approaches materialism. Finally, with common sense it regards the objective reality "static" and not through the everlasting transformation and movement.