| First Period—Aristotle the Student—37 years. 384–347 B. C. | |
|---|---|
| 384 | Born in Stagira in Macedonia. |
| 367 | Entered the Academy. Remained 19 years. |
| 347 | Left the Academy upon the death of Plato. |
| Second Period—Aristotle the Traveler—12 years. 347–335 B. C. | |
| 347 | Went to the courts at Atarneus and Mytilene in Asia Minor. |
| 343 | Returned to the court of Macedon at Pella, in response to the summons of King Philip, to teach the young prince Alexander. Remained 4 years. |
| 340 | Went from Pella to Stagira to engage in scientific work. Remained 5 years. |
| Third Period—Aristotle the Leader of the Lyceum—13 years. 335–322 B. C. | |
| 335 | Founded the Lyceum in Athens. Taught and administered the school 12 years. |
| 323 | Fled to Chalcis. |
| 322 | Died in Chalcis. |
Aristotle’s Biography in Detail.
1. First Period, 384–347 B. C.—Early Influences. Aristotle was born in Stagira in Macedonia. His father was court physician to King Amyntas, the founder of the Macedonian power and the father of King Philip. He came from a long line of physicians (the caste, Asclepiad) who traced their origin to Asclepius. Little is known about the early years of Aristotle except that his father and mother died, leaving him in the guardianship of Proxenus of Atarneus. (Atarneus is the state in Asia Minor which he later visited.) It can scarcely be doubted that he was destined by his family to be a physician, and that the empirical works of Hippocrates and Democritus were the first elements of his early education. Aristotle grew up in this atmosphere of medicine of Macedonia, which explains his respect for the results of experience and his accuracy in details,—all of which contrasts him with the Attic philosophers.
He was sent by Proxenus to the Academy in 367 B. C.,at the age of eighteen, and he remained there for nineteen years, or until he was thirty-seven. He was not merely a pupil in the school, but his brilliancy won for him immediately a prominent position there. He became a teacher, an attractive writer, and champion of the literary spirit of the school. Even while he was a member of the Academy he became a famous man. It is difficult to say just how much influence the Academy had upon the casting of his thought. His scientific inclinations were formed before he went to the Academy; he got his immense scientific erudition in Asia Minor and in Stagira later, after he left the Academy. Probably the spirit of the Platonic school turned his attention to ethical and metaphysical theories, and probably it was due to his stay in the Academy that he became interested in rhetorical and purely cultural studies. At the same time his own influence must have been very great in forming the policy of the Academy, and he was probably responsible for its turning its attention to scientific matters.
The sources from which Aristotle drew the material of his philosophical science were therefore (1) his inherited taste for medicine and empirical science; and (2) the influence of the Academy in ethical, metaphysical, and cultural subjects. Both these factors appear throughout the philosophical development of Aristotle. On the other hand, it must not be forgotten that probably Aristotle’s influence upon the Academy was as great as that of the Academy upon him. His own persistence along the line of empirical science shows itself in his period at Atarneus, Mitylene, and on his return to Stagira. Much has been said about an estrangement between Aristotle and his teacher, Plato.This is probably idle gossip. Aristotle held his master in great esteem, as he himself testifies in his Ethics. Aristotle was an independent and original mind, and probably even in the school he would point out defects in Plato’s thought, when his aged teacher would lead his theories upon mistaken lines. Plato said that his pupil Xenocrates needed the spur, while Aristotle needed the bridle. Aristotle was called the brain of the Academy.
2. Second Period, 347–335 B. C.—Traveler and Collector. When Plato died, and his nephew Speusippus became scholarch of the Academy, Aristotle, in company with Xenocrates, went to the court of Hermeias, ruler of Atarneus and Mitylene. Hermeias was another pupil of Plato at the Academy. Here Aristotle married twice, and here he resided for six years. In 343 B. C. he obeyed the summons of King Philip to come to Pella and become the tutor of Alexander. He acted in this capacity for four years, and seems to have been more fortunate than Plato as instructor of a king. His influence upon Alexander was very great. Without losing himself in the impracticable, Aristotle seems to have impressed high philosophical ideals upon the noble spirit of his kingly ward. Alexander says of Aristotle, “To my father I owe my life, to Aristotle the knowledge how to live worthily.” During the tedium of the protracted campaign in Bactria, Alexander sent for the tragedies of Euripides, Sophocles, and Æschylus. The Ethics of his teacher was always with him. The ideals of statesmanship, the wide purposes in political control, the greatness of the aims of the young conqueror, as well as his self-control, his aversion to meanness and petty things, and his sublime moderation were duein part to the teachings of Aristotle. Never was there a more fortunate conjunction of two great minds than here.
In 340 B. C., when Alexander entered upon his administrative and military duties, Aristotle became independent of the Macedonian court. He spent the most of these four years (340–335 B. C.) in scientific work at Stagira, in intimate companionship with his young friend Theophrastus, who later succeeded him as scholarch of the Lyceum. “Among the special subjects of study in the school of Mieza and Stagira, natural history formed a part.... Alexander at one time contributed eight hundred talents to forward his former teacher’s investigations in zoölogy, placed at his disposal a thousand men throughout Asia and Greece, with instructions to follow out Aristotle’s directions in collecting and reporting details concerning the life, conditions, and habits of animals,and in every way made his campaigns serve the purpose of scientific investigation.”[33] The reports of the ancients concerning the vast sums placed at Aristotle’s disposal for use in scientific investigation are of course exaggerated. That he made large collections during this period, as well as later, is certain. This was possible to him, first, because he was a rich man himself, and second, because of his relations to the courts at Atarneus and Macedonia.
3. Third Period, 335–322 B. C.—Administrator of the Lyceum. When Alexander entered upon his campaigns in Asia, and Aristotle felt himself free from immediate duty to him, he went to Athens and founded the Lyceum. This school very soon arose above the Academy, and became the model of later societies of scholars of antiquity. Its greatness partook of the greatnessof Aristotle,—in the universality of its interests, in the orderliness of its administration, and in methodical coöperation. For twelve years he was the executive, teacher, administrator, and inspiration of this school—developing his philosophy, accumulating materials, and instructing his pupils. The enormous product of the school could not have been the work of one pair of hands. Nevertheless the writings, the immense collections, the ethical and political treatises, show a unity that speaks of one master-mind that had them under direction. When the Athenians began to rise against the Macedonian rule, Aristotle’s position in Athens as a friend of Alexander became unsafe. He fled to Chalcis, excusing himself, so the tradition goes, because he wished to spare the Athenians a second crime against philosophy. He died in Chalcis the next year (322 B. C.).
A comparison of these three periods of Aristotle’s life discloses the uniformity of that life, from beginning to end. He was, from the time he entered the Academy to the founding of the Lyceum, a teacher. Even as pupil of Plato his original mind was influencing the Platonic teaching into new channels. During his second period he was a traveler, to be sure; but he was more,—a collector and a king’s tutor. He was always Aristotle, the philosophical teacher. Hence the periods of his life cannot be so sharply marked as Plato’s, and the lines that are drawn point only to phases of a life that had unity, like his doctrine. His life is a regular development from sources in his first period, and with no later deviating influence.
The Writings of Aristotle. On every page of Plato’s dialogues you meet Plato; in Aristotle’s writings thepersonality of the author is subordinated to his science. The collections of writings transmitted under the name of Aristotle do not give even an approximately complete picture of the immense activity of the man. They form, indeed, a stately memorial, even after the spurious writings have been omitted, but their bulk is small compared with what we know was the product of his literary workshop. Forty treatises have been preserved. A catalogue of the library of Alexandria in 220 B. C. includes a list of one hundred and forty-six others, which have since been lost. Aristotle was writer, lecturer, teacher, and the administrator of the Lyceum. His leadership of that school, his careful direction of his coöperators in research and study, was not only an instruction but an impulsion to independent scientific study for all time. His great collections of scientific data can be explained only by their being the combined efforts of many different forces, guided and schooled by a common master. The world was ready to take an account of stock, and Aristotle was the first encyclopædic philosopher.