In short, the habits we form from childhood make no small difference, but rather they make all the difference. -- Aristotle
Aristotle (in greek : Ἀριστοτέλης , Aristoteles ; Stagira , 384 BC or 383 BC
- Chalcis , 322 BC ) was a philosopher and scientist, ancient greek , known as
the "philosopher of immanence . "
It is considered one of the most innovative philosophical minds, prolific and
influential of the ancient world to the western extent of its fields of
knowledge , and was estimated for centuries as the symbol of man wise and as a
precursor of discovery.
Aristotle, whose name derives from the union of ἀριστὀς (aristos) "best" and
τὲλος (telos) "end", the letter may be construed to mean "the best end", or, in
a broader sense, "well that will come to the end" . A tradition relates how real
name of the philosopher to Aristocles of Messene , which would be the authentic
teacher of Alexander the Great . Giovanni Reale on the basis of extensive
documentation excludes the validity of this theory.
Aristotle was born in 384/3 BC in Stagira , the current Stavro, the Macedonian
city on the peninsula Chalkidiki , situated on the north-eastern coast of
Greece, about 55 km east of modern Thessaloniki .
It is said that his father, Nicomachus, and lived at Amyntas , king of the
Macedonians , by lending the services of a doctor and friend. Aristotle, as the
son of the royal physician, must therefore reside in the capital of the Kingdom
of Macedonia , Pella . It was probably for the provision of assistance to the
work of his father that Aristotle was launched to the knowledge of physics and
biology, helping him in the dissections .
According to scientists, the biography of Aristotle can be divided into three
periods.
The first period began when, orphaned at an early age, he had to move from the
guardian Proxenus to Atarneo , a town of ' Asia Minor in the region of Mysia in
the north -west of Turkey, opposite the island of Lesbos . Proxenus, around 367
BC , sent him to Athens to study in ' Academy founded by Plato about twenty
years ago, where he remained until the death of his master. Aristotle was not,
therefore, be a citizen of Athens, but a Metic .
When the seventeen Aristotle enters the Academy, Plato is in Syracuse for a
year, at the invitation of Dione , a relative of Dionysius I , and will return
to Athens until 364 BC , in recent years, according to the teaching approach of
the Academy, Aristotle had to begin with the study of mathematics , to spend
three years after the dialectic .
A rule the school Eudoxus of Cnidus , a scientist who had much influence the
young student who, many years later, in ' Nicomachean Ethics he wrote that the
reasoning of Eudoxus' they had bought more faith by the power of his costumes
for themselves: seemed an unusual temperance, seeming reason, identifying the
good with pleasure, not because a lover of pleasure, but because he thought that
what he was really like. "
The second period begins when in 347 BC Plato dies and the leadership of the
Academy, more for economic reasons than for recognized merit, is called
Speusippus , nephew of the great Athenian philosopher. Aristotle, who apparently
was considered more worthy of him, left the school together with Xenocrates ,
another pretender to the leadership of the Academy, to return to Atarneo , where
he spent his teenage years at the invitation of Hermias , then tyrant of the
city. Hermia was already known to him at the time of the Academy, and was then
succeeded by a political upheaval to become the successor of Eubulus , lord of
Atarneo, and to take possession of Ace . In the court of Hermias Aristotle finds
two other former pupils of Plato, Erastus and Coristo . In the same year all
four move to Ace, meanwhile, became the new seat of the court, where they
founded a school that baptizes Aristotle as the only true Platonic school. Its
member's son Coristo, Neleus, and the future successor of Aristotle in the
School of Athens , Theophrastus , his brilliant student.
In 344 BC , at the invitation of the same Theophrastus, Aristotle went to
Mytilene on the island of Lesbos , where he founded another school, also dubbed
as the only adhering to the canons platonic. Teaches you until 342 , when it is
called to Pella, in Macedonia by King Philip II to serve as a tutor to his son
Alexander the Great . Aristotle held this position for about three years, until
Alexander will not be called to participate in military expeditions of his
father. We do not know a lot of education that Aristotle gives to Alexander but
it is supposed that the lessons were based primarily on the foundations of Greek
culture (from Homer ) thus making Alexander a greek man for the ideals forwarded
to him, but also above policy, since the fate that awaited Alexander. It is also
possible that during this assignment Aristotle conceived the project of a large
collection of Constitutions.
The foundation of Peripato: When in 340 BC Alexander became regent of the
kingdom of Macedonia, also began to approach the oriental culture, his teacher
Aristotle, who has meanwhile become a widower and lives with his young Erpillide
which gave his son Nicomachus , in the last period of his life back perhaps
Stagira and, around 335 BC , he moved to Athens , where in a public school, said
high school because it was sacred to Apollo Licio, he founded his famous and
celebrated school, called Peripato - walk , use established by Aristotle to
teach walking in the garden that surrounds it. Probably not Aristotle to buy the
school because he rents for the city of Athens he was a foreigner and had no
right to property. The school is also supported by the Alexander. Aristotle
promotes research activities in the city of Athens especially with regard to
scientific subjects such as zoology, botany, astronomy.
We vague about school news, however, we know for sure that the students were
called for ten days to lead the school in the first person: Aristotle was
determined to educate his students in this role. In addition, the meals were
consumed in common according to a custom of the Pythagoreans and every month we
organized a symposium with philosophical judgment ( iudicio ) guided by the
wisdom of the master. The classes were held in the morning, afternoon and
evening instead Aristotle held, still in school, the public lectures, the
subjects were in fact of public interest then politics and rhetoric, for
example, but not abstract subjects such as metaphysics and the logic.
In 323 BC dies Alexander and Athens are manifested never dormant hatred
antimacedoni; Aristotle, regarded with hostility because of its connection with
the Macedonian court, is accused of impiety: Athens and then left with his
family took refuge in Chalcis , the city mother, where he died the following
year.
The will - Diogenes Laertius reports the will of Aristotle:
"It'll certainly good, but if anything happens, Aristotle drew up the following
provisions: guardian of all, in every respect, be Antipater, however,
Aristomenes, Timarchus, Hipparchus, Diotele and Theophrastus , if possible, take
care of children, Erpillide [ his partner ] and the things I left behind, until
the arrival of Nicanor. And at the right time, my daughter [ Piziade ] is given
in marriage to Nicanor [...] If Theophrastus will take care of my daughter, then
he is master [...]
Tutors and Nicanor, remembering me, take care also of Erpillide, in every
respect, even if he wants to get married, so that is not given in marriage
unworthily, as has been caring with me. In particular, the data are, in addition
to what has already received a silver thaler and three slaves, those who want
to, the slave and the slave has already Pirro. And if he wants to live in
Halkida , may have given the guest house next to the garden, and if you want to
stay in Stagira , may have given my father's house [...]
Ambracide is free and will give, at the wedding of my daughter, five hundred
drachmas, and the young girl who already owns [...] Both released Tycho when my
daughter should marry, and so Philo, Olimpione and his kid. Do not sell any of
the young slaves that currently I need, but are used, once the right age, to be
released, they deserve it [...]
Wherever built my tomb, there are brought and deposited the bones of Piziade, as
she ordered, then devote even by Nicanor, if it is still alive - as I prayed in
his favor - four cubits high stone statues to Zeus Salvatore and Athena Saviour
in Stagira ".
The fortunes of Aristotle in the West must, among other things, to the fact that
it was he who found and sort the different forms of knowledge, creating the
conditions and paradigms of specialized languages that are still used today in
the field of science . Aiming to create a comprehensive system of thought, were
of vital importance to his statements on physics and metaphysics , on theology ,
on ' ontology , the mathematics , the poetry , the theater , on ' art , the
music , the logic , the rhetoric on politics and government , on ' ethics on
grammar , on ' rhetoric and dialectic , on language , on the biology and zoology
.
Like a few other philosophers Aristotle has had a large influence on various
thinkers of later times, who admired his genius and deeply analyzed its
concepts: auctoritas metaphysics in Scholasticism of Thomas Aquinas , as well as
in the Islamic tradition and the Jewish Middle Ages , the thought Aristotle was
often revived in the Renaissance . Even Dante Alighieri remember the Divine
Comedy :
" Then ch'innalzai a little more lashes, saw 'the master of those who know , Sit
with his philosophic family.
All gaze upon him, all honor them do. "
Coming to influence the studies of many great philosophers of the twentieth
century, the elements of ' Aristotelianism are being studied still active,
continuing to impress themselves various aspects of Christian theology . The
philosophy of the late twentieth century has also pointed out, with authors such
as Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe , Alasdair MacIntyre and Philippa Ruth
Foot , the importance of the setting for today's debate ethics of Aristotle,
especially for developments that were given by Thomas' Aquino .
