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Greek philosopher who pioneered systematic, scientific examination in literally every area of human knowledge and known, in his time, as "the man who knew everything" and, in the European Middle Ages as, simply, "The Master" (as in Dante's 'Inferno').
Aristotle was born in 384 BCE in Stagira, Greece, on the border of Macedonia. His father, Nichomachus, was the court physician to the Macedonian king. As a teenager, Aristotle was sent to Athens to study at Plato's Academy where he remained for the next twenty years. After Plato's death he left Athens to conduct experiements and study on his own in the islands of the Greek Archipelago.
In 343 BCE Aristotle was summoned by King Phillip II of Macedonia to tutor his son Alexander (who, of course, would become Alexander the Great) and held this post for the next seven years until Alexander ascended to the throne and began his famous conquests (the two remained in contact through letters and Aristotle's influence on the conqueror can be seen in the latter's skillful and diplomatic handling of difficult political problems throughout his career).
Aristotle returned to Athens to set up his own school, The Lyceum, a rival to Plato's Academy (Aristotle could never accept Plato's theory of Forms nor did he believe in positing the unseen as an explanation for the seen when one could work from what one could see backward toward a First Cause). Aristotle's habit of walking back and forth as he taught his students earned the Lyceum the name of the Peripatetic School (from the Greek word for walking around, 'peripatetikos').
After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, when the tide of Athenian popular opinion turned against Macedon, Aristotle was charged with impiety owing to his earlier association with Alexander and the Macedonian Court. With the unjust execution of Socrates (also charged with impiety) in mind, Aristotle chose to flee Athens, "lest the Athenians sin twice against philosophy", as he said, and died a year later in 322 BCE.
Aristotle's writings, like Plato's, have influenced virtually every avenue of human knowledge pursued in the west and the east. His Nichomachean Ethics (written for his son, Nichomachus, as a guide to good living) is still studied as a philosophical touchstone and his Poetics remains a classic of literary criticism.
Aristotle was born in 384 BCE in Stagira, Greece, on the border of Macedonia. His father, Nichomachus, was the court physician to the Macedonian king. As a teenager, Aristotle was sent to Athens to study at Plato's Academy where he remained for the next twenty years. After Plato's death he left Athens to conduct experiements and study on his own in the islands of the Greek Archipelago.
In 343 BCE Aristotle was summoned by King Phillip II of Macedonia to tutor his son Alexander (who, of course, would become Alexander the Great) and held this post for the next seven years until Alexander ascended to the throne and began his famous conquests (the two remained in contact through letters and Aristotle's influence on the conqueror can be seen in the latter's skillful and diplomatic handling of difficult political problems throughout his career).
Aristotle returned to Athens to set up his own school, The Lyceum, a rival to Plato's Academy (Aristotle could never accept Plato's theory of Forms nor did he believe in positing the unseen as an explanation for the seen when one could work from what one could see backward toward a First Cause). Aristotle's habit of walking back and forth as he taught his students earned the Lyceum the name of the Peripatetic School (from the Greek word for walking around, 'peripatetikos').
After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, when the tide of Athenian popular opinion turned against Macedon, Aristotle was charged with impiety owing to his earlier association with Alexander and the Macedonian Court. With the unjust execution of Socrates (also charged with impiety) in mind, Aristotle chose to flee Athens, "lest the Athenians sin twice against philosophy", as he said, and died a year later in 322 BCE.
Aristotle's writings, like Plato's, have influenced virtually every avenue of human knowledge pursued in the west and the east. His Nichomachean Ethics (written for his son, Nichomachus, as a guide to good living) is still studied as a philosophical touchstone and his Poetics remains a classic of literary criticism.
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The Carthaginians are also considered to have an excellent form of government, which differs from that of any other state in several respects, though it is in some very like the Spartan. Indeed, all three states---the Spartan, the Cretan, and the Carthaginian---nearly resemble one another, and are very different...
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