
An ancient Greek philosopher and polymath who made fundamental contributions to almost every field of human knowledge, from logic to biology.
Một triết gia và học giả bách khoa Hy Lạp cổ đại đã có đóng góp nền tảng cho hầu hết mọi lĩnh vực tri thức của con người, từ logic đến sinh học.
This biography of Aristotle helps you learn English through real historical stories. Explore Aristotle's impact on the world.
Born in 384 BC in Stagira, northern Greece, Aristotle was the son of a court physician. At the age of seventeen, he moved to Athens to study at Plato's Academy, where he remained for twenty years as Plato's most brilliant student. However, unlike his mentor who focused on abstract spiritual Forms, Aristotle was deeply fascinated by the observable physical world. He believed that knowledge should be acquired through empirical observation and logical analysis, laying the very groundwork for the modern scientific method.
After Plato's death, Aristotle left Athens and was eventually invited by King Philip II of Macedon to tutor his young son, who would later become known as Alexander the Great. Years later, Aristotle returned to Athens and founded his own school, the Lyceum. There, he and his students famously walked the grounds while discussing philosophy, earning them the name "Peripatetics" (those who walk about). Aristotle's immense intellect covered an astonishing range of subjects, including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, ethics, and politics.
Perhaps his most enduring achievement was the invention of formal logic, primarily through the use of the "syllogism," a structured method of reasoning. He also pioneered the classification of living things, effectively becoming the world's first biologist. In his ethical writings, such as the "Nicomachean Ethics," he argued that the ultimate goal of human life is "eudaimonia" (flourishing or happiness), achieved by living virtuously and finding the "Golden Mean" between extremes. Aristotle died in 322 BC, but his monumental works became the intellectual foundation of Western civilization and Islamic philosophy for over two millennia.