The great thinker Aristotle was not only a philosopher, but also one of the most prominent scientists of his time. It was he who first thought of many things that now seem familiar to us, but in those days his ideas were bold and bold. At the same time, Aristotle, possessing a sharp and lively mind, was actively interested in a variety of sciences, and excelled in each of them.
He believed that a person thinks not with the brain, but with the heart, and the brain only produces blood to cool it. Aristotle preferred to give lectures not in a stuffy room, but in the garden, strolling with his students. Like many other ancient Greek scholars, for example, Pythagoras, Aristotle was a famous athlete, and he took part in the Olympic Games. The very concept of “politics” was invented by Aristotle. He called it the science of the state. Many modern scholars to this day rely on the works of Aristotle, especially in the field of the humanities. Now the world is divided into three kingdoms – animals, plants and mushrooms. The ancient Greek scientist distinguished four kingdoms – animals, plants, inorganic compounds and man. This classification of him has been studied in schools and universities for more than 2 millennia.
He paid great attention to the search for causal relationships, and considered this occupation a separate science. Aristotle’s son, Nicomachus, died in his youth in battle. In his honor, the scientist named his most famous lecture collection – “Nicomachean Ethics”. Aristotle had a lot of students, but the most famous of them, probably, is the famous conqueror Alexander the Great. His other student was the famous Egyptian king Ptolemy. Alexander of Macedon, at the request of his teacher, collected soil samples during his conquests, and sent him for study. Aristotle is called one of the first meteorologists. He quite accurately explained the origin of wind, lightning and clouds. We still don’t know what he looked like. The surviving snippets of information indicate only that the scientist always paid a lot of attention to his appearance, was handsome and always dressed well.
Aristotle had some speech defects, which, however, did not prevent him from giving lectures. The scientist believed that the universe is infinite in every sense, and it has no beginning or end. Who knows, maybe he was right? It was Aristotle who was repeatedly called the most intelligent person in history. One of Aristotle’s non-standard decisions in the field of biology was the division of animals into two categories – those who have red blood and those who do not. Aristotle’s book “Poetics”, devoted to thoughts about poetry, was in fact the first work in the genre of literary criticism in the world.
Aristotle claimed that both the Earth and the Moon have the shape of a ball centuries before Galileo. It was he who first understood why plants of the same species grow and bloom better under different conditions. In addition to philosophy, Aristotle excelled in botany, zoology, biology, meteorology, astronomy and other fields. His father was the court healer of one of the kings of Macedonia. After the collapse of ancient Greek civilization, many of his works were lost. Fortunately, some of them were stored in India, Egypt and the Arab countries of antiquity, and they were saved. But still, only about 30% of all the works of Aristotle have survived to our days. It was Aristotle who invented such sciences as psychology and logic. The scientist spent most of his life in Athens, which is now the capital of Greece. The teacher and mentor of the young Aristotle was the famous Plato, who, in turn, was once taught by Socrates.
