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Diogenes Laërtius (Greek: Διογένης Λαέρτιος, Diogénes Laértios), the biographer of the Greek philosophers, is supposed by some to have received his surname from the town of Laerte in Cilicia, Asia Minor, and by others from the Roman family of the Laërtii.
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Life
Nothing is known of the circumstances of his life. He must have lived after Sextus Empiricus (c. 200 AD), whom he mentions, and before Stephanus of Byzantium (c. 500 AD), who quotes him. It is probable that he flourished in the first half of the third century, during the reign of Alexander Severus (222–235) and his successors.
Writings
His own opinions are equally uncertain. By some he was regarded as a Christian; but it seems more probable that he was either a sceptic or, more likely, an Epicurean.[1] The work by which he is known, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, was written in Greek and professes to give an account of the lives and sayings of the Greek philosophers. Although it is at best an uncritical and unphilosophical compilation, its value, as giving us an insight into the private lives of the Greek sages, justly led Montaigne to exclaim that he wished that instead of one Laërtius there had been a dozen. On the other hand, modern scholars have advised that we take Diogenes' testimonia with a grain of salt, especially when he fails to cite his sources; for instance, an editor of a modern, scholarly edition of Lives says, "Diogenes has acquired an importance out of all proportion to his merits because the loss of many primary sources and of the earlier secondary compilations has accidentally left him the chief continuous source for the history of Greek philosophy."[2]
Diogenes treats his subject in two divisions which he describes as the Ionian and the Italian schools; the division is somewhat dubious and appears to be drawn from the lost doxography of Sotion. The biographies of the former begin with Anaximander, and end with Clitomachus, Theophrastus and Chrysippus; the latter begins with Pythagoras, and ends with Epicurus. The Socratic school, with its various branches, is classed with the Ionic; while the Eleatics and sceptics are treated under the Italic.
The whole of the last book is devoted to Epicurus, and contains three most interesting letters addressed to Herodotus, Pythocles and Menoeceus. His chief authorities were Diocles of Magnesia's Cursory Notice of Philosophers and Favorinus's Miscellaneous History and Memoirs. From the statements of Burlaeus (Walter Burley, a 14th-century monk) in his De vita et moribus philosophorum the text of Diogenes seems to have been much fuller than that which we now possess. In addition to the Lives, Diogenes was the author of a work in verse on famous men, in various metres.
Quotation
- The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.
Notes
- ^ On Diogenes' treatment of scepticism, see Jonathan Barnes (1992).
- ^ p. xix, Herbert S. Long, ed., Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers, volume 1, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1972.
Bibliography
- Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers ISBN 0-674-99204-0
- Trans. R. D. Hicks, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, I, 1925. Harvard University Press, Loeb Classical Library, ISBN 978-0-674-99203-0
- Trans. R. D. Hicks, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, II, 1925. Harvard University Press, Loeb Classical Library, ISBN 978-0-674-99204-7
- Barnes, Jonathan, "Diogenes Laertius IX 61-116: the philosophy of Pyrrhonism" in W. Haase and H. Temporini (ed.) Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, II 36.6 (de Gruyter: Berlin/New York, 1992): pp. 4241-4301.
References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
External links
- On-line version of Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. (Note that this version's method of enumerating the sections of Diogenes' Lives differs from the currently standard method.)
- Diogenes Laertius: the Manuscripts of "The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosphers" (notes on the publication history of Diogenes Laertius, from R.D. Hicks' edition of the "Lives", 1925)
- On-line version of the ancient Greek text of Diogenes' Lives
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 19 September 2008, at 00:46.
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