Aristotle was born in Stagirus on the Chalcidic peninsula of northern Greece. His father was Nicomachus, a medical doctor, while his mother was Phaestis. Nicomachus was in Chalcidice when he was born where as Phaestis came from Chalcis in Euboea.

When Aristotle was about ten years old his father died and since his mother also died young, he was brought up by a guardian, Proxenus who was his uncle. He taught Aristotle Greek, rhetoric, and poetry which complemented the biological teachings that Nicomachus had given Aristotle as part of training his son in medicine.

At the age of seventeen Aristotle became a student at Plato’s Academy in Athens.When he arrived the Academy was being run by Eudoxus in Plato’s absence. After being a student, Aristotle soon became a teacher at the Academy and he was to remain there for twenty years.

Towards the end of Aristotle’s twenty years at the Academy his position became difficult due to the political events of the time.He traveled from Athens to Assos. In Assos the eminent jurist was received by the ruler Hermias of Atarneus with much acclaim.

Aristotle married Pythias, the niece and adopted daughter of Hermias, and they had a daughter also called Pythias. However, his wife died ten years after their marriage.

His time in Assos was ended by political events. The Persians attacked the town and Hermias was captured and executed. Aristotle escaped and stopped on the island of Lesbos on his way to Macedonia.

The Persians attacked the town and Hermias was captured and executed. Aristotle escaped and stopped on the island of Lesbos on his way to Macedonia.

Macedonia was later at peace with Athens, for a treaty had been made in 346 BC. In 343 BC Aristotle reached the Court of Macedonia and he was to remain there for seven years.

Aristotle did not marry again after the death of his wife but he did form a relationship with Herpyllis, who came from his home town of Stagirus. Together they had a son, Nicomachus, named after his father.

In 335 BC Aristotle founded his own school the Lyceum in Athens. He arrived in the city with assistants to staff the school and a large range of teaching materials he had gathered while in Macedonia; books, maps, and other teaching material.

His own researches were carried out in company, and communicated his thoughts to his friends and pupils, never thinking to retain them as a private treasure-store. He thought, that a man could not claim to know a subject unless he was capable of transmitting his knowledge to others, and he regarded teaching as the proper manifestation of knowledge.

Aristotle lectured in almost every subject – on logic, physics, astronomy, meteorology, zoology, metaphysics, theology, psychology, politics, economics, ethics, rhetoric, poetics; and that he wrote down these lectures, expanding them and amending them several times.

After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, anti-Macedonian feeling in Athens made him retire to Chalcis where he lived in the house which belonged to his mother and was still retained by the family.

He died the following year from a stomach complaint at the age of sixty two.

Arjun Pathak