What do sources say about the ages of Aristotle and Plato?

by foxxytroxxy

I know Socrates, in the dialogues, is pretty old. But I don't know how old the other yet get to be in the long run of things. How old are they during the dialogues, and how old afterward? How old was Plato during the time that Aristotle was writing?

Thank you

KiwiHellenist

It sounds like you're asking simply about their relative ages? That's a very straightforward look-up kind of question: Sokrates was born in 469 BCE, Plato in 428/7 BCE, Aristotle in 384 BCE. Plato was about 29 at the time of Sokrates' execution; Aristotle wouldn't be borne for another 15 years.

As to the timeframe in which Plato and Aristotle were actively writing: it's technically possible Plato's Lysis was written while Sokrates was still alive, as claimed by Diogenes Laertios, but none of the other dialogues. Plato's dialogues are all set several decades in the past, during Sokrates' lifetime.

The timeline of Aristotle's writing is very uncertain, but the earliest works appear to date to the 350s BCE, when Plato was in his seventies, according to the chronology developed by John Rist in his 1989 book The mind of Aristotle.