Ancient Greek
philosopher Aristotle, together with Socrates and Plato, laid much of the
groundwork for western philosophy.
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all
wisdom.”
—Aristotle
Ancient Greek
philosopher Aristotle was born circa 384 B.C. in Stagira, Greece. When he
turned 17, he enrolled in Plato’s Academy. In 338, he began tutoring Alexander
the Great. In 335, Aristotle founded his own school, the Lyceum, in Athens,
where he spent most of the rest of his life studying, teaching and writing.
Aristotle died in 322 B.C., after he left Athens and fled to Chalcis.
Aristotle - Mini
Biography (TV-14; 3:02) Learn more about the life of Greek
philosopher Aristotle, whose work profoundly influenced the modern scientific
method, in this mini biography.
Ancient Greek
philosopher Aristotle was born circa 384 B.C. in Stagira, a small town on the
northern coast of Greece that was once a seaport. Aristotle’s father,
Nicomachus, was court physician to the Macedonian king Amyntas II. Although
Nicomachus died when Aristotle was just a young boy, Aristotle remained closely
affiliated with and influenced by the Macedonian court for the rest of his
life. Little is known about his mother, Phaestis; she is also believed to have
died when Aristotle was young.
After Aristotle’s
father died, Proxenus of Atarneus, who was married to Aristotle’s older sister,
Arimneste, became Aristotle’s guardian until he came of age. When Aristotle
turned 17, Proxenus sent him to Athens to pursue a higher education. At the
time, Athens was considered the academic center of the universe. In Athens,
Aristotle enrolled in Plato’s Academy,
Greek’s premier learning institution, and proved an exemplary scholar.
Aristotle maintained a relationship with Greek philosopher Plato, himself a student
of Socrates,
and his academy for two decades. Plato died in 347 B.C. Because Aristotle had
disagreed with some of Plato’s philosophical treatises, Aristotle did not
inherit the position of director of the academy, as many imagined he would.
After Plato died,
Aristotle’s friend Hermias, king of Atarneus and Assos in Mysia, invited
Aristotle to court. During his three-year stay in Mysia, Aristotle met and
married his first wife, Pythias, Hermias’ niece. Together, the couple had a
daughter, Pythias, named after her mother.
In 338 B.C.,
Aristotle went home to Macedonia to start tutoring King Phillip II’s son, the
then 13-year-old Alexander the Great. Phillip and Alexander both held Aristotle
in high esteem and ensured that the Macedonia court generously compensated him
for his work.
In 335 B.C.,
after Alexander had succeeded his father as king and conquered Athens,
Aristotle went back to the city. In Athens, Plato’s Academy, now run by
Xenocrates, was still the leading influence on Greek thought. With Alexander’s
permission, Aristotle started his own school in Athens, called the Lyceum. On
and off, Aristotle spent most of the remainder of his life working as a
teacher, researcher and writer at the Lyceum in Athens until the death of his
former student Alexander the Great.
Because Aristotle
was known to walk around the school grounds while teaching, his students,
forced to follow him, were nicknamed the “Peripatetics,” meaning “people who
travel about.” Lyceum members researched subjects ranging from science and math
to philosophy and politics, and nearly everything in between. Art was also a
popular area of interest. Members of the Lyceum wrote up their findings in
manuscripts. In so doing, they built the school’s massive collection of written
materials, which by ancient accounts was credited as one of the first great
libraries.
In the same year
that Aristotle opened the Lyceum, his wife Pythias died. Soon after, Aristotle
embarked on a romance with a woman named Herpyllis, who hailed from his
hometown of Stagira. According to some historians, Herpyllis may have been
Aristotle’s slave, granted to him by the Macedonia court. They presume that he
eventually freed and married her. Regardless, it is known that Herpyllis bore
Aristotle children, including one son named Nicomachus, after Aristotle’s
father. Aristotle is believed to have named his famed philosophical work Nicomachean
Ethics in tribute to his son.
One of the main
focuses of Aristotle’s philosophy was his systematic concept of logic.
Aristotle’s objective was to come up with a universal process of reasoning that
would allow man to learn every conceivable thing about reality. The initial
process involved describing objects based on their characteristics, states of
being and actions. In his philosophical treatises, Aristotle also discussed how
man might next obtain information about objects through deduction and
inference. To Aristotle, a deduction was a reasonable argument in which “when
certain things are laid down, something else follows out of necessity in virtue
of their being so.” His theory of deduction is the basis of what philosophers
now call a syllogism, a logical argument where the conclusion is inferred from
two or more other premises of a certain form.
Aristotle’s
philosophy not only provided man with a system of reasoning, but also touched
upon ethics. In Nichomachean Ethics, he prescribed a moral code of conduct
for what he called “good living.” He asserted that good living to some degree
defied the more restrictive laws of logic, since the real world poses
circumstances that can present a conflict of personal values. That said, it was
up to the individual to reason cautiously while developing his or her own
judgment.
In 322 B.C., just
a year after he fled to Chalcis to escape prosecution under charges of impiety,
Aristotle contracted a disease of the digestive organs and died. In the century
following his passing, his works fell out of use, but were revived during the
first century.
I consider that Aristotle produced a large number of writings, but few have survived. His earliest writings, consisting for the most part of dialogues, were produced under the influence of Plato and the Academy. Most of these are lost, although the titles are known from the writings.
