Aristotle

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Aristotle: philosopher, teacher, and scientist

Author: Sharon Katz Cooper
Chapters include information on:
- What remains of Aristotle's work: 30 books (2000 printed pages) of about 170 works that he wrote. Some are dialogs intended for publication. Others are his notes (perhaps for his lectures).
- Some of the subjects that Aristotle wrote books about (many of them written in parallel):
  - Anatomy
  - Astronomy, including his book On the Heavens.
  - Biology, including dissection. 4 books described more than 500 species: On the Parts of Animals, The History of Animals, On Motion in Animals, and On the Generation of Animals.
  - Chemistry
  - Economics
  - Ethics, particularly his books Nichomachean Ethics, Eudemian Ethics, and Great Ethics.
  - Literature
  - Logic, including his book Prior Analytics (where he introduced the syllogism structure, comprising two premises and a conclusion).
  - Mathematics
  - Medicine
  - Memory and Recollection
  - Metaphysics in his book: Metaphysics.
  - Meterology
  - Moral values
  - Philosophy, including his book Categories (on what to think about).
  - Physics
  - Poetics
  - Politics. Aristotle claimed that "only a good philosophy could create a decent government".
  - Rhetoric
- Aristotle's format of each of his books:
  - A complete overview of what he knew; included information from his own observations.
  - Proposal of theories and conclusions based on the material.
Aristotle studied with Plato, who was obsessed with perfection and ideals. But Aristotle studied real objects with real flaws, to understand what they were like and why; he:
- Made observations.
- Developed hypotheses based on these observations.
- Tested the hypotheses with further observations.
- Recorded what he found.
Aristotle opened the Lyceum, a school in Athens.
In Aristotle's time, slaves were between a quarter and a third of the population of Athens.

Aristotle: Timeline

This timeline is based in part on data in Aristotle: philosopher, teacher, and scientist by Sharon Katz Cooper.

388 BCE: Plato (student of Socrates) establishes the first university, the Academy in Athens.
384 BCE: Aristotle born (Stagirus in Macedonia) to Phaestis and Nichomachus.
377 BCE: Hippocrates dies.
374 BCE: Aristotle's father (Nichomachus) dies.
371 BCE: Thebes defeats Sparta at Leuctra.
367 BCE: Aristotle sent to Plato's Academy in Athens.
359 BCE: Philip becomes King of Macedonia.
356 BCE: The holy temple of Delphi is destroyed in the Sacred War.
347 BCE: Plato dies.; Aristotle leaves Athens for Assus, where he marries Pythias.
345 BCE: Hermias (ruler of Assus) killed by Persians.
344 BCE: Aristotle lives in Lesbos; biological research.
343-340 BCE: Aristotle tutors Alexander in Pella, Macedonia.
338 BCE: Macedonian army defeats Athens.; League of Corinth founded.
336 BCE: Philip II assassinated; succeeded by his son, who becomes Alexander the Great.
335 BCE: Aristotle opens the Lyceum in Athens.
334 BCE: Alexander the Great begins war against Persia.
323 BCE: Alexander the Great dies in Babylon and his empire is divided among his successors.
322 BCE: Aristotle leaves Athens for Euboea to avoid a death sentence.; Aristotle dies soon after reaching Euboea.

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