Aristotle was known to be a meticulous naturalist and a perfectionist in his methods of structuring and organizing his investigations. After his master’s death, he spent several years researching plants and animals in the region of Asia. What he gained from it was the spectacle of identifying characteristics in nature and the living, as he plausibly developed a system of classification of living things – known as Scala Naturae (the great chain of being). This was illustrated as a hierarchy from plants to animals and humans.
It was also Aristotle who laid the substratum for ‘natural philosophy’ as he had a keen interest in observing the nature that surrounds him and physical sciences. He enlisted his approach in the following way: observation, organization, and deriving conclusion – which, to this date, forms the basis of scientific methods of research. His methodology drew the line between raw reasoning used by early philosophers and granted history the first step towards scientific examination of the world. He continued to apply the same methods to his philosophical study, classifying notions and connecting them to conclusions, and built the very first comprehensive system of research in philosophy as well.
