Aristotle

Aristotle (384-322), the great Greek Philosopher was born at Stagira, on the Strymonic Gulf, and hence called ‘the Stargirite.’

Aristotle was the son of Nicomachus, who traced back and his art to Machaon, son of Aesculapius, later became court physician to King Amyntas III of Macedon; his mother being Phaestis, a descendent of one of those who carried the colony from Chalcis to Stagira.

At the age of seventeen Aristotle to travels to Athens, the center of learning in the Greek world and there he became a pupil of the philosopher Plato for some twenty years. These two decades formed the first great phase of his intellectual career.

Later he made his way to the court of Philip II of Macedon where he became the principle tutor of young Alexander, soon to be conqueror of the world.

In 335 Aristotle founded his own school at the Lyceum, a meeting place and gymnasium named in honor of the god Apollo Lyceus. He only emphasized natural science in his school and accepted only observations as the source of knowledge.

For the next 12 years he was occupied in the organization of the school as an abode for the prosecution of speculation and research in every department of inquiry, and in the composition of numerous courses of lectures ins scientific and philosophical question.

Aristotle had pondered a variety of beliefs bearing on the known universe; in his judgment, these were mostly myths.

One theory Aristotle attributed was that the sea was warmed and evaporated by the sun. The water vapor then cooled and fell as rain. Aristotle died at the age of 62 at Chalcis in Euboea.
Aristotle

Aristotle (384-322 BC)

Aristotle (384-322 BC)
Aristotle born in 384 BC at Stagira, a Greek town not far from the borders of the semi barbarian kingdom of Macedonia.

Aristotle grew up under the influence of the Hippocratic tradition of medicine which is father practiced and which may well have influenced him but its emphasis on empirical investigation and respect for the evidence of concrete particularities.

Aristotle arrived in Athens in 367 to join Plato’s Academy as a student. He stayed, so the tradition goes, for twenty years and these two decades formed the first great phase of his intellectual career.

Aristotle followed closely after Hippocrates and although not himself a physician, had a profound effect on medical thought and practice for succeeding centuries.

Indeed he can regarded as one of the greatest scientific geniuses the world has ever seen.

Although Aristotle never dissected a human being, he carried out anatomical studies of a wide range of animals, laid the foundation of embryology by studying the developing chick, and gave an accurate account of the life of bees.

He laid the basis of the doctrine of evolution, describe a ladder of nature ascending through lower plants, higher plants, insects, fish, mammals to man.

This period of Aristotle’s life came to an end with the death of Plato and the succession of Plato’s nephew Speusippus to the headship of the academy.

He left Athens, accompanied by Xenocrates and went to Atarnea, in Mysia, to his friend and fellow disciple, Hermias, the ruler of that town , whose sister or niece, Pyhtias, h subsequently married.

After the fall and death of Hermias (345 BC) Aristotle went to Mytilene. From there he returned to Athens and open the school of rhetoric, in which he set up as an opponent to Isocrates.
Aristotle (384-322 BC)