16)Aristotle: syllogisms

Aristotle's logic was founded on the syllogism, in which given two premises a certain conclusion necessarily follows, for instance:

"All trees are made of wood, an oak is a tree, all oaks are made of wood (A is B, B is C, C is A )

17)Hylomorphism: substance and its components

In general matter is closely connected to potential or power; a potential or power to become some particular sort of things. Only by giving it form can it make actual. This portion Aristotle's metaphysics is called hylomorphism, because it is a claim that all objects are a combination of matter and form.

• Aristotle believed that his hylomorphic theory answered the problem of change posed by Parmenides.

• Parmenides believed change to be impossible because it implies that something passes into nothing, and something else passes out of nothing. Since the "nothing" was thought not to exist, Parmenides concluded that all change is impossible.

• Aristotle's reply is that the basic matter remains the same underneath all change. Only new forms are put in the place of old forms. For example, a block of stone becomes a statue of Pericles because the block-form is removed and replaced with a Pericles-form by the sculptor.

19)Aristotle: the theory of virtue (Golden Mean)

Aristotle ethics were rooted in his identification of reason as the prime human faculty and virtue as the highest root.

Therefore the virtue is the best man can achieve - it is the best proof of his rationality and moral integrity and it is what makes him happy, but not in the sense of simply being satisfied. When aristotle says happy, in this context he means "fulfilled as a human being" .

But how can we be sure what is the best for us that is , what is virtuous?

the answer to this one of Aristotle brightest ideas and it is known as the famous principle of the Golden Mean.

virtue, informed by reason lies in the middle between two extremes that is two opposite vices, one of excess and the other is deficiency.

For example : what does it mean to be brave, what is courage as a virtue- it lies right in the middle between cowardice and recklessness: being a coward is not enough, being a reckless person, showing too much courage is not only unnecessary but also too much.

Gentleness lies right in the middle between submission and quick temper(hastiness)

20)Aristotle: what does it mean to be a political animal?

No doubt Aristotle is the most influential political thinker of all times. Off all books on the subject, that is on political thought, his politics in the view of the present writer is the most influential and the most profound.

• At the very begging of his book Aristotle makes his famous definition that man is “a political animal”.

By the gift of speech and sense of moral values, man is distinguished from the other animals. The solitary man is “either a beast or a god”;

21)The existence of God: ontological argument as formulated by St. Anselm

The ontological argument runs as follows:

we understand by God a being greater than which nothing can be thought. This idea clearly exists in our minds: it is the idea of a being endowed with every positive attribute and every perfection (God is conceived in all sides as timeless, immutable, omnipotent, omniscient, supremely good and supremely just).

But if the object of this idea were to exist solely in our mind, and not in reality, there would be an idea of something superior to it , namely of the being that possessed not only all the perfections already conceived, but also the additional perfection of real existence( if we confront the idea of most perfect being that does not exist and the most perfect idea that does exist, we must agree that the idea of being that exists is greater that than idea that does not exist.