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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 163 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PERIPATETICS (from Gr. aEptIrareiv, to walk about) , the name given in antiquity to the followers of See also:Aristotle (q.v.), either from his See also:habit of walking up and down as he lectured to his pupils, or from the 7repiirazos (covered walk) of the See also:Lyceum. Aristotle's immediate successors,' See also:Theophrastus and Eudemus of See also:Rhodes, were diligent scholars rather than See also:original thinkers. They made no innovations upon the See also:main doctrines of their See also:master, and their See also:industry is chiefly directed to supplementing his See also:works in See also:minor particulars. Thus they amplified Theo-the Aristotelian See also:logic by the theory of the hypo- vhrastus• thetical and disjunctive See also:syllogism, and added to the first figure of the categorical syllogism the five moods out of which the See also:fourth figure was afterwards constructed. The impulse towards natural See also:science and the systematizing of empirical details which distinguished Aristotle from See also:Plato was shared by ,Theophrastus (q.v.). The same turn for detail is observable 'in his See also:ethics, where, to See also:judge from the imperfect See also:evidence of the Characters, he elaborated still farther Aristotle's See also:portraiture of the virtues ' See See also:Gellius, Noct. Att. xiii. 5, for the See also:story of how Aristotle See also:chose Theophrastus as his successor. and their relative vices. In his See also:doctrine of virtue the distinctive Peripatetic position regarding the importance of See also:external goods was defended by him with emphasis against the assaults of the See also:Stoics. He appears to have laid even more stress on this point than Aristotle himself, being doubtless led to do so, partly by the See also:heat of controversy and partly by the importance which leisure and freedom from harassing cares naturally assumed to a See also:man of his studious temperament. The See also:meta- See also:physical aropiat of Theophrastus which have come down to us show that he was fully alive to the difficulties that beset many of the Aristotelian See also:definitions.

But we are ignorant how he proposed to meet his own criticisms; and they do not appear to have suggested to him an actual departure from his master's doctrine, much less any See also:

radical transformation of it. In the difficulties which he raises we may perhaps detect a leaning towards a naturalistic See also:interpretation. The tendency of Eudemus, on the other See also:band, is more towards the theological Eudemus or Platonic See also:side of Aristotle's See also:philosophy. The of Rhodes. Rhodes. Eudemian Ethics (which, with the possible exception of the three books See also:common to this See also:treatise and the Nicomachean Ethics, there need be no hesitation in ascribing to Eudemus) expressly identify Aristotle's ultimate ethical ideal of Bewpia with the knowledge and contemplation of See also:God. And this supplies Eudemus with a See also:standard for the determination of the mean by See also:reason, which Aristotle demanded, but himself See also:left vague. Whatever furthers us in our progress towards a knowledge of God is See also:good; every hindrance is evil. The same spirit may be traced in the author of the chapters which appear as an appendix to See also:book i. of Aristotle's See also:Metaphysics. They have been attributed to Pasicles, the See also:nephew of Eudemus. For the See also:rest, Eudemus shows even less philosophical See also:independence than Theophrastus. Among the Peripatetics of the first See also:generation who had been See also:personal disciples of Aristotle, the other See also:chief names are those of See also:Aristoxenus (q.v.) of See also:Tarentum and See also:Dicaearchus (q.v.) of See also:Messene.

Aristoxenus, who had formerly belonged to the See also:

Pythagorean school, maintained the position, already combated by Plato in the See also:Phaedo, that the soul is to be regarded as nothing more than the See also:harmony of the See also:body. Dicaearchus agreed with his friend in this naturalistic rendering of the Aristotelian entelechy, and is recorded to have argued formally against the See also:immortality of the soul. The naturalistic tendency of the school reached its full expression in Strato of Isampsacus, the most See also:independent, and Strato of probably the ablest, of the earlier Peripatetics. His See also:Lampsacus. See also:system is based upon the formal denial of a trans- cendent deity. See also:Cicero attributes to him the saying that he did not require the aid of the gods in the construction of the universe; in other words, he reduced the formation of the See also:world to the operation of natural forces. We have evidence that he did not substitute an immanent world-soul for Aristotle's extra-mundane deity; he recognized nothing beyond natural See also:necessity. He was at issue, however, with the atomistic See also:materialism of See also:Democritus in regard to its twin assumptions of See also:absolute atoms and See also:infinite space. His own speculations led him rather to See also:lay stress on the qualitative aspect of the world. The true explanation of things was to be found, according to Strato, in the forces which produced their attributes, and he followed Aristotle in deducing all phenomena from the fundamental attributes or elements of heat and See also:cold. His psycho-logical doctrine explained all the functions of the soul as modes of See also:motion, and denied any separation of the reason from the faculties of sense-See also:perception. He appealed in this connexion to the statement of Aristotle that we are unable to think without a sense-See also:image. The successors of Strato in the headship of the Lyceum were Lyco, See also:Aristo of See also:Ceos, See also:Critolaus (q.v.), Diodorus of See also:Tyre, and Erymneus, who brings the philosophic See also:succession down to about 100 B.C.

Other Peripatetics belonging to this See also:

period are Hieronymus of Rhodes, Prytanis and Phormio of See also:Ephesus, the delirus senex who attempted to instruct See also:Hannibal in the See also:art of See also:war (Cic. De oral. ii. 18). Sotion, See also:Hermippus and Satyrus were historians rather than philosophers. Heraclides Lembus, See also:Agatharchides and See also:Antisthenes of Rhodes are names to us and nothing more. The fact is that, after Strato, the Peripatetic school has no thinker of any See also:note for about 200 years. See also:Early in the 1st See also:century B.C. all the philosophic See also:schools began to be invaded by a spirit of See also:eclecticism. This was partly due to the See also:influence of the See also:practical See also:Roman spirit. This influence is illustrated by the proconsul See also:Lucius Gellius Publicola (about 70 B.C.), who proposed to the representatives of the schools in See also:Athens that he should help them to See also:settle their See also:differences (Cic. De See also:leg. 1. 20).

This See also:

atmosphere of indifference imperceptibly influenced the attitude of the contending schools to one another, and we find various movements towards unity in the views of See also:Boethus the Stoic, See also:Panaetius and See also:Antiochus of See also:Ascalon, founder of the so-called " Fifth See also:Academy." Meanwhile the Peripatetic school may be said to have taken a new departure and a new See also:lease of See also:life. The impulse was due to Andronicus of Rhodes. His See also:critical edition of Aristotle indicated to the later Peripatetics the direction in which they could Androatcus. profitably See also:work, and the school devoted itself hence- forth almost exclusively to the See also:writing of commentaries on Aristotle, e.g. those of Boethus of See also:Sidon, Aristo of See also:Alexandria, Staseas, See also:Cratippus, and Nicolaus of See also:Damascus. The most interesting Peripatetic work of the period is the treatise De mundo, which is a good example within the Peripatetic school of the eclectic tendency which was then in the See also:air. The admixture of Stoic elements is so See also:great that some critics have attributed the work to a. Stoic author; but the writer's Peripateticism seems to be the more fundamental constituent of his doctrine. Our knowledge of the Peripatetic school during the first two centuries of the See also:Christian era is very fragmentary; but those of its representatives of whom anything is known See also:con-fined themselves entirely to commenting upon the different See also:treatises of Aristotle. Thus See also:Alexander of Aegae, the teacher of See also:Nero, commented on the Categories and the De caelo. In the 2nd century See also:Aspasius (q.v.) and Adrastus of Aphrodisias wrote numerous commentaries. The latter also treated of the See also:order of the Aristotelian writings in a See also:separate work. Somewhat later, Herminus, Achaicus and See also:Sosigenes commented on the logical treatises. Aristocles of Messene, the teacher of Alexander of Aphrodisias, was the author of a See also:complete critical See also:history of See also:Greek philosophy.

This second phase of the activity of the school closes with the comprehensive labours of Alexander of Aphrodisias (Scholarch, c. 200), the exegete See also:

par excellence, called sometimes the second Aristotle. Alexander's interpretation proceeds throughout upon the naturalistic lines which have already become See also:familiar to us. Aristotle had maintained that the individual Aphrodisias. ac. alone is real, and had nevertheless asserted that the universal is the proper See also:object of knowledge. Alexander seeks consistency by holding to the first position alone. The individual is See also:prior to the universal, he says, not only " for us," but also in itself, and universals are abstractions which have merely a subjective existence in the intelligence which abstracts them. Even the deity must be brought under the conception of individual substance. Such an interpretation enables us to understand how it was possible, at a later date, for Aristotle to be regarded as the See also:father of See also:Nominalism. See also:Form, Alexander proceeds, is everywhere indivisible from See also:matter. Hence the soul is inseparable from the body whose soul or form it is.

Reason or See also:

intellect is See also:bound up with the other faculties. Alexander's commentaries formed the See also:foundation of the Arabian and Scholastic study of Aristotle. Soon after Alexander's See also:death the Peripatetic school was merged, like all others, in See also:Neoplatonism (q.v.).

End of Article: PERIPATETICS (from Gr. aEptIrareiv, to walk about)

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