Aristotle is a towering figure in ancient Greek philosophy, making contributions to logic,

metaphysics, mathematics, physics, biology, botany, ethics, politics, agriculture, medicine, dance and
theatre. He was a student of Plato who in turn studied under Socrates. He was more empirically-
minded than Plato or Socrates and is famous for rejecting Plato's theory of forms.

As a prolific writer and polymath, Aristotle radically transformed most, if not all, areas of knowledge
he touched. It is no wonder that Aquinas referred to him simply as "The Philosopher." In his lifetime,
Aristotle wrote as many as 200 treatises, of which only 31 survive. Unfortunately for us, these works
are in the form of lecture notes and draft manuscripts never intended for general readership, so they
do not demonstrate his reputed polished prose style which attracted many great followers, including
the Roman Cicero. Aristotle was the first to classify areas of human knowledge into distinct disciplines
such as mathematics, biology, and ethics. Some of these classifications are still used today.

As the father of the field of logic, he was the first to develop a formalized system for reasoning.
Aristotle observed that the validity of any argument can be determined by its structure rather than its
content. A classic example of a valid argument is his syllogism: All men are mortal; Socrates is a man;
therefore, Socrates is mortal. Given the structure of this argument, as long as the premises are true,
then the conclusion is also guaranteed to be true. Aristotle’s brand of logic dominated this area of
thought until the rise of modern propositional logic and predicate logic 2000 years later.

Epicurus was born approximately 20 years after the death of Aristotle on the island of
Samos. He would develop a school of philosophical thought known
as Epicureanism. Epicureanism is a very particular brand of ethical philosophy that
essentially teaches people to live their lives by minimizing the amount of pain and fear
they experience during their time on earth. He is often accused of being a hedonist
because his philosophy would appear to define good, ethical behavior as anything that
is pleasurable.

This is not necessarily correct. It is true that he promoted a life of happiness through
friendship and family. However Epicurus does not tell us to surround ourselves with
worldly pleasures, but rather to eliminate that which is unpleasurable such as pain and
fear. By doing this we may live a pleasant life filled with small pleasures such as
friendship. He is often cited as saying:

“It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely, honourably, and justly, and it is
impossible to live wisely, honorably and justly without living pleasantly.”

Epicurus believed very firmly that we should look for knowledge in objectively verifiable phenomenon. He
practiced a rudimentary form of the scientific method, relying on evidence rather than faith. This lead to
the belief that he was an atheist, which made him very unpopular. It is perhaps for this reason that he
never gained an expansive following. However the few followers he did have were extremely devoted and
loyally followed him until the last day of his life.
The Fathers of the Church spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, defended the
Church in apologetic writing and fought the many heresies of the first six
centuries of Christianity. These men, also called Apostolic Fathers, gave
special witness to the faith, some dying the death of a martyr. Like Jesus
who referred to Abraham as a spiritual father (Luke 16: 24) and St. Paul,
who referred to himself in the same terms (1 Corinthians 4: 15), the Fathers
were zealous for the word of God

Their writings are a testimony to the faith of the early Church, yet many
Christians are unfamiliar with the work of Clement of Rome, Ignatius of
Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, Justin the Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian,
Origen, Cyprian of Carthage, Athanasius, Ephraim, Cyril of Jerusalem,
Hilary of Poitiers or Gregory the Great to name of few of the early Fathers.
Periodically we will provide biographical information and examples of the
writing of these great men of faith. This page will focus on the great St.
Augustine, but you can read about all of these men by clicking on their
names at the bottom of this page.

St. Augustine of Hippo (about 354-430 A.D.) He has been called the "most
erudite" and the "most prolific" of all the Early Church Fathers and the greatest
theologian, yet he was a convert to the faith and was not even ordained a
priest until 391 A.D. at the age of 37 years old. He was born in Tagaste,
Numidia, a small proconsular city recently converted from Docetism, on 13
November 354 A.D. to a Christian mother and a pagan father.