Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)
Aristotle was born in 384BC in Stagirus, Macedonia, where his fatherwas court physician to the King. He was sent to Athens in 367BC tostudy at Plato's Academy. In 342BC he was invited back toMacedonia to tutor the crown prince Alexander (who later left his markon history as Alexander the Great). Around 335BC he returned to Athensand founded his Lyceum. He died in Chalcis, north of Athens, in 322BC.
The breadth (and volume!) of Aristotle's writings is staggering byany standard. He wrote on philosophy, logics, politics, biology,physics and cosmology. In his On the Heavens (De caelo),Aristotle adopted with some modifications the geocentric planetarymodel of Eudoxus (ca. 400-347BC) and Callipus(ca. 370-300BC), but ascribed physical realityto the planetary spheres. His physics relies on an essential distinctionbetween the sublunar realm, made of the four elements earth, water,wind and fire, and the celestial realm, made of ether (or "quintessence")and deemed incorruptible.
Aristotle offered the world an internallyconsistent physics and cosmologyof hitherto uncomparable breadth and explanatory power, which wasto endure for more than 1200 years.In conjunction with Ptolemy's mathematical model of planetarymotions, it was to form the cornerstoneof the christian medieval view of the cosmos.
Bibliography:
Dicks, D.R. 1970, Early Greek Astronomy to Aristotle, CornellUniversity Press.Sachs, J. 1995, Aristotle's Physics, Rutgers University Press.