“Aristoteles” usually refers to **Aristotle** (384–322 BCE), the ancient Greek philosopher whose work helped shape Western philosophy, science, logic, ethics, politics, biology, and literary theory. Since “everything” is enormous, here’s a broad but structured overview of what is known about him.

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## 1) Who he was

- **Name:** Aristotle (Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης, *Aristotélēs*)
- **Born:** 384 BCE in **Stagira**, in northern Greece
- **Died:** 322 BCE in **Chalcis**, on the island of Euboea
- **Family background:** His father, **Nicomachus**, was reportedly a physician to the Macedonian royal court. This may have influenced Aristotle’s lifelong interest in biology and observation.

Aristotle is one of the most important thinkers in history, alongside Plato and Socrates. He studied under Plato and later became the tutor of Alexander the Great.

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## 2) Life and career

### Early life
- Grew up in Stagira.
- Became connected to medicine and natural science through his family background.

### At Plato’s Academy
- Moved to Athens around age 17 or 18.
- Studied at **Plato’s Academy** for about 20 years.
- Although deeply influenced by Plato, Aristotle developed his own philosophical system and often criticized Plato’s theory of Forms.

### Travels and teaching
- After Plato died, Aristotle left Athens.
- Spent time in **Assos** and **Lesbos**, where he studied marine biology and other natural phenomena.
- Around 343 BCE, he was invited by **Philip II of Macedon** to tutor his son **Alexander**.

### The Lyceum
- Returned to Athens around 335 BCE and founded his own school, the **Lyceum**.
- His students were often called **Peripatetics**, from the Greek *peripatein* (“to walk around”), because teaching often took place while walking.

### Later life
- After Alexander’s death in 323 BCE, anti-Macedonian sentiment rose in Athens.
- Aristotle was accused of impiety. He left Athens, saying he would not let Athens “sin twice against philosophy” — a reference to Socrates’ execution.
- He died the next year in Chalcis.

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## 3) His writings

Aristotle wrote many works, but what survives is mostly in the form of:
- lecture notes,
- drafts,
- compiled texts,
- works preserved by students and later editors.

His surviving corpus is traditionally organized into areas such as:

### Logic
- **Categories**
- **On Interpretation**
- **Prior Analytics**
- **Posterior Analytics**
- **Topics**
- **Sophistical Refutations**

### Natural philosophy / science
- **Physics**
- **On the Heavens**
- **On Generation and Corruption**
- **Meteorology**
- **History of Animals**
- **Parts of Animals**
- **Movement of Animals**
- **Generation of Animals**
- **On the Soul (De Anima)**

### Ethics and politics
- **Nicomachean Ethics**
- **Eudemian Ethics**
- **Magna Moralia** (authorship debated)
- **Politics**
- **Constitution of the Athenians** (attributed to his school)

### Literary theory and rhetoric
- **Poetics**
- **Rhetoric**

### Metaphysics
- **Metaphysics** (a later collection of texts about “first philosophy”)

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## 4) Core ideas

## A. Logic
Aristotle is often called the **father of formal logic**.

### Syllogistic reasoning
He developed a theory of **syllogisms**, forms of deductive reasoning such as:
- All humans are mortal.
- Socrates is a human.
- Therefore, Socrates is mortal.

### Key contribution
He created the first systematic study of valid inference and argument structure in Western tradition.

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## B. Metaphysics
Aristotle studied what it means for something to *be*.

### Substance
He argued that the basic reality is **substance**—individual things like “this horse” or “this person,” not abstract Forms existing in a separate realm.

### Form and matter
Every physical object is a combination of:
- **matter**: what it is made of
- **form**: what makes it the kind of thing it is

This is called **hylomorphism**.

### Four causes
He explained things by four kinds of “cause” or explanation:

1. **Material cause** – what it is made of  
2. **Formal cause** – its structure or essence  
3. **Efficient cause** – what brings it about  
4. **Final cause** – its purpose or end  

Example: a statue
- material: bronze
- formal: the shape/design
- efficient: the sculptor
- final: the purpose, such as decoration or commemoration

### Potentiality and actuality
- **Potentiality**: the capacity to become something
- **Actuality**: the realized state

Example: an acorn has the potential to become an oak tree.

### Unmoved mover
To explain motion and change, Aristotle posited a highest principle, the **Unmoved Mover**, which causes motion without itself being moved. This concept strongly influenced later philosophy and theology.

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## C. Ethics
Aristotle’s ethics is centered on **virtue** and **human flourishing**.

### The highest good: eudaimonia
He argued that the goal of life is **eudaimonia**, often translated as:
- flourishing,
- happiness,
- living well.

This is not just a feeling, but a whole way of living well over a lifetime.

### Virtue as habit
Virtue is not just knowledge; it is a **habitual disposition** developed through practice.

### Doctrine of the mean
Virtue often lies between extremes:
- courage = mean between cowardice and recklessness
- generosity = mean between stinginess and wastefulness

This is not a mathematical middle, but a context-sensitive balance.

### Practical wisdom
A virtuous person needs **phronesis** (practical wisdom) to judge what to do in specific situations.

### Human function
Aristotle thought human flourishing comes from living rationally and excellently in accordance with virtue.

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## D. Politics
Aristotle saw humans as **political animals** (*zoon politikon*), meaning people naturally live in communities.

### The polis
The **city-state** (*polis*) is the natural setting for human life and civic virtue.

### Forms of government
He classified governments by:
- how many rule,
- and whether they rule for the common good or self-interest.

### Good forms:
- **Monarchy** – rule by one for the common good
- **Aristocracy** – rule by the best
- **Polity** – constitutional government by the many for the common good

### Corrupt forms:
- **Tyranny**
- **Oligarchy**
- **Democracy** in his technical sense often meant rule by the poor majority for their own advantage, not necessarily modern democracy

He preferred a **mixed constitution** and a strong middle class.

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## E. Biology and nature
Aristotle was one of the earliest serious biological investigators.

### Observation
He studied and classified animals, especially marine life.

### Classification
He grouped animals by characteristics such as:
- blooded vs. bloodless
- modes of reproduction
- anatomy and behavior

### Significance
Though many details are outdated, his commitment to observation was highly influential.

### Teleology in nature
He believed living things have built-in purposes:
- teeth are “for” chewing,
- eyes are “for” seeing,
- organs serve functions.

This teleological view influenced science for centuries.

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## F. Psychology / philosophy of mind
In **On the Soul**, Aristotle argued that the soul (*psyche*) is the form of a living body, not a separate ghost-like substance in the modern sense.

He distinguished different kinds of soul:
- **nutritive** soul: plants
- **sensitive** soul: animals
- **rational** soul: humans

He studied perception, memory, imagination, and thought.

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## G. Rhetoric and poetics
### Rhetoric
He analyzed persuasion through:
- **ethos** – credibility
- **pathos** – emotion
- **logos** – reasoning

### Poetics
He studied tragedy, epic poetry, and dramatic structure.

Key idea:
- **Catharsis**: tragedy evokes pity and fear and produces a kind of purification or emotional clarification.

His *Poetics* became foundational for literary criticism.

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## 5) Relationship with Plato

Aristotle admired Plato but disagreed with him on major points.

### Plato emphasized:
- transcendent Forms
- ideal realities beyond the physical world

### Aristotle emphasized:
- forms are found in things themselves
- knowledge begins in observation of the natural world

A famous summary is:
- Plato points upward to ideal forms;
- Aristotle looks downward and outward at actual things.

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## 6) Influence

Aristotle’s influence is massive.

### In antiquity
- His school preserved and developed his ideas.
- Later Hellenistic thinkers engaged with him.

### In the Islamic world
Aristotle became central to Islamic philosophy:
- **Al-Farabi**
- **Avicenna (Ibn Sina)**
- **Averroes (Ibn Rushd)**

### In medieval Europe
- **Thomas Aquinas** integrated Aristotle into Christian theology.
- Aristotle became a major authority in medieval universities.

### In science
- Some of his physics was later overturned by Galileo, Newton, and modern science.
- But his emphasis on explanation, classification, and causality remained foundational.

### In philosophy
He remains central in:
- ethics,
- metaphysics,
- political theory,
- logic,
- philosophy of mind,
- aesthetics.

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## 7) Common misconceptions

- **He was not “just” a scientist or “just” a philosopher** — he worked across many fields.
- **His “democracy” criticism was not the same as modern anti-democratic views**; his political categories were based on Greek city-states.
- **His science was not modern science**, but it was empirical and deeply influential.
- **The “Unmoved Mover” is not exactly the same as the God of later monotheistic religions**, though it influenced theological thought.

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## 8) Why he matters

Aristotle matters because he:
- built systems of logic,
- shaped ethics around character and flourishing,
- developed early scientific observation,
- influenced political thought,
- created enduring categories for analyzing reality,
- and shaped centuries of scholarship.

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## 9) In one sentence

Aristotle was a foundational Greek philosopher and scientist whose work created much of the vocabulary and structure of Western thought.

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If you want, I can also give you:
1. a **very short summary** of Aristotle,  
2. a **timeline of his life**, or  
3. an explanation of his **most important ideas in simple modern language**.
