Five Major Things Which Aristotle Got Completely Wrong

You might end up scratching your head after reading this.

Sal
Lessons from History
5 min readJul 24, 2022

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“Aristotle (384–322 BC)” by Tilemahos Efthimiadis is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

The ancient Greeks were a civilization like no other. Millennia after their demise, their contributions continue to reverberate today. Indeed, few other cultures can boast such eclectic and prescient contributions as the ones made by the Greeks.

The ancient Greeks made strides in intensely disparate fields such as theatre, astronomy, mathematics, and philosophy. Furthermore, many of their ideas would shape Western thought for centuries, mostly positively. Ideas as ubiquitous as democracy and concepts as well known as the Pythagorean formula all find their genesis in ancient Greece.

However, the Greeks weren’t spot on with everything. Aristotle, one of ancient Greece’s most revered thinkers, was wrong on quite a few points. Much like his teacher Plato, Aristotle made immense contributions in diverse fields, though he would sometimes miss the mark.

1. Aristotle’s ideas about women

“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. — Aristotle” by d26b73 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Despite Aristotle’s penchant for being ahead of his time, his ideas about women remained…

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Sal
Lessons from History

I am a History Educator and a Lifelong Learner with a Masters in Global History.