Introduction
Aristotle (384–322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist
born in the city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical
Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, whereafter
Proxenus of Atarneus became his guardian. At seventeen or eighteen years of
age, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of
thirty-seven (c. 347 BC). His writings cover many subjects – including physics,
biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theater,
music, rhetoric, psychology, linguistics, politics and government – and
constitute the first comprehensive system of Western philosophy. Shortly after
Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon,
tutored Alexander the Great beginning in 343 BC.
Teaching Alexander the Great gave Aristotle many opportunities and an
abundance of supplies. He established a library in the Lyceum which aided in
the production of many of his hundreds of books, which were written on papyrus
scrolls. The fact that Aristotle was a pupil of Plato contributed to his former
views of Platonism, but, following Plato's death, Aristotle immersed himself in
empirical studies and shifted from Platonism to empiricism. He believed all
peoples' concepts and all of their knowledge was ultimately based on
perception. Aristotle's views on natural sciences represent the groundwork
underlying many of his works.
Aristotle's views on physical science profoundly shaped medieval
scholarship. Their influence extended from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle
Ages into the Renaissance, and were not replaced systematically until the
Enlightenment and theories such as classical mechanics. Some of Aristotle's
zoological observations, such as on the hectocotyl (reproductive) arm of the
octopus, were not confirmed or refuted until the 19th century. His works
contain the earliest known formal study of logic, which was incorporated in the
late 19th century into modern formal logic.
In metaphysics, Aristotelianism profoundly influenced Jewish and Islamic
philosophical and theological thought during the Middle Ages and continues to
influence Christian theology, especially the Neoplatonism of the Early Church
and the scholastic tradition of the Catholic Church. Aristotle was well known
among medieval Muslim scholars, and has been revered as "The First Teacher”
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Synopsis
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.
Early Life
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.
Teaching
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.
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.
When Aristotle’s former student Alexander the Great died suddenly in 323
B.C., the pro-Macedonian government was overthrown, and in light of
anti-Macedonia sentiment, Aristotle was charge with impiety. To avoid being
prosecuted, he left Athens and fled to Chalcis on the island of Euboea, where
he would remain until his death.
Science
Although Aristotle was not technically a scientist by today’s
definitions, science was among the subjects that he researched at length during
his time at the Lyceum. Aristotle believed that knowledge could be obtained
through interacting with physical objects. He concluded that objects were made
up of a potential that circumstances then manipulated to determine the object’s
outcome. He also recognized that human interpretation and personal associations
played a role in our understanding of those objects.
Aristotle’s research in the sciences included a study of biology. He
attempted, with some error, to classify animals into genera based on their
similar characteristics. He further classified animals into species based on
those that had red blood and those that did not. The animals with red blood
were mostly vertebrates, while the “bloodless” animals were labeled
cephalopods. Despite the relative inaccuracy of his hypothesis, Aristotle’s
classification was regarded as the standard system for hundreds of years.
Marine biology was also an area of fascination for Aristotle. Through
dissection, he closely examined the anatomy of marine creatures. In contrast to
his biological classifications, his observations of marine life, as expressed
in his books, are considerably more accurate.
As evidenced in his treatise Meteorology, Aristotle also dabbled in the
earth sciences. By meteorology, Aristotle didn’t simply mean the study of
weather. His more expansive definition of meteorology included “all the
affectations we may call common to air and water, and the kinds and parts of
the earth and the affectations of its parts.” In Meteorology, Aristotle
identified the water cycle and discussed topics ranging from natural disasters
to astrological events. Although many of his views on the Earth were
controversial at the time, they were readopted and popularized during the late
Middle Ages.
Philosophy
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.
In his book Prior Analytics, Aristotle explains the syllogism as “a
discourse in which, certain things having been supposed, something different
from the things supposed results of necessity because these things are so.”
Aristotle defined the main components of reasoning in terms of inclusive and
exclusive relationships. These sorts of relationships were visually grafted in
the future through the use of Venn diagrams.
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.
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