Aristotle's School, by Gustav Adolph Spangenberg
The Peripatetics were members of a school of philosophy in ancient Greece. Their teachings derived from their founder, the Greek philosopher Aristotle and Peripatetic (περιπατητικός) is a name given to his followers. As an adjective, "peripatetic" is often used to mean itinerant, wandering, meandering, or walking about.
Background
The term means "the ones walking about". The name may derive from the public walk at the Lyceum in Athens that Aristotle and his disciples frequently took, where the covered walkways were known as peripatoi. However some writers on Aristotle suggest that the sect of his followers was called this because Aristotle walked about as he discoursed with his students.citation needed Aristotle founded the Peripatetic school in 335 BC when he first opened his philosophical school at the Lyceum. He was followed as head by Theophrastus. The most prominent member of the school after Theophrastus was Strato of Lampsacus, who increased the naturalistic elements of Aristotle's philosophy and embraced a form of atheism. According to some writers, the Peripatetics were not in fact the direct followers of Plato or Aristotle, but rather a set of admirers perpetually following the philosophers and their students in their daily walk. Such accounts also suggest that sometimes these "followers" were known for their use of drink and unruly behavior.citation needed
"Peripatetics" is also sometimes used to describe those philosophers not having any fixed academy or building.
Notable members of the school
- See also: Category:Peripatetic philosophers
The names of the first seven or eight scholarchs (leaders) of the Peripatetic school are known with varying levels of certainty. A list of names with the approximate dates they headed the school is as follows:[1]
There are some uncertainties in this list. No ancient writer specifically refers to Aristo of Ceos as the head of the school, but since he was a close pupil of Lyco and the most important Peripatetic philosopher in the time when he lived, it is generally assumed that he was. It is not known if Critolaus directly succeeded Aristo, or if there was any leaders between them. Erymneus is known only from a passing reference by Athenaeus.[2] Other important Peripatetic philosophers who lived during these centuries include Eudemus of Rhodes, Aristoxenus, Dicaearchus, and Clearchus of Soli.
In 86 BCE, Athens was sacked by Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla, and all the schools of philosophy in Athens were badly disrupted. The Peripatetic school there may have come to an end, although later Neoplatonist writers describe Andronicus of Rhodes, who lived around 50 BCE, as the eleventh scholarch of the school,[3] which would imply that he had two unnamed predecessors. There is considerable uncertainty over the issue, and Andronicus' pupil Boethus of Sidon is also described as the eleventh scholarch.[4] It is quite possible that Andronicus set up his own school.
In the Roman era there are few notable Peripatetic philosophers; the most prominent figure is Alexander of Aphrodisias (c. 200 CE) who commentated on Aristotle's writings. With the rise of Neoplatonism (and Christianity) in the 3rd century, Peripateticism as an independent philosophy came to an end, but the Neoplatonists sought to incorporate Aristotle's philosophy within their own system, and produced many commentaries on Aristotle's works. In the 5th century, Olympiodorus the Elder is sometimes describe as a Peripatetic.
Some of the greatest peripatetic philosophers in the Islamic philosophical tradition were al-Farabi, Avicenna and Averroes.
Notes
- ^ David Ross, (1995), Aristotle, page 193. Routledge.
- ^ Athenaeus, v, 211e
- ^ Ammonius, In de Int. 5.24
- ^ Ammonius, In An. Pr. 31.11
References
- Walter Kaufman, History of Ancient Philosophy Vol 1-2.
See also
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