When I think about all the great philosophers of past and present the person that first comes to mind is Aristotle. I know that he was a famous philosopher and a brilliant man but when I really think about it I have no idea what he was so famous for or what his thoughts were on the basic philosophical issues like ethics, logic, and the big one, the meaning of life. I knew he was brilliant in the subject of philosophy but I had no idea how much he studied, and how knowledgeable he was about, animals, meteorology, governments, and society. Aristotle represents everything that philosophy is about, he loved learning about as much as he could and he wanted to share is knowledge with the world. And for that I am very thankful for Aristotle and all that he believed in. Aristotle created the foundation for many subjects that our society relies on today.
Aristotle was born is Stagira, in northern Greece in 384 BC. His father, Nichomachees, was the court physician to the royal Macedonian family. Aristotle first trained in medicine, and then in 367 BC, he was sent to study philosophy with Plato in Athens. He studied there for 20 years, until Plato's death in 347, before returning to Macedonia after 20 years. Upon his return the ruler of Macedonia, King Philip II, asked Aristotle to tutor is son, Alexander the Great. Aristotle returned to Athens after many years of teaching Alexander in 335 BC and established his own school, the Lyceum. He taught and studied there for 12 years. After Alexander's sudden death Athens opposed Macedonian rule and Aristotle was forced to flee (because of his association with Alexander) in 323. He fled to the island of Euboea and died a year later in 322 BC. .
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Although he studied under Plato, he disagreed with Plato on almost all issues. He did not think about the world in abstract terms like Plato. At the core of his beliefs and writings was the basic idea that the world could be understood and explained by a detailed observing and cataloging of the world.