ARISTOTLE,

born 384 BC, Stagira, Chalcidice, Greece died 322, Chalcis, Euboea Greek Aristoteles ancient Greek philosopher, scientist, and organizer of research, one of the two greatest intellectual figures produced by the Greeks (the other being Plato). He surveyed the whole field of human knowledge as it was known in the Mediterranean world in his day; and his writings long influenced Western and Muslim thought. The son of the court physician to the king of Macedonia, Aristotle was probably introduced to Greek medicine and biology at an early age. Following the death of his father, he was sent to the Athenian Academy of Plato (367) and there engaged in dialogue for 20 years. On Plato's death in 348/347 he left Athens and traveled for 12 years, establishing new academies at Assus and at Mytilene. He lived at Pella, the capital of Macedonia, for about three years (beginning in 343/342), tutoring the future Alexander the Great, and retired to his paternal property at Stagira about 339. In 335 he returned to Athens and, at nearly the age of 50, opened the Lyceum, an institution to rival the Academy. For the next 12 years he organized it as a centre for speculation and research in every department of inquiry; the chief contributions of the Lyceum lay in biology and history. On the death of Alexander in 323, an anti-Macedonian agitation broke out in Athens, and Aristotle withdrew to Chalcis, north of Athens, where he died the following year. Aristotle's extant works comprise mostly, it seems, notes used in giving Lyceum courses and are of a concentrated, academic nature. The form, titles, and order of the texts were given to them by Andronicus of Rhodes, the last head of the Lyceum, almost three centuries after the philosopher's death. Additional reading General works There are several good introductions to Aristotle's thought: Jonathan Barnes, Aristotle (1982); J.L. Ackrill, Aristotle the Philosopher (1981); D.J. Allan, The Philosophy of Aristotle, 2nd ed. (1970, reissued 1978); G.E.R. Lloyd, Aristotle: The Growth and Structure of His Thought (1968); W.D. Ross, Aristotle, 5th ed. (1949, reprinted 1977); and Franz Brentano, Aristotle and His World View (1978; originally published in German, 1911). For a comprehensive survey see Ingemar Dring, Aristoteles: Darstellung und Interpretation seiner Denkens (1966). Two of the most influential books on Aristotle written in the 20th century are Werner W. Jaeger, Aristotle: Fundamentals of the History of His Development, 2nd ed. (1948, reissued 1962; originally published in German, 1923), which advances a theory of the development of Aristotle's thought; and Harold Cherniss, Aristotle's Criticism of Plato and the Academy (1944, reissued 1962), which discusses, in a uniformly critical spirit, Aristotle's knowledge and assessment of Plato's work.Most of the scholarly work done on Aristotle appears in articles rather than in books. There is a useful anthology: Jonathan Barnes, Malcolm Schofield, and Richard Sorabji (eds.), Articles on Aristotle, 4 vol. (197579). The proceedings of the triennial Symposium Aristotelicum contain some of the most up-to-date work. Life For all aspects of Aristotle's life, see Ingemar Dring, Aristotle in the Ancient Biographical Tradition (1957); for his writings, see Paul Moraux, Les Listes anciennes des ouvrages d'Aristote (1951); for the history of the Lyceum, see John Patrick Lynch, Aristotle's School: A Study of a Greek Educational Institution (1972); and Paul Moraux, Der Aristotelismus bei den Griechen: Von Andronikos bis Alexander von Aphrodisias, 2 vol. (197384). Thought Logic On Aristotle's formal syllogistic the classic study is Jan Lukasiewicz, Aristotle's Syllogistic from the Standpoint of Modern Formal Logic, 2nd ed. enlarged (1957, reprinted 1967); and the standard work is Gnther Patzig, Aristotle's Theory of the Syllogism: A Logico-Philological Study of Book A of the Prior Analytics (1969; originally published in German, 2nd ed. 1963). A less formal account can be found in Ernest Kapp, Greek Foundations of Traditional Logic (1942, reissued 1967). See also Jonathan Lear, Aristotle and Logical Theory (1980); and, for the Topics, the introduction to Jacques Brunschwig (trans.), Topiques (1967). On the development of Aristotle's ideas in logic, see Friedrich Solmsen, Die Entwicklung der aristotelischen Logik und Rhetorik (1929, reprinted 1975). For Aristotle's modal logic, see Storrs McCall, Aristotle's Modal Syllogisms (1963); and for less formal treatments of his ideas about modality, see Jaakko Hintikka, Time & Necessity: Studies in Aristotle's Theory of Modality (1973); and Sarah Waterlow, Passage and Possibility: A Study of Aristotle's Modal Concepts (1982). On the connection between Aristotle's logic and his scientific methodology, see J.M. Le Blond, Logique et mthode chez Aristote: tude sur la recherche des principes dans la physique aristotlicinne, 2nd ed. (1970). Theory of science The standard introduction to the Physics is Auguste Mansion, Introduction la physique aristotlicienne, 2nd rev. ed. (1946); see also Friedrich Solmsen, Aristotle's System of the Physical World: A Comparison with His Predecessors (1960, reprinted 1970). Among the most stimulating recent studies are Wolfgang Wieland, Die aristotelische Physik; 2nd rev. ed. (1970); Richard Sorabji, Necessity, Cause, and Blame: Perspectives on Aristotle's Theory (1980), and Time, Creation, and the Continuum: Theories in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (1983); and Sarah Waterlow, Nature, Change, and Agency in Aristotle's Physics (1982). Biology It is still worth consulting D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, On Aristotle as a Biologist (1913); the best recent study is Pierre Pellegrin, La Classification des animaux chez Aristote: statut de la biologie et unit de l'aristotlisme (1982). Psychology Franz Brentano, The Psychology of Aristotle: In Particular His Doctrine of the Active Intellect (1977; originally published in German, 1867), remains one of the most valuable works in this area. The standard study of the development of Aristotle's views on the soul is Franois Nuyens, L'volution de la psychologie d'Aristote (1948, reissued 1973). Among more recent works are Edwin Hartman, Substance, Body, and Soul: Aristotelian Investigations (1977); and David Charles, Aristotle's Philosophy of Action (1984). Metaphysics There are two large and comprehensive volumes: Joseph Owens, The Doctrine of Being in the Aristotelian Metaphysics: A Study in the Greek Background of Medieval Thought, 3rd ed. rev. (1978); and Pierre Aubenque, Le Problme de l'tre chez Aristote: essai sur la problmatique aristotlicienne, 4th ed. (1977). There is a helpful brief introduction in G.E.M. Anscombe and P.T. Geach, Three Philosophers (1961, reprinted 1963). On special aspects of the metaphysics, see Franz Brentano, On the Several Senses of Being in Aristotle (1975, reprinted 1981; originally published in German, 1862); R.M. Dancy, Sense and Contradiction: A Study in Aristotle (1975); Suzanne Mansion, Le Jugement d'existence chez Aristote, 2nd ed. rev. (1976); and A.C. Lloyd, Form and Universal in Aristotle (1981). Ethics W.F.R. Hardie, Aristotle's Ethical Theory, 2nd ed. (1980), provides a helpful companion. Some of the best recent work is collected in Amlie Oksenberg Rorty (ed.), Essays on Aristotle's Ethics (1980). See also Stephen R.L. Clark, Aristotle's Man: Speculations upon Aristotelian Anthropology (1975), reprinted 1983); James J. Walsh, Aristotle's Conception of Moral Weakness (1963); John M. Cooper, Reason and Human Good in Aristotle (1975); Anthony Kenny, The Aristotelian Ethics: A Study of the Relationship Between the Eudemian and Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle (1978), and Aristotle's Theory of the Will (1979); and Troels Engberg-Pedersen, Aristotle's Theory of Moral Insight (1983, reprinted 1985). Politics The standard discussion is Ernest Barker, The Political Thought of Plato and Aristotle (1906, reissued 1959); see also R.G. Mulgan, Aristotle's Political Theory: An Introduction for Students of Political Theory (1977). On Aristotle's historical interests, see George Huxley, On Aristotle and Greek Society: An Essay (1979). Rhetoric William M.A. Grimaldi, Studies in the Philosophy of Aristotle's Rhetoric (1972). On the psychological aspects of rhetoric, see W.W. Fortenbaugh, Aristotle on Emotion: A Contribution to Philosophical Psychology, Rhetoric, Poetics, Politics, and Ethics (1975). Poetics John Jones, On Aristotle and Greek Tragedy (1962, reissued 1980); and Richard Janko, Aristotle on Comedy: Towards a Reconstruction of Poetics II (1984). Major Works: Logic These six works are known collectively as the Organon: Kategoriai (Categories); Peri hermeneias (Latin trans., De Interpretatione; Eng. trans., On Interpretation); Analytika protera (Prior Analytics); Analytika hystera (Posterior Analytics); Topika (Topics); and Peri sophistikon elegchon (Sophistical Refutations). Natural philosophy and natural science Physike (Physics); Peri ouranou (On the Heavens); Peri geneseos kai phthoras (On Generation and Corruption; On Coming to Be and Passing Away); Meteorologika (Meteorology); Peri kosmou (spurious; Latin trans., De mundo; Eng. trans., On the Universe); Peri ta zoa historiai (History of Animals); Peri zoon morion (Parts of Animals); Peri zoon kineseos (Movement of Animals); Peri poreias zoon (Progression of Animals); Peri zoon geneseos (Generation of Animals); and the works collectively known as the Parva Naturalia: Peri aistheseos (On the Senses and Their Objects; On Sense and Sensible Objects); Peri mnemes kai anamneseos (On Memory and Recollection); Peri hypnou kai egregorseos (On Sleep and Waking); Peri enypnion (On Dreams); Peri tes kath hypnon mantikes (On Divination in Sleep; On Prophecy in Sleep); Peri makrobiotetos kai brachybiotetos (On Length and Shortness of Life); Peri neotetos kai geros (On Youth and Old Age); Peri zoes kai thanatou (On Life and Death); Peri anapnoes (On Respiration); and Peri pneumatos (spurious; On Breath). Psychology Peri psyches (Latin trans., De anima; Eng. trans., On the Soul). Metaphysics Ta meta ta physika (Metaphysics). Ethics and politics Ethika Nikomacheia (Nichomachean Ethics); Ethika Eudemeia (Eudemian Ethics); Ethika megala (spurious; Latin and Eng. trans., Magna moralia); Peri areton kai kakion (spurious; On Virtues and Vices); Politika (Politics); Oikonomika (spurious; Economics); and Athenaion politeia (incomplete; Constitution of Athens). Aesthetics and literature Techne rhetorike (Rhetoric); Rhetorike pros Alexandron (spurious; Rhetoric to Alexander); and Peri poietikes (incomplete; Poetics). Other works These remain in the corpus but are believed by scholars to be falsely attributed to Aristotle: Peri chromaton (On Colours); Peri akouston (On Things Heard); Physiognomonika (Physiognomonics); Peri phyton (On Plants); Peri thaumasion akousmaton (On Marvellous Things Heard); Mechanika (Mechanics); Problemata (Problems); Peri atomon grammon (On Indivisible Lines); Anemon theseis kai prosegoriai (The Situations and Names of Winds); and Peri Melissou, peri Xenophanous, peri Gorgiou (On Melissus, Xenophanes, Gorgias). Texts The standard edition of the Greek text is the Berlin Academy edition, Aristotelis Opera, ed. by Immanuel Bekker, 5 vol. (183170, reissued 5 vol. in 4, 196061); and the standard edition of the fragments is Aristotelis qui Ferebantur Librorum Fragmenta, ed. by Valentin Rose (1870, reissued 1967). For most works these texts have been superseded by more recent editions, notably by the volumes of the Teubner series, the Oxford Classical Text series, the Loeb Classical Library series (with English translations), and the Bud series (with French translations). The medieval Latin translations of Aristotle are being printed in Aristoteles Latinus, ed. by L. Minio-Paluello (1939 ); see also Aristotelis opera cum Averrois commentariis, 9 vol. in 11 (156274, reissued 1962). In addition there is much useful information of a textual nature in the early Greek commentaries, the most important of which have been published in Commentaris in Aristotelem Graeca, 23 vol. in 46 (18821909). An invaluable aid to the study of Aristotle is Hermann Bonitz, Index Aristotelicus (1870, reprinted 1955). Recommended editions Numerous English translations of the major treatises are available. The standard complete edition is Jonathan Barnes (ed.), The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation, 2 vol. (1984). Of the many editions of and commentaries on individual works, the following may be mentioned: J.L. Ackrill (trans.), Categories, and De Interpretatione (1963, reprinted 1978); W.D. Ross (ed.), Prior and Posterior Analytics (1949, reprinted 1957); Jonathan Barnes (trans.), Aristotle's Posterior Analytics (1976); W.D. Ross (ed.), Physics (1950, reprinted 1977); W. Charlton (trans.), Aristotle's Physics: Books 1 & 2 (1970); Edward Hussey (trans.), Aristotle's Physics, Books III and IV (1983); Harold H. Joachim (ed.), Aristotle on Coming-to-Be and Passing-Away (De Generatione et Corruptione) (1922, reprinted 1982); C.J.F. Williams (trans.), Aristotle's De Generatione et Corruptione (1982); R.D. Hicks (trans.), De Anima (1907, reprinted 1976); W.D. Ross (ed.), Parva Naturalia (1955, reprinted 1970); G.R.T. Ross (trans.), De Sensu and De Memoria (1906, reprinted 1973); Richard Sorabji, Aristotle on Memory (1972); D.M. Balme (trans.), Aristotle's De Partibus Animalium I; and, De Generatione Animalium I (1972); Martha Craven Nussbaum (ed. and trans.), Aristotle's De Motu Animalium (1978); W.D. Ross (ed.), Metaphysics, 2nd ed. (1928); Christopher Kirwan (trans.), Aristotle's Metaphysics (1971), Books 46; Myles Burnyeat (ed.), Notes on Book Zeta of Aristotle's Metaphysics (1979), and Notes on Books Eta and Theta of Aristotle's Metaphysics (1984); Julia Annas (trans.), Aristotle's Metaphysics (1976), Books 1314; J.A. Stewart, Notes on the Nichomachean Ethics of Aristotle (1892, reprinted 1973); Michael Woods (trans.), Aristotle's Eudemian Ethics: Books I, II, and VIII (1982); W.L. Newman (ed.), The Politics of Aristotle, 4 vol. (18871902, reprinted 1973); Richard Robinson (trans.), Politics, Books III and IV (1962); Edward Meredith Cope (ed.), The Rhetoric of Aristotle, 3 vol. (1877, reprinted 1973); D.W. Lucas (ed.), Poetics (1968, reprinted 1980); P.J. Rhodes (trans.), The Athenian Constitution (1984); and Ingemar Dring (ed.), Protrepticus: An Attempt at Reconstruction (1961). The life of Aristotle Aristotle, marble bust with a restored nose, Roman copy of a Greek original, last quarter of the Aristotle was born in the summer of 384 BC in the small Greek township of Stagira (or Stagirus, or Stageirus), on the Chalcidic peninsula of Macedonia, in northern Greece. (For this reason Aristotle is also known as the Stagirite.) His father, Nicomachus, was court physician to Amyntas III, king of Macedonia, father of Philip II, and grandfather of Alexander the Great. As a doctor's son, Aristotle was heir to a scientific tradition some 200 years old. The case histories contained in the Epidemics of Hippocrates, the father of Greek medicine, may have introduced him at an early age to the concepts and practices of Greek medicine and biology. As a physician, Nicomachus was a member of the guild of the Asclepiads, the so-called sons of Asclepius, the legendary founder and god of medicine. Because medicine was a traditional occupation in certain families, being handed down from father to son, Aristotle in all likelihood learned at home the fundamentals of that practical skill he was afterward to display in his biological researches. Had he been a medical student he would have undergone a rigorous and varied training: he would have studied the role in therapy of diet, drugs, and exercise; he would have learned how to check the flow of blood, apply bandages, fit splints to broken limbs, reset dislocations, and make poultices of flour, oil, and wine. Such, at least, were the skills of the trained physician of his time. It is not known for certain that Aristotle actually acquired these skills; it is known that medicine and its history were later studied in the Lyceum, Aristotle's own institute in Athens, and that later, in a snobbish vein, he considered a man sufficiently educated if he knew the theory of medicine without having gained experience practicing it. This early connection with medicine and with the rough-living Macedonian court largely explains both the predominantly biological cast of Aristotle's philosophical thought and the intense dislike of princes and courts to which he more than once gave expression. First period: in the Academy at Athens While Aristotle was still a youth, his father died, and the young man became a ward of Proxenus, probably a relative of his father. He was sent to the Academy of Plato at Athens in 367 and remained there for 20 years. These years formed the first of three main periods in Aristotle's intellectual development, years dominated by the formative influence of Plato and his colleagues in the Academy. Aristotle doubtless interested himself in the whole range of the Academy's activities. It is known that he devoted some time to the study of rhetoric, and he wrote and spoke for the Academy in its battles against the rival school of Isocrates. After Plato's death in 348/347 his nephew Speusippus was named as head of the Academy. Aristotle shortly thereafter left Athensin disgust, it is sometimes claimed, at not being appointed Plato's successor. This interpretation of his motive, however, lacks foundation, for evidence suggests that he was ineligible to be the school's head because of his status as a resident alien who could not hold property legally. It is more likely that his departure from Athens may have been linked with an anti-Macedonian feeling that arose in Athens after Philip had sacked the Greek city-state of Olynthus in 348. Aristotle's 12-year absence from Athens nevertheless indicates that he valued more the circle of friends who accompanied him on his travelschief among them Theophrastus of Eresus, his pupil, colleague, and eventual successor as head of the Lyceumthan he did his membership in the Platonic Academy. Writings Aristotle's writings fall into two groups: the first consists of works published by Aristotle but now lost; the second of works not published by Aristotle and, in fact, not intended for publication but collected and preserved by others. In the first group are included (1) the writings that Aristotle himself termed exoteric, or popularthat is, those written in dialogue or other current literary forms and meant for the general reading publicand (2) those that he termed hypomnematic, or notes to aid the memory, and collections of materials for further work. Of these, only fragments are extant. Finally, the writings that generally have survived, termed acroamatic, or treatises (logoi, methodoi, pragmateiai), were meant for use in Aristotle's school and were written in a concise and individualistic style. In later antiquity Aristotle's writings filled several hundred rolls; today the surviving 30 works fill some 2,000 printed pages. Three ancient catalogs list a total of more than 170 separate works by Aristotle, a figure corroborated by references and lists of titles in the extant treatises as well as by a number of citations and paraphrases in early commentators. Cicero must have been alluding to Aristotle's popular dialogues when he described in the Academica the suave style of Aristotle . . . . A river of gold. The extant works contain several passages of polished prose, but for the most part their style is clipped. Lost works published by Aristotle The lost popular works include poetry and letters as well as essays and dialogues in the Platonic manner. Several problems have confronted scholars in their attempts to reconstitute these lost popular works. The lost dialogues, for example, appear to diverge widely from the doctrines of the surviving treatises. Indeed, they appear to outdo Plato in his own teaching. Thus, what is known of Aristotle's dialogue Eudemus, or On the Soul, compares the relation of the soul to the body with an unnatural union, like that of the torture that the Tyrrhenian pirates inflicted on their prisoners by binding each of them to a corpse. Inasmuch as Aristotle in his extant treatises criticized his Platonist friends for making soul and body enemies, Alexander of Aphrodisias, an authoritative Aristotelian commentator of the late 2nd century AD, raised the question whether he expressed two truths, one exoteric for public consumption, the other esoteric and reserved for his students in the Lyceum. The present consensus of scholars is that Aristotle's popular writings generally derived from the early stage of his intellectual development during his time in Plato's Academy: they represent not his public but his juvenile thoughts. Chief among the lost works are: Eudemus, in the tradition of Plato's Phaedo; On Philosophy, a type of philosophical program containing themes to be developed later in his Metaphysics; the Protrepticus, or exhortation to the life of philosophy; Gryllus, or On Rhetoric; On Justice, expressing nascent themes of his Politics; and On Ideas, which criticizes Plato's theory of Forms.