Aristotelian

Excellence is a habit; virtue lives in the mean.
c. 335 BCE onward; revived in the 13th century
Athens → medieval Europe
A brief history

Aristotle, Plato's most famous student, broke from his teacher and founded the Lyceum in Athens around 335 BCE; his followers were called Peripatetics, supposedly for his habit of teaching while walking. Where Plato looked to ideal Forms, Aristotle looked at the world itself — pioneering logic, biology, and an ethics built on virtue as a “golden mean” between extremes, aimed at eudaimonia, or human flourishing. His work was rediscovered in medieval Europe and fused with Christian thought by Thomas Aquinas.

Key voices
  • Aristotlefounder, 384–322 BCE
  • Theophrastussuccessor at the Lyceum
  • Averroesmedieval commentator, 12th c.
  • Thomas AquinasScholastic, 13th c.
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