🦉 Welcome to the Aristotle Course for Everyday People
Updated: 3 hours ago
Free Course by Everything IFS Academy | Philosophers Series
Welcome to the Free Aristotle Course for Everyday People
Aristotle lived from 384 to 322 BCE, born in the small town of Stagira in northern Greece and then shaped, for some twenty years, as a student inside Plato's Academy in Athens. His life sits like a hinge in the ancient world. He tutored a boy who would grow up to become Alexander the Great and conquer most of the known world; he founded his own school, the Lyceum, and taught while walking its grounds; and he wrote on very nearly every subject a person could name, from the stars to the soul to the parts of animals, opening whole fields of study that still carry his fingerprints today. Underneath all of it ran a single driving conviction: that the world itself can be understood by looking at it patiently and reasoning about it clearly, and that everything in it has a nature and a purpose waiting to be uncovered.
This course teaches Aristotle on his own terms, pure to himself, with no other thinkers or methods blended in. It is written in plain, emotionally relatable language that anyone can follow, whether you have read philosophy for years or this is your very first step into it. It is not academic training and it is not a history lecture; it is Aristotle's actual ideas, taught clearly enough that you can genuinely understand them and carry them into how you see your own life. Each module gives you real teaching rather than a quick summary, concrete real-life illustrations, and an honest telling of both the brilliance and the flaws of the man behind the ideas. And below every lesson you will find a simple Internal Family Systems and parts work practice, so the ideas never just stay on the page.
This course is self-paced, with no tests, exams, or homework. Feel free to go through it in order, or jump around to whatever interests you most.
If you would like to meet the teacher who shaped him, the master Aristotle spent twenty years learning from and then the rest of his life respectfully arguing with, the Plato course is a natural place to go next.
Course outline
Click any lesson below to begin.
The Basics
Who Is Aristotle
The Life and World of Aristotle
Aristotle's Break with Plato: From the Forms to the World
How Reality Works
The Syllogism: Aristotle's Logic
The Four Causes
Form and Matter: Hylomorphism, Actuality, and Potentiality
The Unmoved Mover
The Soul
The Good Life
Eudaimonia: Happiness as Flourishing
The Golden Mean
Virtue as Habit: You Become What You Do
Practical Wisdom and Weakness of Will
The Three Types of Friendship
Life with Others
Man Is a Political Animal
Ethos, Pathos, and Logos: The Art of Rhetoric
Catharsis and the Poetics
Living It
Thinking Like Aristotle: The Lens in Everyday Life Bonus The Contemplative Life: Aristotle's Surprising Final Answer (new. need to write)
Who Writes Our Courses
Our free self-paced courses are a genuine human-AI collaboration, roughly 50% human and 50% AI.
These courses are not someone typing a single prompt and publishing whatever comes out.
We do not use a free or entry-level AI. We invest in one of the most advanced professional-tier AI models available, because the depth and accuracy of writing at this level is in a different league from what most people experience with low-cost AI.
While AI models arrive with extensive training across these topics, we never rely on that alone. Before drafting a single lesson, the AI performs in-depth research on that specific topic, pulling from resources written by qualified experts in the field: published books, professional essays, clinical resources, and articles from practitioners and specialists with relevant credentials. Every draft is grounded in that expert-created material, not generated from thin air.
With that said, whether something is written entirely by humans, entirely by AI, or by the two working together, errors can occur. We encourage readers to verify important information and consult a qualified professional in the relevant area wherever appropriate.
For those who would like more specifics, here is the six-step process behind every course:
1. Humans design the courses and set the teaching standards and outlines
2. Humans shape the arc of each lesson
3. AI conducts deep, highly specific research on each individual lesson topic before drafting the lesson
4. Humans review, direct, and run multiple edits alongside AI
5. Humans approves every lesson before it's published
6. Each finished course then goes to Eleven Labs, where it's recorded by one of their AI voices
We have poured a tremendous amount of time, care, and love into these free courses, in the hope that they help you become your best Self.
Looking for Something Live?
If you're looking for a social community, here are free live online support groups, recovery groups, healing circles, spiritual gatherings, book clubs, IFS demos, parts work practices, study groups, and more happening every day.
And starting later in 2027, Everything IFS Academy will be running free weekly live classes on a variety of topics. Join our newsletter to be the first to know when they launch.
Disclaimer:
Everything IFS Academy is an independent educational platform and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the IFS Institute. While we strive for accuracy, errors can occur, and users are encouraged to cross-reference critical information. These courses present the ideas of historical philosophers for educational and self-reflection purposes only. They describe what these thinkers taught and argued and do not constitute an endorsement of any philosophical position, nor do they constitute religious instruction or professional advice of any kind. They do not constitute therapy, mental health treatment, clinical training, or crisis support, and they should not be used as a substitute for professional mental health care.
Crisis Support: 🚨
If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, feel unsafe, feel at risk of harming yourself or someone else, or feel too overwhelmed to safely use self-directed practices, please pause this material and reach out for immediate support. Contact a licensed mental health professional, call or text 988 in the U.S. or Canada, or use your local emergency or crisis resources.
Comments