ABSTRACT
John Philoponus was an Alexandrian polymath, one of the most outstanding and original thinkers of the Neo-Platonic school of Ammonius. The literal meaning of the sobriquet Philoponus is 'lover of work', and it was a name given to the most industrious scholars in antiquity. Some scholars have suggested that it may also refer to the Alexandrian guilds of philoponoi-a community of very committed Christian lay workers. The scholars developed and taught their philosophy by composing commentaries on the texts of Plato and Aristotle, who were considered as 'authorities of truth'. Philosophical training began with the study of Aristotle, and then the study of the works of Plato. As a pupil of Ammonius, John was responsible for recording his teachers’ lectures on a number of Aristotle’s works: On Generation and Corruption ; On the Soul; Prior Analytics ; and Posterior Analytics.
