ARISTOTLE was born in the village of Stagira in northern Greece, in 384 BCE. At seventeen he moved to Athens and was a devoted pupil of Plato for twenty years. Then, he was summoned by King Philip of Macedon to tutor his son Alexander, who later became known as Alexander the Great. Upon Aristotle ’ s return to Athens, he started his own school, the Lyceum. He lectured there for twelve years and is believed to have…
Continue readingPlato (427–347 BCE) came from a wealthy, aristocratic Athenian family and, at twenty, became a follower of Socrates. He left Athens in 399 BCE on the death of Socrates and, following a sojourn in Megara, travelled to Egypt, Italy and Sicily. He returned to Athens in 387 BCE and founded his own school, the Academy. Lasting a millennium, it is considered the first university of the Western world. Plato ’s entire body of work has survived…
Continue readingEpicurus was born in 341 BCE and was a pupil of the Platonist Pamphilus of Samos, and the Democritean philosopher Nausiphanes of Teos. He began to teach when he was thirty-two, first in Mitylene on Lesbos and then in Lampsacus on the nearby mainland. In 306 BCE he moved to Athens with his loyal disciples; he purchased a property with a garden and established his school there. The Garden, as the school came to be…
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