Titans of History by Simon Sebag Montefiore Read Free Book Online

Macedonia’s court physician, Aristotle spent twenty years studying under Plato at his Academy in Athens. His unquenchable thirst for knowledge prompted his tutor to comment that he needed “a bridle,” and Aristotle’s enthusiasm shines through in hisscientific works. His
History of Animals
, begun in the decade he spent traveling after Plato’s death, is a complete record of every species of animal known to the Greek world; he charts innumerable organisms, using his minute observations to explain their structure. There are of course some errors (a bison, for instance, is unlikely to defend itself by projectile excretion), but this work of genius and tireless energy nevertheless paved the way for the science of zoology.
    A willingness to refine or contradict previous doctrines and opinions; to pose questions to which he did not know the answers; to wrestle with his own ideas—in all these ways, Aristotle transformed the methodology of thought. His surviving works do not make easy reading. They are mostly fragments, used as notes when he lectured at the academies he established on his travels and at the Lyceum, the covered garden in which he taught on his return to Athens. The school of philosophy that Aristotle founded—the Peripatetic school—is believed to have been named after the Lyceum’s walkway (
peripatos
), where he delivered his lectures with lucidity and wit. Greece’s brightest youth flocked to learn from him.
    This wealthy dandy, who sported jewelry and a fashionable haircut, championed the mind above all else. Aristotle’s philosophy insisted on thought as man’s greatest attribute. Philosophical speculation implied civilization: only when a person had secured everything else could he afford the luxury of pure, untrammeled thought. In his works on ethics Aristotle came to the conclusion that human goodness derives from rational thought—that “the good of man is the active exercise of his soul’s faculties in conformity with excellence”; it is an assertion of the uniqueness of mankind that has influenced our understanding of civilization ever since.
    The reputedly lisping logician established a new vocabulary of thought. Aristotle made logic an independent branch of philosophy. Struggling to express his meaning more precisely, he coined new terms for his concepts: substance, essence, potential, energy.He argued that as language is a distinctively human trait, it is therefore an expression of the soul. He developed the idea that analysis of our words is the key to understanding our thought. His system of syllogistic logic (e.g. “All men are mortal; Greeks are men; therefore Greeks are mortal”) was the cornerstone of logical analysis for over 2000 years.
    At the age of forty-two, Aristotle returned to his homeland to tutor the Macedonian king’s thirteen-year-old son Alexander. Aristotle tried to instill in his charge two of Greece’s greatest contributions to civilization: epic heroism and philosophy. How much of Aristotle’s political theory he absorbed is open to debate. Aristotle’s ideas were based on the belief that Greeks were superior to other races. While he recognized that governments must be chosen in accordance with their citizens’ needs and capacities, he favored the city-state ruled by an enlightened oligarchy as the best form of government. Such ideas may not have had much impact on Alexander as that autocratic ruler forged his empire. Nevertheless, Aristotle’s beliefs were a vast advance on contemporary political concepts and they fundamentally influenced the development of Greek civilization.
    In his
Poetics
Aristotle established the fundamentals of tragedy that would long be observed in drama: unity of action and a central character whose tragic flaw, such as
hubris
(excess of pride), brings about his downfall. Aristotle also identified a process of cleansing or purification (
catharsis
) in which