06 - Aristotle

black = lect slides, blue = notes

Aristotle’s orgins

he was a greek from the Macedonian cithy of Stagira

His father was a court physician to Kind Amyntas lll (the grandfather of Alexander the Great)

• Lost mother vey young, so his father took care of him

• As a court physician to kind of Macedonia, he taught young Aristotle principals of medicine and observation

• Young Aristotle played with future Alexander the great

Aristotle and Plato (3)

1)Aristotle studied and later taught at the Academcy with Plato (367 BCE)

• At age 17: sent to Athens to study under Plato in the academy, becoming one of the best students of Plato

• After his graduation, he was accepted as a fellow teacher at the academic

2)When Plato died, Aristotle moved to Lesbos (347 BCE)

• Before his death, Plato didn't nominate Aristotle as the next head of the academy

• Aristotle feeling vexed, he left Athens for Lesbos where he was invited to Macedonian court to be a tutor to the future Alexander the Great

3)Aristotle returned to the Macedonian court as a tutor ot the future Alexander the Great

What brought Aristotle back to Athens

1)Phillip (King) of Macedonia conquers Athens (338 BC)

2)when (his father) Philip dies, Alexander is proclaimed King of Macedonia and Greece (336 BC)

• Aristotle became a protegee of Alexander the Great

3)Aristotle opens the Lyceum near the Temple of Apollo Lykerios 

• As a parallel to Plutonian academy, Aristotle offered his own academy call Lyceum

Aristotle and Empirical Zeitgeist (3)

1. Plato’s Academy focused on abstract reasoning and ideal forms (very theoretical).

2. Aristotle’s Lyceum emphasized collecting data, observing the natural world, and applying knowledge to practical problems (very empirical).

1. Because Alexander the Great was pursuing conquest and expansion, Greece’s intellectual climate shifted toward valuing knowledge that could be applied in the real world *practical knowledge— building military machines, organizing armies, planing invasions

2. This shift in priorities is what’s called the empirical zeitgeist: the spirit of the time favored Aristotle’s approach of gathering facts and applying them pragmatically over Plato’s abstract philosophizing.