A Little History About The Great Scientist

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) was born at Stagira in Thrace. His father, a physician at the Macedonian court, died while Aristotle was young. At the age of 17 Aristotle went to Athens to become a student at Plato's Academy and remained for twenty years as a student and colleague. After Plato's death, Aristotle taught for three years in Asia Minor and spent another three years at Mytilene. Then he became tutor for about eight years to the young Macedonian pence mi who was to become Alexander the Great.

Upon Alexander's accession to the throne in 336 B.C. Aristotle returned to Athens. There he founded a school known as the Lyceum which soon outshone Plato's Academy, Indeed the Lyceum had many more of the characteristics of a modem university. It promoted research and intellectual exchange as well as teaching. It included a "Temple of the Muses," several lecture rooms, and a library and map room. These were set in a large garden where masters and students walked while discussing their subjects. (Members of the school came to be known as Peripatetics, from the Greek word meaning "to walk about.") It is said that Aristotle lectured to his students in the morning and in the afternoon offered lectures to which the general public was invited.

Many of Aristotle's earlier works and notes were lost. Only a small part remains of what must have been a more complete work on education. The works that have come down to us were preserved by his successor as head of the Lyceum and later compiled in Rhodes. His works were rediscovered in the 13th Century from Arabic versions.

Nicomachean Ethics was named for Aristotle's son, Nicomachus. The Politics is based on Aristotle's compilation and study of 158 Greek city-state constitutions as well as his own direct experience in politics. Like Plato, Aristotle is vitally concerned with the relationship between education and government. He sees the cornerstone of the ideal state as being in the training and guidance of the young. Being in the training and guidance of the young.