Peripatetic schoolFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Peripatetic school was a school of philosophy inAncient
Greece.
Its teachings derived from its founder, the Greekphilosopher,
Aristotle, and Peripatetic is an adjectiveascribed to his
followers. The school originally derived itsname Peripatos (Greek:
) from the peripatoi(, "colonnades") of the Lyceum in Athens
wherethe members met. A similar Greek word peripatetikos() refers
to the act of walking, and as anadjective, "peripatetic" is often
used to mean itinerant,wandering, meandering, or walking about.
After Aristotle's death, a legend arose that he was a "peripatetic"
lecturer that he walked about as he taught and the designation
Peripatetikos came to replace the original Peripatos.
The school dates from around 335 BC when Aristotle began
teaching in the Lyceum. It was an informal institutionwhose members
conducted philosophical and scientific inquiries. Aristotle's
successors Theophrastus and Stratocontinued the tradition of
exploring philosophical and scientific theories, but after the
middle of the 3rd century BC,the school fell into a decline, and it
was not until the Roman era that there was a revival. Later members
of theschool concentrated on preserving and commenting on
Aristotle's works rather than extending them, and the
schooleventually died out in the 3rd century AD.
Although the school died out, the study of Aristotle's works
continued by scholars who were called Peripateticsthrough Later
Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. After the fall of
the Roman empire, the works ofthe Peripatetic school were lost to
the west, but in the east they were incorporated into early Islamic
philosophy,which would play a large part in the revival of
Aristotle's doctrines in Europe in the Middle Ages and
theRenaissance.
