-Aristotle (c. 384-322 BC) - Most influential philosopher in the history of Western civilization.
-Covered and wrote about a wide range of topics; he was arguably the first to do so in a way that covered subjects which were explicitly divided into categories.
-Born in northeast Greece in the ancient city of Stagira (in modern-day Chalkidiki, Central Macedonia).
-Father was Nicomachus, a physician of Amyntas III, King of Macedonia, and allegedly a descendant of the legendary physician Machaon and the god-hero Asclepius. Aristotle also eventually had a son named Nicomachu as well.
-Came to Athens when he was 17; he soon became a student of Plato's.
-When Plato died in 347 BC, Aristotle traveled with a classmate, Xenocrates, to the court of Hermias of Atorneus (modern-day Dikili, Izmir Province). Although Hermias was the ruler of the city, he was a former classmate of Aristotle and Xenocrates' and a good friend as well.
-After this, he traveled with his buddy (and also former classmate) Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos.
-Returned to Athens in 335 BC. It was during this time that he opened his own school- the Lyceum.
-Aristotle di this because he was pissed that he had been passed over as head of Plato's Academy (which had been passed on to Xenocrates, instead), so Aristotle opened the Lyceum, a rival school.
-Allegedly, at the Lyceum the students would walk around while having dialogues, so that's why Aristotle's followers were/are known as "the Peripatetics" (or students/thinkers who belonged to the Peripatetic School), which comes from the Greek word "peripatêtikos", which means "of walking" or "given to walking about".
-Around 323 BC Aristotle (now an old man) left Athens, relocating to the town of Chalcis on the island of Euboea (in modern-day Central Greece), where he soon died.
-He left Athens because he either a) wanted to avoid violence against him following the death of of Alexander the Great (whom the Greeks despised since Alexander had conquered all of Greece under the banner of Macedon), as it's possible that the Greeks blamed him for Alexander's success, or b) because he feared that Athens viewed him and his school as a nuisance in the same way that they had viewed Socrates and his followers (which, of course, had resulted in Socrates' executions).
-Aristotle's works- unfortunately, it looks like a bunch of his work has been lost forever.
-He and his students wrote approximately 160 political works, but only ONE ("The Constitution of Athens") has survived.
-Apparently, Aristotle wrote two kinds of works:
-Exoteric writings- unclear as to what these really containted, but contemporary writers wroe that these works were written very stylishly, so it's possible that they were meant to be accessible for a mainstream audience and perhaps even imitated Plato's dialogues.
-Esoteric writings- we have fragments of these writings; however, "esoteric" is a misnomer in this case, as these writings do not contain "hidden" or "occult" or whatever. They were just meant to be read by his students and not the general public.
-It's entirely possible that these are just his lecture notes, which is why they're kind of unclear or hard to understand. However, this is kind of unlikely because a lot of this stuff is written in a way that is complete (i.e. they don't seem like notes). The problem is just that they're very fucking dense.
-One notable thing about his works is that for a lot of them he divided into systematic subjects that form the basis for how we divide subjects in schools and shit today.
-Plato had actually kind of done this too, but he wove a lot of these subjects together in his works, so it wasn't quite the same thing. Also, Aristotle speaks to us in his own voice (as opposed to dialogues like with Plato), and there is little in literary flair or drama. Aristotle's shit is a methodical investigation into a topic, much like how philosophical explorations are written today.
-Aristotle does this because of his concept of "dialektikḗ" ("dialectics" AKA the dialectical method).
-In the case of Aristotle, it could be argued that this just means "the process by which philosophers achieve knowledge"). However, according to Aristotle, a dialectic is just an argument that proceeds from an agreed-upon premise.
-An argumentative discussion works like this- a topic is identified, and people try to find a point of agreement as a basis for further arguments. However, if no point of agreement is found, then no argument is possible. Arguing without agreed-upon premises isn't a rational debate; it's just posturing or shouting.
-Aristotle tried to formalize the strategies and rules of debate in a work known as "The Topics". Aristotle calls this practice "dialectic". He says that the premises we must accept for philosophical discussions are those that are either widely accepted OR are accepted by "the Wise" (earlier philosophical thinkers, poets, etc.). These premises are labeled by Plato as "endoxa" (essentially, common knowledge or facts). However, Aristotle doesn't necessarily assume that these endoxa are always true; instead, they are just a good attempt to grasp what is true. They are true in a way, or true from a certain point of view, but they don't capture the truth in a rigorous or perspicuous fashion. Aristotle usually compares and continues various endoxa and then tries to find a common ground or compromise. Essentially, he's trying to come up with a guide for how to be a referee of a Platonic dialogue.
-With this, it could be argued that Aristotle "invented logic" with his study of the dialectic.
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