One of the Demon Rebels, the floating pot space, Aristotle

Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, a student of Plato, and a teacher of Alexander the Great.

His great saying: "I love my teacher, I love the truth even more"

His writings cover many disciplines, including physics, metaphysics, poetry (including drama), music, biology, zoology, logic, politics, government, and ethics.

Along with Plato and Socrates (Plato's teacher), he is known as the founder of Western philosophy. Aristotle's writings were the first extensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing morality, aesthetics, logic and science, politics, and metaphysics.

Aristotle's ideas on physics profoundly shaped medieval scholarship, and its influence extended to the Renaissance, although it was eventually replaced by Newtonian physics.

Today, Aristotle's philosophy is still active in all aspects of academic research. Although Aristotle wrote many essays and elegant dialogues (Cicero described his literary style as "the golden river"), most people assume that his writings are now lost, and only about one-third of his original works have survived.

At the age of 18, Aristotle was sent to study at Plato's Academy in Athens, where he lived for 20 years until the death of his teacher Plato in 347 BC.

Plato may have been dissatisfied with Aristotle, who eventually discovered that Plato disagreed with him on important doctrines, but he always had a great respect for his teacher.

After Plato's death. Because the new head of the school was sympathetic to the mathematical tendencies of Plato's philosophy, Aristotle could not bear it and left Athens.

As can be seen from Aristotle's writings, although Aristotle disagreed with the views of the new leaders of the school such as Persippus, he still maintained a good relationship with them.

It is reported that after leaving the school, Aristotle first accepted the invitation of his former friend Hermias to visit Asia Minor. Hermias was then the ruler of Mysa on the coast of Asia Minor. There Aristotle also married Hermias's niece.

But in 344 BC, Hermias was murdered in a riot, and Aristotle had to leave Asia Minor and go with his family to Mytilene.

After 3 years. Aristotle was summoned back to his homeland by King Philip II of Macedon. He became the teacher of Alexander the Great, who was only 13 years old at the time.

According to Plutarch, the famous Greek biographer, Aristotle instilled moral, political, and philosophical education in the future world leader.

Aristotle also used his influence to play an important role in the formation of Alexander's thoughts. It was under the influence of Aristotle that Alexander the Great always cared deeply about the cause of science. Great respect for knowledge. Even with the convenience of the emperor to provide abundant human and financial resources. This enabled Aristotle to complete many scientific studies.

But. The political views of Aristotle and Alexander the Great may not be identical. The former's view of politics was based on the dying Greek city-states, while the centralized empire established by Alexander the Great was a barbarian invention to the Greeks.

After the death of Philip II in 335 BC, Aristotle returned to Athens. and built his own school there. The name of the school (Lyceum) is named after the wolf slayer (Lyceos) near the temple of Apollo.

During this period, Aristotle lectured and wrote several philosophical works. Aristotle had a habit of strolling through the corridors and gardens while lecturing, and for this reason, the philosophy of the Lyceum was called "the philosophy of leisure" or "the philosophy of wandering".

And Aristotle's followers were also called disciples of the School of Ease. That is, walkers. Aristotle's writings during this period were also extensive, mainly on the natural sciences and philosophy of nature and physics, and in a much more obscure language than Plato's Dialogues.

Many of his works are based on lecture notes, and some are even class notes from his students. Therefore, some people regard Aristotle as the author of the first textbook in the West.

Although Aristotle wrote many dialogues, only a few fragmentary fragments of these dialogues have survived. The most preserved works are mainly in the form of essays, which Aristotle did not initially think of publishing. These essays are generally considered to be notes or textbooks given to students by Aristotle during lectures.

Aristotle not only studied almost all the disciplines of his time, but he also made great contributions to them. In the sciences, Aristotle studied anatomy, astronomy, economics, embryology, geography, geology, meteorology, physics, and zoology.

In philosophy, Aristotle studied aesthetics, ethics, politics, government, metaphysics, psychology, and theology.

Aristotle also studied education, literature, and poetry. Taken together, Aristotle's life works are almost an encyclopedia of Greek knowledge. Some also believe that Aristotle may have been the last man of his time to be proficient in all disciplines and to have both wisdom.

After the death of Alexander, the Athenians rose up against Macedonian rule. Due to his relationship with Alexander, Aristotle had to flee to Chalcis for refuge on charges of ungodliness, and his school was given to Theophrastus.

Aristotle said he would flee because, "I don't want the Athenians to commit the sin of destroying philosophy a second time. (metaphor for the death of Socrates before the metaphor)

However, a year later, in 322 B.C., Aristotle died of an illness that had accumulated over the years. Aristotle also left a will to bury him at his wife's grave.

Aristotle defined his philosophy as a "cause" and declared his philosophy to be "the science of the real causes of the universe."

Plato, on the other hand, defined his philosophy as "the science of ideas", which refers to the basic principles of all phenomena. Both masters and apprentices believed that philosophy was the science of the universe, but Aristotle studied the universe by studying the nature of various specific things, while Plato believed that the universe was not connected to other specific things.

In Plato's view, these things are just samples or models of the universe. For Aristotle, the study of philosophy means elevating from the study of specific phenomena to the study of the substance of things, but for Plato, the study of philosophy represents the elevation from the study of a universal idea to the study of a specific sample transformed by those ideas.

Aristotle's way of research is both inductive and deductive, while Plato's way of study is essentially derived from a priori principles.

According to Aristotle, the term "natural philosophy" refers to the study of the natural world, which includes the laws of motion, light, and physics.

Many centuries later, these fields became the foundations of modern science and were studied using the scientific method. In modern times, the term "philosophy" is often used only to describe the field of metaphysics, rather than to those studies that observe the natural world in the physical sciences.

In contrast, in Aristotle's time, the word "philosophy" encompassed all aspects of human knowledge.

More broadly, Aristotle juxtaposed philosophy with logical reasoning, which he called the "science" of philosophy. However, the meaning of the term science he uses is not the same as that of the modern scientific method, "all science (reasoning) is either practical or imaginable and theoretical." (To be continued......)