Page 83 - STOLEN LEGACY By George G. M. James
P. 83
We are also informed that after the death of Plato, his nephew, became the master of his school,
and that Aristotle left immediately for Mysia, where he met and married the niece of Hermeias.
Likewise, that after the death of Amyntas of Macedon, his son Phillip having become king,
appointed Aristotle as Tutor of his son Alexander a boy of 13 years (later to be called the Great
in consequence of his conquest of Egypt).
After Phillip's assassination in 336 B.C. Alexander became king, and we are informed that he
immediately planned an Asiatic campaign and included Egypt, during which time Aristotle is
said to have returned to Athens and founded a school in a gymnasium called the Lyceum. We are
further informed that Aristotle conducted this school for only twelve years, that Alexander the
Great advanced him the funds to purchase a large number of books, that his pupils were called
Peripatetics, and that owing to an indictment for impiety, brought against him by a priest named
Eurymedon, he fled from Athens to Chalcis in Euboea, where he remained in exile until his death
in 322 B.C. (Roger's Student's History of Phil. p. 104). (Zeller's History of Philosophy, p. 171–
172). (Fuller's History of Philosophy, Aristotle's Life). (B. D. Alexander's Hist. of Phil. p. 91–
92). (Diogenes Laertius Bk. V. p. 449).
(b) His own list of books.
Aristotle is credited with classifying his own writings as follows:
(i) The Theoretic, whose object is truth, and which included (a) Mathematics (b) Physics and (c)
Theology. (ii) The Practical, whose object is the useful, and which included (a) Ethics (b)
Economics and (c) Politics. (iii) The Productive or Poetic whose object is the beautiful, and
which included (a) Poetry (b) Art and (c) Rhetoric.
N.B.
Neither Logic nor Metaphysics was in this list. (History of Philosophy, B. D. Alexander, p. 92).
(c) Other lists of books.
There are two lists of books which have come down to modern times from Alexandrine and
Arabian sources.
(i) The older list, derived from the Alexandrine Hermippus (200 B.C.), who estimated the books
of Aristotle at 400, which, according to Zeller's suggestion, must have been in the Alexandrine
Library, at the time of the compilation of the list, since works which are now considered to be
Aristotle's are not found in the list.
82
Stolen Legacy: Greek Philosophy is Stolen Egyptian Philosophy by George G. M. James
The Journal of Pan African Studies 2009 eBook