ABSTRACT

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) is known as the father of formal logic, which he set out in his Prior Analytics. But he was also a pioneer in the field of informal logic, and laid the foundations of much later work. He was for twenty years a close associate of Plato, first as pupil and then as colleague, taking part in the teaching and discussions of the Academy. After Plato's death in 348 B.C. Aristotle spent several years away from Athens, partly in Asia Minor, and partly in the Kingdom of Macedon where he was in some sense a tutor to the young Alexander the Great. In 335 he returned to Athens to set up his own school, the Peripatos, where he taught and researched until he had to withdraw again in 323 on the death of Alexander and a backlash in Athens against Macedonian influence. He died a year later.