Aristotle was known as an extremely famous person who is well known worldwide. He was known as “The First Teacher” in Arabic philosophy, and “The Philosopher” in the West. Born in 384 B.C., in Stagira, North Greece, Aristotle was birthed by his mother, Phaestis, who was believed to have died when Aristotle was young. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a young boy. He had an older sister named Arimneste and a brother named Arimnestus. At the mere age of 17, Aristotle was sent to Athens to then enroll into Plato’s Academy. Where he was teached and tutored by Plato himself.
Aristotle then met his wife Pythias in Mysia, during his three year stay. Pythias and Aristotle only had one child together, their daughter Pythias, named after her mother. Aristotle was then sent to Macedonia in the year 342 by King Philip II, to tutor his son, Alexander the Great. After teaching Alexander, Aristotle returned to the city of Athens where he created his own school, the Lyceum. He then spent the rest of his years in his school, until 335 B.C., when he passed away due to a digestive complaint.
Aristotle wrote an estimate of about 200 books during his lifetime, most of the books being topics on politics, rhetorics, ethics, science and psychology. Out of the 200 books he has written, only 31 of them are still talked about and read. One of his famous works known as Poetics talks about the behind the scene of storymaking, and defines the most tragic and epic poetry. It includes rhythm, and harmony. In his book Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle asserts that living a good life to some degree defied the more restrictive laws of logic. Another famous work he’s written is Rhetoric which analyzes public speaking and how to teach it, in order for readers to become more effective speakers. Aristotle believed that “good rhetoric could educate people and encourage them to consider both sides of a debate.”
Aristotle was recognized by many people and was considered a rhetorician because people like Cicero, and Quintilian would use and cite his books for information. Aristotle’s influence waned somewhat during the Renaissance and Reformation Era, as many religious and scientific reformers questioned the way the Catholic Church had subdued his receipts. His work remains a notable starting point for any disagreement or debate in the fields of logic, aesthetics, political theory and ethics. As many famous scientists like Galileo Copernicus disproved of his model of the solar system, and anatomists such as William Harvey would break down many of Aristotle’s biological theories.
Aristotle contributed to rhetoric by writing his own book titled Rhetoric. Which resulted in holding an enormous influence on the development of the art of Rhetoric. Aristotle was the first philosopher to have written a system of logic that still forms the basis of modern logic. Aristotle’s rhetoric mainly focused and concentrated on ethos and pathos and logos, also known as the Rhetorical Triangle. Aristotle taught that a speaker’s capability to persuade a crowd, is based on how well the speaker pleads to that audience in three different subtopics: ethos, pathos, logos.
In conclusion, Aristotle was recognized as a Rhetorician for his views/perspective on rhetoric and for creating the rhetorical triangle that contains the ethos logos and pathos, which many philosopher’s take notes from and teach others about.