Aristotle was assisted by his great faith in nature, writing: “In all things of nature there is something of the marvellous”, “Nature does nothing uselessly”, and “If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature's way.” He was the first to treat systematically the fields of botany, zoology, anatomy, embryology, teratology, and physiology. Although he was not a doctor, his contributions to medicine were immense. Although Aristotle's most important work was on biology, he also dealt with logic, metaphysics, psychology, meteorology, politics, literary criticism, poetry, drama, and ethics.

Unfortunately, less than a third of his writings have survived. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5Īristotle's lectures were collected into nearly 150 volumes and represented an encyclopaedia of the knowledge of his day, much of it indeed his own contribution. There the following year, 322 bc, he died of a stomach illness. When news of Alexander's death in Babylon reached Athens in 323 bc, Aristotle, fearing an anti‐Macedonian reaction, prudently withdrew from Athens to Chalcis in Euboea, his mother's home town. His disciple and successor, Theophrastus of Eresos (370–287 bc) later based his De historia plantarum on this garden, listing 500 plants. Besides teaching, Aristotle amassed a large collection of manuscripts, which later found their way to the library in Alexandria. It was nicknamed the “peripatetic school” because of Aristotle's practice of lecturing his students while walking around the school's garden (fig 1 1). At this time, Aristotle at the age of 49 returned to Athens to found his own school of philosophy, The Lyceum. Seven years later, in 336 bc, Phillip was assassinated, and the following year Alexander, now king, set out on his conquest of the Persian Empire. In Asia Minor and later in Mytilene (Lesbos), Aristotle pursued his studies in biology and natural history until, in 342 bc, he was recalled to Macedon by Phillip II (King Amyntas' son) to act as tutor to his 14 year old son Alexander. In later life he married a second time a woman named Perpyllis, who bore him a son, named Nichomachus after his father. He then left Athens to spend the next five years in Asia Minor at the court of Hermeas, ruler of Atarneus in Mysia, whose niece and adopted daughter, Pythias, he married. Perhaps his differences with Plato were too great. When Plato died in 347 bc, Aristotle, aged 37, was not appointed to succeed him.

Of his master he wrote: “Plato is my friend but truth is much more”. He believed that every problem had an objective solution. Whereas Plato believed that reality existed in ideas, knowable only through reflection and inspiration, Aristotle saw ultimate reality in physical objects, knowable through the experience of the five senses. Plato and Aristotle recognised each other's outstanding qualities, but they had frequent arguments and disagreements. He remained there for the next 20 years, first as a pupil and later as a teacher. His father, Nichomachus, court physician to King Amyntus II of Macedon, died while he was still a boy, and his guardian, Proxenus, sent him to complete his education at the age of 17 in Plato's Academy in Athens. He was born in 384 bc at Stagirus, a Greek seaport on the coast of Thrace. Aristotle was one of the greatest philosophers and scientists the world has ever seen.

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