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Makia Thomas
Western Civilization
Biography
10/12/15
Aristotle
All men by nature, desire to know. Aristotle believed that nature could be understood
by observation and reason and also that all knowledge should be open for interpretation and
examined. Knowledge, in other words, is essential to life. Aristotles influence on western culture
has been enormous. His writings, in which have survived through destruction and throughout
time, show his great amount of intellect and his passion of deep thought about our world.
The young boy was born in Ancient Greece in 384 BC inside the city of Stagira located in
the Greek state of Macedonia. He came from a very stable background. His father, Nicomachus,
was a physician and his mother came from a wealthy family. Around that time in Ancient Greece,
wealthy Greeks held their children to great expectations and wanted them to exceed
academically. It was bound for Aristotle to be great. After the death of his parents at a young age,
he was taken in by a family member. Once he grew of age, he was sent away to Athens to enroll
into Platos Academy and further his education. This would also be the place where he would
soon develop the worlds most famous teacher-student relationships between himself and famous
Geek philosopher, Plato.
Plato was a student of Socrates, another famous philosopher, was a key piece in the
success of Aristotle. Plato, along with Socrates, was vital in providing foundations in philosophy
and science. During his teaching years, he accepted Aristotle into his school where he would stay
for approximately the next 20 years of his life and learn things such as science, philosophy, and
math. In the span of that 20 years the master and pupil grew close and Plato considered him

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somewhat as an apprentice. Though their relationship was tightly bounded by knowledge, there
were things that Plato and Aristotle simply didnt agree on. Because of their differences in
opinion, upon the death of Plato, instead of his star pupil following his footsteps and taking of
the academy, it was given to Platos nephew. Aristotle left Athens soon after and moved to the
coast of Asia Minor where in 5 years he met his wife Pythias, and had his only daughter, named
after her mother, Pythias. He spent time traveling through and around the borders of the Greek
empire to study the natural world.
In 342 Aristotle was asked personally by King Philip II of Macedonia to teach his son,
Alexander who would later become Alexander the Great. The young Prince Alexander was
destined to be great and his father King Phillip II wanted him to have the best education he could
therefore sought out for the best educator in the land to do so. First and foremost, the teacher had
some requests from the King Phillip in order for him to start teaching his son. He requested that
the king restore his hometown, that was destroyed by him, and also to allow the return of
enslaved and exiled Stagira citizens. After getting the agreement from the king, Aristotle began
to teach the young boy the knowledge that would help make him great. He instilled strong
foundations of philosophy, medicine, morals, and the arts to the young prince. By the age of 16,
Alexander took the place as Macedonias King after the death of his father. Aristotle gave him
bountiful knowledge but he also did some convincing. Aristotle disliked barbarians, anybody
who lived outside of Greece, so he talked Alexander to conquer their lands and treat barbarians
as slaves and not as people. Though Alexander the Great went on the conquer vast lands to the
East, he disagreed with some of his masters advice and used his own tactical strategies to
continue building his empire.

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He returned to Greece in 335 B.C. where he rented out space in an old school called
Lyceum where he spent a majority of the rest of his life as a teacher. Lyceum students learned
and researched about subjects including; math, science, philosophy, politics, art, and so much
more. The students wrote in manuscripts and together helped create their schools massive
collection of written materials, which is to be considered one of the first and greatest libraries of
ancient times. In his constant studies at his school, he came across many subjects such as
science, philosophy, politics, and many more. As he learned of the death of King Alexander,
Aristotle fled to Chalcis due to rising tensions.
In time, Aristotle had around 200 writings that included dialogues, scientific observations
and systematic findings. Though he was a philosopher, he provided great findings for science.
With the help of Empedocles, they discovered important keys in chemistry such as systematic
tables and elements and matter. He also took a lot of interest in the natural world and did a good
amount of study in biology, where he used the classifications we use today to help get a better
knowledge of living organisms. Of all the work he has done much of it was destroyed, but his
surviving works were grouped into four categories. The first group, Organon is a set of
writings that provide a logical toolkit for use in any philosophical or scientific investigation.
Next, is Aristotles theories, Physics which included nature, matter, and constant change. Third
theres his practical works, Politics, in which has deep investigations into the nature of human
as the individual, familial and societal levels. Finally, his Poetics examine products of human
productivity, including tragedy and drama.
Unfortunately, after the death of King Alexander and he fled the city, he died of
congestive complaint. After his death, his school slowly faded and his work seemed to be

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forgotten until it was rediscovered in the first century of B.C. In 30 B.C. Andronicus grouped and
edited Aristotles remaining works in what became the basis for all later editions.

Aristotle gave a lot to the Ancient Western world, but also gave a lot to us in our current
times. Aristotles work remains a point for arguments in logic, aesthetics, political theory and
ethics. He proved to be an excellent scholar and philosopher and is arguably the worlds first
scientist. Aristotle believed that knowledge was the key to life and those who got in tune within
themselves and the natural would that surrounds them were the ones more likely to be successful
and intellectual in life. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a
habit. Aristotle

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Sources
"Aristotle." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.
"Aristotle." Ancient History Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.
"Aristotle Ethics." Infoplease. Infoplease, n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.
SparkNotes Editors. SparkNote on Aristotle. SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2005.
Web. 11 Oct. 2015.