Aristotle

Aristotle is the name of a Greek Philosopher who lived from 384BC to 322BC. He is particularly important to screenwriters because of his work "Poetics", a discourse on the elements and techniques of writing drama. Many screenwriters (Aaron Sorkin and Gary Ross, among them) consider the Poetics to be a critical and foundational text for screenwriters.

Aristotle also wrote seminal texts on logic, the scientific method, physics, biology, ethics and politics, among other subjects. His framework for thinking guided western thought for two thousand years since, although it has recently had detractors who assert that its reliance on analytical reason ignores the ambiguous nature of reality and the role of man in creating artificial meanings to explain it.