Page 8 - DENG501_LITERARY_CRITICISM_AND_THEORIES

Literary Criticism and Theories
Notes
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At Plato's Academy
At seventeen, in B.C. 368-67, Aristotle began the first phase of his career-a twenty years' residence
in Athens as a member of Plato's Academy. When Plato died in 347, the Academy came under the
control of his nephew Speusippus, who favored mathematical aspects of Platonism that Aristotle,
who was more interested in biology, found uncongenial. Perhaps for this reason - but more likely
because of growing anti-Macedonian sentiment in Athens - Aristotle decided to leave. He accepted
the invitation of Hermeias, his friend and a former fellow student in the Academy, to join his
philosophical circle on the coast of Asia Minor in Assos, where Hermeias (a former slave) had
become ruler. Aristotle remained there for three years. During this period he married Hermeias's
niece, Pythias, with whom he had a daughter, also named Pythias.
In 345, Aristotle moved to Mytilene, on the nearby island of Lesbos, where he joined another
former Academic, Theophrastus, who was a native of the island. Theophrastus, at first Aristotle's
pupil and then his closest colleague, remained associated with him until Aristotle's death. While
they were on Lesbos the biological research of Aristotle and Theophrastus flourished. In 343,
Philip of Macedon invited Aristotle to his court to serve as tutor to his son Alexander, then
thirteen years old. What instruction Aristotle gave to the young man who was to become Alexander
the Great is not known, but it seems likely that Aristotle's own interest in politics increased during
his stay at the Macedonian court. In 340 Alexander was appointed regent for his father and his
studies with Aristotle ended.
The events of the next five years are uncertain. Perhaps Aristotle stayed at the court; perhaps he
went back to Stagira. But in 335, after the death of Philip, he returned to Athens for his second
long sojourn. Just outside the city he rented some buildings and established his own school, the
Lyceum, where he lectured, wrote, and discussed philosophy with his pupils and associates.
Under his direction, they carried out research on biological and other philosophical and scientific
topics. Theophrastus worked on botany, Aristoxenus on music; Eudemus wrote a history of
mathematics and astronomy, Meno of medicine, and Theophrastus of physics, cosmology, and
psychology. In addition, Aristotle and his group produced a monumental account of the
constitutions of 158 Greek city-states - an account Aristotle draws on in his own Politics.
Tutor to Alexander
The second phase of his carrer may be said to begin when after three years in Lesbos, passed in the
study of Biology, in B.C. 343-42.
But, despite the presence of philosophy, the court of Pella remained barbarous and sinister. To
marry a new bride, Philip put away his Queen Olympias; in B.C. 336, she had him murdered, and
her son Alexander came to the throne. After an absence of some twelve years, Aristotle returned
to the quiet of Athens. Some twelve years more of life were left to him. This was the beginning of
the third phase in his career.
Aristotle was invited by King Philip to his capital of Pella, as tutor to Alexander,
then only thirteen or fourteen; mainly, it seems, in political science and in literature.
For Aristotle refused to follow the puritanical ban of his master, Plato, on poetry
in education.
Return to Athens: His School
No doubt Athenian patriots, like Demosthenes, may have knit their brows at the return of this
alien, for he was the hereditary friend of that Macedonian monarchy which had crushed Greek
freedom at Chaeronea (338); he was friend, too, of Antipater, made regent of Macedon while
Alexander stormed through Asia ; and foe to extreme democracy, as to all extremes. But Aristotle
was a self-possessed character. On hearing that some one had abused him, “Let him even beat