In his biological researches he focused on a new type of causation, namely
theleological studies.
According to Aristotle, natural organism-plants and animals have natural ends or goals, and their structure and development can only be fully explained when these goals are understood.
Aristotle in his treatise, ‘On the generation of Animals’ wrote "The facts have not yet been sufficiently established. If ever they are, then credit must be given to observation rather than to theories, and to theories only insofar as they are confirmed by the observed facts."
When Aristotle researched into plants and animal life they were associated with his reflections on the relation of the soul to the body.
With some acknowledgement to Plato, Aristotle defined the soul as the form of the body and the body as the matter of the soul.
In about B.C. 342 when he was 42, Philip II of Macedonia invited him to teach his son Alexander, who was 13 years old, to prepare him for his future role as a military leader.
| Using the model of the Greek epic hero in Homer’s ‘Iliad’, Aristotle attempted to shape Alexander as an embossment of the classical valor of an Ajax or Achilles enlightened by the latest achievement of Greek civilization and philosophy. |
He instructed Alexander to dominate the Barbarians i.e. non-Greeks and to hold them in servility by refraining from any physical intermixture with them.The influence that Aristotle had on Alexander was negligible.
Later on returning to Athens, Aristotle enjoyed
considerable political and economic support from Macedonians and received help in the
organization of his biological researches.
In political ideology, a gulf separated Aristotle and Alexander. Aristotle opposed in principle Alexander’s imperial policy, because it diminished the importance of the city-state.
In about 339 B.C., Aristotle withdraws from Macedonian court and returned to his paternal property at Stagira. There he confirmed the association of his philosophical circle including Theophrastus and other pupils of Plato.
Until 335 B.C., approaching 50 Aristotle remained in Stagira, and then again went back to Athens.He opened in 335 B.C., a rival institution in the Lyceum, a gymnasium attached to the temple of Apollo Lyceus, situated in a grove just outside Athens.
Aristotle had given instruction in the ‘Peripatos, or covered walkway, of the gymnasium, hence the school was very important to Aristotle because, by co-ordinating the work of a number of scholars, he was able for the next 12 years to organize it as a centre for speculation and research in every field of inquiry and to give lectures on a wide range on a wide range of philosophical and scientific questions.
Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C., And due to vigorous anti-Macedonian agitation in Athens, Aristotle feared danger to himself. Hence he left Athens and withdrew to his mother’s estates in Charlie’ on the island of Euboea.He died there in the following year from a stomach illness at the age of 62.
