Aristotle (384-322 BC)

oh, he is nice! he defended poets!

I think it says a lot that mankind based almost its entire foundation upon his scientific teachings and didn't develop a great deal upon his philosophical teachings for a good 1400 years after he died... the man was a pure genius and came up with some things that would have been inconceivable beforehand.

Though very much a chauvinist, he was an important thinker, and contributed much to the fields of philosophy and science.

Easily one of the most- if not the most- prolific and influential philosophers in world history. Born the son of a royal physician he moved to Athens to study to study under Plato. His interests in various schools of thought are unparallelled. He wrote copiously on biology, zoology, ethics, economics, virtues, poetry, physics, metaphysics, and politics. His concern with forms of association and naturally created forms sent in motion by a Prime Mover that lend themselves to deducible moral virtues through rational deliberation and skilled understanding leave him as the founder of modern conservative thought. He theorized the essence of each thing has two distinct intrinsic principles: matter and form. Matter was simply the elements that the thing comprised of. The essence of that thing's form was it's higher purpose. A plant seed's purpose was to be plant. The evolution and development of that thing without the deviation of perversions in causality would allow it to develop into... Read more

While much of Aristotle's work was flawed (especially his Physics, which remained the accepted standard until Galileo) his range of accomplishment in every branch of human knowledge is so great that it surpassed all those who came before or after. The modern division of intellectual labor is inherited from Aristotle, who pushed human knowledge to the point where a single person could no longer possess universal knowledge. To remedy this problem, Aristotle founded the Lycaeum, the first proto-University/Research Institute, where scientists and scholars could share knowledge and collaborate for the common good. Unfortunately, Aristotle's work was so impressive that it became a brake on progress; from shortly after his death until the Renaissance, 'Aristotelian' doctrine was holy writ and scientific progress was limited to a handful of fields (optics, medicine, astronomy). It is unfair to blame Aristotle for those who misused his legacy; he remains the greatest scholar of his own age,... Read more

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No, not the father of the West, the father of categorization. Aristotle was a mental house-keeper and loved making categories of just about everything. He would have loved RIA. A thinker who looked for the good life, he believed in the pursuit of happiness and moderation while creating formulaic scientific analysis. Of course he was Alexander the Great's teacher, but it's debatable how much Mr. Great took in. Obviously he had ideas bigger than logical categorization of scientific theories in mind.

What a mind not a good as a writter a Plato.I fond his words a little to entangled.I find it a bit of a task to keep up with his nibble mind and that he did not convey his ideas in fashion in a compelling way as did Plato.Now I realize the subject matter was different in some cases.But never the less a person who for good and ill left his place and made history through his influence.

The father of the West.

Plato was a great philosopher, but I find Aristotle to be far more accessible and practical in application. His political writings in "Politics" and other works formed the backbone of western democratic thought. What I find most interesting are his views on the different types of rule. He said--and this has relevance today--that political rule must be regulated by laws in order to be constitutional, and these laws must rest on the consent of the governed. These were revolutionary ideas that formed the backbone of the Founders views on government. Plato was far more of a elitist, he believed that rule by the upper crust and intellectuals would guarantee good government. Aristotle pointed out that the best form of government was some kind of mixture of democracy and elite leadership. He thought that having all these groups represented will produce the most stable and legitimate form of government. In other words, no one wants to trade in this form of government, a republic, becaus... Read more

Aristotle was an astounding relevance to Western thought. A man ahead of his time, he influenced generations to come.

Aristotle was the bomb! He was a philosopher who upheld the virtue of reason and the potential of mankind. Ayn Rand called him the "barometer" of civilization: when the climate of ideas has been in concert with his philosophical contributions, mankind has enjoyed incredible renaissances. When civilization has turned toward the mysticism of Plato, it has entered prolongued dark periods.