Theophrastos

A great scholar of ancient Greece. He was a student of Aristotle, his collaborator and successor. He was born in Eresus, Lesbos. He accompanied his teacher on his journeys through Asia Minor, and together with him founded the Peripatetic school (Aristotelian school) in Athens. He is considered the father of botany, and was a scientist who demonstrated his talents in empirical research based on observation and investigation, and made a great contribution to the establishment and development of Greek learning. He is said to have written over 200 works, of which only nine volumes of "Flora," six volumes of "Plant Development," several volumes of "Physical Treatises," "Metaphysics," and others, as well as "Character" ("Many Things"), which is particularly famous and was often imitated by later writers. Furthermore, the "Natural Sciences," which remain in fragments, are valuable as a major source of pre-Socratic philosophy, and "Laws" is important as a source of Greek law.

[Tanaka Takahide]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

古代ギリシアの大学者。アリストテレスの弟子で、共同研究者にして後継者。レスボス島エレソスの生まれ。師の小アジア遍歴時代から行をともにし、アテネに師とともにペリパトス学派（アリストテレス学派）を開いた。植物学の祖とされるなど、観察や調査に基づく実証的研究に本領を発揮した科学者で、ギリシアの学問の成立と発展に果たした功績は絶大である。200に余る著作があったとされるが、現存するものは『植物誌』9巻、『植物発生学』6巻、『自然学的小論』数編、『形而上(けいじじょう)学』などのほか、とくに有名なのは『性格論』（『人さまざま』）で、後世の文学者にしばしば模倣された。さらに、断片として残る『自然学者学説集』が、ソクラテス以前の哲学史の主要資料として貴重であり、『法律』はギリシアの法制資料として重要である。

［田中享英］

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