Person · 3377–3439 AM · 384 BCE — 322 BCE
Aristotle Ἀριστοτέλης
Systematizer of logic, physics and ethics; tutor of Alexander
He studied twenty years in Plato's Academy and broke with him. For Jewish thought this is the most important gentile name of all. Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed is written inside the Aristotelian picture of the world and argues with it where it collides with the Torah—above all about the eternity of the world, which Maimonides rejects, taking Aristotle's arguments one by one and showing that they are not proofs. Maimonides calls him simply "the Philosopher", without a name. Through him too run the disputes about providence, about miracle, and about what prophecy is.
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- Rambam, Guide of the Perplexed II:13–25 — the examination of the arguments for the eternity of the world; “the Philosopher” unnamed
Scholarship
- Britannica, “Aristotle” — the years 384–322, the fields of knowledge
Basis: documents and evidence.