Peripatetic philosophy, << `pehr` uh puh TEHT ihk, >> was established by the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Many scholars believe the word peripatetic may be traced to a Greek word meaning a covered walk. At the Lyceum, a school Aristotle founded in Athens, students were taught beneath a covered walk called a peripatos. Peripatetic philosophy may have received its name from this custom.
Aristotle was a pupil of Plato, who felt that a person could reach the truth only by logic and reason. Plato taught that the world of appearances (everyday life) did not accurately represent the real world, which consisted of true ideas. Aristotle believed that reality could not be separated from appearance. He felt that to know reality, a person had to study appearances. Aristotle held that everything except pure form (God) and pure matter was a combination of both form and matter.
