De AristotUe et opinione eius et studiis ; et quod
The Rise of the Peripatetic
Aristotle emerges as the successor to Plato, establishing his own school and redefining the landscape of philosophical inquiry.
He stirred up doubt among the Academics through various debates and questioned their rules. The sun seemed to fall from the sky on the day that Plato, the prince of philosophers, departed from human life; those who believed their own studies should be referred to the throne of wisdom—over which he had long presided—mourned him as if the world's lamp had been extinguished. But when his student Aristotle—a man of excellent intellect, less eloquent than Plato but easily surpassing many others—succeeded him in the office of teaching, he shone upon humanity like a morning star; with certain precepts of his manifold philosophy, he illuminated the world like various rays of wisdom, and as if wiping the fog from their eyes, he restored the minds of men to behold the nature of truth. He founded the Peripatetic school—so named because he was accustomed to debate while walking—and while his teacher was still alive, he gathered many students into his own school, distinguished by his brilliant reputation and his art of persuasion. He certainly covered all branches of philosophy and provided rules for each, but he brought logic so thoroughly under his own control that he seems to have excluded everyone else from claiming it. Yet he flourished in other areas to such a degree that he deserved to make the common name of all philosophers his own by antonomasia—that is, by excellence. For just as 'the City' signifies Rome and 'the Poet' signifies Maro, so the name 'Philosopher' has been contracted by the consensus of those who use it to refer to Aristotle. He was eloquent in his speech, but even richer in his insights, and skilled at countering the opinions of everyone else.
The Character and Ambition of Aristotle
Aristotle's methods of teaching and his complex personality reveal a man of great intellect but also significant vanity.
He is said to be the first to have categorized studies into acroatic and exoteric types. For while close friends and those who were practically members of his household were admitted to the acroatic, the exoteric were open not only to outsiders but also to guests and travelers. Some believed he was the son of an incubus demon because of his physical agility, the sharpness of his mind, and the hunger for glory he was accustomed to snatching from everyone through his tireless industry. Valerius Maximus testifies about him that, while he was barely maintaining the remnants of his final years with his aged and wrinkled limbs in the highest leisure of letters, he applied himself so powerfully for the safety of his country that, lying in his Athenian bed, he rescued it from the hands of the Macedonians—by whom it had been cast aside—even though it had been leveled to the ground by hostile arms. Thus, with the city leveled and overturned, and through the friendship of Alexander by which it was restored, the work of Aristotle is well known. Although he is considered a disturber of names and words, he excelled not only in the subtlety for which he is famous among all, but also in a wonderful smoothness of speech, to such a degree that he seems to have been deservedly next to Plato. That he was most greedy for praise is evident even from the fact that when he had granted the books of the art of rhetoric to a student of Theodectes so that he might publish them, he later felt annoyed that he had conceded such a title of praise and glory to another; so, insisting on certain matters in his own volume, he added that a clearer statement about these things had been made by him in the books of Theodectes. Hence Valerius Maximus: 'If the modesty of such broad and extensive knowledge didn't hold me back, I would say he is a philosopher worthy of having his morals established by a philosopher of a higher mind.'
The Vanity of Intellectual Pursuit
Even those who claim to despise glory often seek it, while the philosophical tradition continues to evolve through debate and doubt.
Yet glory is not neglected even by those who try to introduce a contempt for it. For they diligently add their names to their volumes, so that what they diminish by their profession, they might secure through the usurpation of memory. This is the man whose debates ensured that the Academy was stirred more by the clash of arguments than by the clash of winds. Although he is considered a Peripatetic rather than an Academic, his prodding on individual issues caused the remaining Platonists to start doubting almost everything. In fact, after Plato died, his nephew Speusippus and his beloved student Xenocrates succeeded him in the school known as the Academy; for this reason, they and their successors are called Academics after the location, just as the Platonists are named after their master. Among them, the Greeks Plotinus, Iamblichus, and Porphyry—that notorious attacker of the Catholic truth, as he is called—gained great renown. Apuleius of Madaura was a noble figure in both Greek and Latin; he was a great man who, through the charm of his character and his command of language, easily brings to mind the Socratic spring and the Platonic torrent for anyone with even a little bit of wisdom. From these thinkers came many others who preferred to discuss debatable matters in a way that avoided prejudice, rather than defining them with rash boldness, especially since they believed the truth about things with probable arguments on both sides remained hidden.
The Academic Tradition of Inquiry
The core principle of the Academy remains the freedom to defend what is found to be probable.
This is why the oldest rule of the Academics is that everyone has the right to defend whatever they find probable.
Read the original Latin
uariis disputatioTiihus dubitationem Achademicorum mouit, et de regula eorum. Sol e celo uisus est cecidisse qua die philosophorum princeps Plato rebus excessit humanis, et quasi lucernam mundi extinctam defleuerunt qui ad thronum sapientiae, cui ille diu praesederat, sua arbitrabantur studia referenda. Sed cum ei Aristotiles discipulus, uir excellentis ingenii et Platoni impar eloquio sed multos facile superans, in docendi ofBcium successisset, quasi matutinum sidus eiFulsit hominibus et quibusdam multiplicis philosophiae praeceptis uelut uariis sapientiae radiis illustrauit orbem, et tamquam ocud lorum detersa caligine ad contuendam ueritatis speciem mentes hominum reparauit. Sectam hic Peripatheticam condidit, sic utique dictam quod deambulans disputare consueuerat, plurimosque discipulos praeclara fama excellens et arte suadendi uiuo adhuc praeceptore in suam, heresin congregauit. Tractauit quidem omnes philosophiae partes et praecepta dedit in singulas sed prae ceteris sic rationalem redegit in ius suum ut a possessione illius uideatur omnes alios exclusisse. Ita tamen in aliis uiguit ut commune nomen omnium philosophorum anthonomasice, id est excellenter, sibi proprium esse meruerit. Sicut enim a urbs Romam, Maronem poeta exprimit, sic et philosophi nomen circa Aristotilem utentium placito contractum est. Fuit autem facundus eloquio sed uberior sensibus et doctus omnium sententiis obuiare.
Hic est qui primus studiorum genera in agroaticum et exothericum dicitur distinxisse. Nam et familiares et quasi domestici admittebantur in agroatica, exotherica uero non modo extraneis sed hospitibus patebant et peregrinis. Fuerunt qui eum Incubi demonis filium crederent propter agilitatem corporis, perspicaciam ingenii et gloriae appetitum quam multiplici industria omnibus praeripere consueuerat. Testatur de eo Valerius Maximus quia, supremae uitae reliquias senilibus ac rugosis membris in summo litterarum otio uix custodiens, adeo ualenter pro salute patriae incubuit ut eam ab hostilib bus armis solo aequatam in lectulo Atheniensi iacens quidem Macedonum manibus, quibus abiecta erat, eriperet. Ita urbe strata atque euersa Alexandrique familiaritate qua restituta est Aristotilis notum est opus. Licet autem nominum et uerborum turbator habeatur, non modo subtilitate, qua cunctis celebris est, sed et mira suauitate dicendi eualuit, adeo quidem ut Platoni merito proximus fuisse uideatur. Eum laudis fuisse auidissimum uel ex eo constat quod, cum Theodocti discipulo libros artis oratoriae ut eos ederet concessisset, moleste ferens postea tantum laudis et gloriae titulum se alii concessisse, proprio uolumine quibusdam rebus insistens, planius sibi de his in Theodoctis libris dictum adiecit. Vnde Valerius Maximus: Nisi me tam latae et tam patentis scientiae uerecundia teneret, dicerem dignum philosophum cuius stabiliendi mores altioris animi philosopho traderentur.
Ceterum gloria ne ab his quidem, qui contemptum eius introducere conantur, negligitur. Nam et uoluminibus nomina sua diligenter adiciunt ut quod professione leuant usurpatione memoriae assequantur. Hic est cuius disputationibus effectum est ut Achademia moueatur magis rationum quam collisione uentorum. Licet enim Peripatheticus, non Achademicus censeatur, eo tamen soUicitante de singulis maxime coeperunt Platonici, qui relicti erant, fere de omnibus dubitare. Siquidem post mortem Platonis Eusippus sororis eius filius et Xenocrates dilectus eius discipulus in scolam, quae Achademia uocabatur, eidem successerunt; et ob hoc ipsi et successores eorum Achademici appellantur a loco sicut Platonici a magistro. Ex quibus ualde nobilitati sunt Greci Plotinus, lamblicus et Porphirius, catholicae ueritatis, ut dicitur, pessimus impugnator. In utraque uero lingua Greca scilicet et Latina nobilis extitit Apuleius Affer, uir magnus imprimis et qui uenustate morum et dicendi copia Socraticum fontem et torrentem Platonicum facile redoleat uel tenuiter sapienti. Ab his fluxerunt et alii multi qui dubitabilia discutere sic ut nuUi praeiudia caretur maluerunt quam ausu temerario diffinire, maxime cum occultam crederent ueritatem eorum de quibus in utramque partem probabiliter disputatur.
Vnde et Achademicorum antiquissima regula est ut quisque quod sibi occurrit probabile suo iure defendat.
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