Aristotle

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Biography

Aristotle (Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης Aristotélēs) was born in 384 B.C. in Stagira, a small town in Northern Greece ruled by the kings of Macedonia. His father, Nicomachus, was a physician to King Amyntas of Macedon and it is possible that Aristotle’s interest in biology stemmed from watching and maybe even assisting his father at work. Both his father and Phaestis, his mother, died while he was still a boy and he was adopted by a relative named Proxenus.

In 367, at the age of 17, he was sent to Athens where he entered Plato’s Academy and remained there for twenty years. It is not clear why Aristotle went to Athens; perhaps he had read Plato’s dialogues while in Stagira and wanted to study with him in particular or maybe Athens was simply the place to study at the time. During those twenty years, Aristotle was not simply a pupil; he carried out independent studies in natural science, and led lectures especially on the subject of rhetoric. Plato died in 347 and leadership of the Academy was passed on to his nephew Speusippus, who best represented the teachings of Plato. While Plato lived, Aristotle was a loyal member of the Academy; however even then, Aristotle’s thoughts on important points began to diverge from Platonism. Perhaps due to his growing dissatisfaction with the curriculum of the Academy or to anti-Macedonian feeling at Athens due to political unrest, Aristotle accepted an invitation from Hermeias, a former fellow-student in the Academy turned ruler of Atarneus and Assos, on the coast of Asia minor.

He remained in Atarneus for three years and married Pythias, niece of Hermeias, who bore him a daughter of the same name. After the death of his first wife, his second wife Herpyllis, a native to Stagira, bore him a son, Nicomachus, after whom the Nicomachean Ethics were named. At the end of three years, Aristotle moved to Mitylene, a neighboring island of Lesbos. Aristotle’s works suggest that he devoted part of his time in the Aegean to the study of marine biology.

In 343, Philip of Macedon, in succession to his father Amyntas, invited Aristotle to undertake the education of his thirteen year old son, Alexander, who later would become Alexander the Great. Little to nothing is known about the education of Alexander but it is probably during this time that Aristotle turned his attention to political subjects. In 340, Alexander was appointed regent for his father and his pupillage ended. Subsequently, Aristotle may have settled in Stagira.

In 335, soon after Philip’s assassination, Aristotle returned to Athens and though the Academy flourished under new leadership, he preferred to set up his own school called the Lyceum. Every morning at the Lyceum, Aristotle and his students discussed the more abstruse philosophical matters such as logic, physics and metaphysics and in the afternoon and evenings held lectures/discussions in more popular matters such as rhetoric and politics. Shortly after the death of Alexander the Great in 323, anti-Macedonian feelings swept over Athens and Aristotle, once again, left Athens and retired to Chalcis, where his mother’s family had estates. Soon after, in 322, he died.

Bibliography

• Anagnostopoulos, Georgios. Aristotle on the Goals and Exactness of Ethics University of California Press, 1994 online free
• Schmitt, Charles B. Aristotle and the Renaissance. Harvard University Press, 1983. 187 pp.