ABSTRACT
Aristotle was born in 384 b.c. at Stagira, a small Greek colony on the Macedonian coast. His father, Nicomachus, belonged to an old family of the Asclepiads and was, like several of his ancestors, body-physician to the Macedonian royal family. His predecessors among the Greek philosophers had lived amongst the mobile and restless communities of the city republics, while Aristotle spend his childhood at a royal court, and a semi-barbarous one at that. This fact undoubtedly put its stamp on his personality and way of thought; he became in every respect an upholder of authority and conservatism. At an early age he lost his father, and his mother, Phæstias, retired to her native city and brought up her children there. Aristotle received his earliest education, in accordance with the ancient Asclepiad tradition, from his father's colleagues, who initiated him into the biological and medical learning of their profession. It was necessary, however, for a properly educated physician to receive also philosophical instruction, and for this purpose Aristotle was sent at the age of eighteen to Plato's Academy at Athens. There he remained for twenty years, was initiated into the teachings of his master, wrote his first treatise, and already at that period began to oppose his master's authority, which the latter is said to have observed with no little displeasure. After Plato's death he was passed over at the election of a successor as head of the Academy, in spite of his already established reputation, and retired to Asia Minor, where he settled down at the court of the Persian vassal-prince Hermeias of Atarneus, who gave him his niece in marriage. Some years later, however, Hermeias was deposed under a revolution, and Aristotle had to flee to the country of his birth, Macedonia. There he was charged with the task of educating the heir to the throne, Alexander, the future conqueror of the world, and he held this post for three years (338-335). What influence the master exercised on the pupil it is of course difficult to decide; the relations between them, however, were on the whole good, though Alexander's increasingly despotic character and barbaric outbursts of passion must have offended the cultured, self-controlled Aristotle. His profession as teacher at any rate brought Aristotle illustrious honours and made him a wealthy man, able to choose his place of abode and his sphere of activity. He then moved back to Athens and lived there under the protection of Alexander, highly esteemed by a constantly 35increasing throng of pupils for the space of twelve years. During this period he displayed indefatigable activity. He was granted the right to use for educational purposes a temple dedicated to Apollo Lycæus, after whom the place was called the Lyceum, the archetype of learned educational institutions throughout the world. Here every morning Aristotle gave scientific lectures to his chosen pupils, often old and highly reputed men of science, who collaborated with him; and, further, every evening he held more popular courses for younger collegiates. Moreover, he found time to write an incredible amount on very different subjects: logic, metaphysics, art, politics, psychology, and biology. This extraordinary activity testifies to his inexhaustible energy and splendid powers of organization. It is obvious that his disciples had to carry out the rough work. Aristotle kept aloof from public life; indeed, he was a foreigner in Athens. He was a conservative and a monarchist, however, and when after Alexander's death Athens rebelled against the Macedonian supremacy, his position became dangerous. For lack of other means of calumniating him he was accused, like Socrates, of "godlessness." In order, as he himself said, to save the Athenians from committing a fresh crime against philosophy he fled to the island of Eubœa; there he died shortly afterwards, in the year 322. In external appearance he is said to have been of small stature and corpulent; his carriage was proud, his manners arrogant and sarcastic, his dress and way of living courtly, refined, and elegant. These latter characteristics brought him personal enemies, who sought to blacken his character. It is not possible, however, to bring any serious accusations against him as a private person. It is true he appropriated with considerable lack of bias the results of the work of earlier philosophers, but the ideas of literary copyright were not so strict as they are now. On the other hand, he treated different thinkers with true humanity; his polemics, when he went in for them, were always courteous and his arguments founded on facts. Towards his family, his friends and pupils, and even his slaves he was affectionate and considerate.
