13 Facts About Aristotle (You Probably Didn’t Know)

Famous philosophers are usually spoken of strictly and seriously, whether it is about their work or their lives. However, like all other people, there are interesting stories and facts that exist about them too.  

Aristotle changed the course of Western thinking. He was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist, and one of the greatest intellectual figures of Western history. He was the author of a philosophical and scientific system that became the framework and tool of Christian scholasticism and medieval Islamic philosophy. Even after the intellectual revolutions of the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment, Aristotelian concepts remained embedded in Western thinking. 

The best way to learn about Aristotle is to revisit his life and teachings through some interesting facts. So let’s get to it.  

Aristotle was the teacher of Alexander the Great. 

During Aristotle’s residence in Athens, the Macedonian king Philip II was at war with many Greek city-states. The Athenians defended their independence only half-heartedly and after a series of humiliations and concessions, they allowed Philip to become the head of the Greek world by 338. It couldn’t have been easy being a resident of Athens at that time. 

Phillip II invited Aristotle to the Macedonian capital of Pella to function as a tutor for Philip’s 13-year-old son, the future Alexander the Great.  

By 326, Alexander had established himself as the ruler of an empire spanning from the Danube to the Indus, including Libya and Egypt. According to historical records, Alexander arranged for biological samples to be sent to his teacher during his conquests from all regions of Greece and Asia Minor. 

During his teaching years, Aristotle would admit that he didn’t know something, so some asked him: “If you don’t know so much, why does the emperor pay you?!” 

Aristotle answered: “The emperor pays me for what I know. If he were to pay me for what I don’t know, not even his great empire would be enough for him!” 

Aristotle was the first true scientist in recorded history.  

aristotle head statue

Aristotle is revered today as one of history’s greatest philosophers and the first real scientist. He made groundbreaking contributions to philosophy and science across the board, created the subject of formal logic, identified a number of scientific specialties, and looked into how they interacted. Aristotle established the Lyceum, a school in Athens. 

Aristotle was a traveler. 

Around 367 BC, after his father passed away, Aristotle left for Athens and enrolled at Plato’s academy. After Plato’s passing, about 348, he left the academy and headed to Turkey’s northwest coast.  

Aristotle lived there and on the island of Lesbos until 343 or 342, when the Macedonian king Philip II invited him to the Macedonian capital Pella, to function as tutor to Philip’s young teenage son Alexander, which he did for two or three years.  

Aristotle probably lived somewhere in Macedonia until his (second) arrival in Athens in 335. In 323, hostility towards the Macedonians in Athens prompted Aristotle to flee to the island of Euboea, where he died the following year. 

Aristotle was influenced by other philosophers. 

Aristotle’s most famous teacher was Plato (c. 428 – c. 348 BC), who was himself a student of Socrates (c. 470–399 BC). Even though Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle only lived for a combined total of around 150 years, they are nevertheless regarded as some of the most important characters in the development of Western philosophy.  

The most well-known pupil of Aristotle was, as already mentioned, Philip II’s son Alexander, who became known as Alexander the Great. Alexander was a military prodigy who eventually ruled over all of Greece, North Africa, and the Middle East. Theophrastus, who assumed leadership of the Lyceum in about 323, was most likely Aristotle’s most significant intellectual pupil. 

Aristotle wrote many works, yet none were saved. 

aristotle painting
The School of Athens by Raphael. PD. 

Aristotle wrote as many as two hundred treatises and other works covering all areas of philosophy and science. Of these, none survive in a finished form.  

The approximately thirty works through which his thought was transmitted to later centuries consist of lecture notes (by Aristotle or his students) and manuscript drafts edited by ancient scholars, notably Andronicus of Rhodes, the last head of the Lyceum, who edited and published Aristotle’s existing works in Rome around 60 BC. The naturally abbreviated style of these writings made them difficult to read, even for philosophers. 

The majority of Aristotle’s texts exist only in fragments. Aristotle began writing in conversation style, just like his instructor Plato, and his early concepts reflect a significant Platonic influence.  

For instance, in his conversation with Eudemus, he expresses the Platonic idea that the soul is bound to the body and can only experience happiness when the body is destroyed. According to Aristotle, the dead are more blessed and happier than the living, and to die is to return to one’s true home. 

Aristotle influenced later philosophy and science. 

Aristotle had a unique, profound, inclusive, and systematic way of thinking. It eventually developed into the philosophical foundation of Western Scholasticism, a set of presumptions and issues that defined philosophy in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. 

Saint Thomas Aquinas set out in the 13th century to bring Aristotelian philosophy and science into harmony with the Christian faith, and as a result, the Roman Catholic Church’s theology and intellectual outlook adopted this position. 

Since the middle of the 20th century, virtue theory, an approach to ethics that emphasizes character development and human well-being, has been influenced by Aristotle’s ethics. Aristotle’s ideas are a significant stream in a variety of modern philosophical disciplines, including metaphysics, political philosophy, and philosophy of science. 

Aristotle is present in all philosophy. 

Aristotle’s intellectual range was wide, covering most of the sciences and many of the arts, including biology, botany, chemistry, ethics, history, logic, metaphysics, rhetoric, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, physics, poetics, political theory, psychology, and zoology. 

He invented a ready-made system for formal logic that was regarded as the pinnacle of the field for decades. He also invented the observational and theoretical study of zoology, where some of his works were unequaled until the 19th century. However, he is most well-known as a philosopher. 

His publications on metaphysics, the philosophy of science, ethics, political theory, and other topics are still researched today, and his ideas are still heavily debated in the modern philosophical world. 

He believed everyone should practice philosophy. 

Everyone must engage with philosophy, argues Aristotle, because even arguing against the philosophical practice is itself a form of philosophizing. The best form of philosophy is the contemplation of the universe of nature; for this purpose, God created humans and gave them a god-like intellect. Everything else – strength, beauty, power, and honor – is worthless. 

Aristotle and Plato were friends who argued. 

plato sitting statue
Plato

The atmosphere inside the Academy appears to have remained friendly despite Phillip’s invasion. Aristotle always understood that he owed a great deal to Plato; much of his philosophical agenda was derived from Plato, and his teaching frequently modifies rather than rejects Plato’s concepts. But even so, Aristotle was starting to break away from Plato’s doctrine of forms or concepts. 

Plato believed that, along with certain things, there is also an inscrutable realm of Forms, which are unchanging and eternal. This realm, he argued, makes certain things intelligible by considering their common nature: a thing is a horse, for example, by the fact that it shares or imitates the form of a horse.  

Aristotle claimed that the key dialogues of Plato only prove the existence of a few basic scientific things in his lost work On Ideas. Aristotle frequently challenges the notion of form in his works that have survived, sometimes with respect and other times with contempt. 

Aristotle boldly refuted Plato in his Metaphysics where he argues that the theory fails to solve the problems it was supposed to solve.  

Aristotle is one of the founders of zoology. 

Aristotle conducted substantial scientific research while residing in the city of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, particularly in zoology and marine biology. Aristotle added two brief treatises, On the Parts of Animals and the Generation of Animals, to a book that was later mistakenly referred to as the History of Animals, which summarizes this work. 

Aristotle did not claim to have created zoology, but his in-depth studies of a wide variety of species were rather exceptional. Since some of the bug traits, as he accurately records, were not seen again until the introduction of the microscope in the 17th century, he — or one of his study workers — must have been extremely gifted with sharp vision. 

The scope of Aristotle’s scientific research is astonishing. Much of it deals with the classification of animals into genera and species; there are more than five hundred species in his treatises, many of which are described in detail. The countless data on the anatomy, diet, habitat, copulation methods and reproductive systems of mammals, reptiles, fish, and insects are a feast for everyone interested in science.  

He believed in self-love. 

aristotle quote about criticism

Aristotle used his deductive work to describe what he considers a virtuous person. Aristotle believed that real facts contradict the theories of egoism. While it is true that loving your best friend is a virtue, you also appreciate that they are the best friend you can have. As is logical, the closest relationship a person can have in life is with themself. After all, who do we live with 24 hours a day and who are we supposed to put up with regardless of their mood? 

Once Aristotle established the rules of self-love, he threw himself into the explanation of the two senses that he found in selfishness. While he considers the term to have a derogatory and shaming aspect, he also reckoned there is a much bigger variable at play. 

Aristotle believed there existed two types of selfishness. 

The first type of selfishness that Aristotle talked about focuses on the love of the country. The philosopher equates this way of acting with the way people act, that is, with the behavior of the majority, which he calls vulgar. Undoubtedly, this is the result of an overly class society like that of ancient Greece. 

In this case, Aristotle identifies this first type of selfishness as the most intense anxiety for bodily pleasures. This means that these people keep the greatest wealth, honors, and goods for themselves. They find true loyalty in hoarding materials, the more valuable the better.  

The other type of selfishness is the selfishness of giving body and soul in search of wisdom, justice, and beauty. But this selfishness is not harmful, but noble. It is not vulgar, because it is honest. 

According to Aristotle, these noble but selfish people focus their efforts on the practice of virtue, because that is where they find joy. And this attitude ends up enriching the whole community. Thus they discover personal benefits and service to others. 

Aristotle believed that education is everything. 

In ancient Greece, education went hand in hand with upbringing. According to Aristotle, intelligence and what is useful for life were influenced by education, and upbringing character. Once, when he was asked to what extent educated and learned people differ from the uneducated and ignorant, Aristotle answered: As the living from the dead.  

For Aristotle, as for Plato, the education of citizens is one of the most important tasks of the state. They believed that through education, citizens acquire not only the ability to participate in state administration but also the willingness to obey the authorities. 

Wrapping Up 

Aristotle was a Greek scientist and philosopher from antiquity and one of the most influential thinkers in Western history. He created a philosophical and scientific framework that was used as the basis for Christian Scholasticism and medieval Islamic philosophy. Aristotelian ideas continued to be ingrained in Western thought even after the intellectual revolutions of the Renaissance, Reformation, and Enlightenment.  

Aristotle was a teacher, a philosopher, and an inspiration for many generations. He cared to ask questions that nobody before him dared and he believed in the power of reason and arguments. We hope this article inspired you to keep going boldly in your pursuit of knowledge

Nemanja
Nemanja

I am a writer and a teacher of rhetoric, international humanitarian law, and entrepreneurship. As a writer, I specialize in writing about history, politics, and finding quirky ways to elevate all the great selling points of a product/service. I obtained my bachelor's degree in International Relations at the University of Montenegro and completed my master' s studies at the Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary where I studied diplomacy. I believe studying diplomacy and politics sets you up for knowing how to craft a sentence, how to fill it with content and ensure that your audience understands the message.

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