Commentary
Unlike Socrates, Xenophon, and Plato—the subjects of the third and fourth installments in this series—Aristotle wasn’t an Athenian. (For the first and second installments, see here and here.) Aristotle did, however, win fame in Athens.
He was bornin Macedonia in 384 B.C.E. At the age of 17, he moved to Athens and enrolled as a student in Plato’s Academy. Aristotle always paid tribute to his teacher, although Aristotle took a very different intellectual direction from Plato. After Plato died in 346, Aristotle moved to northwestern Asia Minor (Turkey). There he directed his attention to classifying marine animals. He identified more than 500 species. He’s credited with founding the science of zoology….