John Philoponus

c. 490 CE–c. 570 CE · Alexandria

John Philoponus ('the lover of work'), also called John the Grammarian (c. 490-c. 570 CE), was a Greek philosopher and Christian theologian of Alexandria. A pupil of the Neoplatonist Ammonius, he wrote extensive commentaries on Aristotle but broke with received doctrine on important points, notably arguing against the eternity of the world and developing an early critique of Aristotle's physics that anticipated later theories of motion. His ideas influenced later medieval and Islamic thought.

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AlexandriaEgypt

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About Alexandria

Alexandria is the main Mediterranean port of northern Egypt and the country's second city. Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE, it became the capital of the Ptolemies, whose Museum and Great Library made it the leading centre of Hellenistic learning. It also held one of the largest Jewish communities of antiquity, where the Greek Bible translation known as the Septuagint was produced and Philo wrote. Church tradition traces its patriarchate to Mark the Evangelist, and its catechetical school was led by Clement and Origen. Arab forces under Amr ibn al-As took the city in 641, and it remained a commercial and scholarly hub of the Islamic world; the Sufi master Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari was born there.

In Alexandria at the same time

Ammonius, Eutocius, David the Invincible, Olympiodorus, Elias Neoplatonicus

Across the traditions, in Alexandria at the same time

See other sages who lived in Alexandria→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with John Philoponus’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

Across the traditions

Theodosius of Alexandria· Alexandria

In the same tradition

Ammonius, Eutocius, David the Invincible, Olympiodorus, Elias Neoplatonicus

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with John Philoponus’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.