Aristotle Aristotle Aristotle marble copy of bronze by Lysippos Louvre Museum.
Aristotle Greek.Aristotel s BC March BC was an ancient Greek philosopher Student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great Aristotle and Plato are often considered as the two most influential philosophers in Western thought He wrote many books about physics poetry zoology logic government and biology.
The three most influential ancient Greek philosophers were Aristotle Plato a teacher of Aristotle and Socrates ca BC BC whose thinking deeply influenced Plato Among them they transformed Presocratic Greek philosophy into the foundations of Western philosophy as we know it Socrates did not leave any writings possibly as a result of the reasons articulated against writing philosophy attributed to him in Plato's dialogue Phaedrus His ideas are known to us only indirectly through Plato and a few other writers The writings of Plato and Aristotle form the core of Ancient philosophy.Aristotle by contrast placed much more value on knowledge gained from the senses and would correspondingly be better classed among modern empiricists see materialism and empiricism He also achieved a grounding of dialectic in the Topics by allowing interlocutors to begin from commonly held beliefs Endoxa his goal being non contradiction rather than Truth He set the stage for what would eventually develop into the scientific method centuries later Although he wrote dialogues early in his career no more than fragments of these have survived The works of Aristotle that still exist today are in treatise form and were for the most part unpublished texts These were probably lecture notes or texts used by his students and were almost certainly revised repeatedly over the course of years As a result these works tend to be eclectic dense and difficult to read Among the most important ones are Physics Metaphysics Nicomachean Ethics Politics De Anima On the Soul and Poetics.Their works although connected in many fundamental ways are very different in both style and substance Plato mainly wrote philosophical dialogues that is arguments in the form of conversations usually with Socrates as a participant Though the early dialogues are concerned mainly with methods of acquiring knowledge and most of the last ones with justice and practical ethics his most famous works expressed a synoptic view of ethics metaphysics reason knowledge and human life The fundamental idea of Plato is that knowledge gained through the senses is always confused and impure true knowledge being acquired by the contemplative soul that turns away from the world To attain such true knowledge the philosopher must make use of the royal science of dialectic One of the necessary obstacles of dialectic is dialogue itself which guides the interlocutors away from the paths to truth The soul alone can have knowledge of the Forms the real essences of things of which the world we see is but an imperfect copy Such knowledge has ethical as well as scientific importance Plato can be called with qualification an idealist and a rationalist.
Aristotle is known for being one of the few figures in history who studied almost every subject possible at the time In science Aristotle studied anatomy astronomy embryology geography geology meteorology physics and zoology In philosophy Aristotle wrote on aesthetics economics ethics government metaphysics politics psychology rhetoric and theology He also dealt with education foreign customs literature and poetry His combined works practically comprise an encyclopedia of Greek knowledge.
 Biography.Early life and studies at the Academy
A bust of Aristotle is a nearly ubiquitous ornament in places of high culture in the West.
Aristotle was born at Stageira a colony of Andros on the Macedonian peninsula of Chalcidice in BC His father Nicomachus was court physician to King Amyntas III of Macedon It is believed that Aristotle's ancestors held this position under various kings of Macedonia.