Aristotle

Bust of Aristotle,handmade of alabaster in museum patina.

Aristotle (384 BC -322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist born in Stageira, Halkidiki, Macedonia. At the age of 17 he entered Plato’s Academy in Athens, where he remained until he was 37 years old. There he is associated with both Plato himself and Eudoxus, Xenocrates and other thinkers. 

THE WORK AND THE INFLUENCE OF PLATO

His works refer to many sciences, such as physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, poetry, theater, music, rhetoric, politics, etc., and constitute the first complete system in Western Philosophy. As a teacher of Alexander the Great, Aristotle, acquired various opportunities and plenty of supplies. Thus, he founded a library in the Lyceum, which helped in the production of hundreds of his works.

The fact that he was a student of Plato led him to the views of Platonism.  But later, after Plato’s death, he was led, more, to empirical studies and shifted from Platonism to empiricism.  He believed that the ideas and knowledge of all peoples were ultimately based on perception. Many of his works were based on his views on the natural sciences. Together with Plato’s teacher he was an important figure in the philosophical thought of the ancient world, and his teaching penetrated deeply into Western philosophical and scientific thought until the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century. He was a naturalist, philosopher, creator of logic and the most important of the dialectics of antiquity.

HIS SCHOOL

Aristotle went to Athens (335 BC) and founded his own school of philosophy. To establish his school, he chose the Gymnasium, also called the Lyceum, between Lycabettus and Ilissos, near the gate of Diocharis. The site of the Gymnasium was recently found during the excavations. This historic archeological site is being renovated so that it can be visited. There was a grove dedicated to Apollo and the Muses. With the money that Alexander gave him in abundance, Aristotle built majestic houses and galleries, which were called “walks”. Perhaps that is why his school was called the Walking School and his students were walking philosophers.

The school was organized according to the standards of the Platonic Academy. Classes for advanced students were held in the morning (“evening walk”) and for beginners in the afternoon (“around the sunset”, “sunset walk”). The morning teaching was purely philosophical (“listening”). The afternoon “rhetoric” and “external”. The school had a large library and was so well organized that it later served as a model for the establishment of the libraries of Alexandria and Pergamon.