Who is Aristotle - the Stagirite?
The ptodigious activity of Aristotle (384-323 B.C.) marks the climax of the Golden Age of Greece. The very existence of his works proves not simply that he had an encyclopaedic mind of the highest order, but also that a large amount of research had been accomplished by his predecessors. His deep mathematical knowledge was happily balanced by a very extensive acquaintance with every branch of natural history.
Aristotle was born in 384 B.C., the son of Nicomachus, physician to the royal family of Macedonia. Born in Stagira, a small Greek colony on the Macedonian coast, he was sometimes called the Stagirite. His father, Nicomachus, was a member of the guild of the Asclepiads which was composed of physicians' using herbs and other remedies known only to members of the guild. At seventeen, Aristotle went to Athens where he met and became a pupil of Plato. Aristotle, though essentially a biologist, was closely attached to his master and continued to be a member of his school until Plato's death in 347 B.C.
The plant was an integrated thing to Aristotle; leaves, shoots and roots were not mere appendages of the plant but were members of an organised thing. Each of them had its own characteristics but they had dependencies, relations, and harmonies which interacted to maintain the life of the whole.