The Aristotelian inquiry into the fundamental principles from which beings derive their existence. Books A - D: Preconditions and stages of the cognitive process. The knowledge of first principles. The views of the Presocratics, the Pythagoreans, and Plato. The subject of first philosophy. What is the science sought? The absurdities and improbabilities arising from the way of thinking of other philosophers. Interpretation of key terms in Aristotelian philosophy.

Aristotle, son of the physician Nicomachus, was born in Stagira in 384 BC. Information about the early years of his life is minimal. At the age of seventeen, he went to Athens to study at the Platonic Academy. He stayed there for twenty years, from 367 to 348 BC, when Plato died. Then Aristotle left for Assos in Troy and after a three-year stay there, he went to Lesbos and subsequently to Macedonia, where he took on the education of the royal heir Alexander.

When his student ascended to the throne, Aristotle settled in Athens and founded his school, the Lyceum. After the death of Alexander (323 BC), the philosopher's stay in Athens became difficult. He was forced to seek refuge in Chalcis, his mother's homeland, where he died in 322.

A universal mind, Aristotle created a vast and valuable body of philosophical and scientific work. Epistemology, logic, theology, natural philosophy, biology, psychology, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics are the main areas of knowledge that he researched and studied.

The Alexandrian Hermippus counted Aristotle's works to be 400. To this day, lists have survived that include 143 titles of his works. Diogenes Laertius estimated the number of lines of Aristotelian writings to be 440,000. The impact of his work on the formation of global thought was strong for centuries and remains so.

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