Peripatetics

Peripatetics refers to the followers of Aristotle and the philosophical school that developed from his teaching at the Lyceum in Athens. The name derives from the Greek peripatētikos, meaning walking about, a reference to Aristotle and his students who are said to have walked the grounds of the Lyceum as they discussed and debated.

The Peripatetic program centers on systematic inquiry that combines empirical observation with rigorous logical analysis. The school pursued a broad range of subjects, including logic, natural philosophy, ethics, politics, and metaphysics, with an emphasis on explaining phenomena through causes and principles. They employed Aristotle’s syllogistic method and explored concepts such as form and matter, potentiality and actuality, and the four causes. Theophrastus, Aristotle’s successor as head of the school, contributed extensively to natural history and ethical theory, helping to advance the Peripatetic tradition beyond Aristotle himself.

Historically, the Peripatetic school flourished in the late Classical and Hellenistic periods and continued into the Roman era, albeit in altered form. After antiquity, Aristotelian philosophy was transmitted to the Islamic world, where scholars such as Averroes (Ibn Rushd) engaged deeply with Peripatetic texts, and later to medieval Latin Europe, shaping scholastic thought and the scientific tradition. In modern usage, “Peripatetic” designates adherents of Aristotelian philosophy or a broadly Aristotelian approach, and the term can also describe itinerant scholars or teachers in contemporary contexts.