Western Lit. 1-25: Aristotle: The Philosopher

    When we speak about philosophy, what is the first thing that comes to mind? For most people in the west, it is an image like that of Raphael's School of Athens, a picture of Greek architecture and Greek philosophers. Why does this image strike us so vividly? Perhaps it is because a large part of all human achievements happened in the backwater called Greece, especially in the small city of Athens, during a period of only 300 years. More importantly, the most prolific scholar of the greatest philosophical epoch in human history lived there, and his name was Aristotle. He is known as the father of modern science and the creator of the first empirical method and the logical method. His writing covered a vast array of subject matter including philosophy, science, and politics, in over 200 treatises. As a teacher, he influenced figures such as Alexander the Great and Theophrastus. After his death, his writings were preserved by his students and went on to dominate western and Islamic thought for the next 2,000 years. When we speak of philosophy we might think of the Greeks in general terms. But when we speak of philosophers themselves, we think of The Philosopher.

    Many scholars have a high output, Mises wrote at least 28 volumes, Gary North produced over 50 books, and Rothbard churned out at least a whopping 60 complete books. These are by no means small contributions, but Aristotle, over his lifetime, produced more than 200 works, of which only 31 lectures survive. these alone cover volumes in the fields of biology, botany, chemistry, ethics, history, logic, metaphysics, rhetoric, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, physics, poetics, political theory, psychology, and zoology. Out of all his work, which is almost beyond belief, his greatest contribution was to make the world curious about knowledge. For the first time in history humanity began to wonder about how things worked, and today we stand on his shoulders, able to see the world much clearer than ever before.

    It complements a man of great intellect to teach his wisdom, and by doing so his students inherit his methods. As a lifelong scholar and teacher, Aristotle laid the foundations of formal logic which were considered the standard for millennia. After leaving Macedon in his youth Aristotle studied at the academy for 20 years. During this time he was surrounded by the platonic tradition and managed to improve upon it with his own ideas. After some time his fame spread and he was summoned by the King of Macedon to tutor and influence the greatest warrior who would ever live, Alexander the great. This education would have a profound effect on both men as Alexander fell deeply in love with Hellenic culture. In return, Alexander received a gift equivalent to millions of dollars for the founding of The Lyceum in Athens. This would be a center of intellectual influence in Greece for hundreds of years. 

    The preserved writings of Aristotle only constitute about a fifth of his total output, and yet they encompass nearly a million words. These were partially preserved by later Roman philosophers such as Cicero and Seneca. After the fall of the roman empire, the works were lost to the Latin west but survived in the East. Here they were inherited by the Islamic caliphates and the Easter Empire. They were held as nearly sacred writing by many including Caliphs, Emperors, scholars, philosophers, and scientists. Here they aided even further developments in science and philosophy. After the fall of Constantinople, they were finally translated into Latin and had a profound effect on medieval Europe. Throughout the Renaissance and enlightenment, they played a central role in western thought. Great men such as Thomas Aquinas, William of Oakham, Francis Bacon, and Ludwig Von Mises all followed the Aristotelian tradition of science and empiricism. Over time all of the sciences he pioneered were refined and perfected by the west, but that would have been far less likely without him.

    The end of Aristotle's life came unexpectedly but in its own good time. After the death of Alexander, he fled from Athens and passed away from a bowel complaint. He was laid to rest next to his late wife but he did not die there. He pioneered many fields of study found in modern science. His work laid the foundations for logical studies and the scientific method. Throughout his life, he had tremendous influence from a long successful career and academic position in his lyceum. His preserved writings have influenced scholars from all over the west and Islamdom over millennia. For these reasons and many more, we remember Aristotle as the greatest philosopher of all time, THE Philosopher if you will.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aristotle#:~:text=He%20made%20pioneering%20contributions%20to,Athens%2C%20known%20as%20the%20Lyceum.