This scholar is Aristotle of the ancient Greece, who lived during 384-322 BCE Aristotle was one of the greatest multitalented persons in the world who made great impact on the civilization of many centuries. His activity ranges from most branches of philosophy such as logic and maths metaphysics and epistemology moral and political philosophy, natural sciences and rhetoric and thus Aristotle is one of the most significant thinkers in the annals of philosophy.
Early Life and Education
Aristotle was born in 384 BCE in the city of Stagira, a village in Macedonia of ancient Greece. There was a wealth in the family house as Aristotle’s father Nicomachus had been a personal physician of the King Amyntas II of Macedon and with this setting young Aristotle was exposed to practices in medicine as well as in sciences. At the age of seven and soon after his father’s death, Aristotle followed his family tradition by enrolling for higher learning in Athens.
Self-educated until school age, Aristotle, at 17 years old joined Plato’s and known Academy in Athens the best of its kind during those times. He studied there for about two decades and credit for his education goes to his good old master, Plato. Though Aristotle had high regard for his teacher Plato, he differs from him at small features and particularly on the concept of reality and the form.
Philosophical Career
When Plato died in 347 BCE Aristotle decided to leave Athens, travel to Asia Minor and Lesbos where he could carry out research and study biology amongst other fields. He was later employed in the court of royals of Macedon where he gave lessons to Alexander the great who was mere boy and then a young man. In the same position he not only could effect the coming generations of rulers but he had all the resources and materials from the rest of the Greek world at his fingertips.
In 336 BCE he came back to Athens where he founded the Lyceum, his school where he lectured until his death. The Lyceum was developed into an important school and the followers of Aristotle were called the Peripatetics because the professor taught under covered galleries or porticos known as peripetai.
Major Works and Ideas
When Plato died in 347 BCE Aristotle decided to leave Athens, travel to Asia Minor and Lesbos where he could carry out research and study biology amongst other fields. He was later employed in the court of royals of Macedon where he gave lessons to Alexander the great who was mere boy and then a young man. In the same position he not only could effect the coming generations of rulers but he had all the resources and materials from the rest of the Greek world at his fingertips.
In 336 BCE he came back to Athens where he founded the Lyceum, his school where he lectured until his death. The Lyceum was developed into an important school and the followers of Aristotle were called the Peripatetics because the professor taught under covered galleries or porticos known as peripetai.
Metaphysics:
Aristotle discusses what reality, existence and being are in his work Metaphysics. For the purpose of this paper, it is sufficient to note that he dismisses platonic forms and maintains that universals such as “goodness”, “beauty” etc exist within matter. He defines substance as the main type of being he ushers in the causes and principles of change in the world. Among his most important concepts is the one of the unmoved mover, a concept that was of a large significance for later theology and philosophy.
Ethics and Politics:
Another notable work of Aristotle is Nicomachean Ethics where he discusses the characteristics of virtue and for what purpose one should live. He discusses the median or the mean which has been postulated to mean virtue is the middle point between the two vices or the excess and deficiency. To Aristotle, the premier welfare or happiness, which he referred to as eudaimonia is got through right doing or practising the virtues and using the intellect.
Aristotle in his book, Politics try to analyze the characters of political societies, and the rightful regime. He famously categorizes three basic forms of government—monarchy, aristocracy, and polity—as well as their corrupt counterparts: Of these despotic, aristocratic and democratic or popular governments. This paper show Aristotle’s perspective of an ideal political system as one that will enables all the citizens to be captained to the relevant end, the common good.
Natural Science and Biology:
The following are some of the areas that Aristotle made crucial contribution in biological sciences. He did observation and made classification of animals in order to understand the form of the animals and behavior of every animal he was able to differentiate between one kind of the animal and the other. Some of his written works include work History of Animals, which is one of the oldest types of biological taxonomy. While some of his propositions have been subsequently shown to be incorrect Aristotle implemented systematic empirical investigation in combination with classificatory approach providing the foundation for any subsequent attempts at scientific investigation.
From the works of Aristotle too, one can learn a lot about Physics, cosmology and nature of universe. He was confident that the nature had its laws and all existing thing in the universe where created with a specific goal or function (teleological perspective).
Rhetoric and Poetics:
A work on rhetoric, a method of persuasion in spoken words, Aristotle’s rhetoric analyses speech in different settings. He describes the three scattering which are ethos, pathos, and logos, which are powerful concepts even to the present time in the analysis of communication.
In “Poetics” Aristotle explores the ‘what’ of dramatic and narrative art. He discusses the concept of tragedy which is the plot, a character type and the purging of the emotions within the spectator. The evaluation of tragedy he provided has continued to affect the growth of the Western literature and the theatre.
Influence and Legacy
Middle Ages saw the influence of Aristotle from western and Islamic approach. His ways as laid down by him were adopted into the Christianity way of thinking especially by Thomas Aquinas who incorporated aristotle’s philosophy into the Christian faith. The Islamic world inherited Aristotle’s work in the Arabic language, and thinkers like Avicenna and Averroes made a major effort to hold, develop and build on the philosopher’s work.
During the renaissance there was renewed interest in the legislators work, and his ideas stretched to the formation of modern science and philosophy. While most of Aristotle’s scientifically related theories have been proven untrue or inadequate in light of modern scientific discoveries in areas of physics, biology and astronomy, his directions in observation, classification, and rational scheme became the germ of what is today known as the scientific method.
Death and Legacy
Always non conformist even in death, Aristotle died at the age of 62 in the island of Euboea, Greece in 322B.C.E. Although his death signified the closure of the sort of Greek philosophy, his contributions toward the subsequent results of the intellectual history for some centuries are sacred. Because of the great wealth and range of his output, Aristotle has become an unshakable philosopher, scientist and teacher even in the present era.
His work is extensive, although many aspects of it are outside the subject matter of logic and philosophy. Because he stressed careful methods, observations and logic, scholastics labelled him as ‘the philosopher’. Today, hundreds of thousands of students, thinkers, politicians and scientists worldwide are heirs to Aristotle in as much as he has bequeathed the various fields of study, including ethics and politics, the science of biology and the natural sciences.
Conclusion
Knowledge as a phenomenon has been changed by Aristotle beyond recognition. As a philosopher, scientist, and educator he not only predetermines the further evolution of the Greek philosophy but also becomes the spiritual intellectual creator of the most significant sections of the subsequent European philosophy, science and ethical systems. His commitment to careful analysis of the world he lived in, his blending of rationality and observation, and his abiding interest in the nature of human existence and human society have made him finally one of the most important philosopher-thinkers our species has ever produced.
