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Aristotle’s Early Life
In the northern Greek region of Stagira, Aristotle was born in 384 B.C. Both of his parents were from established medical families, and his father Nicomachus worked as the royal physician for Macedonian King Amyntus III. He was probably raised in his family’s Stagira home after his parents passed away when he was a small child. He was sent to Plato’s Academy in Athens at the age of 17. He attended the institution for 20 years, during which he was both well respected and subjected to harsh criticism of his teacher’s views. It seems possible that Plato’s later writings, when he softened some of his earlier viewpoints, are the result of frequent conversations with his most talented pupil.
Did you know? Aristotle’s surviving works were likely meant as lecture notes rather than literature, and his now-lost writings were apparently of much better quality. The Roman philosopher Cicero said that “If Plato’s prose was silver, Aristotle’s was a flowing river of gold.”
Following Plato’s death in 347, his nephew Speusippus became the Academy’s leader. Aristotle left Athens shortly after, however it’s unclear if his departure was prompted by political issues stemming from his family’s Macedonian links or by dissatisfaction at the Academy. He stayed for five years as a guest of former classmates at Assos and Lesbos on the coast of Asia Minor. It was also here that he married Pythias, his wife, and had his only daughter, Pythias, after beginning his groundbreaking studies in marine biology.
King Philip II called Aristotle to Macedonia in 342 to instruct his son, the future Alexander the Great. This was one of the most influential historical meetings in history, although according to a contemporary critic, it “made remarkably little impact on either of them.”
Aristotle and the Lyceum
In 335 B.C., Aristotle went back to Athens. He hired space in the Lyceum, a former wrestling school outside of the city, because he was an alien and was not allowed to own property. Similar to Plato’s Academy, the Lyceum devised a curriculum based on the teachings of its founder and drew students from all across the Greek world. Complying with Aristotle’s philosophy of evaluating other people’s writings, the Lyceum amassed a collection of manuscripts that eventually became one of the first large libraries in history.
Aristotle’s Works
Aristotle wrote about 200 works, of which only 31 have survived. Most of his works were most likely authored at the Lyceum. His published writings have a style that is complex and seemingly disorganized, indicating that they were lecture notes written for his school’s internal use. Four groups comprise the extant works of Aristotle.
A collection of works known as the “Organon” offer a logical toolset that may be applied to any kind of philosophical or scientific research. Next are Aristotle’s theoretical writings, which include his cosmology, the “Physics” (a fundamental investigation into the nature of matter and change), the “Metaphysics” (a quasi-theological examination of existence itself), and his treatises on animals (such as “Parts of Animals,” “Movement of Animals,” etc.).
The so-called practical works of Aristotle, such as “Nicomachean Ethics” and “Politics,” rank third and offer in-depth analyses of what it means for individuals, families, and societies to develop. His final sections, “Rhetoric” and “Poetics,” explore the final results of human labor, including what constitutes a strong case and the cathartic terror and sympathy that a well-written tragedy may evoke.
The Organon
Aristotle’s writings on logic, or what he would have called analytics, are collected in “The Organon,” which is Latin for “instrument,” about 40 B.C. by Andronicus of Rhodes and his adherents. “Categories,” “On Interpretation,” “Prior Analytics,” “Posterior Analytics,” “Topics,” and “On Sophistical Refutations” are among the six volumes in the collection. Aristotle’s knowledge of syllogisms—derived from the Greek word syllogismos, which means “conclusions”—a type of reasoning in which a conclusion is reached based on two presumptive premises, is contained in the Organon. As an illustration, since all males are mortal and all Greeks are men, all Greeks must therefore be mortal.
Metaphysics
Aristotle examines the nature of existence in his “Metaphysics,” which is published directly after his “Physics.” Metaphysics is the “first philosophy,” or “wisdom,” according to him. His main topic of study was “being qua being,” which looked at what may be stated about being just for being, without reference to whatever attributes it could possess. Aristotle also discusses matter, form, causality, and even a logical case for God’s existence in “Metaphysics.”
Rhetoric
“The faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion” is what Aristotle defined as rhetoric. He distinguished ethos (ethics), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic) as the three primary rhetorical devices. Additionally, he classified speeches using rhetoric into three categories: deliberative (in which the audience must render a decision), forensic (judicial), and epideictic (ceremonial). “The father of rhetoric” is the moniker bestowed to him for his seminal contributions in this subject.
Poetics
Approximately 330 B.C., Aristotle wrote “Poetics,” which is the oldest piece of dramatic theory still in existence. It is frequently understood as a refutation of his teacher Plato’s claim that poetry is immoral and therefore to be banned from a perfect society. Using a different methodology, Aristotle examines the function of poetry. He contends that artistic pursuits such as theater and poetry offer catharsis, or the therapeutic release of emotions via the creative process.
Aristotle’s Death and Legacy
Anti-Macedonian sentiment again forced Aristotle to leave Athens after Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. He died of a digestive complaint a little north of the city in 322 and asked to be buried next to his wife, who had passed away a few years earlier. In his final years, he had an affair with his slave Herpyllis, who bore him Nicomachus, the son for whom his great ethical treatise is named.
Aristotle’s favored students took over the Lyceum, but within a few decades the school’s influence had faded in comparison to the rival Academy. For several generations Aristotle’s works were all but forgotten. The historian Strabo says they were held for generations in a damp dungeon in Asia Minor before their rediscovery in the first century B.C., though it seems improbable that these were the only copies.
Andronicus of Rhodes collected and edited Aristotle’s surviving works about 30 B.C., creating the framework for all subsequent editions. Aristotle continued to be read in Byzantium after the fall of Rome, and he gained popularity in the Islamic world, where his logical and scientific ideas were revived by scholars such as Avicenna (970–1037), Averroes (1126–1204), and the Jewish scholar Maimonodes (1134–1204).
Aristotle in the Middle Ages and Beyond
Through the writings of Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus in particular, who skillfully combined Aristotelian and Christian ideas to create a solid foundation for late medieval Catholic philosophy, theology, and science, Aristotle was reintroduced to the West in the thirteenth century.
The Renaissance and Reformation saw a little decline in Aristotle’s international impact as reformers in science and religion questioned how the Catholic Church had adopted his teachings. His geocentric model of the solar system was refuted by scientists like Galileo and Copernicus, and many of his biological beliefs were discredited by anatomists like William Harvey. But Aristotle’s writings are still a valuable place to start for any debate in the domains of political theory, logic, aesthetics, and ethics today.