Peripatetics

Peripatetics was the name of a sect of philosophers at Athens who were the disciples of Aristotle. It is doubtful whether they received this name from the place where they were taught, called Peripaton, in the Lyceum, or because they received the philosopher's lectures as they walked (περιπατοῦντες). The Peripatetics acknowledged the dignity of human nature, and placed their summum bonum not in the pleasures of passive sensation, but in the due exercise of the moral and intellectual faculties. The habit of this exercise, when guided by reason, constituted the highest excellence of man. The philosopher contended that our own happiness chiefly depends upon ourselves; and while he did not require in his followers that self-command to which others pretended, lie allowed a moderate degree of perturbation as becoming human nature; and he considered a certain sensibility of passion quite necessary, as by resentment we are enabled to repel injuries, and the smart which past calamities have inflicted renders us careful to avoid the repetition. See Philo Judaeus, Opera, 4:423 sq.; Lewes, Hist. of Philos. vol. ii; Ueberweg, Hist. of Philos. 1:180 sq.; Grote, Life of Aristotle. SEE ARISTOTLE.