✦ About the Name Peirastēs
Peirastēs (πειραστής) comes from the Greek peira (πεῖρα), meaning trial, attempt, or experience, with the agentive suffix -stēs, “one who does.” Thus, the name translates to “one who tests or tries.” Aristotle spoke of the peirastic art (peirastikē, πειραστική) within dialectic—a practice of “fitting for trial,” where arguments are examined to see whether they hold or collapse under questioning.
In that spirit, peirastic inquiry does not begin by seeking confirmation, but by seeking to falsify what cannot endure trial. It is the art of asking the question most likely to expose weakness, so that what survives is nearer to truth. The peirastēs is thus one who advances understanding by testing, by trial, and by discovering what remains after the attempt to break it.