Aristotle and Me

Much of Life is Hard exists in dialogue with Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher who was Plato’s greatest student. The irony is that none of Aristotle’s dialogues survive. What we have of his work is a compendium of lecture notes—which is more than a shame. The notes are compressed, hard to interpret, painful to read. I quote them sparingly. Meanwhile, Aristotle’s dialogues were praised by Roman orators for their “grace” and “the sweetness of [their] style.”

Aristotle was born into a prosperous family in Stagira, Greece, 384/3 BCE.¹ His father died when he was young and he was raised by an uncle, Proxenus, who had married Aristotle’s older sister. We don’t know much about Aristotle’s parents. Near the end of the fourth century BCE, Aristotle was accused by Epicurus of being a waster who squandered his father’s wealth before joining the army, then dropping out to deal drugs. Partly on the basis of this rumour, it’s believed by some that Aristotle’s father, Nicomachus, was a doctor. …