Have you ever wondered where one of the most influential philosophers in history, Aristotle, called home?
Despite living over 2,000 years ago, his ideas and teachings continue to shape our understanding of the world today.
From his early years in Northern Greece to his time as a tutor to Alexander the Great, Aristotle’s life was full of adventure and intellectual exploration.
In this article, we will delve into the places where Aristotle lived and how they influenced his work.
Join us on a journey through ancient Greece and discover the world of Aristotle.
Where Does Aristotle Live
Aristotle was born in the city of Stagira in Northern Greece during the Classical period. Little is known about his early life, but it is believed that he was brought up by a guardian after his father’s death when he was a child.
At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Aristotle joined Plato’s Academy in Athens and remained there until he was thirty-seven. After Plato’s death, Aristotle left Athens and traveled to the northwestern coast of present-day Turkey and the island of Lésbos until 343 or 342 BCE.
It was during this time that King Philip II of Macedonia summoned him to the Macedonian capital, Pella, to act as a tutor to Philip’s young teenage son, Alexander. Aristotle spent two or three years in Macedonia before returning to Athens in 335 BCE.
In 323 BCE, hostility toward Macedonians in Athens prompted Aristotle to flee to the island of Euboea, where he died the following year.
Early Life In Northern Greece
Aristotle was born in the city of Stagira, a small town on the northern coast of Greece, during the Classical period. His father, Nicomachus, was a court physician to the Macedonian king Amyntas II. Although Aristotle’s mother, Phaestis, is not well-documented, it is believed that she also died when Aristotle was young. After his father’s death, Aristotle was raised by a guardian.
Little is known about Aristotle’s early life in northern Greece. However, it is believed that he received a basic education in Stagira before leaving for Athens to pursue higher education at the age of seventeen or eighteen.
Student Of Plato In Athens
During his time in Athens, Aristotle studied at Plato’s Academy. He joined the Academy at the age of seventeen or eighteen and remained there until he was thirty-seven years old, when Plato died. Aristotle was deeply influenced by Plato’s philosophy and became one of his most famous students.
Plato’s Academy was a place of learning and research where students engaged in philosophical discussions and debates. It was located in a grove of trees outside the city walls of Athens, near the Lyceum where Aristotle would later establish his own school.
As a student at the Academy, Aristotle was exposed to a wide range of philosophical ideas and theories. He studied mathematics, natural science, ethics, politics, and metaphysics. Plato’s philosophy had a profound impact on Aristotle’s own thinking, but he also developed his own ideas and theories that would later become influential in their own right.
Aristotle’s time at the Academy was formative for his intellectual development and laid the foundation for his later work as a philosopher and teacher. His experiences there helped shape his approach to philosophy and influenced the direction of his research throughout his life.
Time As A Tutor To Alexander The Great
One of the most significant periods in Aristotle’s life was his time as a tutor to Alexander the Great. In 343 BCE, Aristotle was summoned by King Philip II of Macedon to tutor his son Alexander. Aristotle was hired as a tutor for Alexander and made such an impression on the young prince that Alexander carried Aristotle’s works with him on campaign and introduced Aristotelian philosophy to the east when he conquered the Persian Empire.
During his time as Alexander’s tutor, Aristotle likely taught him a wide range of subjects, including politics, ethics, and science. It is believed that Aristotle’s teachings had a significant impact on Alexander’s worldview and decision-making as a ruler.
After two or three years of tutoring Alexander, Aristotle returned to Athens in 335 BCE and founded his own school, the Lyceum. However, his influence on Alexander continued even after he left Macedonia. Alexander reportedly sent specimens of plants and animals from his conquests to Aristotle for study and classification.
Return To Athens And The Lyceum
Upon returning to Athens in 335 BCE, Aristotle faced a unique challenge as an alien without the right to own property. He rented space in the Lyceum, a former wrestling school located just outside the city boundary. There, he established his own school and built a substantial library. Aristotle gathered around him a group of brilliant research students, called “peripatetics” from the name of the cloister (peripatos) in which they walked and held their discussions.
The Lyceum was not a private club like the Academy; many of the lectures there were open to the general public and given free of charge. Most of Aristotle’s surviving works, with the exception of the zoological treatises, probably belong to this second Athenian sojourn. There is no certainty about their chronological order, and indeed it is probable that the main treatises—on physics, metaphysics, psychology, ethics, and politics—were constantly rewritten and updated.
Every proposition of Aristotle is fertile of ideas and full of energy, though his prose is commonly neither lucid nor elegant. Aristotle’s works, though not as polished as Plato’s, are systematic in a way that Plato’s never were. Plato’s dialogues shift constantly from one topic to another, always crossing the boundaries between different philosophical or scientific disciplines. Indeed, there was no such thing as an intellectual discipline until Aristotle invented the notion during his Lyceum period.
Aristotle divided the sciences into three kinds: productive, practical, and theoretical. The productive sciences include engineering and architecture, which have products like bridges and houses. They also include disciplines such as strategy and rhetoric, where the product is something less concrete, such as victory on the battlefield or in the courts. The practical sciences guide behavior and include ethics and politics. The theoretical sciences—physics, mathematics, and theology—are those that have no product and no practical goal but in which information and understanding are sought for their own sake.
During Aristotle’s years at the Lyceum, his relationship with his former pupil Alexander apparently cooled. Alexander became more and more megalomaniac, finally proclaiming himself divine and demanding that Greeks prostrate themselves before him in adoration. Opposition to this demand was led by Aristotle’s nephew Callisthenes, who had been appointed historian of Alexander’s Asiatic expedition on Aristotle’s recommendation. For his heroism, Callisthenes was falsely implicated in a plot and executed.
When Alexander died in 323 BCE, democratic Athens became uncomfortable for Macedonians, even those who were anti-imperialist. Saying that he did not wish the city that had executed Socrates “to sin twice against philosophy,” Aristotle fled to Chalcis, where he died the following year. His will, which survives, makes thoughtful provision for a large number of friends and dependents. To Theophrastus, his successor as head of the Lyceum, he left his library, including his own writings, which were vast. Aristotle’s surviving works amount to about one million words, though they probably represent only about one-fifth of his total output.
The Lyceum of Aristotle in Athens is one of the most important places in the history of all western European intellectual culture and symbolizes the peak of Greek philosophy. The archaeological site of the Lyceum was discovered quite recently in the center of Athens in 1996. According to ancient accounts, the Lyceum was an idyllic green suburb outside the Dioharus Gate near the banks of the River Ilissos. The Lyceum area had probably taken its name from the Sanctuary of the Lyceum of Apollo, which existed before Aristotle founded the gymnasium but that has not yet been confirmed.
Final Years In Euboea
After fleeing Athens in 323 BCE, Aristotle settled on the island of Euboea, where he spent his final years. It is believed that he lived in the city of Chalcis, which was a thriving center of trade and culture at the time.
During his time in Euboea, Aristotle continued to write and teach philosophy. He also maintained his interest in natural history and conducted research on marine life, particularly the anatomy of fish and other sea creatures.
Despite his reputation as a great philosopher, Aristotle faced some challenges during his time in Euboea. He was not well-received by the local population, who viewed him with suspicion due to his association with the Macedonian court. In addition, he faced financial difficulties and struggled to support himself.
Despite these challenges, Aristotle continued to work on his philosophical ideas and produced some of his most influential works during this period. His ideas on ethics, politics, and metaphysics continued to shape Western philosophy for centuries to come.
In the year 322 BCE, Aristotle passed away in Chalcis at the age of 62. Although he faced challenges during his time in Euboea, he continued to pursue his intellectual interests and left a lasting legacy as one of the most important philosophers in history.
The Legacy Of Aristotle’s Philosophy
Aristotle’s philosophy has had a profound and lasting impact on Western thought. His ideas were original, wide-ranging, and systematic, covering most of the sciences and many of the arts. Aristotle’s influence extended beyond his own time and continues to be felt today.
One of the most significant contributions of Aristotle’s philosophy was his development of formal logic. He created a finished system for logic that was regarded as the sum of the discipline for centuries. His work in this area laid the foundation for later developments in logic, including the work of medieval scholars such as Peter Abelard and John Buridan.
Aristotle’s ideas also had a profound impact on medieval Christian theology. St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the most important theologians of the Middle Ages, undertook to reconcile Aristotelian philosophy and science with Christian dogma. Through Aquinas, Aristotelian thought became the intellectual framework for Western Scholasticism, the system of philosophical assumptions and problems characteristic of philosophy in western Europe during the Middle Ages.
Aristotle’s ethics has also been an important influence on contemporary philosophy. His emphasis on human well-being and the development of character has inspired the field of virtue theory, an approach to ethics that emphasizes individual character rather than rules or consequences.
In addition to his contributions to logic, theology, and ethics, Aristotle’s ideas have had a lasting impact on other fields of contemporary philosophy. His work in metaphysics and the philosophy of science continues to be studied and debated by philosophers today.
Overall, Aristotle’s philosophy has left an indelible mark on Western thought. His ideas have influenced almost every form of knowledge in the West and continue to be a subject of contemporary philosophical discussion.
