Ancient Greek The original followers of Aristotle were the members of the
Peripatetic school. The most prominent members of the school after Aristotle were
Theophrastus and
Strato of Lampsacus, who both continued Aristotle's researches. During the
Roman era, the school concentrated on preserving and defending his work. The most important figure in this regard was
Alexander of Aphrodisias who commentated on Aristotle's writings. With the rise of
Neoplatonism in the 3rd century, Peripateticism as an independent philosophy came to an end. Still, the Neoplatonists sought to incorporate Aristotle's philosophy within their own system and produced many
commentaries on Aristotle.
Byzantine Empire Byzantine Aristotelianism emerged in the
Byzantine Empire in the two decades after 1118 through the initiative of the princess
Anna Comnena, who commissioned a number of scholars to write commentaries on previously neglected works of Aristotle.
Michael of Ephesus wrote commentaries on the works of Aristotle's animal biology, on the
Sophistical Refutations, the only work of the
Organon not to have a commentary, and the
Politics, completing the series of commentaries on Aristotle's extant works. Byzantine philosophers also filled in the gaps in the commentaries that had survived down to their time; Alexander of Aphrodisias' commentary on the Metaphysics, of which only the first five books survived, was completed by Michael of Ephesus, who, along with
Eustratius, compiled a number of fragmentary commentaries on the
Nicomachean Ethics which they supplemented with their own interpretations. Under the
caliphs Harun al-Rashid and his son
Al-Ma'mun, the
House of Wisdom in
Baghdad flourished. Christian scholar
Hunayn ibn Ishaq (809–873) was placed in charge of the translation work by the caliph. In his lifetime, Ishaq translated 116 writings, including works by Plato and Aristotle, into
Syriac and Arabic. With the founding of House of Wisdom, the entire corpus of Aristotelian works that had been preserved (excluding the
Eudemian Ethics,
Magna Moralia and
Politics) became available, along with its Greek commentators; this corpus laid a uniform foundation for
Islamic Aristotelianism.
Al-Kindi (801–873) was the first of the Muslim
Peripatetic philosophers and is known for his efforts to introduce
Greek and
Hellenistic philosophy to the
Arab world. He incorporated Aristotelian and Neoplatonist thought into an Islamic philosophical framework. This was an important factor in the introduction and popularization of Greek philosophy in the Muslim intellectual world. In the 9th century, Persian astrologer
Albumasarl's
Introductorium in Astronomiam was one of the most important sources for the recovery of Aristotle for medieval European scholars. The philosopher
Al-Farabi (872–950) had great influence on science and philosophy for several centuries, and in his time was widely thought second only to Aristotle in knowledge (alluded to by his title of "the Second Teacher"). His work, aimed at synthesis of philosophy and
Sufism, paved the way for the work of
Avicenna (980–1037). Avicenna was one of the main interpreters of Aristotle. The school of thought he founded became known as
Avicennism, which was built on ingredients and conceptual building blocks that are largely Aristotelian and Neoplatonist. At the western end of the
Mediterranean Sea, during the reign of
Al-Hakam II (961 to 976) in
Córdoba, a massive translation effort was undertaken, and many books were translated into Arabic.
Averroes (1126–1198), who spent much of his life in Cordoba and
Seville, was especially distinguished as a commentator of Aristotle. He often wrote two or three different commentaries on the same work, and some 38 commentaries by Averroes on the works of Aristotle have been identified. Although his writings had an only marginal impact in Islamic countries, his works would eventually have a huge impact in the
Latin West, From that time until the end of the eleventh century, little progress is apparent in Aristotelian knowledge. thus making the complete Aristotelian logical corpus, the
Organon, available in Latin for the first time. Scholars travelled to areas of Europe that once had been under Muslim rule and still had substantial Arabic-speaking populations. From central
Spain, which had returned to Christian rule in the eleventh century, scholars produced many of the
Latin translations of the 12th century. The most productive of these translators was
Gerard of Cremona, (–1187), who translated 87 books, which included many of the works of
Aristotle such as his
Posterior Analytics,
Physics,
On the Heavens,
On Generation and Corruption, and
Meteorology.
Michael Scot (–1232) translated
Averroes' commentaries on the scientific works of Aristotle. Aristotle's physical writings began to be discussed openly. At a time when Aristotle's method was permeating all theology, these treatises were sufficient to cause his prohibition for
heterodoxy in the
Condemnations of 1210–1277. However, despite further attempts to restrict the teaching of Aristotle, by 1270, the ban on Aristotle's natural philosophy was ineffective.
William of Moerbeke (–1286) undertook a complete translation of the works of Aristotle or, for some portions, a revision of existing translations. He was the first translator of the
Politics () from Greek into Latin. Many copies of Aristotle in Latin then in circulation were assumed to have been influenced by Averroes, who was suspected of being a source of philosophical and theological errors found in the earlier translations of Aristotle. Such claims were without merit, however, as the
Alexandrian Aristotelianism of Averroes followed "the strict study of the text of Aristotle, which was introduced by Avicenna, [because] a large amount of traditional
Neoplatonism was incorporated with the body of traditional Aristotelianism".
Albertus Magnus (–1280) was among the first medieval scholars to apply Aristotle's philosophy to Christian thought. He produced paraphrases of most of the works of Aristotle available to him. He digested, interpreted and systematized the whole of Aristotle's works, gleaned from the Latin translations and notes of the Arabian commentators, in accordance with Church doctrine. His efforts resulted in the formation of a Christian reception of Aristotle in the Western Europe. which sought to harmonize
Aristotle with
Plato through interpretation (see for example
Porphyry's
On Plato and Aristotle Being Adherents of the Same School). Albertus famously wrote:
Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the pupil of Albertus Magnus, wrote a dozen commentaries on the works of Aristotle. Thomas was emphatically Aristotelian, he adopted Aristotle's analysis of physical objects, his view of place, time and motion, his proof of the prime mover, his cosmology, his account of sense perception and intellectual knowledge, and even parts of his
moral philosophy. Hegel's influence is now often said to be responsible for an important Aristotelian influence upon
Marx.
Postmodernists, in contrast, reject Aristotelianism's claim to reveal important theoretical truths. In this, they follow
Heidegger's critique of Aristotle as the greatest source of the entire tradition of Western philosophy. ==Contemporary==