The Peripatetic School Aristotle

Aristotle Came to Athens from northern Greece (Stagira) to study with Plato. Left the Academy probably after Plato’s death in 347. Later founded his own “school” in a gymnasium (the Lyceum) outside Athens.

The Academy Plato’s Academy was located in a grove of trees outside Athens. It seems that it was just a place where people met for discussion. Probably no library.

A Grove… The Academy had been a place of gymnastic exercise sacred to the hero Academus. (Other accounts put it in an olive grove sacred to Athena.) Plato chose it as a meeting place probably because young men would go there regularly.

Today… We use “academy” to mean “universities in general.” Some countries use “gymnasium” to mean school. In France a Lycée is a secondary school. They are places of mental and bodily strengthening.

So two gymnasia… Academy--Plato. Stressed geometry-- mathematics. Plato wrote dialogues but not descriptions of nature. Method was the dialectic--a sort of conversational Q&A--that was expected to lead the mind to perfect abstract truths. Lyceum--Aristotle. Stressed meticulous observation, recording, and classifying-- describing nature. Method was systematic logic-- deduction from observation.

Define “chair” Using the method of Plato. As Aristotle would have done.

The Lyceum In the ancient world, a gymnasium was simply a place where men (young and old) would meet for exercise and conversation. It was customary to have places nearby through which people could go for walks (Gr. peripatoi).

The Lyceum When Plato died (347), Aristotle did not take his place at the head of the Academy (Speusippus did). Instead he moved from place to place until he returned to Athens in 335 and founded his own school, the Lyceum, where he stayed until 322. These dates roughly correspond to the dates of Alexander’s leadership of Greece and the Macedonian army.

The Walking School (The Peripatos) Perhaps the students discussed things with Aristotle while they were on walks around the Lyceum. Perhaps Aristotle lectured while walking.

Theophrastus Took over the Peripatos after Aristotle. Was a wealthy Athenian. He gave the school land and started a library.

The Curriculum Physics. Rhetoric. Literary theory and criticism. Psychology (the soul). Biology (Zoology and Botany). Logic. Politics (political constitutions), ethics.

Aristotle observed and recorded… Practical, this-worldly, focus to his thinking. If experience is the focus, there is an advantage to recording one’s observations for posterity. Enter the book. Enter the library.

Plato’s Curriculum Asked big questions (What is justice?). Took a theoretical approach to his answers (his examples of different types of government in Republic are all generic, i.e., not real governments found in specific places the way Aristotle would have done).

Plato was suspicious of books His focus was on stimulating the mind to make it see big truths by means of insightful ‘flashes.’ For him, recording experiences was simply the recording of impressions or opinions.

Later… Not many people read Aristotle’s works after he died. His style was dry and uninspiring. Most philosophical schools throughout antiquity were offshoots of the Academy. They tended to focus on ethics rather than searching for the Forms. The Neo-Platonists, however, were closer to Platonism than most other movements.