Aristotle

Template:TOC-right Aristotle (Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης Aristotélēs), was one of the most influential thinkers in Europe during the period between 350 BCE and the 16th century. However, during his lifetime and for many years afterwards, his reputation was rather less golden. indeed, the renowned 'sceptic', Timon of Philus, sneered at "the sad chattering of the empty Aristotle" while Theocritus of Chios wrote a rather unkind epigram on him which runs:

The empty-headed Aristotle rais'd This empty tomb to Hermias the Eunuch, The ancient slave of the ill-us'd Eubulus. (Who for his monstrous appetite, preferred The Bosphorus to Academia's groves.)

In the Nineteenth Century, the scientist, John Tyndall, complained that Aristotle's statements were most accepted when they were most incorrect, whilst in the Twentieth, Karl Popper accused Aristotle of having held up the development of thought itself.

The development of thought since Aristotle, could, I think, be summed up by saying that every discipline, as long as it used the Aristotelian method of definition, has remained arrested in a state of empty verbiage and barren scholasticism, and that the degree to which the various sciences have been able to make any progress depended on the degree to which they have been able to get rid of this essentialist method.

Nonetheless, Aristotle's legacy remains in many fields of endeavour and he is usually considered one of the great foundational figures of both philosophy and natural science.

Early years

(PD) Image: West Point Military Academy
Greece at the time of Aristotle (Chalcidic Peninsula lays between Thrace and Macedonia at the north-west edge of the Aegean Sea.) Source: U.S.M.A.

Born in 384 BCE in Stagirus (alternately Stagira or Stageirus), a small town in northern Greece on the Chalcidic Peninsula, to Nicomachus, a medical doctor, and Phaestis, his mother, Aristotle’s family was probably native to that area.

Traditionally a son followed his father’s profession or trade. However, Nicomachus died when Aristotle was a boy. Prior to that death, there is reason to believe that his father’s influence was significant. At the time, patients did not got to doctors, doctors went their patients. It is not unreasonable to think Aristotle accompanied his father on his travels.

Nicomachus found work more to his preferences in the neighboring state of Macedonia and he was eventually appointed personal physician to Amyntas III, the king of Macedonia, in the capitol, Pella. This was the King Amyntas whose son Philip successfully united a number of the Greek city states after defending Macedonia, and he in turn was the father of Alexander, The Great. Aristotle was almost the exact age as Philip and it is likely that they were acquainted if not actually friends. Later in life Philip was to support some of Aristotle’s ambitions, if only for a time, indicating that they agreed on some things and enjoyed some measure of trust.

Nicomachus died about the time Aristotle was 10 years old. As a consequence he did not become a physician. Although it is not absolutely clear from the evidence we have, it would also seem that his mother Phaestis, died while Aristotle was young

Aristotle’s future was then in the hands of a guardian, Proxenus of Atarneus, who might have been an uncle or a family friend. Proxenus was a teacher of Greek, rthetoric, and poetry, which presumably would have rounded out the teaching in biological topics Aristotle had received from his father. Aristotle’s prose written later in life was of such quality that it seems reasonable to think he was also taught this subject when he was young.

Plato's Academy

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.

Years at Atarneus

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.

Relocating to Pella

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.

Death of Philip and Establishing the Lyceum

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.

The works of Aristotle

Please refer to this page’s catalog for a complete list of Aristotle’s works, and to the subpage on the spurious works of Aristotle.

Though much of Aristotle’s thought is historically interesting, it is also fascinating because it is a comprehensive picture of the world that differs, in some ways dramatically, from that of modern people. The works of Aristotle, however, can be daunting to the uninitated.

Unlike the carefully presented and highly literary works of Plato, the works of Aristotle tend to be terse and pithy, and to an extreme extent. In fact, the works of Aristotle which survive to the present day seem to be something like lecture notes. In addition to the prose style of Aristotle’s extant works, his texts are also made difficult by their frequently piecemeal nature. A comparison with Plato is again useful. Plato’s works are made to be read by an individual reader, and are generally self-contained. Aristotle’s works, as lecture notes, refer only briefly to important concepts that are not strictly relevant to the subject at hand. For example, much of his work is underlain by his conviction that particulars are ontologically prior to universals, but this idea is only explained at length in a couple of places. It’s worth observing that Aristotle, as a lecturer, would have been able to leave the topic at hand and explain any important ideas his listeners were unfamiliar with.

It is also important not to underestimate the difficulties that Aristotle’s language creates. Aristotle wrote in Ancient Greek, but it is not a Greek which translates easily to normal-sounding English. Aristotle makes liberal use of technical terms. For example, ‘form’ and ‘knowledge’ in English are each the best translation for three separate Greek words which Aristotle uses with different shades of meaning. He does not, however, use these terms consistently.

The style and organization of his works are not always negatives. Aristotle is made easier reading by the fact that his works frequently follow a predictable form. He often begins one of his investigations by stating the conclusions of earlier thinkers: frequently Plato, but other thinkers as well. Then, he moves to a consideration of the problems, or aporiai, with a given idea, and he finally states his opinion-- before moving to a discussion of the problems with his opinion! (It can be helpful for the reader to highlight, underline, or otherwise mark the proposition Aristotle is espousing.)

Influence

Aristotle represented an advanced paradigm at the time of his work. His epistemology contradicted his teacher Plato in a crucial manner. Both valued and emphasised reason and its use but Plato insisted that the most important truths, the objects of knowledge, must be attained through reason alone,

Aristotle on the other hand, emphasised observation, holding that the world and the mind were compatible in that understanding was possible. This may have been articulated as such earlier by someone else, but prior to Aristotle, there was a history of observation by the pre-socratic philosophers to substantiate understanding. While this may seem trivial, even self evident now, this was a paramount step toward the development of science and it is a crucial aspect of any field in science, that we believe that we can know. And for Aristotle that knowing was achieved through observing.

Most of Aristotle’s observations have been lost. His world was the world of Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great. His association with the royal Macedonian house made it necessary to move around a great deal. In the years that followed his death, most of his works were lost and much of what remains are compilations made centuries later, collections of notes and original works. As the centuries continued, translations were made and then translations of those translations. In the end very little of his original work remains now, more than 2,300 years later

So, while his observations and his deductions for those observations were very important in the development of science that was to come later, it is fragmented and what remains is full of errors. He did however bestow the early seeds of systematic investigation into natural phenomena and to that extent can be credited at least as a midwife at the birth of empirical science if not actually the founder. It is a tragic irony that his observations and opinions were to stifle the very thing he pursued for so many years.

Aristotle treated knowledge as common property, not to be held in secret. He worked in the company of others and readily spoke and wrote of this thoughts. His attitude in this prefigures one of the foundations of modern science in that he believed that one could not claim to know a subject unless capable and willing to transmit that knowledge to others. This attitude of openeness was often lacking in some of the greatest thinkers of the 15th through the 17th century and was to cause no end of grief. Even up to this day the actual credit for some of the primary advances in science are still being debated due to a lack of coperation and openness practiced by Artistotle nearly 2,000 years earlier.

Another of his contributions, Aristotle also made the divisions in knowledge we have today, theology and physics and math, language, ethics and politics are all distinct separate fields. This too would have far reaching implications.

One of the most enduring works on the subject of cosmology was his On the heavens written about 350 BCE Until it was seriously challenged in the early 16th century by Copernicus, amongst others, it was the considered authority on cosmology. He posited the nature of substance, the nature and manner of movement, the nature of the heavens and its eternal existence.

How much of what we have that is attributed to him is in fact what he said or wrote--regardless of whether he was the originator or he learned form others--or was simply added to his writings after his death is debatable. One of the standard works on Aristotle was that of W. W. Jaeger (1888-1961). His interpretations of Aristotles works included his opinions about what was added later. Jeager's summations in the classic Artistotle (1948) still receive critical analysis