Aristotle: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Aristotle's thought grew from Plato's Academy, absorbed Ionian natural philosophy and medical empiricism, and was reshaped by Athenian civic life and tragic drama. This mix traces the works he studied, the peers and students who preserved him, and the long afterlife of Aristotelianism from Baghdad to Aquinas.

The Kynda mix for Aristotle

• Key Influence · Republic by Plato (c. 375 BCE). Aristotle entered Plato's Academy around 367 BCE at roughly seventeen and stayed some twenty years until Plato's death. The Republic's account of justice, the ideal city and the tripartite soul is the direct target of Aristotle's Politics Book II critique and of his rejection of separated Forms. Nearly every Aristotelian treatise argues with Plato, quarrelling with him even in the act of inheriting his vocabulary.
• Influencia Obscura · On the Nature of Things (fragments) by Empedocles (c. 450 BCE). Aristotle preserves much of Empedocles precisely because he argued with him: the Sicilian's four roots became the four elements, and his claim that organisms arose by chance combination is the target of Physics II's famous defence of natural teleology. Aristotle also called him the inventor of rhetoric and discussed his verse in the Poetics, treating him as a poet-scientist rather than a mere predecessor.
• Local Roots · Oration Against Leocrates by Lycurgus of Athens (330 BCE). Aristotle spent his adult decades in Athens, teaching at the Lyceum from 335 BCE while Lycurgus was remaking the city's finances, theatres and civic religion. This surviving prosecution speech is Athenian public argument in the very years the Rhetoric was being taught, and its appeals to law, precedent and patriotic emotion illustrate the persuasive practice Aristotle was anatomising for his students.
• Beyond the Medium · Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (c. 429 BCE). The Poetics treats Sophocles' play as the model tragedy: its plot exemplifies reversal and recognition arriving together, its protagonist errs through hamartia rather than vice, and its unity of action is Aristotle's benchmark. Athenian tragedy was Aristotle's laboratory for thinking about mimesis, catharsis and how emotion instructs, giving him a theory of art derived from watching the stage rather than metaphysics.
• Peer · Characters by Theophrastus (c. 319 BCE). Theophrastus studied alongside Aristotle, travelled with him to Lesbos where they investigated marine life, and succeeded him as head of the Lyceum, inheriting his library and manuscripts. Characters sketches thirty moral types with the same taxonomic eye Aristotle turned on animals and virtues, and its portraits are effectively field notes extending the ethical mean into comic social observation.
• From the Canon · Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle (c. 340 BCE). Named for his son Nicomachus and assembled from Lyceum lectures, this is the work that defines eudaimonia as activity in accordance with virtue, locates virtue as a mean disposed by habit, and devotes two books to friendship. It founded virtue ethics and remains the pivot of the tradition running through Aquinas to Anscombe and MacIntyre's twentieth-century revival.
• Key Collaborator · On the Sensations by Theophrastus (c. 315 BCE). Theophrastus was Aristotle's research partner as well as successor, and this doxographical treatise surveying earlier theories of perception is our main source for Presocratic epistemology. It demonstrates the Lyceum practice Aristotle established of mapping predecessors' opinions before adjudicating, and it complements De Anima by testing Aristotelian sense-theory against rival accounts.
• Legacy · Summa Theologiae by Thomas Aquinas (1274). Aquinas called Aristotle simply the Philosopher and wrote line-by-line commentaries on the Ethics, Physics, Metaphysics and De Anima, drawing on Latin translations made by his colleague William of Moerbeke. The Summa fuses Aristotelian hylomorphism, teleology and virtue theory with Christian doctrine, and its success made Aristotle the backbone of European university teaching for centuries.

What influenced Aristotle

• Plato (-427). Plato was Aristotle's tutor. (also via Metaphysics, Republic, Timaeus) “Along with his teacher Socrates , and his student Aristotle , Plato is a central figure in the history of Western philosophy” (Wikipedia)
• Sophocles. Aristotle used Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus as his model tragedy. (also via Oedipus Rex) “Aristotle uses the tragedy Oedipus Tyrannus by Sophocles as an example of how the perfect tragedy should be structured” (Wikipedia)
• Republic by Plato. Republic (Plato) — titan for Aristotle “At around eighteen years old, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty seven (c.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. Oedipus Rex (Sophocles) — culture for Aristotle “Sophocles influenced the development of drama, most importantly by adding a third actor (attributed to Sophocles by Aristotle; to Aeschylus by Themistius), thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Iliad by Homer. Iliad (Homer) — culture for Aristotle “Alexander's education probably included a number of subjects, such as ethics and politics, as well as standard literary texts, like Euripides and Homer.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Timaeus by Plato. Aristotle engaged critically with Plato's Timaeus in developing his own theory of soul. “Firstly he criticises Plato's Timaeus which holds the soul takes up space and can come into physical contact with bodies” (Wikipedia)
• Statesman by Plato. Aristotle's political theory of the mixed state drew on Plato's Statesman. “following the outline of certain ideas from Plato's Statesman , he developed a coherent theory of integrating various forms of power into a so-called mixed state” (Wikipedia)
• Anaxagoras. Aristotle's theory of earthquakes followed earlier Greek authors including Anaxagoras. “following other Greek authors Anaxagoras , Empedocles and Democritus” (Wikipedia)
• Academy by Plato. Confirms Aristotle's study at Plato's Academy. “he studied under Plato at the latter's Academy for twenty years” (Wikipedia)
• Platonic Academy by Medici family. Aristotle studied at Plato's Academy under Plato. “At around eighteen years old, he joined Plato 's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty seven” (Wikipedia)
• On the Nature of Things (fragments) by Empedocles. On the Nature of Things (fragments) (Empedocles) — ghost for Aristotle “=== Physics === ==== Five elements ==== In his On Generation and Corruption, Aristotle related each of the four elements proposed earlier by Empedocles, earth, water, air, and fire, to two of the four sensible qualities, hot, cold, wet, …” (en.wikipedia.org)
• On Ancient Medicine by Hippocratic corpus. On Ancient Medicine (Hippocratic corpus) — ghost for Aristotle
• Democritus. Aristotle directly responded to and refuted Democritus's astronomical claim.

Peers and kindred spirits

• On the Crown by Demosthenes (330). On the Crown (Demosthenes) — geography for Aristotle “Lucian, a Roman-Syrian rhetorician and satirist, lists the philosophers Aristotle, Theophrastus and Xenocrates among his teachers.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Characters by Theophrastus. Characters (Theophrastus) — peer for Aristotle “While at Assos, Aristotle and his colleague Theophrastus did extensive research in botany and marine biology, which they later continued at the near-by island of Lesbos.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Peripatetic school. Aristotle founded the Peripatetic school. “As the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy in the Lyceum in Athens, he began the wider Aristotelian tradition” (Wikipedia)
• Lyceum. Aristotle founded the Lyceum school in Athens. “Plato's Academy, Aristotle's Lyceum, the Cynics, and the Stoics” (Wikipedia)
• Speusippus. Aristotle was part of the Academy scene alongside Speusippus. “disappointed with the academy's direction after control passed to Plato's nephew Speusippus” (Wikipedia)
• Hermias of Atarneus. Aristotle was invited by and associated with Hermias of Atarneus. “where he was invited by his former fellow student Hermias of Atarneus; he stayed there for a few years” (Wikipedia)
• On the Sensations by Theophrastus. On the Sensations (Theophrastus) — collaborator for Aristotle “While at Assos, Aristotle and his colleague Theophrastus did extensive research in botany and marine biology, which they later continued at the near-by island of Lesbos.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• On the History of Philosophy (fragments) by Eudemus of Rhodes. On the History of Philosophy (fragments) (Eudemus of Rhodes) — collaborator for Aristotle “He was one of Aristotle's most important pupils, editing his teacher's work and making it more easily accessible.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Oration Against Leocrates by Lycurgus of Athens (330). Oration Against Leocrates (Lycurgus of Athens) — geography for Aristotle

Who Aristotle influenced

• Thomas Aquinas (1225). States Thomas embraced Aristotle's ideas and synthesized them with Christian doctrine. (also via Nicomachean Ethics, Summa Theologiae) “It was at this university that Thomas was presumably introduced to Aristotle, Averroes and Maimonides, all of whom would influence his theological philosophy.” (Wikipedia)
• Theophrastus (-371). Theophrastus was Aristotle's student and successor. (also via Characters, On the Sensations) “Aristotle left his works to Theophrastus, his successor as the head of the Lyceum” (Wikipedia)
• Empedocles (-490). Aristotle's element theory built on Empedocles' earlier four-element theory. (also via On the Nature of Things (fragments)) “Aristotle related each of the four elements proposed earlier by Empedocles , earth , water , air , and fire , to two of the four sensible qualities” (Wikipedia)
• Summa Theologiae by Thomas Aquinas (1274). Summa Theologiae (Thomas Aquinas) — legacy for Aristotle “Aristotle was revered among medieval Muslim scholars as "The First Teacher", and among medieval Christians like Thomas Aquinas as simply "The Philosopher".” (en.wikipedia.org)
• The Incoherence of the Incoherence by Averroes. The Incoherence of the Incoherence (Averroes) — legacy for Aristotle “Through commentaries and critical engagements, figures like Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), and Averroes breathed new life into Aristotle's ideas.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Guide for the Perplexed by Maimonides. Guide for the Perplexed (Maimonides) — legacy for Aristotle “==== Medieval Judaism ==== Moses Maimonides (considered to be the foremost intellectual figure of medieval Judaism) adopted Aristotelianism from the Islamic scholars and based his Guide for the Perplexed on it; the work became the basis …” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Alexander the Great (-356). Alexander the Great was tutored by Aristotle. “at the request of Philip II of Macedon , tutored his son Alexander the Great beginning in 343 BC” (Wikipedia)
• Peter Abelard (1079). Peter Abelard studied Aristotle's logical works. “His works contain the earliest known systematic study of logic, and were studied by medieval scholars such as Peter Abelard and Jean Buridan” (Wikipedia)
• Jean Buridan (1295). Jean Buridan studied Aristotle's logical works. “His works contain the earliest known systematic study of logic, and were studied by medieval scholars such as Peter Abelard and Jean Buridan” (Wikipedia)
• Immanuel Kant (1724). Kant credited Aristotle with completing logic. “Kant even stated in the Critique of Pure Reason that with Aristotle, logic reached its completion” (Wikipedia)
• Archimedes (-287). Archimedes' theory was a response to Aristotle's physics. “Archimedes corrected Aristotle's theory that bodies move towards their natural resting places” (Wikipedia)
• John Philoponus (490). Philoponus challenged Aristotle's physics through experiment. “John Philoponus (in late antiquity ) and Galileo (in the early modern period) are said to have shown by experiment that Aristotle's claim that a heavier object falls faster than a lighter object is incorrect” (Wikipedia)
• Galileo. Galileo challenged Aristotle's physics through experiment. “John Philoponus (in late antiquity ) and Galileo (in the early modern period) are said to have shown by experiment that Aristotle's claim that a heavier object falls faster than a lighter object is incorrect” (Wikipedia)
• Isaac Newton. Newton's concept of forced motion relates to and builds on Aristotle's concept. “Isaac Newton 's "forced" motion corresponds to Aristotle's "violent" motion with its external agent” (Wikipedia)
• Carlo Rovelli (1956). Rovelli defends Aristotle's physics as valid within its domain. “A contrary opinion is given by Carlo Rovelli , who argues that Aristotle's physics of motion is correct within its domain of validity” (Wikipedia)
• Charles Lyell (1797). Lyell cited Aristotle's geological observations. “The geologist Charles Lyell noted that Aristotle described such change, including "lakes that had dried up" and "deserts that had become watered by rivers"” (Wikipedia)
• Darwin. Darwin's observations paralleled and built on Aristotle's zoological data. “Darwin , too, noted such differences, but unlike Aristotle used the data to come to the theory of evolution” (Wikipedia)
• Andronicus of Rhodes (-100). Andronicus compiled Aristotle's logical works into the Organon. (via Organon) “The logical works of Aristotle were compiled into a set of six books called the Organon around 40 BC by Andronicus of Rhodes or others among his followers” (Wikipedia)