Aristotle was born in
Stageira,
Chalcidice, in 384 BC, about 55 km (34 mi) east of modern-day
Thessaloniki. His father
Nicomachus was the personal physician to
King Amyntas of Macedon. Aristotle was trained and educated as a member of the
aristocracy. At about the age of eighteen, he went to
Athens to continue his education at
Plato's Academy. Aristotle remained at the academy for nearly twenty years before quitting Athens in 348/47 BC. The traditional story about his departure reports that he was disappointed with the direction the academy took after control passed to Plato's nephew
Speusippus upon his death, although it is possible that he feared anti-Macedonian sentiments and left before Plato had died. He then traveled with
Xenocrates to the court of his friend
Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor. While in Asia, Aristotle traveled with
Theophrastus to the island of
Lesbos, where together they researched the
botany and zoology of the island. Aristotle married Hermias's adoptive daughter (or niece)
Pythias. She bore him a daughter, whom they named Pythias. Soon after Hermias' death, Aristotle was invited by
Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor to his son
Alexander the Great in 343 BC.
Early Islamic portrayal of Aristotle
Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal academy of
Macedon. During that time he gave lessons not only to Alexander, but also to two other future kings:
Ptolemy and
Cassander. In his Politics, Aristotle states that only one thing could justify monarchy, and that was if the virtue of the king and his family were greater than the virtue of the rest of the citizens put together. Tactfully, he included the young prince and his father in that category. Aristotle encouraged Alexander toward eastern conquest, and his attitude towards Persia was unabashedly ethnocentric. In one famous example, he counsels Alexander to be 'a leader to the Greeks and a despot to the barbarians, to look after the former as after friends and relatives, and to deal with the latter as with beasts or plants'.
By 335 BC he had returned to Athens, establishing his own school there known as the
Lyceum. Aristotle conducted courses at the school for the next twelve years. While in Athens, his wife Pythias died and Aristotle became involved with
Herpyllis of Stageira, who bore him a son whom he named after his father,
Nicomachus. According to the
Suda, he also had an
eromenos,
Palaephatus of Abydus.
It is during this period in Athens from 335 to 323 BC when Aristotle is believed to have composed many of his works.
[6] Aristotle wrote many dialogues, only fragments of which survived. The works that have survived are in
treatise form and were not, for the most part, intended for widespread publication, as they are generally thought to be lecture aids for his students. His most important treatises include
Physics,
Metaphysics,
Nicomachean Ethics,
Politics,
De Anima (On the Soul) and
Poetics.
Aristotle not only studied almost every subject possible at the time, but made significant contributions to most of them. In physical science, Aristotle studied anatomy, astronomy,
embryology, geography, geology, meteorology, physics and zoology. In philosophy, he wrote on aesthetics, ethics, government, metaphysics, politics, economics, psychology, rhetoric and theology. He also studied education, foreign customs, literature and poetry. His combined works constitute a virtual encyclopedia of Greek knowledge. It has been suggested that Aristotle was probably the last person to know everything there was to be known in his own time.
Near the end of Alexander's life, Alexander began to suspect plots against himself, and threatened Aristotle in letters. Aristotle had made no secret of his contempt for Alexander's pretense of divinity, and the king had executed Aristotle's grandnephew
Callisthenes as a traitor. A widespread tradition in antiquity suspected Aristotle of playing a role in Alexander's death, but there is little evidence for this.
Upon Alexander's death, anti-Macedonian sentiment in Athens once again flared.
Eurymedon the hierophant denounced Aristotle for not holding the gods in honor. Aristotle fled the city to his mother's family estate in
Chalcis, explaining, "I will not allow the Athenians to sin twice against philosophy," a reference to Athens's prior
trial and execution of Socrates. However, he died in Euboea of
natural causes within the year (in 322 BC). Aristotle named chief executor his student
Antipater and left a
will in which he asked to be buried next to his wife.
