  John Philoponus, a Christian philosopher, scientist, and theologian who lived approximately from 490 to 570 CE, is also known as John the Grammarian or John of Alexandria. The epithet ‘Philoponus’ means literally ‘Lover of toil’.  Philoponus’ life and work are closely connected to the city of Alexandria and the Alexandrian Neoplatonic school. Although the Aristotelian-Neoplatonic tradition was the source of his intellectual roots and concerns, he was an original thinker who eventually broke with that tradition in many important respects, both substantive and methodological, and cleared part of the way which led to more critical and empirical approaches in the natural sciences. Which intellectual, religious, or other cultural circumstances of his life and times may have put Philoponus into the position to initiate and foreshadow the eventual demise of Aristotelianism is a most fascinating question. Scholarship has done much in recent years to arrive at a fuller appreciation of the work and accomplishment of this important late antique philosopher.