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 Aristotle, Greek philosopher, was born in Stagira (in Northern Greece), 384 B.C. and died at Chalcis (on the Aegean island of Euboea), 322 B.C.
Aristotle's father had been a court physician to the Macedonian king, Amyntas II. Aristotle lost both parents whilst still a child and was raised by a friend of the family.
At the age of seventeen, Aristotle travelled to Athens for a college education and joined the Academy of Plato where he studied assiduously. Eventually he became the most renowned of all the pupils of Plato. Plato called him "the intelligence of the school".
When Plato died in 347 BC, Aristotle left the school and travelled various parts of the Greek world and Asia Minor. In 342 BC, he was summoned to Macedonia to tutor the 14 year old son of Philip II, Alexander. This he did for several years. Since Alexander was to become Alexander the Great, who conquered Persia, it was a situation where the greatest soldier of ancient times was educated by the greatest thinker.
When Alexander acceded to the throne in 366 BC, Aristotle returned to Athens and founded his own school, called the Lyceum. It was called the peripatetic (walkabout) school, because Aristotle lectured to the students while walking in the schools garden.
The lectures of Aristotle were collected into many volumes (about 400, of which 50 have survived) dealing with science, politics, logic and ethics. His most successful scientific writings were those on biology. He classified over 500 animal species in a hierarchical manner and correctly identified dolphins as mammals.
Aristotle rejected the atomism of Democritus, dooming that concept throughout ancient and medieval times. On the other hand, he accepted the Pythagorean concept of the roundness of the earth, presenting his reasoning in a fashion that remains valid today. Aristotle accepted the four elements of Empedocles and suggested a fifth element for the heavens called aether. After the fall of Rome, his work was largely lost to Europe - only Organon, his work on logic was saved. His books were, however, preserved by the Arabs who valued them highly.
After the Dark Ages, Christian Europe regained Aristotle from the Arabs, translating his books into Latin in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The views of Aristotle persisted until the time of Lavoisier, and Isaac Newton. [edit]
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