Aristotle’s Major Works and Their Lasting Impact on Western Thought

Aristotle's major works encompass an extraordinary range of subjects, underscoring his status as a foundational thinker in Western intellectual history. His writings reflect both rigorous philosophical analysis and pioneering scientific observation, shaping disciplines from ethics to biology.

In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle develops virtue ethics, proposing that human flourishing (eudaimonia) arises from cultivating moral virtues through habitual action. This ethical framework remains influential in modern moral philosophy, particularly in discussions on character and moral development.

Politics builds upon ethical themes by analyzing how societies should be organized to promote the common good. Aristotle classifies different forms of government and champions a balanced polity. His insights into civic participation and the role of education in shaping virtuous citizens continue to inform democratic theory today.

Metaphysics delves into the fundamental nature of reality. Aristotle introduces key concepts such as substance, causality, potentiality, and actuality—ideas that still shape metaphysical discourse. His critique of Plato’s Forms marked a shift toward empirical, grounded philosophy.

Poetics is considered the earliest surviving work of literary theory. It offers a systematic analysis of tragedy, including the notions of plot structure, hamartia (tragic flaw), and catharsis. These concepts remain central to literary criticism and narrative studies.

In Prior Analytics and Posterior Analytics, part of the Organon, Aristotle lays the groundwork for formal logic and scientific methodology, emphasizing deductive reasoning and demonstrable knowledge—foundational to the development of modern science.

Rhetoric outlines principles of persuasive communication, introducing ethos, pathos, and logos. These rhetorical appeals are widely taught in communication and legal studies.

His biological works, including History of Animals, showcase detailed empirical observation, establishing taxonomy and comparative anatomy. On the Heavens and On Generation and Corruption contribute to ancient cosmology and natural science, illustrating Aristotle’s belief in a rational, ordered universe.

Together, these texts reflect Aristotle’s integrated approach to knowledge—uniting logic, ethics, politics, science, and aesthetics in a coherent intellectual system that continues to inspire inquiry across fields.
Aristotle’s Major Works and Their Lasting Impact on Western Thought

Peter Abelard: A Pioneer of Medieval Scholasticism and Tragic Romance

Peter Abelard (1079–1142), born in Le Pallet near Nantes, France, remains one of the most compelling figures of medieval intellectual history. A brilliant scholastic philosopher, theologian, and logician, Abelard’s innovative approach to learning and his personal life left an indelible mark on Western thought.

Abelard’s early education brought him under the tutelage of prominent figures like Roscelin of Compiègne and William of Champeaux. However, Abelard soon surpassed his mentors, particularly in his critique of William's realism. Establishing himself in Paris, Abelard attracted numerous students, drawn by his sharp intellect and dialectical method. His teaching not only influenced his contemporaries but also shaped the evolution of scholasticism, the dominant method of medieval theological and philosophical inquiry.

Abelard’s philosophical contributions are most notably centered on the problem of universals. Rejecting both extreme realism and nominalism, he developed a middle-ground position known as conceptualism. According to Abelard, universals do not exist independently in the external world but have a basis in individual things, existing primarily as mental constructs. This perspective influenced later medieval thought and anticipated aspects of modern philosophy.

In theology, Abelard’s critical and analytical method was exemplified in Sic et Non ("Yes and No"), a groundbreaking work that juxtaposed contradictory theological authorities to encourage critical evaluation. This work played a pivotal role in advancing the scholastic method, which sought to reconcile faith with reason. However, his unorthodox views, particularly on the nature of Christ’s atonement, led to accusations of heresy and condemnation by the Church.

Abelard’s personal life is equally famous for his passionate and tragic romance with Héloïse d'Argenteuil. Héloïse, an exceptionally learned woman, became his pupil, lover, and eventually his wife. Their affair, however, ended violently when Héloïse’s uncle, enraged by their secret marriage, had Abelard castrated. Despite their separation, Abelard and Héloïse maintained a profound intellectual and emotional correspondence, which has been preserved and continues to captivate readers today.

Abelard’s later years were dedicated to monastic life, during which he founded the Oratory of the Paraclete. His legacy, encompassing revolutionary ideas in philosophy and theology, continues to influence thinkers, ensuring his place as a cornerstone of medieval intellectual history.
Peter Abelard: A Pioneer of Medieval Scholasticism and Tragic Romance

Socrates: Pioneer of Ethical Thought and Critical Inquiry

Socrates, one of the most influential philosophers in Western history, made profound contributions to the field of philosophy, shaping ethical thought and the process of critical inquiry. His main contribution, known as the Socratic Method, is a unique form of dialogue that involves asking a series of probing questions to stimulate critical thinking, challenge assumptions, and uncover contradictions. This dialectical method encourages a deep, rigorous examination of beliefs, guiding individuals toward a clearer understanding of complex ideas. By prompting people to continuously question and refine their views, Socrates fostered a culture of intellectual skepticism and self-examination that remains central to philosophical inquiry.

One of Socrates’ central beliefs was that the “unexamined life is not worth living.” This statement captures his commitment to ethical introspection, positing that true knowledge begins with understanding oneself. For Socrates, self-knowledge was not just a path to personal growth but a moral imperative; he argued that individuals could only act rightly if they understood the nature of virtue and goodness. He believed that knowledge and virtue were intrinsically connected: those who understood what was good would naturally act in alignment with that knowledge, fostering a life of moral excellence. This focus on ethics was groundbreaking, as it shifted philosophy away from pre-Socratic explorations of the natural world toward an examination of human values and ethical behavior.

Socrates’ influence endures largely because his ideas were recorded by his students, most notably Plato. Through dialogues such as The Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, Plato documented Socrates’ teachings and depicted his commitment to truth and virtue even in the face of adversity, including his trial and execution. Socrates’ questioning approach laid the groundwork for the development of the Western philosophical tradition, influencing not only his immediate followers but also later thinkers like Aristotle, who expanded on ethical concepts and the nature of knowledge.

The legacy of Socrates’ philosophy is evident in modern education, law, and debate, where the Socratic Method is still widely used to encourage critical analysis and clarity. Additionally, contemporary ethical discussions and the emphasis on personal integrity and self-reflection are rooted in Socratic principles. By encouraging people to question, examine, and seek truth, Socrates’ teachings remain a powerful influence, sustaining a tradition of ethical inquiry that shapes Western thought to this day. Through his focus on moral reflection and critical inquiry, Socrates’ contributions continue to inspire individuals to pursue knowledge and virtue, marking him as a foundational figure in the history of philosophy.
Socrates: Pioneer of Ethical Thought and Critical Inquiry

Socrates: The Legacy of a Philosophical Pioneer

Socrates, an Athenian philosopher from the second half of the fifth century BC, is one of the most influential figures in the history of philosophy, despite having never written any philosophical works. Born in 469 BC, Socrates hailed from a middle-class background. His father was reportedly a statesman, and it is possible that Socrates himself briefly practiced this craft. His life unfolded against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving Athens, which, during his childhood, transformed into a radical democracy. This political system was characterized by direct participation, where every adult male citizen was not only allowed but encouraged to engage in the governance of the city.

Socrates emerged as one of the most renowned citizens of Athens, often regarded as the mythic father and patron saint of philosophy. In his youth, he was a courageous and capable soldier, but his legacy was cemented through his profound philosophical inquiries. The two primary sources of our knowledge about Socrates come from his followers, Plato and Xenophon. Of the two, Plato's accounts have had a more enduring impact, largely due to Plato’s unparalleled genius and literary brilliance. Through Plato's dialogues, Socrates' ideas and methods were immortalized, influencing not only his contemporaries but the entire trajectory of Western thought.

Socrates is perhaps best known for his association with the Socratic method, a dialectical approach of question and answer designed to stimulate critical thinking and illuminate ideas. He famously professed his own ignorance, claiming that his wisdom lay in his awareness of his lack of knowledge. This humility in the pursuit of truth is encapsulated in his assertion that "the unexamined life is not worth living," a principle that has become a cornerstone of philosophical inquiry.

In 399 BC, Socrates was charged with impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens. Despite opportunities to escape, he accepted his fate with unwavering integrity. Socrates spent his final day in prison, surrounded by friends and followers who pleaded with him to flee. However, true to his principles, he refused, choosing instead to honor the law of Athens, even in the face of an unjust verdict. The next morning, he calmly drank the poison hemlock, dying in accordance with his sentence.

Socrates' death marked the end of a life dedicated to the relentless pursuit of truth, but it also marked the beginning of his enduring influence on philosophy, particularly through the works of his disciple, Plato. His life and death continue to inspire generations of thinkers, underscoring the profound impact of a single individual’s commitment to intellectual integrity.
Socrates: The Legacy of a Philosophical Pioneer

Aristotle: Life, Influence, and Legacy of a Pioneering Philosopher

Aristotle, born in 384 BCE at Stagira, on the Strymonic Gulf, is one of the most influential philosophers in Western history. His father, Nicomachus, was a physician who traced his lineage to Machaon, the son of Aesculapius, indicating a long tradition of medical expertise. Nicomachus served as court physician to King Amyntas III of Macedon. Aristotle's mother, Phaestis, was descended from the early settlers of Stagira, who migrated from Chalcis.

At seventeen, Aristotle moved to Athens, which was then the epicenter of Greek intellectual life. There, he studied under Plato for approximately twenty years. Plato, a student of Socrates, had established his Academy in Athens, a pioneering institution dedicated to philosophical inquiry and discussion. Plato’s teachings were deeply rooted in the theory of Forms, which posited that non-material abstract forms (or Ideas) were the most accurate reality. This theory was foundational for his metaphysical and epistemological perspectives.

Aristotle's two decades with Plato were formative. While Aristotle admired Plato’s rigor and depth, he began to question the applicability of Plato's abstract ideas to the natural world. This intellectual divergence marked the beginning of Aristotle's development of his own philosophical system, which emphasized empirical observation and categorization over Plato's idealism.

After Plato’s death, Aristotle returned to Macedon, where he became the tutor to Alexander the Great, the son of King Philip II. This role was pivotal, as Aristotle's teachings helped shape the future conqueror’s worldview and intellectual development, potentially influencing his approach to governance and military strategy.

In 335 BCE, Aristotle established his own school, the Lyceum, named in honor of Apollo Lyceus. Unlike Plato, who focused heavily on abstract Forms, Aristotle emphasized empirical observation and natural science. His approach was pioneering, marking a significant shift towards systematic investigation of the natural world.

For twelve years, Aristotle dedicated himself to organizing the Lyceum as a hub for scientific and philosophical research. His prolific output included numerous lectures and texts on a wide range of subjects, from biology and physics to ethics and metaphysics. He was a rigorous observer, often criticizing contemporary myths and proposing theories based on empirical evidence.

One notable theory proposed by Aristotle was the hydrological cycle, where he suggested that the sea’s warmth caused evaporation, which then condensed and fell as rain. This early model of the water cycle demonstrated his commitment to understanding natural phenomena through observation and reasoning.

Aristotle passed away in 322 BCE in Chalcis on the island of Euboea, leaving behind a legacy that has profoundly influenced countless fields of knowledge and thought. His contributions remain a cornerstone of philosophy and science, underscoring his role as a transformative figure in ancient intellectual history.
Aristotle: Life, Influence, and Legacy of a Pioneering Philosopher

The Early Life and Influences of Plato

Plato (429 BC – 348 BC), a renowned philosopher and biographer of Socrates, was born in Aegina in May 429 BC. He hailed from an illustrious Athenian family of the Deme Kollytus, known for its noble heritage. Plato received a well-rounded education, balancing physical training with intellectual pursuits. He engaged in rigorous gymnastic exercises to strengthen his body, while his mind was nurtured through the study of poetry and geometry, reflecting the holistic educational values of ancient Greece.

At the age of 20, Plato's life took a pivotal turn when he became acquainted with Socrates, a figure revered across Greece for his wisdom and virtue. Plato's association with Socrates profoundly influenced his philosophical outlook. For eight years, he was a dedicated pupil, absorbing Socratic teachings that would later shape his own philosophical contributions.

Following Socrates' execution in 399 BC, Plato distanced himself from the turbulent political environment of Athens. He embarked on extensive travels across Greece, seeking knowledge and engaging with other thinkers of his time. These travels enriched his philosophical perspectives and provided the foundation for his future works.

Plato's later writings, including "The Republic" and "The Dialogues," reflect the depth of his intellectual journey. His contributions have had a lasting impact on Western philosophy, cementing his legacy as one of history's greatest philosophers. His early life, shaped by noble lineage, rigorous education, and the profound influence of Socrates, laid the groundwork for his enduring contributions to philosophy.
The Early Life and Influences of Plato

Pythagorean philosopher Hippon

Hippon, was born c. 480–470. The author of at least two works of natural philosophy, he was popular enough to be mocked by the comic poet Cratinus in his All-Seeing Ones.

Continuing the “physiological” trend of Pythagorean natural philosophy, Hippo mostly studied problems of physiology, embryology, botany and medicine.

Hippon’s traditional connection with the Pythagorean school is based on his birthplace, which, though controversial, was most probably in Magna Graecia, where he must have lived at least for a period.

Hippon held water and fire to be the primary elements, with fire originating from water, and then developing itself by generating the universe. Hippon thought that water was the principle of all things. Most of the accounts of his philosophy suggest that he was interested in biological matters.

Hippon supposed that the bodies of all living things contain moisture that is characteristic of them, and thanks to which they live and feel.

He considered the *soul (seated in the brain) to be derived from the semen and to be itself moist, and devoted special attention to the development of the human body from the embryonic state to maturity.

Hippon was very well known in Athens around 430 BC, because according to a scholion to Aristophanes’ Clouds, he was satirized both in this play and previously by Cratinus in his play Panoptai. Like other philosophers, he was apparently labelled an ‘atheist’ in Athens for his doctrines, probably just because of the treatment he was subjected to by the comic poets.
Pythagorean philosopher Hippon

Plutarch - The Greek biographer, historian, essayist, and moralist

Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, better known simply as Plutarch, was a Greek writer and philosopher who lived between c. 45-50 AD and c. 120-125 AD.

Plutarch was born in Chaeronea, a city of Boeotia in central Greece around 45–47 AD to an ancient aristocratic Theban family. He began studying at Athens with a Platonist philosopher named Ammonius.

Plutarch is believed to have had a liberal education at Athens, where he studied physics, rhetoric, mathematics, medicine, natural science, philosophy, Greek, and Latin literature.

Although Plutarch visited Athens often, studying their philosophy under Ammonius, and he travelled to both Alexandria in Egypt and Italy, he spent most of his life in his native city and in nearby Delphi.

He lived in his own golden age, during the reigns of Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian. The author of more than 200 works, he is known primarily for his Parallel Lives, biographies that over the centuries have heavily shaped popular ideas of Greek and Roman history.

Plutarch paid special attention to “physics,”, which in antiquity included metaphysics, natural philosophy, psychology and theology.
Plutarch - The Greek biographer, historian, essayist, and moralist

Zeno of Elea (490 BC–430 BC)

Zeno of Elea, 5th century BC thinker, is known exclusively for propounding a number of ingenious paradoxes. The most famous of these purports to show that motion is impossible by bringing to light apparent or latent contradictions in ordinary assumptions regarding its occurrence.

Zeno of Elea, son of Teleutagoras, was born about 490 BC. He would appear to have been active in Magna Graecia, that is, the Greek-speaking regions of southern Italy, during the mid-fifth century BC. He was the pupil of Parmenides, and his relations with him were so intimate that Plato calls him Parmenides's son.

Zeno devotes himself in refuting the views of the opponents of Parmenides. Arguments against the possibility of motion, is first found in 'The Dialectic of Zeno '. The ancient Greek philosophers were confused to think about space, time and motion. Zeno is the first who deeply thinks about these. His arguments, generally known as his paradoxes, seem to show that motion is simply an illusion which is not possible in any circumstances.

The majority of contemporary arguments on his paradoxes were on the infinite division of time and space, such as if there is a distance, there is also half that distance and so on. Zeno was the first in philosophical history to show that the concept of infinity existed.

Zeno is said to have taken part in the legislation of Parmenides, to the maintenance of which the citizens of Elea had pledged themselves every year by oath. His love of freedom is shown by the courage with which he exposed his life in order to deliver his native country from a tyrant.

Zeno of Elea (490 BC–430 BC)

Zosimos of Panopolis

The copy of "Keys of Mercy and Secrets of Wisdom" under consideration was written in two parts designated, "Part One, Introduction" by Al-Tughra'i", and Part Two, "From Keys of Wisdom by Zosimos" translated to Arabic by Ibn Al-Hassan Ibn Ali Al-Tughra'i'.

Zosimos of Panopolis was a gnostic philosopher. He was born in Panopolis, present day Akhmim in the south of Egypt, and flourished ca. 300 A.D. He lived in Alexandria, and traveled to many parts of the Hellenic world.

In about 300 AD, Zosimos provided one of the first definitions of alchemy as the study of “the composition of waters, movement, growth, embodying and disembodying, drawing the spirits from bodies and bonding the spirits within bodies.”

He wrote the oldest known books on alchemy, which he called "Cheirokmeta," using the Greek word for "things made by hand." Pieces of this work survive in the original Greek language and in translations into Syriac or Arabic.

Zosimos of Panopolis combined practical know-how and observations with theoretical and philosophical frameworks to create a discipline that involved both theory and practice.

Although Zosimos was a prolific writer, all his books have been lost and what remains of them today are mere passages and quotes written in the original Greek language, or translated to Syriac or Arabic.
Zosimos of Panopolis

Anaxagoras (c.500 BC – c.428 BC)

Anaxagoras was born in the city of Clazomenae in Asia Minor, during the seventh Olympiad (between 500-497 or 533 BC). He was descendant of an aristocratic noble family. His father Hegesibulus (Ηγησίβουλος), was intellectual and introduced his son to Anaximenes’ philosophy.

Anaxagoras was the first of the pre-Socratic philosophers, who visited Athens in 494 BC, transmitting there the richness and the originallity of Ionian School of philosophy. As a philosopher he taught Archelaus of Athens, Euripides the tragedian, and the demagogue Pericles with whom he remained a friend. He remained a resident of the city of Athens for at least thirty years.

According to Anaxagoras, the Mind (nous) is infinite and self-powered. Mind is the supreme principle, the greatest power, that is mixed with nothing but it exists alone itself by itself, whereas all other entities include a portion of everything.Mind is the purest of all entities, with a unique authenticity.

It is said that Anaxagoras was the first philosopher who elevated spirit above matter, whereby he started a new era in theology, which is not an isolated opinion since, e.g., Eusebius says that

Anaxagoras and his school were the first in Greece that talked about God. Anaxagoras was the author of a lost work On nature. The work was written in a beautiful and sublime style. As Plato and others relate, it was well-known and popular in Athens in the fifth century BC. Socrates knew the work well. Certain fragments and the major ideas of the work have been passed on by ancient philosophers and doxographers: Plato, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Aetius, Hippolytus, and Simplicius.

In Lampsakos during his last years, Anaxagoras is supposed to have said that the Athenians missed him more than he missed them. He died in 428 BCE, much honored by the Lampsakenes.
Anaxagoras (500 BCE – 428 BCE)

Parmenides of Elea

Parmenides was a Presocratic philosopher who lived in the southern Italian town of Elea (near the modern town of Agropoli). He was the first of a group of philosophers who are called Eleatics, the others being Zeno and Melissus.

He was born about 515 BC. Parmenides was a native of the Greek city of Elea, in southwest Italy, A member of a wealthy, influential family, he was said to have served Elea as a statesman lawgiver.

One of his teachers was supposedly the immigrant philosopher Xenophanes. Diogenes Laertius says that Parmenides was, at some time in his life associated with the Pythagoreans. Parmenides was known for having live an exemplary life and later Greeks talked on an ideal “Parmenidean life”. He founded a school of philosophy at Elam known as the Eleatic School.

Parmenides of Elea is the most brilliant and controversial of the Presocratic philosophers. Parmenides of Elea authored a notoriously obscure metaphysical poem that has earned him a reputation as the Presocratic period’s most profound and challenging thinker. He wrote a philosophical poem consisting of a prologue and two parts, of which considerable fragments have survived. The prologue describes Parmenides' meeting with a goddess who reveals the truth outlined in the first part of the poem; of the two possible paths of inquiry, It is and It is not.
Parmenides of Elea

Antisthenes (444 BC- 365 BC)

Antisthenes was Greek philosopher and a disciple of Socrates. He was the son of an Athenian citizen, also name Antisthenes; his mother was a Thracian slave. Because both parents were not Athenian citizens, Antisthenes was not entitled to citizenship under a law passed by Pericles in 451 BC and he could not take part in Athenian politics or hold office.

He probably attended the Cynosarges gymnasium, located outside the gates of Athens and reserved for children of illegitimate unions.

Antisthenes, who was influence by Socrates, is considered the founder of Cynicism. Plato records that Antisthenes was one of the close friends of Socrates who attended him during his excretion.

Cynicism characterized by an ostentatious contempt for riches, arts, science and amusement. They are called Cynics because of their morose manners.

Socrates taught that a virtue was the highest good. Antisthenes taught that virtue was the only good and that vice is the only evil.

The essence of virtue is self-control or absolute freedom from all material needs. Thus the Cynics renounce the basic joy of life: pleasure, comfort, family, society and religion.

Antisthenes was among the first to set some sort of permanent school at Athens. Antisthenes established himself in a public building - the Cynosarges gymnasium – an attracted a group of students.
Antisthenes (444 BC- 365 BC)

Philolaus of Croton (470-385 BC)

He was born in Croton around 470 BC, eventually moved to Tarentum.

Philolaus comes almost a century after Pythagoras; he was a contemporary of Socrates and Democritus, but carried on a tradition more at home in the mode of thought of earlier thinkers.

He seems to have written a book, On Nature, the first by a Pythagorean.  He has emerged from the shadow of Pythagoras and come to be recognized as an important Pre-Socratic thicker.

Philolaus is thought to be the first Pythagorean to have left a written work. It is for this reason that he has been included, achronistically, along with the Pythagorean School.

Philolaus taught philosophy and mathematics as well as engaging in political life. When the activity of the Pythagorean order became intolerable to the democracy, the order was ousted and Philolaus fled first to Lucania and then to Thebes for refuge.

He seems to have been deeply interested in number theory and mathematics, which he used to interpret man’s purpose and place in the state and the universe.

By applying mathematical concepts to cosmology, Philolaus seems to have brought Pythagorean traditions into the mainstream of Greek intellectual development.

He is also credited with the view that ‘soul’ is a mixture and harmony of the parts of the body.
Philolaus of Croton (470-385 BC)

Euclid of Megara

Euclid of Megara, a celebrated philosopher and logician; he was a disciple of Socrates, and flourished about 400 years before Christ.

Euclid of Megara endued by nature with a subtle and penetrating genius, early applied himself to the study of philosophy. The writings of Parmenides first taught him the art of disputation.

Hearing of the fame of Socrates, Euclid determined to attend upon his instructions and for this purpose removed from Megara to Athens.

According to a story told by the Roman antiquarian Aulus Gellius, Euclid of Megara exhibited a singular passion for philosophy.

At the outset of the Peloponnesian War, Athens imposed sanctions against the nearby city of Megara and banned its citizens from entering Athens. Euclid of Megara disguised himself in women’s clothes to attend the lectures of Socrates. He long remained a constant hearer and zealous disciple of the Moral Philosospher.

Euclid went on to found the Megaric school of philosophy, renewed for their delight in paradoxes. One of the nest-known puzzles associated with this school was that of the ‘veiled figure’.
Euclid of Megara

Hypatia of Alexandria (370-415)

Regarded as the first woman in history to teach advanced mathematics, Hypatia of Alexandria was a mathematician, scientist and philosopher. Hypatia was born sometime around AD 370 when women stayed at home, only the men went to school, held jobs and became involved in government.

She lived during paganism’s last stand against the encroaching Christian religion and in sense personally represented the conflict between pagan Greek science, philosophy and mathematics on the other hand and the Christian religions and political empire on the other.

Hypatia was very young when her mother died so she spent most of her childhood with only her father.

Because Theon was a professor and an administrator at the University of Alexandria, Egypt, Hypatia spent much of her time there while growing up. She attended classes, joined discussions, and studied with her father. Theon encouraged Hypatia, in her quest for knowledge and taught her mathematics, science, including astronomy and philosophy.

It was with her father that she help to compile older mathematical works and a more popular edition of Euclid’s ‘Elements’ which was used almost exclusively by Greek teachers after her time.

When she was teenager, Hypatia traveled to Athens, Greece, and attended the school taught by Greek biographer Plutarch.

Hypatia taught at the Neoplatonic School in Alexandria, becoming the school’s director around AD 400. She taught Neo-Platonism, a branch of philosophy, developed in the third century by Plotinus of Egypt and Iamblichus of Syria.

Hypatia wrote a number of books, including the Astronomical Cannon and commentaries on Arithmetica by Diophantus and the astronomical works by Ptolemy.

Hypatia also edited On the Conics of Apollonius, which defined the conic sections that came to be known as the parabola, hyperbola and ellipse.
Hypatia of Alexandria (370-415)

Democritus of Abdera (460-370 BC)

Greek philosopher best known for his development of the atomic theory which he got from Leucippus. Democritus was born around 460 BC of well to do parents, in Abdera, Thrace.

An intense and restless spirit, he would strive even as a young man to gain knowledge of other civilizations, investing his inheritance in visits to Egypt, Babylon, Persia, and possibly Ethiopia and India.

Democritus expanded his teacher, Leucippus’ idea of atoms as tiny bits of matter, He showed how every form of matter could be explained using his idea.

Democritus expressed that the world is made up of only vacuum and atoms - an infinite number of tiny, hard, indestructible particles which combine with one another in different ways to produce the variety of everything in the world both living and non-living.

Democritus is frequently mentioned by Aristotle. He was head of a School at Abdera, and was still alive when Plato founded the Academy.

Democritus’s brilliant intellect was steeped in the widest knowledge from all the domains of thought: mathematics, physics, grammar, logic, ethics, theology, aesthetics, history, education, art.
Democritus of Abdera (460-370 BC)

Theon of Alexandria (AD 335 – 405)

He flourished about 370. The tenth-century encyclopedia known as the Suda says that Theon lived in the time of the Emperor Theodosius I (379-395).

Theon taught at the Museum of Alexandria, a cultural and intellectual gathering place that included a number of schools, celebrated library and public lecture halls.

He was not a mathematician of special note, but people indebted to him for an edition of Euclid’s Elements and a commentary of the Almagest; the latter gives a great deal of miscellaneous information about the numerical methods used by the Greeks.

Theon of Alexandria has given a geometrical explanation of the algorithm of the square roots in his Commentary on Ptolemy’s Almagest, while constructing for astronomical use a table of arc lengths, need to calculate the chord of an arc 36°.

Until a little over a century ago, his edition of Euclid’s Elements, on which his daughter Hypatia may have collaborated, was then only known Greek text of the Elements.

He reported that he had observed a solar eclipse at Alexandria  in June 16, 364.
Theon of Alexandria (AD 335 – 405)

Thales of Miletus (624-546 BC)

Thales of Miletus was the first person in western history to explain the universe in rational rather than mythical terms.

Thales was born in Melitus, the premier city of Archaic Greece. Herodotus, a Greek historian from the fifth century BC, and Aristotle are main source for his life and work.

As a young man, he travelled to Egypt and the Near East to study geometry, a branch of mathematics concerned with points, lines and surfaces in two dimensions.

Even though little is known about his life, Thales came to be known as the first the ‘Seven Sages’ (wise men) of the ancient world.

He founded a school of natural philosophy in Ionia, a city on the Aegean Sea in Asia Minor, where he espoused his theory that the earth was flat, and it and everything on it floated on a huge body of water from which they originated and to which they would all return.

Thales of Miletus, famed as the originator of Greek philosophy and since, as is shown by the stories of his prediction of the solar eclipse of 585 BC.

He was known as the founder of Greek mathematics and astronomy as well as of philosophy. Thales is said to have introduced geometry to Greece and to have developed the abstract geometry of lines.

It was Thales of Miletus who was accredited with the discovery of the electrostatic attraction created after the material amber was rubbed. Thales noted after amber was rubbed straw was attracted to the piece of amber.
Thales of Miletus (624-546 BC)

Xenophon

Xenophon, the son of Gryllus, and Athenian citizen was a native of the Attic demus Ercheia.

Xenophon was born about 444 BC. He distinguished himself as a philosopher, a general and an historian. Xenophon came from and aristocratic family and was born a citizen of the cultural center of the Greek world.
He was a good family and moderate estate, and became in youth a pupil of Socrates. Xenophon took down notes of Socrates talk, which he afterward wrote out in Memorabilia of Socrates.

He left Greece after the Peloponnesian War to become one of 10,000 Greek mercenaries in the service of Cyrus the younger against his older brother King Artaxerses II of Persia.

His writings including:
*Anabasis
*Hellenika
*Memorabilia
*Symposium
*Apology
*Kyropaideia
*Agesilaus
*On hunting
Xenophon eventually became the commander of all forces under King Seuthes II of Thrace in fighting against Persia during 400-399.

Sparta gave him land and property in Scillus, where he lived for many years before having to move once more, to settle in Corinth. Xenophon died sometime e after 354 BC.
Xenophon