THE PERIPATETICS

The philosophers were no exception to the general picture of failure to grasp the importance of Alexander' achievements and to draw conclusions from his example. There was much that was new in the outlook and vision of those who taught at Athens round about the turn of the century, but their views of mankind were by no means such a clean break with the past as is sometimes claimed. The same lines of thought on the subject which we have found in the decades before Alexander were still followed after his death, and our few remains of philosophical writing for the period contain no evidence of a striking advance towards any radically new conception of humanity.

Awareness of the new world situation might especially have been expected in the Peripatetic school, which from Aristotle onwards paid so much attention to the collection and study of factual information, including geographical knowledge. In the course of time, as we shall see, the Lyceum' persistent concern with facts became a strong influence in the direction of a new grasp of the idea of mankind as a geographical aggregate; but neither Aristotle nor his immediate followers seem to have given Alexander or his policies or the results of his conquests the consideration they deserved.