YOU BETTER THINK...:

Aristotle wasn't a rigid system builder; he was an inquirer, a man in pursuit of knowledge, restlessly in search of answers to every conceivable question. Indeed, one of his translators has commented in frustration at his "excessive tentativeness or caution", noting how often in his works Aristotle uses the word "perhaps".[1] In his studies of animals, Aristotle is quite explicit about this: every theory is open to refutation by further observation, he says. Nor was he enamoured of the idea of intellectual authority figures, famously commenting that, although he was a friend of his teacher Plato, he was a greater friend of the truth.[2] He put forward ideas that he thought were true - or at least the most plausible - based on observation and argument, but it is difficult to imagine that he would have expected anyone to believe anything he said simply because he had said it.

The one thing Aristotle was emphatic about, though, was the importance of doing philosophy. According to him, we are rational animals, which is to say that we are animals, but we differ from other animals in having the power of reason. That's our defining characteristic. It's what makes us who we are. It is what he calls our function (ἔργον, ergon). Aristotle thinks that many things have functions and that those things are only really what they are in the fullest sense when that function is being used. To use an example that Aristotle himself quite liked, eyes are for the sake of seeing; that is their function. If someone had eyes but never opened them, the capacity of sight would never be used - in his terminology, their potential for seeing would never be actualized. Insofar as their very existence as eyes is defined in terms of their function, the ability to see, there is a sense in which eyes that never get the opportunity to see fail to be eyes in the fullest sense.

The same applies to a human being who fails to use their capacity for reason. In order fully to be a human at all, one must do philosophy, Aristotle argues:

The function of the soul, either alone or most of all, is thinking and reasoning. Therefore it is now simple and easy for anyone to reach the conclusion that he who thinks correctly is more alive, and he who most attains truth lives most, and this is the one who is wise... Thus we attribute living more to the one who is awake rather than to the one who is asleep, to the one who is wise more than to the one who is foolish.[3]

In the case of sight, being able to see obviously brings with it a wide range of practical benefits, such as not bumping into things; it enables us to do many things. Aristotle comments that the same applies to philosophical thinking - it can be practically beneficial in a variety of ways, but in both cases the benefits are merely welcome by-products. Even if someone gained no practical benefit from seeing, they would still prefer to be able to see than not, he comments, and the same applies to philosophical thinking. We do it for its own sake, but it also benefits us in various ways.

Despite this focus on the intrinsic importance - indeed, the necessity - of philosophy as an activity, Aristotle also stresses that it is only through philosophy that it will be possible for us to live a happy life. I

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