# Aristotle (384–322 BCE)

Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and polymath whose work shaped Western intellectual history for over two millennia.

## Life

- **Born** in Stagira, a city in northern Greece (Chalcidice), in 384 BCE
- His father Nicomachus was court physician to the King of Macedon
- At 17, he joined **Plato's Academy** in Athens, where he studied for about 20 years
- After Plato's death (347 BCE), he left Athens, traveled, and conducted biological research in Asia Minor and Lesbos
- Around 343 BCE, King Philip II of Macedon hired him to tutor his son, the future **Alexander the Great**
- In 335 BCE, he founded his own school in Athens, the **Lyceum** (whose followers were called Peripatetics, supposedly because Aristotle taught while walking)
- Fled Athens in 323 BCE after anti-Macedonian sentiment grew, reportedly saying he would not let Athens "sin twice against philosophy" (referring to Socrates)
- Died in Chalcis in 322 BCE

## Major Works

His surviving writings are mostly lecture notes from the Lyceum, organized into:

- **Logic ("Organon")**: Categories, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, Posterior Analytics, Topics, Sophistical Refutations
- **Natural philosophy**: Physics, On the Heavens, On Generation and Corruption, Meteorology
- **Biology/psychology**: History of Animals, Parts of Animals, On the Soul (De Anima)
- **Metaphysics**
- **Ethics**: Nicomachean Ethics, Eudemian Ethics
- **Politics**
- **Rhetoric** and **Poetics**

## Key Philosophical Contributions

### Logic
- Founded **formal logic**, especially the **syllogism** (e.g., "All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore Socrates is mortal")
- Developed the laws of identity, non-contradiction, and excluded middle

### Metaphysics
- Distinguished **substance** and **accidents**
- Theory of **hylomorphism**: every physical object is a compound of matter (hyle) and form (morphe)
- The **Four Causes**: material, formal, efficient, and final
- Concept of the **Unmoved Mover** as the first cause of motion
- Rejected Plato's separate realm of Forms; forms exist within things

### Ethics
- Ethics aims at **eudaimonia** (flourishing, often translated as "happiness")
- The **Doctrine of the Mean**: virtue lies between extremes (e.g., courage between cowardice and recklessness)
- Distinguished **moral virtues** (developed by habit) from **intellectual virtues** (developed by teaching)
- Emphasized practical wisdom (**phronesis**)

### Politics
- "Man is by nature a political animal" (*zoon politikon*)
- Analyzed forms of government: monarchy/tyranny, aristocracy/oligarchy, polity/democracy
- Believed the polis exists for the sake of the good life, not just survival

### Natural Science
- Pioneering biological work, including detailed marine observations
- Classified animals systematically
- Developed a geocentric cosmology with concentric spheres
- Distinguished between potentiality and actuality

### Poetics & Rhetoric
- Defined **tragedy** and introduced concepts like **catharsis**, **mimesis**, and the unities of plot
- Identified three modes of rhetorical persuasion: **ethos**, **pathos**, **logos**

## Influence

- Dominated medieval Islamic philosophy through thinkers like **Avicenna** and **Averroes**
- Adopted by medieval Christian theology, especially **Thomas Aquinas**, who synthesized Aristotelian philosophy with Christian doctrine
- Often called simply "The Philosopher" in the medieval period
- His scientific authority went largely unchallenged until the Scientific Revolution (Galileo, Bacon, Descartes)
- Continues to influence contemporary virtue ethics (e.g., Alasdair MacIntyre, Martha Nussbaum), philosophy of biology, and metaphysics

Would you like me to go deeper into any particular area—his ethics, metaphysics, biology, or his historical influence?
