Happy 2,400th birthday, Aristotle!

Attendees of the Workshop in Ancient Philosophy celebrated Aristotle’s 2,400th with “An Aristotle Birthday Party.” And what would a proper Aristotle birthday party be without a birthday cake boasting the face of the famed Greek philosopher?

The 39th annual workshop was held Feb. 19-20. Hosted by Rice’s Program in Classical Studies, Department of Philosophy and dean of the School of Humanities, the scholarly ancient philosophy conference drew leading experts on Aristotle from across the United States, Canada and England.

“We put 24 candles on the cake (one for each century), lit the candles, turned out the lights and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Aristotle. Two scholars then sang ‘Happy Birthday’ in modern Greek,” said conference organizer Don Morrison, professor of philosophy and classical studies at Rice.

Aristotle was born circa 384 B.C. in Stagira, a small town on the northern coast of Greece. Together with Socrates and Plato, he laid much of the groundwork for western philosophy.