Aristotle's Life: From the Academy to the Lyceum

Aristotle (384–322 BCE) was born in Stagira in northern Greece, the son of a physician to the Macedonian royal court. At 17 he joined Plato's Academy, where he stayed about 20 years until Plato died in 347 BCE. He then spent several years in Asia Minor and on the island of Lesbos doing research in biology, and from about 343 BCE he tutored the young Alexander of Macedon, later Alexander the Great.

In 335 BCE he returned to Athens and founded his own school, the Lyceum, whose members were called Peripatetics, perhaps from the covered walkway (peripatos) where they taught. After Alexander's death in 323 BCE, anti-Macedonian feeling made Aristotle leave Athens, and he died the following year. His career shows a researcher who combined Plato's training with relentless observation, writing on almost every field of knowledge from logic and physics to ethics and poetry.