Aristotle. A pupil of Plato, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) founded in 335 B.C.E. his own philosophical school, the Lyceum, slightly to the northeast of Athens. Like Plato's Academy, the Lyceum was legally organized as a thiasos, a cult dedicated to the Muses. The buildings of the Lyceum included a peripatos (covered court). Because he taught in the peripatos, Aristotle and his followers and called "Peripatetics."

Writings. Aristotle was an extremely prolific writer who also gave many lectures and supervised his students in wide-ranging researches, which resulted in encyclopedic collections of written materials such as the constitutions of all the Greek cities. What has been preserved of Aristotle's work, despite its substantial volume, is a small and rather paradoxically limited selection. Aristotle wrote various exoteric works for publication in the sense of circulation to an audience outside the Academy...