Aristotle's Legacy

In our eighth and final lecture, we explore Aristotle’s powerful influence on 20th- and 21st-century philosophy, highlighting his “revenge” against logical positivism, which confined meaning to analytic and empirical claims. We examine how Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, and Alasdair Mactyre revived virtue ethics by returning to human flourishing, character, and practical wisdom, and how Saul Kripke’s work on necessity and essence reopened metaphysics to Aristotelian ideas about substance and natural kinds. Dr. Orr closes by reflecting on Aristotle’s undeniable and enduring relevance as a living guide for contemporary philosophy.