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[[File:Aristotle Altemps Inv8575.jpg|thumbnail|left|250px|Figure 1. Bust of Aristotle.]]

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Although several well known Greek philosophers lived and even taught Aristotle (384-322 BCE), Aristotle's views on ethics and morality were the most influential of any scholar to modern philosophy. While many of Aristotle's works have not survived, he likely authored well over a hundred large works. His surviving works influenced Greek and Roman thought, with this philosophy coming down to our societies, particularly in the West.<ref> For a biography on Aristotle, see: Natali, C., & Hutchinson, D. S. (2013). <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691096538/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0691096538&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=8a7c0d8d30a584b6d0b30f6a5bc53eb1 Aristotle: his life and school].</i> Princeton: Princeton University Press.</ref>

Aristotle also saw the centrality and importance of politics to humans. He even quipped the famous line that man is a political animal by his nature.<ref> For more on Aristotle's politics and political thinking, see: Aristotle, & Sinclair, T. A. (1981). The politics (Rev. ed). Harmondsworth, England New York, N.Y: Penguin Books. According to Aristotle, </ref> Rationality was a crucial aspect of humanity, which had to be central in successful politics. He saw the city as a critical place where humans can live and prosper; in fact, the city was more central than the individual, as the greater good was seen above the individual. According to his belief, a town was also a place where beauty should be found, and art should be made to flourish in such areas.

Aristotle had a profound influence on the sciences. This impact includes his deduction and induction ideas, and he also heavily emphasized the ideas of empirical research or observation. While earlier scientific philosophers were more theoretical and less observation oriented, Aristotle tried to make observations around him, including organizing trips to places, such as Lesbos or dissecting animals to understand how they functioned. For instance, he observed dolphins were not fish and appeared to be much more similar to land animals.<ref> For more on Aristotle's approaches to science, see: Leroi, A. M. (2014). <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143127985/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0143127985&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=fe18e8482be00532319dae1fd5177826 The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science]</i>. New York, New York: Viking.</ref> He created a classification system for animals that eventually became a predecessor for our concepts of classifying animals into distinct categories or what can be called a type of species.

Aristotle also sought to create a theoretical foundation in sleep, psychology, physics, astronomy, and other fields. Often, his views were wrong, but that often had to do with the fact he lacked the means to observe events. <ref>For more on areas Aristotle impacted, see: Byrne, P. H. (1997). <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0791433226/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0791433226&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=dba4e50f39931077a6d70d99f0f6e0c9 Analysis and science in Aristotle]</i>. Albany: State University of New York Press.</ref> Nevertheless, Aristotle's ideas were so influential because many of his concepts were adopted and held for centuries or even millennia. For instance, his belief that the Earth was the center of the universe was eventually adopted as a core belief by the Catholic church. Thus, his ideas also began to be adopted by later religious authorities.

Aristotle's philosophies and ethics have been very influential. Many logicians state that Aristotle produced the definitive work on logic, and there is no sense of even changing it, although this has now changed. Nevertheless, his logic and ethics ideas are now central to many philosophies that subsequently formed the foundations of Western ideals.<ref>For more on Aristotle's long-term influences, see: Sgarbi, M. (2016). [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1438459971/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1438459971&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=1a9641dbbf684c7a7585443247cf0c7b Kant and Aristotle: epistemology, logic, and method]. Albany: State University of New York Press.</ref> Modern philosophy developed later by Kant often sees Aristotle as a core foundation for their thinking, particularly as it emphasized ethics and virtue and the tenants required to develop these.

Few people have been both famous during their lifetime and influential for millennia as Aristotle has been (Figure 1). Aristotle and his earlier and later colleagues were also influential in establishing what eventually became the concept for universities. For instance, the idea of a school, such as Athens' famous Lyceum, where Aristotle taught, as a place to discuss and teach, while pursuing one's own research and discovery, was later adopted in the early Medieval period to become the foundation in which universities in the West developed.<ref>For more on how the concept of the university developed and Aristotle's lifetime and history, see: Höffe, O. (2003). <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/079145634X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=079145634X&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=4a45113d0bcbbd980217f8c9bae882c2 Aristotle]</i>. Albany: State University of New York Press.</ref> Although Greek society still often meant that participation was often limited to free men, women had also begun to be involved in science and philosophical thought. Aristotle's wife Pythias worked along with her husband and probably helped him develop his philosophical and scientific understanding. She likely accompanied him on his field trips and made important observations related to Biology and geography.

Few thinkers directly known to us have so influenced the modern world as Aristotle. While in many ways, he was a flawed character who did hold beliefs we may consider racist or ethnocentric, he did create the foundations of what would ultimately become modern philosophy and science. In his lifetime, Aristotle was a famous figure who taught not only Alexander but Ptolemy and famous figures within Greek society who went on to impact the world in different ways. While some of his thoughts, such as the idea of four key elements to the universe, are not held by the modern sciences, his understanding that perception and observation are critical to understanding our world became the foundation of modern scientific thinking and understanding.

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