Aristotle was a student of Plato and was taught by him. Aristotle’s influence on Plato’s work is obvious: Aristotle’s work formed the basis for much of Plato’s later philosophy (see, for example, Timaeus). But Plato also influenced Aristotle in return, as is evident from the fact that Aristotle wrote his own dialogues after studying with Plato.
In particular, it is clear that Aristotle was influenced by Plato’s theory of forms — the idea that there is a realm of ideal objects which exist independently of our minds and which can be understood through reason alone (a form being a perfect realisation or embodiment of an idea).
Aristotle disagreed with this theory; he claimed that forms are only known through perception and experience — they are not independent entities but rather mental constructs we put together based on our observations of things in the world around us.
Moreover, Aristotle was the first person to write about the scientific method, which is still used today. He looked at things in nature and asked how they worked, then tried to figure out why they worked that way. Aristotle wrote more than two hundred books on subjects such as astronomy, meteorology, physics, zoology, botany, psychology and ethics. He also wrote polemics against his enemies and attacks on their writings (the Rhetoric).
