On the Soul

Aristotle (384-322 BC) is one of the principal figures in classical Greek philosophy. He was born in Stagira, on the Aegean seacoast, where his father was court physician to the Macedonian kings. Aristotle was educated in the natural sciences by his father and studied for 20 years at Plato’s academy of philosophy in Athens. After Plato’s death in 342 BC, Aristotle was called to Macedonia, where he became tutor to the young Alexander the Great. When Alexander succeeded to the Macedonian throne in 336, Aristotle went to Athens and established the Lyceum, his school of philosophy. His customary method was to give lectures while he and his students walked amid nature, hence the label “peripatetic school of philosophy.” After Alexander’s death, political turmoil forced Aristotle to flee to the province of Euboea, where he died.

Aristotle’s writings—only a fraction of which have survived—covered all branches of knowledge current in his time, from ethics and rhetoric to natural science. Although influenced by Plato’s philosophy, Aristotle went his own way on some philosophical issues. In contrast to Plato’s idealism, which held that ideas alone have true being and reality, Aristotle believed in discovering truth by closely observing the natural world. This outlook impelled him to investigate the basis of life and being in works like On the Soul and Metaphysics. On the Soul presents many of Aristotle’s characteristic concepts relating to being and nature, showing how various living beings interact with the world around them.

In its detailed cataloguing of ordered knowledge, Aristotle’s thought paved the way for the modern scientific method. His views on happiness and ethics were incorporated into Christian and Islamic thought of the Middle Ages, and his intellectual categories continue to affect how we think today. Thus, Aristotle had a profound influence on the philosophy, theology, and science of the Western world. He was, according to commentator Hugh Lawson-Tancred, “one of the greatest thinkers, and surely one of the widest ranging inquirers, who has ever lived” (Introduction, 22).