Aristotle - A brief tour in the paths of the Ancient Greek philosophy
Aristotle was a many-sided intellectual. Philosophy and science were harmonically united in his personality. He and his students studied every field of human activity, as well as of nature. He collected and recorded every piece of knowledge of his epoch and afterwards he scrutinised them with discerning eyes. His works, which are classified into many categories (logical, natural, ontological, ethical, political, rhetorical, and poetical), are the base of many sciences. That is why he has been surged at the top of philosophy for more than 16 centuries, since the time he became more broadly known –in the 1st century B. C., after the first edition of the whole of his surviving works by Andronicus of Rhodes.
A part of the book you hold in your hands (or have in your computer) is a research project which I conducted during my studentship in the Department of Philology in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The late Professor of Ancient Greek Philology Dimitrios Lypourlis was my supervisor. Oh, yes, I was very honoured to learn from him and attend his courses in classes which were full of students not only from our own Department but also from other ones. And we would hang on every word of the Teacher, who graphically and keenly gave life to Aristotle, Thucydides, and Hippocrates before us with his excellent Greek. The project discusses the words περίπατος (Peripatus) and περιπατητικός (Peripatetic): What do they mean and how were they associated with Aristotle, his students, and his school? During its writing, I was delighted to cooperate with Professor Dimitrios Lypourlis and listen to his remarks, comments, and corrections. And he was such a smiling and kind man! When I came upon that long ago forgotten project, while looking for something else, I thought that perhaps it would be worth elaborating it to become a short book and hand it over to the reading audience. Of course, the text was enriched with other elements about Aristotle as well so that it has a more complete form. However, since Aristotle is a link -actually, one of the most important ones- in a chain that connects him with the antecedent and the succeeding philosophers and thinkers, it was deemed necessary to make a sententious reference to the history of the Ancient Greek in general. This book is not aimed at adepts but at those who know nothing about Aristotle, yet they would like to do so; at those who maybe are hemmed in the virtual world of Social Media, yet they would like to escape from it –even for a little while. That is why this book is brief and concise. Reading this book is the first step, that is, simply the introduction to the marvelous world of the Greek philosophers. In case you have the desire to study more deeply the Ancient Greek philosophy after reading it, all you have to do is select one of the great books which are listed in the bibliography and were our sources regarding whatever we mention. We tried to make everything that is presented in this book totally comprehensible to the average reader. It is undoubtedly a hard endeavour when it is about one of the top philosophers of all times, Aristotle. However, I ventured it! It is you that will judge how closely I reached my goal. I hope that reading this book will be fruitful for everyone! Kyriakos Georgiadis Serres, Greece, 2020 PS: Many of those which are mentioned in the book are educational materials of the synchronous and asynchronous online courses we teach, which have the name: “Ancient and Modern Greek Language, History, and Culture Courses for people of all ages”. You can find more details about them by entering our website: www.gnomonpedia.com