On the occasion of the 2400th anniversary of his birth…
Three years after the founding of the Academy, when Plato was forty-three years old, Aristotle, the most distinguished student of Plato and a philosopher scientist, was born in Stagira on the Halkidiki peninsula in 384 BC. He arrived in Athens as an eighteen-year-old and joined the Academy, where he stayed for twenty years until Plato’s death. In the Academy, he quickly gained a reputation for his learning and intellectual debates, earning the nickname “The Mind” and transitioning from a student to a teacher of rhetoric. In the Academy, he thoroughly familiarized himself with the entire pre-Socratic philosophy, listened to Plato’s lectures, studied his works, and encountered the ideas of other great minds he met there.
After Plato’s death, thanks to the favor of the tyrant Hermias, he founded a branch of the Academy in the city of Assos, which would become a new stronghold for the realization of Plato’s political ideal of philosopher-kings. As a result, at the invitation of the Macedonian ruler Philip in 343 BC, he went and became the teacher of thirteen-year-old Alexander. Three years later, he…
After Alexander assumes the throne, he returns to Athens where he establishes a school called Lyceum in a gymnasium dedicated to the god Apollo Lyceios. Like in the Academy, the cult of the Muses was cultivated in the Lyceum, but there was also a focus on scientific research because Aristotle himself was a master of all the sciences of his time. The Lyceum held two types of lectures: morning lectures for a select group of listeners dedicated to philosophy and science, and evening lectures for those interested in other disciplines, especially rhetoric.
Aristotle operated in the Lyceum for twelve years and during that time he wrote all of his major works. When anti-Macedonian sentiment arose in Athens after the death of Alexander the Great, in order to avoid the fate of Socrates, “so that the Athenians would not stumble upon philosophy for a second time,” he withdrew to the city of Chalcis where he died in 322 BC.
Aristotle’s keen powers of observation, his exceptionally wide scientific interests, and his profound philosophical knowledge made him a universal genius of the ancient world; he engaged in physics, meteorology, and through external circumstances, wealth or power, but through the cultivation of virtue and the fulfillment of one’s potential. Aristotle believed that humans are by nature rational beings, capable of reason and moral action. He emphasized the importance of education and the pursuit of knowledge in leading a fulfilling life. According to him, true happiness lies in the virtue of the soul and the practice of virtue in all aspects of life. He saw politics as the highest form of practical wisdom, as it involves the pursuit of the common good and the well-being of society as a whole. Aristotle’s teachings continue to be influential in various fields of study, and his insights into human nature and ethics remain relevant to this day. It does not come from possessing a multitude of goods, but from the state of the soul. Just like one would not say that the body is blissful if adorned with fancy clothes, but rather if it is healthy and in good condition, even if it lacks what was previously mentioned. In the same way, if the soul is educated, such a soul and such a person should be called happy, not if they are splendidly supplied with external goods, but completely worthless themselves.
Everyone will agree that prudence arises through learning and seeking that which philosophy enables us to pursue. Therefore, without any excuse, one should engage in philosophy.
To be prudent is the ultimate goal for which we were created. Therefore, if we were created, it is evident that we exist in order to express some prudence and learn something.
But what is it among the existing that nature and God created us for? When this question was asked to Pythagoras, he replied: “To contemplate the heavens!” He claimed to be a student of nature and that he was created for that purpose. he finally found his way back to life.
In that sense, Pythagoras beautifully stated that God created every person in order to acquire knowledge and gain insight.
Since the entire nature has a purpose, nothing happens by chance but everything serves a purpose. By eliminating randomness, it demonstrates greater concern for purpose than skills, considering that skills imitate nature. Since a human being is naturally composed of soul and body, and the soul is superior to the body, and what is inferior is always in service to what is superior, therefore the body exists for the soul. Speaking of the soul: one part of it is rational, the other irrational, and that is precisely why the inferior part exists for the rational one, as it is in the rational mind /nous/.
As for the mind, its activity is in thinking, which is the observation of what the mind is accessible to, just as the activity of sight is seeing the visible. Therefore, everything that is worth choosing for humans is worth choosing for thinking and for the mind. Other things, namely, are worth choosing for the soul, and since the mind is the best part of it. Ah, everything else exists for the sake of what is best.
Considerations in and of themselves are worthy, and what is worth choosing in them is the wisdom of the mind, just as considerations based on practical wisdom are valuable for their actions. Good and worthy is therefore found in consideration based on wisdom, but of course, not in just any consideration.
Only that which is good, i.e. living in accordance with reason, is truly inseparable; indeed, it is claimed to be encompassed by the concept of good. A virtuous person living such a life does not subject themselves to chance, as they have freed themselves most of all from susceptibility to it. Therefore, for a person who persists in living such a life, it is possible to live without fear.
Knowledge is more concerned with what is certain and ordered rather than their opposites, and also more concerned with causes than outcomes. It is far more important to understand causes and beginnings before what comes later. What comes later does not belong to ultimate causes, nor does it give rise to what is first. However, everything else clearly originates and is established not from imitation, but from the original and with the help of the original.
Being prudent and having knowledge is a valuable choice for people in and of itself (because they cannot live as humans without it), and it is also useful for life. Nothing that happens to us is good unless it is executed based on our prior reflection and wise actions.
Imitating what is not beautiful cannot be beautiful, nor can imitating what is neither divine nor steadfast be immortal and steadfast. It is evident that among all workers, only philosophers have steadfast laws and correct and beautiful actions.
Only he/she, i.e. the philosopher, lives with his/her gaze fixed on nature and on what is divine, and like a good helmsman, he/she ties the principles of life to what is eternal and permanent, drops anchor, and lives according to his/her own principles.
Of course, this is a theoretical knowledge, but it enables us to act effectively based on it. Just as sight does not create or produce anything (because it is the only way through which we perceive the world), it enables us to actively engage. bservacija da je za ljudski život važno ne samo poznavanje, već i djelovanje i korištenje onoga što znamo. Na primjer, iako možemo znati što je dobro za naše zdravlje, samo kroz primjenu tog znanja možemo zaista biti zdravi. Također, da bismo postigli bogatstvo, moramo djelovati i stjecati imetak, a ne samo znati o bogatstvu. Najvažnije je da živimo dobro čineći dobra djela, jer to je pravi izvor sreće. Također, nije mudro samo tražiti blago i izlagati se opasnostima, već trebamo biti razumni i uravnoteženi u svojim postupcima. The deer longs for life, not for a good life…
To be prudent and contemplative is the task of the soul, and that is the most valuable human choice, just as I think sight is: a person would choose to have it, even if they gained nothing else but the ability to see…
Therefore, we define happiness as prudence and a kind of wisdom, or as a virtue, or as the greatest pleasure, or as all of these together.
Therefore, all those who can should engage in philosophy because it is either a perfectly good life or it is the cause (of a perfectly good life) for souls, if we have to mention only one thing…
Honors and fame, those objects of desire, are filled with indescribable madness more than anything else. For the one who sees something of eternal things, it is meaningless to care about such things.
Aristotle’s Hymn to Virtue, also known as the Hymn to Hermias, is considered the most beautiful of his three preserved poems. Hermias was Aristotle’s friend, the ruler of the coastal part of northwest Asia Minor with the capital in A tragedy. Due to suspicion of conspiracy, the Persians captured Hermias and, after torturing him, killed him. Allegedly, when asked about his last wish, he replied: “Tell my friends and comrades that I have done nothing unworthy of philosophy.” “Is it possible,” wondered Aristotle, “that such a man remains unsung?”
Hymn to Virtue
Oh virtue, burden of the human race,
The noblest purpose of life,
Maiden, for the sake of your beauty
To die, to endure bitter and endless suffering –
Such is the fate renowned in Hellas!
You enrapture the soul with enthusiasm –
It never withers, it is stronger than gold,
Stronger than shine and soft reason.
For you, the son of Zeus, Heracles, and the sons of Leda,
Transformed the power of agony,
In the pursuit of praising your mighty strength;
Longing for you brought Hades to the court of Achilles and Ajax,
Drawn by the beloved image of you and the nurtured
Atarnian youth who shines brighter than the sun;
Therefore, his deeds will be sung in song, and the Muses,
Daughters of Memory,
They will celebrate him, the crown of Zeus, the hospitable god of glory and loyal friendship,
He will be eternal.
edited Greek lyrics by Koloman Rac
edited by Dijana Kotarac