Aristotle

Born in Stagira in northern Greece in 384 BC, he studied for about twenty years at Plato’s Academy in Athens before going on to teach, write, and carry out research of his own. Ancient tradition also connects him with the education of the young Alexander, later known as Alexander the Great.

He eventually returned to Athens and founded the Lyceum, a school that became known for wide-ranging inquiry. His surviving works cover an extraordinary range of subjects, including logic, metaphysics, ethics, politics, rhetoric, psychology, and natural science.

He died in 322 BC at Chalcis. Even though many of his writings were originally lecture-style texts rather than polished books, they had a lasting impact on medieval scholarship, Islamic philosophy, and the broader history of Western thought.