Aristotle

About this figure

Aristotle (384-322 BCE) was a philosopher born in Stagira, in northern Greece, whose surviving treatises span logic, natural science, ethics, politics, and literary theory, and who exerted more influence on later Western and Islamic philosophy than perhaps any other ancient thinker. The son of a physician at the Macedonian court, Aristotle traveled to Athens at around the age of seventeen and studied at Plato's Academy for about twenty years, until Plato's death. He subsequently spent time at Assos and on Lesbos conducting biological research, before being invited to the Macedonian court to serve as tutor to the young Alexander, later known as Alexander the Great.

Aristotle returned to Athens around 335 BCE and founded his own school, the Lyceum, where he lectured and directed research across an unusually broad range of subjects. The surviving texts associated with his name, including the Nicomachean Ethics, the Politics, and the Poetics, are widely believed by scholars to derive from lecture notes rather than works polished for publication, which accounts for their dense, often unfinished style. The Nicomachean Ethics examines the nature of a flourishing human life and the virtues that sustain it; the Politics considers the origins and best forms of political community; and the Poetics, addressing tragedy and epic poetry, is among the earliest surviving works of literary theory in the Western tradition.

Following the death of Alexander in 323 BCE, anti-Macedonian sentiment in Athens put Aristotle at risk, and he left the city for Chalcis on the island of Euboea, reportedly remarking that he would not let Athens sin twice against philosophy, a reference to the earlier execution of Socrates. He died at Chalcis the following year, in 322 BCE.

Written by Epoch Voices. Not the figure’s own words.