Aristotelian

American  

[ar-uh-stuh-teel-yuhn, -tee-lee-uhn, uh-ris-tuh-] / ˌær ə stəˈtil yən, -ˈti li ən, əˌrɪs tə- /

Or Aristotelean

adjective

1. of, pertaining to, based on, or derived from Aristotle or his theories.

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noun

1. a follower of Aristotle.

Aristotelian British  

/ ˌærɪstəˈtiːlɪən /

adjective

1. of or relating to Aristotle or his philosophy

2. (of a philosophical position) derived from that of Aristotle, or incorporating such of his major doctrines as the distinctions between matter and form, and substance and accident, or the primacy of individuals over universals

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noun

1. a follower of Aristotle

Other Word Forms

• anti-Aristotelian adjective
• half-Aristotelian adjective
• post-Aristotelian adjective
• pro-Aristotelian adjective
• pseudo-Aristotelian adjective

Etymology

Origin of Aristotelian

1600–10; < Latin Aristotelī ( us ) < Greek Aristotéleios of Aristotle + -an

Example Sentences

Venn gave us a simple, turn-the-crank means of clearly seeing why the 15 forms of the Aristotelian syllogism – and only those 15 forms – are valid.

From Salon • Jul. 29, 2024

Chun joined the family business in 2019, straight after graduating with a degree in philosophy from Columbia University, where he wrote his senior thesis on Aristotelian ethics.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 5, 2024

“Whatever those Aristotelian time-place things are; it’s kind of a big gulp. For this one, the idea of a full two-act opera was interesting to me.”

From New York Times • Feb. 16, 2023

Aquinas, a medieval philosopher, followed the Aristotelian composite of form and matter but modified the concept to fit within a Christianized cosmology.

From Textbooks • Jun. 15, 2022

Where Aristotelian physics had depended on all five of the senses, the new physics relied only on the sense of sight.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton