Daniel Philippidis

Daniel Philippidis (; ; c. 1750 – 1832) was a Greek scholar, figure of the modern Greek Enlightenment and member of the patriotic organization Filiki Etaireia. He was one of the most active scholars of the Greek diaspora in the Danubian Principalities and Western Europe. Philippidis mainly wrote geographical and historical works as well as translated important handbooks of science and philosophy.

Life Philippidis was born in Milies, a village in Thessaly, Ottoman Empire (present-day Greece), and received early schooling in his home town. He attended the Athonite Academy, in Mount Athos but the poor quality of teaching after the departure of Eugenios Voulgaris frustrated him and in 1779 he continued his studies at the School of Saint Minas in Chios. A year later he moved to Romania and studied at the Princely Academy of Bucharest under notable scholars such as Neophytos Kavsokalyvitis. Philippidis remained in Bucharest until 1784 and became a teacher at the Princely Academy of Iaşi from 1784 to 1786.

In 1788 he moved to Vienna, where he became acquainted with Anthimos Gazis, scholar and publisher of the periodical Hermes o Logios. Two years later he is found in Paris, where he witnessed the outbreak of the French Revolution. His stay in Paris was crucial for the development of his philosophical and scientific views. There he had the opportunity to attend lessons presented by important scientists such as the astronomer Jérôme Lalande and the geographer Jean-Denis Barbié du Bocage. They addressed the political instability and the economic decay of the Ottoman Empire and reflected a new revolutionary era in European history after the outbreak of the French Revolution. This work was welcomed with enthousiasm by western intellectuals, especially in France, on the other hand it was largely neglected among Greek scholars, mainly due to the vernacular (Demotic) language the authors used.

In 1816 Pilippidis published two books dedicated to the history and geography of Romania: Ιστορία της Ρουμουνίας, (History of Romania), and Γεωγραφικόν της Ρουμουνίας, (Geographical account of Romania) in Leipzig, in which he adopted the views of various contemporary Romanian scholars. He examined the history of the three Romanian principalities, Walachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania, through an acceptance of their historical unity. On the other hand, Greek intellectuals, and especially those involved with the journal Hermes o Logios printed in Vienna from 1811 to 1821, adopted a negative attitude toward Philippidis' historical studies and linguistic approach in the Greek language question.

In 1817 he wrote the philosophical work Απόπειρα Αναλύσεως του Νοουμένου (Attempt to analyze thought, Leipzig). Philippidis also translated a number of works including: Λογική (Logic by Étienne Bonnot de Condillac), Vienna, 1801 Επιτομή της Αστρονομίας, (Astronomic Epitomes by Jérôme Lalande), Vienna, 1803 Επιτομή των Φιλιππικών, (Epitome of Philippic history by Pompeius Trogus), Leipzig, 1817 Επιτομή των Ρωμαϊκών, (Epitome of Roman history by Florus), Leipzig, 1818