Adamadios Korais was the son of a rich family from Chios Island that had a great background of scholars and intellectuals. He was born in Smyrna in 1748; he is son of Ioannis Korais from Chios and Thomais Risiou from Smyrna. He received good education at his birthplace; he studied medicine in Montpellier but finally he devoted himself to philology.

Korais was lucky by nature; he was gifted with great intellectual abilities that gave him the opportunity to acquire a multidisciplinary knowledge. His sharp-wittedness and the sharpness of his mind, combined with hard work gave him the capability to become a leading classical scholar in his time. In Paris where he used to reside, he experienced the spirit of liberalism and progressive ideas and he witnessed the French Revolution.

Being a free spirit he abjured those ideas that he thought would harm his nation, causing reactions from different sides. A typical harsh response of his is the one he wrote and published anonymously in 1798 entitled Αδελφική διδασκαλία against the editor of an obsequious pamphlet entitled Πατρική διδασκαλία , which call Greeks to remain faithful to the Sultan and Ottoman tyranny. Korais accuses the writer that he “defends and justifies the Turks’ tyranny” and calls Greeks to rise to the occasion and prove equal to their ancestors and to throw off the Turkish yoke.

In 1803 in Paris he printed the revolutionary pamphlet Σάλπισμα Πολεμιστήριον , by which he called Greeks to throw off their yoke, taking into account the French victories of Napoleon in Egypt. The same year, to turn French public opinion more favourable to enslaved Greece, he presents a paper in the Societe des Observateurs de l’ Homme under the title Υπόμνημα περί της παρούσης καταστάσεως της Ελλάδος . This memorandum, along with other works by prominent men of that time, contributed greatly to the formation of the philhellenic movement in France. Two years later he publishes a patriot pamphlet written in the form of a dialogue entitled Τι πρέπει να κάμωσιν οι Γραικοί κατά τας παρούσας περιστάσεις . Διάλογοι δύο Γραικών όταν ήκουσαν τας λαμπράς νίκας του αυτοκράτορος Ναπολέοντος . The later failure of Napoleon disappoints Korais and makes him believe that for Greeks to be able to liberate themselves it needs time for raising national awareness and education.

Then, he becomes interested in publishing ancient Greeks writers because he believed that thus he would contribute to the enlightenment of his fellow Greeks. In the following years and with the financial support of rich Greeks living abroad he publishes ancient writers in a series under the general title “ Ελληνική Βιβλιοθήκη ”. Alexandros Vassiliou, a trader from Vienna and friend of Korais finances his first publications and then he mediates himself and convinces the Zosimades brothers who were wealthy traders to take up the financing of this endeavour.  The series “ Ελληνική Βιβλιοθήκη ” that shall complete in the first years of the Struggle comprises works by Hippocrates, Isocrates, Plutarch, Strabo, Aristotle, Plato, Xenophon, Arrian, Marcus Aurelius and other.

In the long prefaces of his publications entitled “Aftoshedii Stohasmi peri tis ellinicis pedias kai glossis” he presents his views on intellectual and other matters, which generated debate and conflict among the intellectuals of the time.

At the same time, he encourages and supports morally and intellectually the publication of the progressive journal Logios Ermis by Anthimos Gazis (1811-1815) and Theoklitos Farmakidis and Konstandinos Kokkinakis (1816-1821). At this time, he also engages in a philological debate with the intellectual and teacher from Epirus Neophitos Doucas and the Phanariot e intellectual Panagiotis Kodricas. The main topic of their debate was language.

Korais lived in Paris and had contact with the enlightening trends of the time and thus he considered it unrealistic to establish the archaic or the ancient form of Greek as the written language for modern Greeks. On the other hand, the existing linguistic situation with the numerous dialects, the abundance of foreign words and the illiteracy of the people made it difficult to adopt a common Modern Greek language. The theory of Korais as regards the language is summarized in the phrase “neither tyrants of the vulgar neither slaves of their vulgarity […] macaronic language is equally monstrous as maliari language (exaggerated vulgar language); he believed that they should follow the middle course in the question of language, that it is to establish a language tool combining the vivid language of the people free of extremes, but also to introduce vocabulary from ancient Greek, where necessary.

When the Greek revolution broke out, he was first cautious about the entire endeavour, because he believed that Greeks had to be educated first and then seek their national independence. However, he later became a champion of the Greek struggle and from his position in Paris he contributed decisively to raising awareness in Europe as regards the rights of Greeks. After the creation of the first Greek state he became a pitiless critic of Kapodistrias because he was badly informed and believed that the Governor wanted to impose upon the people some sort of tyranny.

In 1831 he publishes his last book Ιερατικός Συνέκδημος   and shortly after that his Αυτοβιογραφία [Autobiography]. He reads the most progressive newspapers of the time, he engages in politics and he gives advice to his students. In May 1833 after a domestic accident he dies at the age of 85 years.