Great Thinkers

Aristotle -384 to 322 BC

• Aristotle was a famous Greek thinker. He argued that, for true knowledge you must find the ``final cause—why something happens?
• Aristotle was the first great scientist, stressing the need to collect data, sort the results and interpret them. He also tried to find the ideal way of governing a state.
• Aristotle was the brilliant tutor to Alexander the great. He was considered as the ultimate authority on every subject for over 20000 years!

Confucius

• Confucius was the most famous thinker and teacher in Chinese history. His real name was Konzi or Kung – Fu –Tzu. He was born in Lu, now Shantung Province, in 551 BC, traditionally on 28 September, and died in 479 BC. The name Confucius is used by Europeans.
• Confucius was master in six Chinese arts- ritual, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy and arithmetic- and became a brilliant teacher.
• Confucius was the first person in China to argue that all men should be educated to make the world a better place, and that teaching could be a way of life. He told this golden rule: `do not do to others what you would not have them do to you’.
• The king of Lu was not interested in Confucius’s ideas, so Confucius went into exile, followed by his students.
• After his death, Confucius’s ideas were developed by teacher like Mencius (390- 305BC) and Xunzi (c. 250 BC) into a way of life called Confucianism. Until recently, this dominated Chinese life.

Fact file

*Confucius served as a minister for the king of Lu in middle age.

*The great thinkers of Ancient Greece were called philosophers. Philosophy is Greek word for` love of wisdom’.