A quick biography of Aristotle

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Aristotle is available if you're using a computer at PSU. The following information is pasted straight from the Wikipedia entry:

Aristotle was born in Stageira, Chalcidice in 384 BC. His father, Nicomachus was the personal physician to King Amyntas of Macedon. Aristotle was trained and educated as a member of the aristocracy. At about the age of eighteen, he went to Athens to continue his education at Plato's Academy. Aristotle remained at the academy for nearly twenty years, not leaving until after Plato's death in 347 BC. He then traveled with Xenocrates to the court of his friend Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor. While in Asia, Aristotle traveled with Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where together they researched the botany and zoology of the island. Aristotle married Hermias's adoptive daughter (or niece) Pythias. She bore him a daughter, whom they named Pythias. Soon after Hermias' death, Aristotle was invited by Philip of Macedon to become tutor to Alexander the Great.

After spending several years tutoring the young Alexander, Aristotle returned to Athens. By 335 BC, he established his own school there, known as the Lyceum. Aristotle conducted courses at the school for the next twelve years. While in Athens, his wife Pythias died, and Aristotle became involved with Herpyllis of Stageira, who bore him a son whom he named after his father, Nicomachus. According to the Suda, he also had an eromenos, Palaephatus of Abydus.

It is during this period in Athens when Aristotle is believed to have composed many of his works. Aristotle wrote many dialogues, only fragments of which survived. The works that have survived are in treatise form and were not, for the most part, intended for widespread publication, as they are generally thought to be lecture aids for his students. His most important treatises include Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, De Anima (On the Soul) and Poetics. These works, although connected in many fundamental ways, vary significantly in both style and substance.

Aristotle not only studied almost every subject possible at the time, but made significant contributions to most of them. In physical science, Aristotle studied anatomy, astronomy, economics, embryology, geography, geology, meteorology, physics and zoology. In philosophy, he wrote on aesthetics, ethics, government, metaphysics, politics, psychology, rhetoric and theology. He also studied education, foreign customs, literature and poetry. His combined works constitute a virtual encyclopedia of Greek knowledge. It has been suggested that Aristotle was probably the last person to know everything there was to be known in his own time. Upon Alexander's death, anti-Macedonian sentiment in Athens once again flared. Eurymedon the hierophant denounced Aristotle for not holding the gods in honor. Aristotle fled the city to his mother's family estate in Chalcis, explaining, "I will not allow the Athenians to sin twice against philosophy," a reference to Athens's prior trial and execution of Socrates. However, he died in Euboea of natural causes within the year (in 322 BC). Aristotle left a will and named chief executor his student Antipater, in which he asked to be buried next to his wife. It has also been proposed that Aristotle's banishment and death resulted from the possibility that he was involved with the death of Alexander.

Notes from Tuesday's class on Socrates vs. Polus and Callicles

Lines that struck me as significant in the reading for today:

474a: Socrates admits his expertise only works in one-on-one discussions. He mentions this again at 476a.
475a: After introducing the term "admirable," Socrates here suggests the term "contempt," as well. Polus's argument has now been transformed from that of internal sensation (getting hurt is bad, because it hurts) to external judgment (hurting people is worse, because it's contemptible behavior.)
477a: Socrates introduces ideas of betterment and benefit as goals of behavior.
479c: Socrates suggests that rhetoric is used as a tool that allows people to behave immorally.
482e: Callicles accuses Socrates of relying on conventional, populist arguments. (Each has, by this point, accused the other of being conventional.)
483b: Callicles makes explicit the masculine nature of his argument: a real man doesn't consider himself "wronged" (and, it's implied, therefore doesn't need any defense provided by societal ideas of protective justice.)
487e: Socrates lists three questions that he feels the attempt to answer makes for "the finest work in the world."
490c: Socrates suggests it is more "appropriate" to use one's strengths in the service of the community.
494a: A tricky moment: the "jars" metaphor is used against Callicles. Yet we could think of contemporary expressions--"The journey is the destination," for instance, or "It's about the process, not the product"--that suggest that Callicles could defend his view with a slightly-modified reading of the metaphor. He doesn't do this, though.
497a: Socrates claims that feeling pleasure doesn't necessarily mean one is living well, and that feeling distress doesn't mean one is living badly.

That's enough for now. See you Thursday.

On Plato's Use of Socrates

Below is some stuff straight out of Wikipedia, on Plato's use of Socrates. Again: if you're looking for more complex, in depth, or rigorous sources, I suggest you take a look at the citations, references, and external links at the end of the Wikipedia article on Plato. There's an extensive list of sources that dig into the questions or problems we talked about in class today.

Even easier than the Internet, though, is the bibliography on page xxxvii of the edition of Gorgias that we're using in class. You don't even have to have an iPhone or Blackberry to have access to that bibliography, at any time. Just keep the book in your bag, and you're totally technological.

All of the following is from the section titled "Unity and Diversity of the Dialogues":

If Plato's important dialogues do not refer to Socrates' execution explicitly, they allude to it, or use characters or themes that play a part in it. Five dialogues foreshadow the trial: In the Theaetetus (210d) and the Euthyphro (2a–b) Socrates tells people that he is about to face corruption charges. In the Meno (94e–95a), one of the men who brings legal charges against Socrates, Anytus, warns him about the trouble he may get into if he does not stop criticizing important people. In the Gorgias, Socrates says that his trial will be like a doctor prosecuted by a cook who asks a jury of children to choose between the doctor's bitter medicine and the cook's tasty treats (521e–522a). In the Republic (7.517e), Socrates explains why an enlightened man (presumably himself) will stumble in a courtroom situation. The Apology is Socrates' defense speech, and the Crito and Phaedo take place in prison after the conviction. In the Protagoras, Socrates is a guest at the home of Callias, son of Hipponicus, a man whom Socrates disparages in the Apology as having wasted a great amount of money on sophists' fees.

Two other important dialogues, the Symposium and the Phaedrus, are linked to the main storyline by characters. In the Apology (19b, c), Socrates says Aristophanes slandered him in a comic play, and blames him for causing his bad reputation, and ultimately, his death. In the Symposium, the two of them are drinking together with other friends. The character Phaedrus is linked to the main story line by character (Phaedrus is also a participant in the Symposium and the Protagoras) and by theme (the philosopher as divine emissary, etc.) The Protagoras is also strongly linked to the Symposium by characters: all of the formal speakers at the Symposium (with the exception of Aristophanes) are present at the home of Callias in that dialogue. Charmides and his guardian Critias are present for the discussion in the Protagoras. Examples of characters crossing between dialogues can be further multiplied. The Protagoras contains the largest gathering of Socratic associates.

Explication courtesy the museum

Click on the photo if you'd like to read the description (posted in one of the rooms of The Met) of this era in Greek history.

Socrates, Plato, Gorgias: Quick Bios

For this blog, I'll mostly pull text from Wikipedia, to make sure I'm not stepping on anyone's copyright toes. There are other excellent general-Internet sources for information on philosophers, though. The best might be the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, a site that will work just fine if you're using a PSU computer, but may lock you out if you're at home.

For more in-depth study, the databases available through PSU's library are best, of course. And you might even look at some of the books they have in the library--they still have those. But all text below is from Wikipedia entries.

So:

Socrates: 469-399 B.C.
"It is unclear how Socrates earned a living. Ancient texts seem to indicate that Socrates did not work. In Xenophon's Symposium, Socrates is reported as saying he devotes himself only to what he regards as the most important art or occupation: discussing philosophy. In The Clouds Aristophanes portrays Socrates as accepting payment for teaching and running a sophist school with Chaerephon, while in Plato's Apology and Symposium and in Xenophon's accounts, Socrates explicitly denies accepting payment for teaching. More specifically, in the Apology Socrates cites his poverty as proof he is not a teacher. According to Timon of Phlius and later sources, Socrates took over the profession of stonemasonry from his father.

Several of Plato's dialogues refer to Socrates' military service. Socrates says he served in the Athenian army during three campaigns: at Potidaea, Amphipolis, and Delium. In the Symposium Alcibiades describes Socrates' valour in the battles of Potidaea and Delium, recounting how Socrates saved his life in the former battle (219e-221b). Socrates' exceptional service at Delium is also mentioned in the Laches by the general after whom the dialogue is named (181b). In the Apology, Socrates compares his military service to his courtroom troubles, and says anyone on the jury who thinks he ought to retreat from philosophy must also think soldiers should retreat when it looks like they will be killed in battle.

Plato: 428-348 B.C.
Plato was born in Athens, Greece. Based on ancient sources, most modern scholars estimate that he was born in Athens or Aegina between 429 and 423 BC. His father was Ariston. According to a disputed tradition, reported by Diogenes Laertius, Ariston traced his descent from the king of Athens, Codrus, and the king of Messenia, Melanthus. Plato's mother was Perictione, whose family boasted of a relationship with the famous Athenian lawmaker and lyric poet, Solon.

Besides Plato himself, Ariston and Perictione had three other children; these were two sons, Adeimantus and Glaucon, and a daughter Potone, the mother of Speusippus (the nephew and successor of Plato as head of his philosophical Academy). According to the Republic, Adeimantus and Glaucon were older than Plato. Nevertheless, in his Memorabilia, Xenophon presents Glaucon as younger than Plato.

Ariston appears to have died in Plato's childhood, although the precise dating of his death is difficult. Perictione then married Pyrilampes, her mother's brother, who had served many times as an ambassador to the Persian court and was a friend of Pericles, the leader of the democratic faction in Athens. Pyrilampes had a son from a previous marriage, Demus, who was famous for his beauty. Perictione gave birth to Pyrilampes' second son, Antiphon, the half-brother of Plato, who appears in Parmenides.

In contrast to his reticence about himself, Plato used to introduce his distinguished relatives into his dialogues, or to mention them with some precision: Charmides has one named after him; Critias speaks in both Charmides and Protagoras; Adeimantus and Glaucon take prominent parts in the Republic.

Gorgias: 480-376 B.C.
Gorgias originated from Leontini, a Greek colony in Sicily, and what is often called the home of Greek rhetoric. It is known that Gorgias had a father named Charmantides and two siblings – a brother named Herodicus and a sister who dedicated a statue to Gorgias in Delphi.

He was already about sixty when in 427 he was sent to Athens by his fellow-citizens at the head of an embassy to ask for Athenian protection against the aggression of the Syracusans. He subsequently settled in Athens, probably due to the enormous popularity of his style of oratory and the profits made from his performances and rhetoric classes. According to Aristotle, his students included Isocrates. (Other students are named in later traditions; the Suda adds Pericles, and according to Philostratus, "I understand that he attracted the attention of the most admired men, Critias and Alcibiades who were young, and Thucydides and Pericles who were already old. Agathon too, the tragic poet, whom Comedy regards as wise and eloquent, often Gorgianizes in his iambic verse.")

Gorgias is reputed to have lived to be over one hundred years old. He accumulated considerable wealth; enough to commission a gold statue of himself for a public temple. He died at Larissa in Thessaly in 376 BC.

The Greeks: museum photos and links

I think I probably said all I needed to say in class, though I was in a hurry. But I'll post some of those photos here (just click on them if you want to make them larger), and I'll also suggest that if you're looking for a more in-depth understanding of the historical timelines, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's website is excellent. If you even just click through their highlights of the Greek and Roman collection pages, you can watch the dates associated with the pieces of art approach, arrive at, and then move past the years in which Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were walking the streets of Athens.

One thing to keep in mind might be that although allowing any citizen to speak during political arguments might seem radically "free," most human beings report that public speaking is high up there on the list of things that most frighten them. If you can imagine an "ordinary" citizen of Athens, you can also probably understand how that citizen might decline to stand up in front of everyone and make a speech, when those watching and listening would naturally include people as accomplished, well-known, and critically-sharp as some of the people we've been reading. (And if you were going to speak on the right day, in the right year, the actual Socrates, Plato, Gorgias, Polus, Callicles, or Aristotle might be standing there. Their eyes on you. Waiting. For you. To say something.) So there's definitely a known social context and situation that Socrates is referring to when, in Gorgias, he claims that he completely bungled things when it was his turn to try and run the meeting. And Aristotle's On Rhetoric becomes something we could understand not only as a handbook, but also a source of knowledge and security for someone trying to prepare themselves to seek success by becoming active in public life. ("I know I'm okay. I'm going to do topics 12, 17, and 22. It's right out of Aristotle's playbook. Just do 12, 17, and 22. Remember it, remember it! 12! 17! 22! I'm going to be fine. I can do this. I can speak to these people! It's going to be fine!" [hyperventilation] [loss of consciousness])

And as I said in class, Jacques-Louis David's 1787 painting "The Death of Socrates" is a good example of the ways in which the Greeks have continued to resonate throughout the ensuing course of Western history. I posted a professional/official image of the painting in one of the posts below, so here I'll just add a close-up. It's interesting to read Aristotle's thoughts on paradigms versus enthymemes while keeping in mind that there's no way Aristotle could know this, but his entire culture would become a paradigm referred to in countless arguments in nations and cultures elsewhere in the world. (A strong paradigm, because it was historical fact, but as we know Aristotle would caution us: A good enthymeme would be better support for your argument. Though thank you very much for making paradigmatic reference to us Greeks once again. It's very flattering. You have excellent taste.)

David's painting depicts the last moments of Socrates' life, his followers (we won't call them "students," since Socrates claimed he wasn't a teacher) distraught over his choice of taking deadly poison rather than recanting any of his positions or arguments. If you pop either of these two images open and look at them up close, you can see striations in the paint and/or canvas that have accrued over time, and you can also get a better look at some of the details in the image.

The reading for Tuesday is on your syllabus. Have a good weekend!