Whose Philosophy Shaped Western Thought?

Aristotle (384-322 BC), a student of Plato and tutor of Alexander the Great, wrote on an astonishing range of subjects: formal logic (he essentially invented it), metaphysics, ethics, politics, biology, physics, rhetoric, and poetics. His works formed the backbone of European intellectual life for nearly two millennia. Medieval scholars, both Islamic (Al-Farabi, Ibn Rushd) and Christian (Thomas Aquinas), built their philosophical systems on Aristotelian foundations. Even after the Scientific Revolution challenged many of his physical theories, his logic, ethics (particularly the Nicomachean Ethics), and political thought remain foundational in Western philosophy.