Aristotle: the philosopher who knew everything
It has been said that he was a man who knew everything. In fact, he was considered the last man who knew everything. He was born with a supernatural memory like Rainman? Did the gods imbue you with the divine gift of wisdom? Maybe, but probably not.
Most likely, he knew everything about his own time because, frankly, most of what was known was written by him anyway. He could not have found a more prolific, profound, and innovative thinker than Aristotle. He inscribed more than 200 works (although only 31 remain), founded numerous fields of study and observation, as well as a leading school to further those new areas of interest.
Really, no short column can do anything, not even in the remote vicinity of justice to the life, contributions and influence of man. However, that doesn’t mean we won’t try.
For example, if we wanted to briefly review the main mental task accomplished by Aristotle, we would find a monotonous list; a copy and paste of the achievements.
Unfortunately, it is a mistake that we cannot avoid. Our suggestion would be not to read it through (unless it’s in a Rodgers and Hammerstein-like tune), but to see it for the mountain that it is and move on to the next paragraph.
So, without further farewell:
In physical sciences, Aristotle studied: anatomy, astronomy, embryology, geography, geology, meteorology, physics, and zoology. In philosophy, he wrote on: aesthetics, ethics, government, metaphysics, politics, economics, psychology, rhetoric, and theology. He also studied: education, foreign customs, literature and poetry.
This is the moment when everyone asks, with burning jealousy in their eyes, how did he have time in a short life? Where did he get the inexhaustible energy or the German discipline? We don’t know, of course. A brief overview of the ebbs and flows of her life might shed some light…we can only hope.
From the beginning, Aristotle was not like the other Athenian philosophers, because he was not even an Athenian. This small detail, in which he had no choice, resulted in innumerable favorable and unfortunate events in his life. It meant that he was often a ‘foreigner’ because he was born in northern Greece (more precisely, in Stageira, Chalcidice, in 384 BC, some 34 miles east of present-day Thessaloniki). Essentially… Macedonia, the land of Alexander the Great.
Aristotle’s father, Nicomacheus, was the personal physician to Alexander’s grandfather, King Amyntas of Macedonia. This would have been the first influence of the young Aristotle in the field of scientific thought. He also contributed to his vast knowledge of anatomy. Furthermore, it was his initial connection to the Macedonian court.
After Aristotle’s father passed away, his new tutor sent him to Athens so that he could receive a proper education. There, in the great city, he studied with Plato himself at his renowned Academy. No one would doubt that this period was extremely influential for Aristotle. After 20 odd years, in 348/47 B.C. C., he left the Acropolis, although no one knows for sure why he left the city. One theory is that the philosopher’s ego was hurt when Plato died. He did not pass the baton to Aristotle, but appointed another successor in his place. The other order of events is that Aristotle feared anti-Macedonian sentiments and actually left before Plato gave up the ghost.
Either way, Aristotle then traveled with a fellow thinker, Xenocrates, to the court of his friend Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor. There he scored, inspired thoughts about the octopus, married the daughter of Hermias and had a baby. His excursions around Lebos were instrumental in his observations of marine life, with a description of the cephalopod phallus predating his time by some two thousand years. In fact, it was largely disbelieved until its rediscovery in the 19th century.
When his father-in-law died, Aristotle was called back to his homeland to teach the king’s son. The one and only Alexander the Great, albeit at the age of 13. However, Aristotle did not leave everything and ran to his highness. He accepted the position only if his hometown was restored after the king razed it to the ground. Not only that, but the city had to be repopulated, which meant that its former citizens were freed from slavery or pardoned from exile.
A lot of myth has been made about the relationship of Alexander and Aristotle during those three years of study. The latter encouraged expansion in the east, shamelessly advising despotism to subdue the barbarians. Perhaps, however, the former also influenced his older mentor? Was it a reminder of age, energy, and role in history, perhaps? We, of course, have no idea.
All we know is that Aristotle returned to Athens, but this time to establish his own academy, the Lyceum. There he wrote the vast majority of his works, taught the next generation, and remarried after the death of his wife. It was during this 12-year span that the most important treatises of his were created, including Physical, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, PolicyDe Anima (On the soul) and Poetics.
Then Alexander died and Athens and Greece were changed forever. Aristotle’s profound thoughts and benefits to scholars could not save him from the outburst of anti-Macedonian sentiments. It took the form of accusations of “godlessness.” Rather than face a false trial, Aristotle fled to Chalcis, where his mother owned an estate, explaining, “I will not allow the Athenians to sin twice against philosophy.” This was a greeting to the teacher from his former teacher, Socrates. Finally, Aristotle died of natural causes in 322 BC.
His legacy, however, lived on. In reality, his works were lost in the West for many centuries, preserved in Arabia, and only rediscovered in Europe during the Middle Ages. In that time period, Aristotle’s writings had an authority second only to the Bible. Many of his works were not improved until the 19th century.
But the most important thing is that Aristotle proposed a new way of thinking; a method to reach a conclusion. We are talking about his contributions to logic. So he knew everything. He didn’t know anything! What he understood was how to look at the world rationally and learn something.