Aristotle is one of the most renowned philosophers of ancient Greek period. His name is remembered along with other great philosophers of that time, such as Socrates and Plato. Although only one third of Aristotle's works has survived, his concepts have been instrumental and extremely influential for modern ideologies. Aristotle was in fact the student of Plato and had studied in the Academy, founded by Plato, for almost twenty years. When Plato died, it is at this time that he left the institution.
(His life)
Aristotle was born in 384 BC at Stagira, Halkidiki. His father, Nichomachus, worked at the royal residence of the King of Macedon, Amyntas, as a physician. At the age of 18, Aristotle went to Athens to study at the Academy that Plato had founded. He remained there for almost 20 years, till 347 BC, the year of Plato's death.
Then Aristotle left for Asia Minor where he visited his dear friend Hermias of Atameus. With another friend, he went to the island of Lesvos where he spent time studying zoology and botany. In Asia Minor, Aristotle married Pythias, the adoptive daughter of Hermias, who gave him a girl child.
When Hermias passed away, Aristotle was invited by King of Macedon, Philip II, to teach his son, Alexander the Great. He also taught philosophy, literature and politics to other Macedonian nobles. In 335 BC, Aristotle returned to Athens and established his own school, Lyceum, where he taught for about 12 years. At that time, he wrote most of his works, which used to be lecture aids for his students. Unfortunately, today only some fragments of these material survive and they are mostly in form of discourses.
In the meantime, Pythias, his wife, had died and Aristotle had taken a second wife, Herpyllis, who gave him a son. However, as Aristotle had a lot of students, he also had a lot of adversaries. When he was accused that he showed no respect to the gods with his philosophical ideas, Aristotle left Athens and went to Halkis, the birthplace of his mother. There, he died in 332 BC of natural causes.
(His work)
Aristotle dealt with every possible subject of his time: from anatomy, zoology, physics and metaphysics, to theology, rhetoric, psychology, geology and meteorology. It is said by historians that Aristotle literally studied everything that constituted the Greek encyclopedia of that time.
(The three notions of science)
His method of dealing with philosophy is both inductive and deductive. His concept of natural philosophy deals with the exploration of nature in terms of physics, biology and other similar sciences. He considered philosophy to have a harmonic balance with another science, known as reasoning.
(The five elements of the Universe)
Aristotle in his study of Physics has said that there are basically five elements which constitute the universe: these are fire, earth, air, water and aether. These elements are positioned according to their gravitational pull from the centre of the universe. When, by chance, they tend to shift from their natural domain, then they again fall back to the same region or place without the use of necessary force. Thus heavy objects tend to sink in water, air bubbles usually rise upwards, rain water falls on the earth and flames shoots up in the air.
(how the world would be different if Aristotle had never existed.)
1.That impulsive teenager he tutored full time for some years, Alexander of Macedon, wouldn’t have accomplished nearly enough to earn “the Great” sobriquet. Rigorous training in Aristotlean logic and analysis by someone who was quite familiar with Greek city-state civilization and governance (rather than the rustic, remote kingdom that was Macedonia far to the North of Athens) molded Alexander into someone who could outthink many veteran kings, generals, city state rulers, etc. and keep things from falling apart behind his wave of conquests. That means Aristotle’s ideas particularly are what get spread throughout the Mediterranean, Persia, Egypt, Central Asia, and the later empires like the Roman as Hellenistic paradigms.
2.Science would have developed much differently as Aristotle’s disinterest in observation and physical experimentation in lieu of pure guesswork greatly constricted the development of the scientific method and particularly physics, engineering, chemistry, metallurgy, optics, biology, medicine, etc. until the 1600’s in Europe. His methods are particularly suited for education without labs or messy reality undercutting faculty guesses or inherited opinions all stated as immutable fact so very different people would have been involved in education and likely more tested hypotheses in the bodies of knowledge.