Intellectual Biography
Aristotle was born in Stagira, Chalcidice, in 384 BCE to Phaestis of Chalcis and Nicomachus, a physician at the court of King Amyntas II of Macedonia. While it is likely that Nicomachus died when Aristotle was young and Proxenus, a citizen of Atarneus, raised him. Aristotle’s medical legacy may have spurred his enthusiasm for biology. His focus on systematic research, dissection, and the sheer size of the biological writings in the corpus are indications of early medical training. At the age of 17, Aristotle entered Plato’s Academy and remained a scholar there until the death of Plato around 347 BCE. In his later ethical writings, Aristotle delineates the highest type of friendship from that of pleasure and utility. Plato’s Academy was a community of just this kind of friendship: one grounded in a life of contemplation and virtue, a life that can only be sought in the development of the intellect and the pursuit of the good in political life. Legend has it that...
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Sears, J. (2019). Aristotle. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_77-1
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