Aristotle's Life, Works, and Philosophical Legacy

Life and Education

At age 18, Aristotle joined Plato's Academy as first a student and later an educator. He remained there for the following 19 years and was considered the leading candidate to lead the Academy upon Plato's death. However, Plato's nephew received the position instead. Aristotle then traveled abroad and became a tutor to Alexander the Great, who would later become one of history's most powerful military leaders.

When Alexander became king of Macedonia, Aristotle returned to Athens and founded his own school, the Lyceum. However, when Alexander fell out of favor with the Athenians, Aristotle's association with him made living in Athens dangerous. He was accused of impiety, as Socrates had been before him. Rather than face trial, Aristotle fled the city and died the following year of a stomach ailment.

Aristotle's scholarly range was immense, covering most of the sciences and many of the humanities. He worked in physics, zoology, and biology; in psychology, political theory, and ethics; in logic and metaphysics; and in literary theory as well. His vast output across these disciplines made him arguably the most comprehensive thinker of the ancient world.

Scope of Aristotle's Scholarship

He invented the study of formal logic, developing for it a complete system known as syllogistic logic, which was regarded as the entirety of the discipline until the nineteenth century. His work in zoology, both observational and theoretical, was likewise not surpassed until the nineteenth century. His ethical and political theory, particularly his conception of virtue and human flourishing (eudaimonia), continues to exert significant influence in philosophical debate.

Aristotle was remarkably prolific. His major surviving works include the Organon, De Anima ("On the Soul"), Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, Eudemian Ethics, Magna Moralia, Politics, Rhetoric, and Poetics, along with various treatises on natural history and science.

Logic and the Organon

One of Aristotle's principal contributions to philosophy is his development of logic, for which he wrote six treatises collected under the title "The Organon." Although much of Aristotle's work was lost for a time, the Organon was preserved. Through these writings, Aristotle explores the nature of the syllogism—the logical form that became the foundation of deductive reasoning—the methods by which logic must proceed to avoid fallacies, and the method of writing called "Common Places," which can be applied to the persuasive use of rhetoric.

Throughout this work and all his other writings, one observes that Aristotle valued order and precise definition. When words did not already exist for a genuine phenomenon, Aristotle invented them; the word "syllogism" itself is one such creation. His systematic approach to logic established patterns of reasoning that remained authoritative for over two thousand years and continue to be studied in academic philosophy today.

Aristotle's theories on science are not, to most modern researchers, particularly helpful. He advocated for science through reason rather than direct observation. However, he did contribute to the experimental method still used in scientific inquiry today. At the same time, many of his specific claims about scientific matters are frequently incorrect.

Natural Science and Classification

Nevertheless, as the great classifier, he is responsible for developing the system of organizing plants and animals that still exists today. His taxonomic contributions represented an enormous advance in the systematic understanding of the natural world and influenced biological classification for centuries.

In his work on metaphysics, Aristotle attempted to define the fundamental principles underlying the existence of everything that can be observed. Again, his method relied on reason rather than direct observation. He identified several categories of causes and further investigated the physical composition of the universe as a combination of different forms of matter, such as water and fire.

Metaphysics and the Nature of Being

Aristotle understood that he needed to explain two fundamental facts about the natural world. Things do change while maintaining their essential identity. When a child grows into an adult, two things are apparent. First, the individual undergoes changes. Second, there must be something that remains constant about the person to allow us to recognize who they are over time. In other words, there is something essential that remains unchanged despite physical changes.

Aristotle explained this in terms of "matter" and "form." Consider the example of water. What is the fundamental permanent feature of water? The answer is that water is wet. Is being stained or dirty an essential feature of water? No, because water can be separated to remove contaminants. Being stained or dirty is only a temporary feature of water. Wetness, on the other hand, is an essential feature of water. Water cannot change its wetness. If something is said to be water and it is not wet, then it cannot be water.