Bugger for the Bottle

The marble fellow above is one Aristotle, born sometime during the year 384 BC is some place I have never heard of, it goes by the name of Stageira, and is somewhere in Greece. I am pretty sure you have heard of him, and pretty sure you've probably studied a bit of his thinking. For your sake, I hope so, but clearly my issue is how do I put Aristotle into a blog post?

The answer is that I can't, and I would be an even bigger fool that I am now to try. Pick up some of his writings, and be amazed for yourself. If you can understand his "Metaphysics" please, please come explain it to me. I have tried 3 different times, each unsuccessfully, to read that particular book, and finally gave it up as being beyond me (pun intended).

The best thing I can do is say that I am mostly in Aristotle's camp, his idea that "god" is pure thought thinking itself is one of the most beautiful ideas that I have ever ran across, and caused quite a stir in my shallow mind. That when we die, and we are all going to you know, we return back to the collective unconscious. A bit of a "soul exchange" if you will, and that idea is fucking brilliant as well.

He dabbled in pretty much everything type of science, all kinds of philosophy, music, art, and poetry. He was a Renaissance man long before the Renaissance happened. Back in the day when I could string two thoughts together, Aristotle was, in many ways, my pole star. In many ways, when I am still in a pondering mood, he still is. The man was just that smart, smart enough to be selected to tutor Alexander the Great, and I suspect that job had some competition.

I once told someone that all of the world's people can be divided into those that are followers of Plato, or those that are Aristotelian. Two things can be drawn from that statement, I am an Aristotelian, and the person (girl) in question hung up on me. I guess she was a fan of Plato. Either way, for making such a deep, deep impression upon my youthful, impressionable mind, and coming up with a way of thinking that I am a huge fan of, Aristotle (384 B.C.-322 B.C., at the age of 62), you are my (355th) hero of the day.