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Articles

An Introduction to Aristotle Life

Mark Daniels on his life, ideas and place in the history of Western thought.

Aristotle (384-322BCE) lived during the time when Philip of Macedon was conquering the various small Greek city states such as Athens and welding them into the Macedonian Empire. Aristotle’s father had been the Royal Physician in Macedon, and young Aristotle came down to Athens at the age of 17 to study philosophy. He ended up as a student of Plato, who nicknamed him “Brains” and “Bookworm”. He only left the Academy after Plato’s death. He then travelled around a bit, indulging in biological studies, and some argue that this was when he decided to make a formal break with his teacher’s philosophy.

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