Aristotle

Aristotle was born in 384 BCE in Stagira, a small Greek city-state in Chalcidice, northern Greece. His father, Nicomachus, served as the personal physician to King Amyntas III of Macedon, grandfather of Alexander the Great. This connection to the Macedonian royal court would prove significant throughout Aristotle's life. His mother, Phaestis, came from Chalcis on the island of Euboea, giving Aristotle ties to both mainland Greece and the islands.

Tragically, both of Aristotle's parents died when he was young, leaving him to be raised by his guardian Proxenus of Atarneus. Despite this early loss, Aristotle's privileged background ensured he received an excellent education. His father's medical profession likely influenced Aristotle's later interest in biology and empirical observation, while his family's wealth provided him with the resources to pursue philosophical studies. The early exposure to court life and politics through his father's position would later inform his political philosophy and his role as tutor to Alexander the Great.

At the age of seventeen, around 367 BCE, Aristotle traveled to Athens to join Plato's Academy, the most prestigious center of learning in the ancient world. For the next twenty years, he immersed himself in Platonic philosophy, studying mathematics, dialectic, rhetoric, and metaphysics. Plato recognized Aristotle's exceptional intellect, reportedly calling him "the mind of the school" and "the reader" due to his voracious appetite for learning.

However, Aristotle gradually developed philosophical differences with his teacher. While Plato emphasized the world of abstract Forms or Ideas as the ultimate reality, Aristotle became increasingly interested in the empirical world and concrete particulars. This divergence would eventually lead to Aristotle's development of his own philosophical system. When Plato died in 347 BCE, Aristotle was passed over for leadership of the Academy in favor of Plato's nephew Speusippus, prompting Aristotle to leave Athens and begin the next phase of his intellectual journey.

After leaving the Academy, Aristotle accepted an invitation from Hermias, ruler of Atarneus and Assos in Asia Minor, who had been influenced by Platonic philosophy. Aristotle spent three years there, establishing a philosophical circle and marrying Pythias, Hermias's niece and adopted daughter. This period marked the beginning of Aristotle's systematic biological research, as he studied the flora and fauna of the region with unprecedented scientific rigor.

Following Hermias's death in 345 BCE, Aristotle moved to Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, where he continued his biological investigations with his student and collaborator Theophrastus. During this period, Aristotle developed his empirical methodology, carefully observing and classifying hundreds of animal species. His work "History of Animals" would become one of the most comprehensive biological texts of the ancient world, demonstrating his commitment to systematic observation and classification that would influence scientific method for centuries to come.

In 343 BCE, King Philip II of Macedon invited Aristotle to become tutor to his thirteen-year-old son Alexander, later known as Alexander the Great. This appointment represented one of the most significant teacher-student relationships in history. For three years, Aristotle educated the future conqueror in philosophy, politics, ethics, medicine, and literature, particularly Homer's works, which would remain Alexander's favorite throughout his life.

Aristotle's influence on Alexander was profound and lasting. He instilled in the young prince a love of learning, an appreciation for Greek culture, and an understanding of political theory that would shape Alexander's approach to governing his vast empire. The relationship between philosopher and student was complex—while Alexander respected his teacher's wisdom, he would later pursue policies of cultural fusion that differed from Aristotle's more Greek-centric worldview. Nevertheless, Alexander's support would later enable Aristotle to establish his own school in Athens and conduct extensive research.

In 335 BCE, Aristotle returned to Athens and founded his own philosophical school, the Lyceum, located in a grove sacred to Apollo Lyceus. Unlike Plato's Academy, which focused on mathematics and abstract philosophy, the Lyceum emphasized empirical research and practical knowledge. The school became known for its peripatetic method of teaching—Aristotle and his students would walk around the covered walkways (peripatos) while discussing philosophical problems, giving rise to the term "Peripatetic School."

The Lyceum functioned as both a school and a research institution, with an extensive library and collections of biological specimens, maps, and manuscripts. Aristotle organized systematic research programs covering virtually every field of knowledge: logic, ethics, politics, metaphysics, biology, physics, rhetoric, and poetics. His students, including Theophrastus and Eudemus, contributed to this vast intellectual enterprise. For twelve years, the Lyceum flourished as a center of learning that rivaled and complemented Plato's Academy, establishing many of the fundamental principles and methods that would guide Western scholarship for millennia.

Aristotle's position in Athens became precarious after Alexander the Great's death in 323 BCE. Anti-Macedonian sentiment rose in the city, and Aristotle, with his close ties to the Macedonian court, faced charges of impiety similar to those that had led to Socrates' execution. Rather than face trial, Aristotle chose to leave Athens, reportedly saying he would not allow the Athenians to "sin twice against philosophy."

He retired to Chalcis on the island of Euboea, where his mother's family had property. There, in 322 BCE, at the age of sixty-two, Aristotle died of a stomach illness. His death marked the end of an extraordinary intellectual career that had produced a systematic body of work covering virtually every field of human knowledge. His writings, preserved and transmitted through the centuries, would profoundly influence Islamic, Jewish, and Christian thought, and his logical and scientific methods would remain foundational to Western education and scholarship well into the modern era.