Where is aristotle born

Primarily, however, he is important in the development of all knowledge for, as the authors of [ 2 ] write:- Aristotle, more than any other thinker, determined the orientation and the content of Western intellectual history. He was the author of a philosophical and scientific system that through the centuries became the support and vehicle for both medieval Christian and Islamic scholastic thought: until the end of the 17 th century, Western culture was Aristotelian.

And, even after the intellectual revolutions of centuries to follow, Aristotelian concepts and ideas remained embedded in Western thinking. Aristotle was born in Stagirus, or Stagira, or Stageirus, on the Chalcidic peninsula of northern Greece. His father was Nicomachus, a medical doctor, while his mother was named Phaestis.

Nicomachus was certainly living in Chalcidice when Aristotle was born and he had probably been born in that region. Aristotle's mother, Phaestis, came from Chalcis in Euboea and her family owned property there. There is little doubt that Nicomachus would have intended Aristotle to become a doctor, for the tradition was that medical skills were kept secret and handed down from father to son.

It was not a society where people visited a doctor but rather it was the doctors who travelled round the country tending to the sick. Although we know nothing of Aristotle's early years it is highly likely that he would have accompanied his father in his travels. We do know that Nicomachus found the conditions in Chalcidice less satisfactory than in the neighbouring state of Macedonia and he began to work there with so much success that he was soon appointed as the personal physician to Amyntas III, king of Macedonia.

There is no record to indicate whether Aristotle lived with his father in Pella, the capital of Macedonia, while Nicomachus attended to king Amyntas at the court there. However, Aristotle was certainly friendly with Philip, king Amyntas's son, some years later and it seems reasonable to assume that the two, who were almost exactly the same age, had become friendly in Pella as young children. When Aristotle was about ten years old his father died. This certainly meant that Aristotle could not now follow in his father's profession of doctor and, since his mother seems also to have died young, Aristotle was brought up by a guardian, Proxenus of Atarneus, who was his uncle or possibly a family friend as is suggested by some authors.

Proxenus taught Aristotle Greek, rhetoric , and poetry which complemented the biological teachings that Nicomachus had given Aristotle as part of training his son in medicine.

Since in latter life Aristotle wrote fine Greek prose, this too must have been part of his early education. At the time that Aristotle joined the Academy it had been operating for twenty years. Plato was not in Athens, but rather he was on his first visit to Syracuse.

We should not think of Plato's Academy as a non-political organisation only interested in abstract ideas. The Academy was highly involved in the politics of the time, in fact Plato 's visit to Sicily was for political reasons, and the politics of the Academy and of the whole region would play a major role in influencing the course of Aristotle's life. Speusippus , Plato's nephew, was also teaching at the Academy as was Xenocrates of Chalcedon. After being a student, Aristotle soon became a teacher at the Academy and he was to remain there for twenty years.

We know little regarding what Aristotle taught at the Academy. In [ 10 ] Diogenes Laertius , writing in the second century AD, says that Aristotle taught rhetoric and dialectic. Certainly Aristotle wrote on rhetoric at this time, issuing Gryllus which attacked the views on rhetoric of Isocrates, who ran another major educational establishment in Athens. All Aristotle's writings of this time strongly support Plato 's views and those of the Academy.

Towards the end of Aristotle's twenty years at the Academy his position became difficult due to the political events of the time.

Amyntas, the king of Macedonia, died around BC, a couple of years before Aristotle went to Athens to join the Academy.

Philip used skilful tactics, both military and political, to allow Macedonia a period of internal peace in which they expanded by victories over the surrounding areas. Philip captured Olynthus and annexed Chalcidice in BC. Stagirus, the town of Aristotle's birth, held out for a while but was also defeated by Philip. Athens worried about the powerful threatening forces of Macedonia, and yet Aristotle had been brought up at the Court of Macedonia and had probably retained his friendship with Philip.

The actual order of events is now a little uncertain. Plato died in BC and Speusippus assumed the leadership of the Academy. Aristotle was certainly opposed to the views of Speusippus and he may have left the Academy following Plato 's death for academic reasons or because he failed to be named head of the Academy himself. Some sources, however, suggest that he may have left for political reasons before Plato died because of his unpopularity due to his Macedonian links.

Aristotle travelled from Athens to Assos which faces the island of Lesbos. He was not alone in leaving the Academy for Xenocrates of Chalcedon left with him. In Assos Aristotle was received by the ruler Hermias of Atarneus with much acclaim. It is likely that Aristotle was acting as an ambassador for Philip and he certainly was treated as such by Hermias. Aristotle married Pythias, the niece and adopted daughter of Hermias, and they had one child, a daughter also called Pythias.

However, Aristotle's wife died about 10 years after their marriage. It is thought that she was much younger than Aristotle, being probably of age of about 18 when they married. On Assos, Aristotle became the leader of the group of philosophers which Hermias had gathered there.

It is possible that Xenocrates was also a member of the group for a time. Aristotle had a strong interest in anatomy and the structure of living things in general, an interest which his father had fostered in him in his early years, that helped him to develop a remarkable talent for observation. Aristotle and the members of his group began to collect observations while in Assos, in particular in zoology and biology. Barnes writes in [ 6 ] that Aristotle's The enquiries upon which those great works were based were probably carried out largely in Assos and Lesbos.

Aristotle probably begun his work Politics on Assos as well as On Kingship which is now lost. Keywords: Aristotle , Epigenesis. Aristotle BCE Aristotle studied developing organisms, among other things, in ancient Greece, and his writings shaped Western philosophy and natural science for greater than two thousand years.

Sources Ackrill, John Lloyd. Aristotle the Philosopher. De Anima. John Alexander Smith. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, William David Ross. De Generatione Animalium. Arthur Platt. Historia Animalium. D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson. De Motu et De Incessu Animalum. Authur Spencer Loat Farquharson. De Partibus Animalum.

William Ogle. James G. Parva Naturalia. Beare and G. David Ross. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Balme, David M. Gotthelf, Allan, and James G. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 9— Barnes, Jonathan ed. Code, Alan. Coles, Andrew. Cooper, John M. Gotthelf, Allan, ed. Aristotle on Nature and Living Things.

Lennox eds. Philosophical Issues in Aristotle 's Biology. Henry, Devin. Georgios Anagnostopoulos. Oxford: Blackwell-Wiley, — Laertius, Diogenes.

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. Charles Duke Yonge. London: H. Bohn, Lennox, James G. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Lennox, James. Edward N. Zalta, ed. Magner, Lois N. A History of the Life Sciences. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc. That said, he acted as mediator between Macedon and various Greek cities, for which the citizens of Athens were grateful.

Most of his time was consumed with his studies, research and teaching. If the ancient reports are to be believed, Aristotle spoke with incisive wit and could deliver clear and captivating lectures. A diligent reader, collector and thinker, he was ever open to the world and learned in its ways, well beyond simply the teachings of the Academy. He was masterfully versed in the works of the sophists, the pre-Socratics, the medical writers, as well as Greek lyric, epic, and drama, and the various constitutions of his world.

In Assus in Asia Minor, Aristotle was well provided for by the ruler and free to pursue philosophy and the sciences.

There he met his collaborator and friend, Theophrastus of Eresus. Two years later, at the request of King Philip, he took up the education of the thirteen-year-old Alexander. It stirs the imagination: was one of the greatest philosophers the teacher of one of the most powerful rulers?