ARISTOTLE

Aristotle was born in 384 BCE in Stagira, a small Greek colony near Macedonia. His father, Nicomachus, was court physician to King Amyntas III, grandfather of Alexander the Great. This medical background shaped Aristotle permanently: he thought like a biologist, classifying, dissecting, observing particulars.

At seventeen, he travelled to Athens and joined Plato’s Academy, where he remained for twenty years — first as student, then as teacher. Plato called him “the mind of the school.” But Aristotle increasingly diverged from his master. Where Plato looked up to eternal Forms, Aristotle looked around at living things. Where Plato distrusted the senses, Aristotle trusted observation.

When Plato died in 347 BCE, Aristotle left Athens — whether passed over for leadership or simply ready to move on. He spent years in Asia Minor and Lesbos, studying marine biology with astonishing care. His observations of sea creatures remained unsurpassed until the microscope. Then came the summons that changed history: King Philip II of Macedon invited him to tutor his son Alexander.

For three years, Aristotle taught the future world-conqueror. What they discussed is lost, but Alexander carried a copy of Homer annotated by Aristotle on his campaigns. The relationship cooled when Alexander became divine and Aristotle’s nephew was executed for conspiracy. But the connection funded Aristotle’s greatest project.

Returning to Athens in 335 BCE, he founded the Lyceum — a school, library, and research institute. He and his students catalogued constitutions, collected specimens, documented knowledge across every field. The morning lectures were technical, for advanced students; afternoon lectures were public. They walked while they talked — hence “Peripatetics,” the walking philosophers.

For twelve years, he produced the works we have: logic, physics, metaphysics, biology, ethics, politics, rhetoric, poetics. No one has ever mastered so many fields so deeply. Then Alexander died, Athens turned on Macedonians, and Aristotle fled. He died in Chalcis in 322 BCE, aged sixty-two, leaving instructions to free his slaves and care for his household.

Aristotle’s philosophy begins with a question: what makes something what it is? His answer: four causes. The material cause (what it’s made of), formal cause (its structure or essence), efficient cause (what made it), and final cause (its purpose or end). A statue is bronze, shaped like a human, carved by a sculptor, for commemorating a hero. All four causes are needed to explain it fully.

This framework applies to everything. Nature is purposive — acorns aim at becoming oaks. The universe is not atoms blindly colliding but forms actualizing potential. Where Democritus saw mechanism, Aristotle saw teleology. Where Plato located Forms in a separate realm, Aristotle insisted they exist in things — the form of horse is in actual horses, not in some Horse Heaven.

His logic was the first formal system. The syllogism — “All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore Socrates is mortal” — dominated Western reasoning for two millennia. He classified propositions, identified fallacies, and created the Categories: the basic ways we can speak of being. This wasn’t just abstract; it was method, applicable to any subject.

In ethics, Aristotle asked: what is the good for human beings? His answer: eudaimonia, translated as “happiness” or “flourishing.” Not pleasure, though pleasure accompanies flourishing. Not wealth or honour, which are means. Eudaimonia is “activity of soul in accordance with virtue” — living well, doing well, being excellent at being human.

Virtue (arete) is a disposition to choose the mean between extremes: courage between cowardice and recklessness, generosity between stinginess and extravagance. This “doctrine of the mean” sounds like moderation, but it’s really about hitting the target — the right action, at the right time, in the right way. And virtue is acquired through practice. We become brave by doing brave acts until bravery becomes second nature.

Politics extends ethics. Humans are “political animals” — we flourish only in communities. The best constitution isn’t fixed but depends on circumstances. Aristotle analysed over 150 constitutions, classified regimes by who rules and for whose benefit, and warned against tyranny without endorsing democracy uncritically. The good polis enables citizens to live virtuously.