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Aristotle
Aristotle (Archaeological
Museum, Palermo)
Aristotle's school. In the
second century CE, the
building was still shown to
visitors.
Aristotle (384-322): greatest philosopher of Antiquity, teacher of
Alexander the Great.
Plato's most famous student was Aristotle of Stagira, the son of a 
Macedonian court physician and himself a physician too. After the death 
of his master, Aristotle studied biology and accepted a position as 
teacher of the Macedonian crown prince Alexander at Mieza. When the 
Macedonians subdued Greece, Aristotle founded a school at Athens, the 
Lyceum. 
Most of his writings are lost. What remains are his lecture notes, which 
were rediscovered in the first century BCE. During the last decades, 
scholars have started to re­examine the fragments of the lost works, 
which has led to important changes in our understanding of Aristotle's 
philosophy. However, the accepted view remains that he replaced his 
master's speculations with a more down­to­earth philosophy.
Among Aristotle's main works are the Prior Analytics (in which he
described the rules of logic), the Physics, the Animal History, the
Rhetorics, the Poetics, the Metaphysics, the Nicomachean Ethics, and
the Politics. All these books have become classics, and it is not
exaggerated to say that Aristotle is the most influential philosopher of all
ages and the founder of modern science.
At the moment, several aspects of the Stagirite's philosophy are 
reconsidered. Go here for an interesting new view on Aristotle's 
teachings about the soul, and its influence on Plutarch of Chaeronea.
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