Aristotelian logic, physics, philosophy, mathematics, etc. were state-of-the-art for more than 1,500 years. He was probably the greatest mind in human history and created the foundation upon which the Enightenment rested. Aristotle provided the foundation for Newton, Descartes, Locke, and many, many others.
He gets my vote. I still don't like to read him, though. It's almost like reading lecture notes... 
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The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
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