Aristotle

 

Aristotle is one of the greatest students of Plato,Aristotle made a name for himself as a renowned Greek Philosopher.

Aristotle was born in 384BC in Stagirus,a colony on the coast of Thrace in Northern Greece.His Fther Nicomachus,was doctor to King Amyntas of Macedonia.His Father wanted Aristotle to become a doctor as well and started training him in medicine and biology.It was a tradition in those days to keep medical skills secret and pass it down from generation to generatio within the same family.But when Aristotle was 10 years old,his father passed away.That was the end of any possibility of his becoming doctor.As his mother had also died when he was very young,his guardian,Proxneus brought up the boy.

Proxenus taught Aristotle Greek,rhetoric and poetry.In 367 BC,at the age of seventeen,Aristotle became a student at the Academy run by Greek Philosopher Plato in Athens.He spent 20 years there and towards the later half of his term he became a lecturer as wellAfter Plato's death even though Aristotle was qualified to succeed him as leader of the Academy,Plato's nephew Speusippus was chosen instead.The reason was that Aristotle;s ideas were considered to be too different from that of Plato's.

Soon after,Aristolte accepted the invitation of his friend Hermeias,ruler of Atarneus and Assos,and went to visit him.He stayed there for three years and married Pythias,Hermeias'niece.Unfortunately she died ten years after they were married.During these years in Assos,Aristotle s and developed his own ideas.On Assos,Aristotle became the leader of a group of Philosophers,which Hermeias had organized.Together the group began to collect information and make observations,particularly in Zoology and Biology.

The persians soon attacked and defeated Hermeias and overthrew his rule.Aristotle escaped to Mytilene and when King Philip of Macedonia requested him to tutor his 13 year old son,Alexander,he agreed.He taught the boy for the next five years.Aristotle was highly respected by both father and son. In 359 BC,King Philip was killed on one of his conquests to subdue the Greek city states,and Alexander became King.Using his father's great army,he captured some city-states,and acquried the name "Alexander The Great".

Since his work with Alexander was now finished,Aristotle returned to Athens.Although Speusippus had died,Aristotle was again rejected for the post of Academy President.Instead the job went to one of his colleagues,Xenocrates.So,now at the age of fifty,Aristotle decided to start his own school,the Lyceum with the backing of Alexander the Great.

At the time,Plato's teachings  were very prominent in Athens Philosophy.For the next thirteen years he spent all his energy teaching and composing his lectures,which were on almost every subject-Logic,Physics,Astronomy,Metrrology,Zoology,Economics,Ethics,Metaphysics,Theology,Psychology,Politics,Rhetoric,Poetry etc.,He is said to have given two kinds of lectures:detailed discussions in the morning for advanced students and the more popular lectures in the evening for the lovers of knowledge.

Aristotle developed several important treaties on logic,which formed the basis for future philosophical studies.He believed that logic was not a science but rather something that had to be treated before the study of any subject.Aristotle's name for logic was 'analytics'.In his work the prior Analytics,Aristotle proposed what is known as the Aristotelian syllogistic,a form of arugment consisting of two assumptions and a conclusion.

His  Example is :-

1. Every Greek is a Person.

2. Every Person is mOrtal.

3. Every Greek is Mortal.

 

Another area where he made significant contributions was natural philosophy or physics.Aristotle had a through knowledge of elementary mathematics and believed it to be the most important of the theoretical sciences.But he disagreed with Plato,who gave so much importance to arithmetic that there was little or no room for other sciences.

Aristotle's treaties on Rhetoric and Poetics kick-started the development of the Philosophy of Criticism and still continue to be studied.Aristotle was the first to establish the philosophical concepts of matter,form,time and space and the first to argue that the existence of God was not necessarily the ultimate cause of all things.No other Philosopher can be named whose influence has been so far-reaching and is felt after so long.

This glorious period of knowledge lasted 12 years.But at the end of this time,Alexander the Great died.In Greece,resentment against the Macedonia rule grew and riots broke out.The Pro-Macedonian government was overthrown.Aristotle was accused of immorality and his life was in serious danger.To escape prosecution,Aristotle fled from Athens and went to his late mother's estate at Chalcis,Euboea.The next year,at the age of 62,he died of a stomach aliment.

This article contains full details about Aristotle.It is useful to all to know about him.

 


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