Aristotle can fairly be said to be the founder of metaphysics as a separate discipline, as well as one of the most influential theorists of metaphysics. Born in Stagira in 384 BC , Aristotle came to Athens around 367, when he entered Plato's Academy as a student. He is known to have become a lecturer in the Academy, departing about the time of Plato's death in 347. After teaching in the court of Hermias of Assos, doing biological research on Lesbos with Theophrastus, and becoming one of the tutors of Alexander at the court of Philip of Macedonia, he returned to Athens in 335-4 to found his own school, called the Lyceum or the Peripatos. He departed from Athens in 323 because of anti-Macedonian agitation, and died in Chalcis in 322.

Aristotle was not the first philosopher to concern himself with metaphysical issues, but he was the first to study metaphysics systematically and to lay out a rigorous account of ontology...

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