Aristotle | Biography

As a formidable student, researcher, teacher, and philosopher in virtually all scientific disciplines, Aristotle had a profound impact on the way science and mathematics is practiced and investigated today. His analytical method, now known as Aristotelian logic, is the backbone of not only mathematics, but of all the natural sciences.

Aristotle was born in 384 B.C. in Stagirus, Greece. His father Nicomachus, a doctor, was appointed as the King of Macedonia's personal physician while Aristotle was a child. Nicomachus passed away around 374 B.C., leaving Aristotle to be raised and educated by a guardian, Proxenus of Atarneus.

At age 17, Aristotle moved to Athens where he enrolled in Plato's Academy. Here he excelled in the study of rhetoric and dialectic, which he also taught when he became an instructor there at the end of his studies. Aristotle would spend twenty years at the Academy before leaving for the city of Assos. The exact reason for Aristotle's departure is unknown, but it was speculated that political tensions between Athens and neighboring Macedonia may have sparked the move. Plato had also just died, and Aristotle was known to have conflicting views with his successor at the Academy, Speusippus (Plato's nephew).

While in Assos, Aristotle continued his philosophical and scientific pursuits in the company of other philosophers, studying anatomy, zoology, and the biological sciences. Aristotle also met and married his wife, Pythias, the niece of Assos' ruler, Hermias. Hermias gave him a daughter, but passed away several years later at an early age. Aristotle stayed in Assos until Persia attacked the city, when he then left for the neighboring island of Lesbos. After a year-long stay on Lesbos, he moved to Macedonia in 343 B.C., where he was well-received by King Philip, the son of King Amyntas who had employed Aristotle's father as royal physician many years before. Three years later, after Aristotle was passed over to succeed Speusippus as director of the Academy, he returned to his birthplace, Stagirus, to continue his studies. While in Stagirus, Aristotle had a relationship with Herpyllis, who gave him his second child, a son named Nicomachus.

Aristotle returned to Athens to establish a new school, the Lyceum, in 335 B.C. The Lyceum would become a rival institution to the Academy, and instructed students in a wider range of disciplines than the Academy traditionally had. The natural sciences, logic, physics, astronomy, zoology, metaphysics, theology, politics, economics, ethics, rhetoric, poetics, mathematics, and other subjects, were all part of the curriculum of the Lyceum. It was from Aristotle's work at the Lyceum that we have much of the existing documentation of his work today, for his lecture notes were preserved for many years after his death, in some cases to teach from, and many of his notes were eventually published.

Although Aristotle's most significant contributions were in the areas of philosophy, physics, and biological sciences, as one of the leading thinkers and teachers of his day and a man who researched and taught in virtually all known scientific and humanistic disciplines, he also had a recognized impact on modern mathematics. Many of the mathematical works of Aristotle and his students have been lost, such as a biography of Pythagorus he is said to have written, and a historical account of geometry authored by one of his students. However, some works still exist, such as Aristotle's Physics, which contains a discussion of the infinite that Aristotle believed existed in theory only, and sparked much debate in later centuries. Aristotle is also thought to have authored a treatise entitled On Indivisible Lines, which disputed Xenocrates' claims of a doctrine of indivisibles. Aristotle also advanced the study of mathematics by discussing and recording many mathematical concepts and theorems of his contemporaries and their predecessors. However, his biggest contribution to the field of mathematics was his development of the study of logic, which Aristotle termed "analytics," as the basis for mathematical study.

Aristotle believed that analytical methods should be applied to every branch of science and learning, including mathematics. Analytical methods were necessary to develop the axioms, or unshakable rules, of these disciplines from which all further discovery would take place. Aristotle wrote extensively on this concept in his work Prior Analytics, which was published from Lyceum lecture notes several hundred years after his death. It was this work on scientific method that laid the foundation for the development of a mathematical discipline based on syllogisms and proofs.

Alexander, the son of Philip who had succeeded his father on the Macedonian throne and had assisted Aristotle in his establishment of the Lyceum, died in 323 B.C. Soon after, Aristotle retired amidst renewed anti-Macedonian sentiment in Athens. He returned to Stagirus and died a year later at age 62.