Often called The Philosopher (with a capital T in The), Aristotle was born in 384 BC to a physician named Nicomachus and his mother. His father did whenever he was young and his career in philosophy started at seventeen when his uncle sent him to Plato’s academy. He was at the academy for the last twenty years of Plato’s life (where Plato was in control of it). The academy then fell into the Plato’s nephew’s hands where he brought the academy into a more mathematical view of Platonism which Aristotle did not exactly like. Aristotle then left the academy and joined other philosophers. A bit of time later Aristotle was invited by a Philip of Macedon to tutor a kid named Alexander. This same Alexander would grow up to become the famous conquer Alexander the Great. After tutoring Alexander, Aristotle would continue onward to start his own academy outside of Athens called The Lyceum. Aristotle used his academy to teach and discuss a plethora of topics relating to many different fields of academics and philosophy alike. After Alexander the Great died Athens started to dislike Macedonians again (in which Aristotle was one). So, Aristotle was accused of impiety and other charges. Aristotle then said that he would “not allow the Athenians to sin twice against philosophy”. Fleeing North, Aristotle left his academy in a man named Theophrastus’s care. He then died at the age of 62 with his wife and son.

Most of Aristotle’s surviving works are his pre lecture notes and portions of lectures that have been put together. It is predicted that the works we have of Aristotle are only around a quarter to a third of his total works. However, we have been able to observe his wide variety of works through what we have available to us. Aristotle wrote a plethora of books that we luckily still have. Surprisingly, we classify Aristotle as being a philosopher first and foremost, but he was a many of many talents and studies that stem from his philosophy. For example, Aristotle was very big large contributor to biology, and he is even called the father of biology. He was responsible for being the first to classify animals into groups and talking about their physiologies. In addition to this, he wrote about other major subjects such as metaphysics, psychology, physics, and chemistry. Of course, one of his most well regarded fields is his study of politics and ethics. His book Rhetoric discusses his political theories and ideas. In addition his book(s) called Nicomachean Ethics discusses just that, ethics. Nicomachean ethics discusses all things from virtue to vice and how a man should and should not operate in daily life. Aristotle is a one of the most important men who ever lived who would inspire other to chase knowledge and virtue just for virtue’s sake. Not only did he impact the lives of people today with his philosophy, but he also furthered the sciences an astounding amount considering when he was living and how much he was doing. If not for the Aristotelian way of thinking our society and academics would be no where near as advanced as it is today.