Aristotle was born in Stagira, Greece at around 384 B.C. At 17, he went to Athens, the world’s center of education, and attended Plato’s Academy. He stayed close with the academy and Plato for years before heading to the Macedonian court where he taught Alexander the Great. After Alexander succeeded his father and conquered Greece, Aristotle returned to Athens and started his own academy, the Lyceum.

Lyceum members studied everything from art to science to politics and compiled one of the world’s first great libraries. Aristotle himself composed about 200 works, most of them believed to be lecture notes.

“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruits are sweet,” philosopher Aristotle said.

One of Aristotle’s main focuses was philosophy, and he aimed to develop a universal system of logic and reasoning that would allow man to learn everything about reality. Around 322 B.C., Aristotle fled Athens to escape charges and died soon after.

Then, in the Middle Ages his work was rediscovered. Arabian scholars called him The First Teacher while scholars in the west called him The Philosopher and accepted his every word as truth. Even today, his work impacts arguments on logic, political theory, and ethics.