Everything about The Peripatetics totally explained
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. 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.
"Peripatetics" is also sometimes used to describe those philosophers not having any fixed academy or building.
Notable members of the school
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:
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's generally assumed that he was. It isn't known if Critolaus directly succeeded Aristo, or if there was any leaders between them. Erymneus is known only from a passing reference by
Athenaeus. 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, which would imply that he'd two unnamed predecessors. There is considerable uncertainty over the issue, and Andronicus' pupil
Boethus of Sidon is also described as the eleventh scholarch. 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 described as a Peripatetic.
Some of the greatest peripatetic philosophers in the
Islamic philosophical tradition were
al-Farabi,
Avicenna and
Averroes.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Peripatetics'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://peripatetic_school.totallyexplained.com">Peripatetic school Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
