A good starting point for this is
chronology.
Plato was born to an aristocratic family in
Athens in 424, followed the philosopher Socrates, left Athens after Socrates death in
399, and after some years of travel returned to found his academy in approximately 384
(the approximate date of Aristotle's birth. Plato died in
348.
Aristotle was born in Stagira in 384, to a father who
was a court physician to the Macedonian king Amyntas. He went to Athens in 367 (at
approximately the age of 18) and stayed there studying in Plato's Academy for 20 years,
only leaving in 347, after Plato's death.
Thus when
Aristotle arrived at the Platonic Academy as a teenager, Plato was already a middle-aged
philosopher who was at the height of a fairly distinguished career. Although he seems to
have recognized that Aristotle was a promising student, Aristotle was just embarking on
his career at Plato's death.
Moreover, at the end of his
life, Plato was focussing on metaphysics (the idea-mathematicals) and Aristotle would
have been involved in areas of practical reasoning which were a bit outside the main
areas of focus of the Academy of the period.
No comments:
Post a Comment