Aristotle

384–322 BCE · Greek (Macedonian/Stagira) · Classical Greece

Known for: Literally invented logic, biology, political science, and the concept of categorizing everything — history's greatest know-it-all

Aristotle studied under Plato at the Academy for twenty years, then went on to tutor a teenager named Alexander — who became Alexander the Great. He founded his own school, the Lyceum, where he and his students catalogued and systematized virtually every field of human knowledge. His surviving works cover logic, metaphysics, ethics, politics, biology, physics, rhetoric, and poetics.

He essentially invented formal logic (the syllogism), empirical biology (he dissected over 50 species of animal), and the scientific method of observation before theory. His influence on Western thought is so vast that for nearly two thousand years, European scholars referred to him simply as 'The Philosopher.' He died at 62 in exile, reportedly saying 'I will not allow Athens to sin twice against philosophy.'

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