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Aristotle

336 BCE

He attempted to systematise absolutely everything

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He founded formal logic, which stood unchanged until the nineteenth century, and biology as a descriptive science. His authority eventually became an obstacle: that heavy things fall faster, that the heavens are unchanging — both had to be overturned before modern physics could begin. His works survived in Arabic translation and returned to Europe via Toledo and Córdoba.

For children

Aristotle wrote on logic, animals, stars, poetry, politics and ethics — nearly everything a person can think about. He dissected octopuses and described over five hundred species. For fifteen hundred years he was simply "the Philosopher".

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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org