HIS 101-102 History of Western Civilization

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Who influenced Aristotle?

Aristotle (384-322 BCE) was one of a series of important philosophers in Ancient Athens.  He studied for years at Plato's Academy before eventually forming his own school called the Lyceum.  One of Aristotle's most important students while he was living in Macedon was Alexander the Great.  While Plato was an idealist who believed that an ideal world of forms existed beyond the world and that it was those ideals that were real, Aristotle focused his attention on the material world. He was a realist who felt that matter, the earth, was what was real and what must be studied.  Plato, Aristotle and the other Greek philosophers were important in establishing philosophy (the love of wisdom) in an attempt to explain the world with rational thought as opposed to relying on religion to explain the world.

Aristotle wrote widely and but a few of his have been reserved.  He also appears in Raphael's famous fresco "The School of Athens" (1509-11) which was in the pope's library. There is also a copy across route 7 in the shopping center.