Aristotle

Aristotle (384–322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and polymath whose works laid the foundations for numerous academic disciplines, including logic, metaphysics, biology, psychology, ethics, politics and literary theory. A student of Plato and later the tutor of Alexander the Great, he established the Peripatetic school in Athens and inaugurated the broader Aristotelian tradition that would become one of the most influential intellectual legacies in world history. His surviving treatises—among them the Organon, Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, On the Soul and Poetics—present a systematic synthesis of earlier Greek thought and shaped scientific and philosophical inquiry well into the modern age.

Early Life and Education

Aristotle was born in the northern Greek city of Stagira in Chalcidice. His father, Nicomachus, served as court physician to Amyntas III of Macedon and belonged to the Asclepiadae, a hereditary guild associated with medical knowledge. This background likely influenced Aristotle’s later interest in biological observation. Orphaned at a young age, he was raised by Proxenus of Atarneus and may have spent time in the Macedonian royal court during his youth.
At around seventeen, Aristotle travelled to Athens to study at Plato’s Academy, where he remained for almost twenty years. He excelled as a scholar and lecturer and was reputedly called “the mind of the school”. He also participated in Athenian religious life, and his later comments indicate familiarity with the Eleusinian Mysteries. He left the Academy after Plato’s death in 348/347 BC, possibly due to disagreements with the new direction taken under Plato’s successor Speusippus and growing anti-Macedonian sentiment in the city.

Travels, Scientific Research and Marriage

Aristotle departed Athens with fellow student Xenocrates and travelled to Assos in Asia Minor, where he joined the court of Hermias of Atarneus. There he conducted research in natural science—particularly marine biology and botany—and later pursued similar studies on the island of Lesbos. During this period he married Pythias, Hermias’s adoptive daughter, with whom he had a daughter also named Pythias.

Tutor to Alexander the Great

In 343/342 BC, Philip II of Macedon invited Aristotle to supervise the education of the young Alexander. Aristotle taught at the royal estate of Mieza, where lessons likely included ethics, politics, rhetoric, literature and aspects of scientific thought. Several future leaders, including Ptolemy and Cassander, may have attended some lessons. Aristotle encouraged a sense of Greek cultural superiority, famously advising that the future king should be a leader to the Greeks and a ruler over those considered “barbarians”. Alexander retained admiration for his tutor, keeping a personalised copy of the Iliad annotated by Aristotle, although the two later diverged in their political and philosophical views.

The Lyceum and the Peripatetic School

Aristotle returned to Athens in 335 BC and, as a metic unable to own property, rented a building in the Lyceum—a gymnasium dedicated to Apollo Lykeios. There he founded his own school, later known as the Peripatetic school, named after the colonnaded walkways where he lectured. Surrounded by students such as Theophrastus, Aristoxenus and Eudemus of Rhodes, he established an extensive library and museum-like collection of manuscripts, maps and specimens. This twelve-year period was his most intellectually productive, yielding many of the treatises that survive today.
His works from this period span logic, physics, zoology, metaphysics, rhetoric, ethics and politics. Although he wrote dialogues for a wider readership, the surviving texts are largely lecture notes intended for instruction within the Lyceum. They display a systematic ambition that aimed to classify all branches of knowledge, identify causal explanations and establish methodological rules for rational inquiry.

Later Years and Exile

After the death of Alexander in 323 BC, anti-Macedonian feeling surged in Athens. Aristotle was accused of impiety by opponents such as Eurymedon the Hierophant. He withdrew to Chalcis in Euboea, reportedly remarking that he would not allow Athens “to sin twice against philosophy”—a pointed reference to Socrates’ execution. Aristotle died the following year of natural causes. In his will he asked to be buried alongside his wife Pythias and appointed his student Antipater as executor. He left his library and written works to Theophrastus, who passed them on to Neleus of Scepsis, ensuring their later preservation.

Contributions to Thought and Scientific Method

Aristotle’s influence spans an extraordinary range of subjects:

• Logic: His Organon is the earliest known systematic study of formal logic and dominated Western logical thought for nearly two millennia.
• Natural science: His biological observations, though limited by the knowledge of his time, formed the foundation of early zoology.
• Physics: Aristotelian physics shaped medieval and Renaissance conceptions of motion and causality until superseded by early modern mechanics.
• Metaphysics: He introduced concepts such as substance, form, matter, potentiality and actuality, which became central to subsequent philosophical debate.
• Ethics: His Nicomachean Ethics presented virtue ethics, emphasising character and practical wisdom as guides to human flourishing.
• Politics: He offered one of the earliest comparative analyses of constitutions and explored the conditions of good governance.
• Literary theory: His Poetics profoundly influenced later views of tragedy, drama and narrative structure.

Legacy and Enduring Significance

Aristotle’s authority during late antiquity and the medieval period was immense. He was revered in the Islamic world as “The First Teacher” and by scholastic philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas as “The Philosopher”. His ideas shaped Christian theology, Islamic philosophy and Jewish intellectual traditions. During the Renaissance, early modern scientists challenged Aristotelian physics, yet his logical and ethical ideas remained important. The revival of virtue ethics in contemporary philosophy has renewed interest in his views on character and the good life.