DOCSLIB.ORG

Chapter One the SAYING of ANTISTHENES the ASKESIS of the EARLY GREEK CYNICS

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Chapter One the SAYING of ANTISTHENES the ASKESIS of the EARLY GREEK CYNICS Chapter One THE SA YING OF ANTISTHENES & THE ASKESIS OF THE EARLY GREEK CYNICS ] 'aitOlgolfrs distinglle, en ejfet, dans Ie diJ"Collrs, Ie di11? et Ie dit. QIIe Ie di11? doive fomporterlin dit est line nefessite dllme me ord11? qlle felle qlli imp ose line societe, avec des lo is, des institlltions et des 11?lations so ciales. iVlaisIe dire, e'est Ie foit que de vant Ie visagei: ne restepas simplement /a a Ie contempler,je Ill i riponds. Ledire est linemaniere de saltier alllmi, mais saltier alltmi, e'est dija ripond11? de Illi. (E. Livinas, Ethiqlle et bifini, Paris: FCfYard, 1982, pp . 92-93) The valrle!essnw" ofItfo (die Werlhlosigkeit des le bms) was grasped by the 0nics, bllt it wasn 'tyet app lied against Itfl . (F.Nie tZJ·,·he, Posth"moIlJ" Fragments Slimmer 1882-Spnng 1884, 7[222J) Introduction In this part of the dissertation, I will be considering the early Greek Cynics, and particularly Antisthenes and Diogenes of Sinope. I will analyzeAntisthenes' ethics and theory of language before studying the ethics of the early Greek Cynics.l Rather than distinguishing between Antisthenes' ethics and theory oflanguage as most earlier scholars have done, I will try to show how his theory oflanguage 1 Our main primarysou rce fo r Antisthenes and the early Greek Cynics is Diogenes Laertius. The SL...:th book of his Lives and Opinions oj-Eminent Philosophersis dedicated to the early Cynics. There are also various references in Aristotle, Stobaeus, Plutarch, the Gnom% giJ{m Vati,"tlnllm, Philodemus, Clement of Alexandria, Sirnplicius,Julian, and Epictetus, just to cite a fe "T. The most complete collections of these references can be found in Fernanda Decleva Caizzi's Antisthenis Fragmenta, tvIilano: Istituto Editoriale Cisalpino, 1966, Gabriele Giannantoni's Socraticomm Reliqlliae, volumes II and III, Roma: Edizioni dell'Ateneo, 1983, and Leonce Paquet's Us Cyniqlles Grees, Ottawa: Presses de l'Universite d'Ottawa, 1988 (1975), and Paris: Librairie Generale de France, 1992. The mainse condary sources that have dealt directly with the subject-after E. Zeller,T. Gomperz, WI.Ja eger. K.Joe l, K. von Fritz, A.-J. Festugiere, and G. Rodier-are Donald C. Dudley, Farrand Sayre, R. HOlstad, I. M. Nakhov, H. D. Rankin,Marie-Odile Go ulet-Caze, Margarethe Billerbeke, Audrey N. M. Rich, Heinrich Niehus-Probsting, Aida Branccaci, and Robert Bracht Branham. is a practical application or a strategy that has direct implication fo r his ethical project. Antisthenes' ethical project consisted of making of philosophya way of living and acting rather than an elaboration of general theories involving concepts and universal considerations. Thisway ofliving entails a constant unlearning ofconventional habits and a continuous effort towards self-sufficiencyand the strengthening of one's character. In analyzing Antisthenes' theory of language, I will concentrate on his so-called "theory of unique enunciation." In order to linkAntisthenes' theory of language with his ethics and his anti-conventional stance, I will study his approach to communication before briefly assessing relevant similarities and differences between certain positions of Antisthenes and those of some Skeptics, Sophists, Cyrenaics, and Megarians. I will finally use concrete examples, drawn from reports of Antisthenes' and Diogenes' life stories, to support the claim that Antisthenes' approach to communication is a practical strategy supporting his ethical outlook. I will then present the Cynic way oflif e as exemplified by Diogenes of Sinope. I will describe how Diogenes and later Cynics rejected any approach that might have a theoretical framework and resorted instead to radical "direct action" mix ed with derision and mockery. Their way of living becomes an askesis that aims at getting away from laws and social conventions, but als o from honor, virtue, and the idea of "goodness" that Antisthenes was still attached to. Rather than having a set "measure" fo r their askesis--as Socrates was to Antisthenes-the Cynics wanted to become closer to beasts and to gods, something that is neither impossible nor possible to assess or concretize. While virtue cannot be unlearned fo r Antisthenes, there is no such virtue to be leamed, and nothing, or very little, has any lasting effects fo r Diogenes and the later Cynics who rejected most of Antisthenes ' positive practices-suchas his attempts to salvage celt1.inaspects of communicationby regulatingwhat in language should or shouldn't be used. What I will try to show is that practices such as anaideia and parrhesia were necessary fo r the Cynics in order to constandy di stance and differentiate themselves from 21 others and from cchonor," CCglory," and other ingrained values and beliefs set by conventions. For them, possessions of all sorts need to be given up: not only materialones but also the so-called ccspiritual" ones of the kind that Antisthenes proclaimed in Xenophon's Symposillm. The Cynic self-sufficiency doesn't present an economy that saves or accounts fo r constructing anything. Socrates and Antisthenes questioned laws and conventions in order to build on a more solid ground, a ground that is practical and more cctruthfuL" \"X'hil e fo r Socrates, this ground may be based on knowledge, and fo r Antisthenes, it may be based on strength ofcharacter and firmness of the will, Diogenes and the later Cynics could not look fo r a firmground nor could they want to solidly build anything, since the world is dominated by (yche and they have to learn to adapt to a process of constant change and transformation. AboutAntisthenes The child of an Athenian fa ther and a Thracian mother, Antisthenes 2 flourishedaround 420-370 B.C£' He became a close friend and associate of Socrates after reportedly studying with Gorgias of Leontium (fl. 440 B.C£' and visited Athens around 427 B.CE.) and had many ccsophist" friends, such as Prodicus and Hippias. Although wealthy enough not to worry about his livelihood, he professed extreme austerity-to the point where Socrates supposedly criticized him for showing off his tom cloak.3 Antisthenes is said to be one of the precursors, ifnot the fo under, of ancient Greek Cynicism. The opinions about this issue vary: some consider him the fo under of Cynicism, others claim that he has no relation whatsoever to Cynicism, whilea majority of today's scholarship finds clear indications 2 CE. Diogenes Laertius, Uoes ofEmi nent Philosophers VI, 1-19, R. D. Hicks (translator), Cambridge, London: Harvard University Press, 1991 (1925, 1931) and Xenophon, Banqlfet IV, 34-45, O. J Todd (translator), Cambridge, London: Harvard University Press, 1947 (1 922), as well as Donald R. Dudley, A His/oT] ofCyn idsm, pp. 1-16, HiIdesheim: Georg OIms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1967 (1937), and Farrand Sayre, C<Antisthenes the Socratic" inDie I<;yllikerin dermodemen Forschlfng, Margarethe Billerbeck (editor), Amsterdam: B. R. Gruner, 1991, pp. 73-85. 3 Cf. Diogenes Laertius, VI, 8 and Aelian, Var. His!. LX , 35 (Caizzi 148A) . 22 that Cynic doctrines had been largely influenced by some of his positions. Traditional scholarship, fo llowing Diogenes Laertius and Cicero,oJ has considered Antisthenes to be the initiatorof the Cynic way of living. \V hile Zeller, Grote, Maier, Gomperz, Festugiere, and Rodier, continued to consider Antisthenes as the founder ofCynicism,5 Dudley-after Dupreel-tried to prove that Antisthenes had no C<direct connexion" with the Cynics and fo und in the need to trace a Stoic lineage, or C<succession," going back to Socrates the reason why he was ascribed this role.6 Dudley is supported by the fa ct that Aristode,Theop hrastus, and Xenophon do not associate Antistheneswith the Cynicsor with any major Cynic characteristics. Both Theophrastus and .Anstode were well aware of "Cynic" practices and one may speculate on why they neglected to point out any association between Antisthenes-and the "Antistheneans" (A ntistheneiot) -and Diogenes of Sin ope -or "the Dog."; Sayre also attempts to show, from a different angle, that Antisthenes had nothing to do \V- ith the Cynics, and joins Schwartz and Wilamowitz-Mollendorff in rejecting any connection of Antisthenes to the Cynics.8 Nowadays, fo llowing] oel and von Fritz, Giannantoni, Goulet-Caze, and most recendy Long, agree that Antisthenes oJ C£ Diogenes Laertius, VI, 2 and Cicero, De Oral. III, 17 (Caizzi 134B) . 5 Check the bibliography fo � references. 6 Cf. Dudley, A Hislory ofy' nicism, pp. 1-5 and Eugene Dupreel, La Lig ende SOtTaliqlle et les SOllrces de Platon, Bruxelles, 1922, pp. 372-386. Dupreel, finding support inPaul Tannery's "Sur Diodore d'Aspendos" (inArc hiv jiir Gesdlichte de r Philo sophie, 1896, p. 176) and inAesch ines' Te lattges and Cillias, tries to show that the Cynics were probably an off-shoot of a Pythagorean sect which could be traced to the Diodorus of Aspendos mentioned in Diogenes Laertius VI, 13 (and Athenaeus IV, 163E). i C£ Diogenes Laertius, V, 43, Aristotle's Top. 104b 20, Alet. 1024b 32 and 1043b 24, PoL 1284a 15, Rhet. 1407a 9-10 and 141 1a 24-25, as well as A.A. Long's "The Socratic Tradition" in The y'nit'J', Braham & Goulet-Caze (eds.), Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University ofCalifomia Press, 1996, pp. 28-46. Also c£ Goulet-CazC's most recent contributionto the reading of Aristotle's Rhet. 1411a 24-25 in "\'{fho was the Firs t Dog?," The y'nia, pp. 414-415. 8 Sayre, op. cit., pp.80-83; Schwartz, ''Diogenes der Hund und Krates derKyniker" inCh araklerkiipfi ailS derantiken Literatllr, volume 2, Leipzig: Teubner, 1911, pp. 1-23; and Wilamowitz-M6llendorff, U. von, Platon, Berlin: Weidemann, 1920, vol. 1, pp. 259ff, vol 2, pp. 162ff. 23 was not the founder of Cynicism but that he influenced Cynicism to a great extent.9 I subscribe to the view that Antisthenes has gready influenced the Cynics and, whether we consider him as a precursor of the movement or not, there is an intricate connectionbet ween some of his epistemological, linguistic, and ethical stances and the standpoints of Diogenes of Sinope and later Cynics.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • KEIMPE ALGRA 155-184.Qxd
    Ο Ζήνων ο Κιτιέας και η Στωική κοσμολογία: μερικές σημειώσεις και δυο συγκεκριμένες περιπτώσεις. KEIMPE ALGRA Η έκταση και η φύση της συμβολής του Ζήνωνα στη Στωική φυσική και κοσμολογία είναι δύσκολο να θεμελιωθούν. Η ανακοίνωση αυτή μελετά μερικά από τα σχετικά προβλήματα. Η χρήση της ονομαστικής ετικέτας "Ζήνων" από τις αρχαίες μας πηγές δε θα πρέπει πάντα να αξιολογείται επιφανειακά, και η απόδοση καθώς και η διευθέτηση του υλικού του Hans Von Arnim στο Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (SVF) δε θα πρέπει να γίνεται αποδεκτή χωρίς κριτική, για λόγους που περιγράφονται σ’ αυτή την εργασία. Παρέχονται δύο συγκεκριμένες περιπτώσεις αποσπασμάτων, οι οποίες, με μια πιο προσεκτική ματιά, δε θα πρέπει να αποδοθούν στο Ζήνωνα. Τελικά, υποστηρίζεται ότι ο Ζήνων δεν ήταν παραγωγικός συγγραφέας σε θέματα φυσικής, και ότι έτυχε στους διαδόχους του ( σε μερικούς από αυτούς) – πιο συγκεκριμένα στον Σφαίρο, στον Κλεάνθη και στον Χρύσιππο – να επεξεργαστούν περαιτέρω και να συγκροτήσουν λεπτομερειακά την φυσική κοσμοεικόνα της Στωικής σχολής. Αυτό σημαίνει πως υπάρχουν περιθώρια ανάπτυξης της φυσικής και της κοσμολογίας στα πλαίσια του αρχαίου Στωικισμού, και πως, συνακόλουθα, είναι ζωτικής σημασίας να διακρίνουμε πιο ξεκάθαρα, απ’ ότι συνήθως, τι πρέπει με ασφάλεια να αποδοθεί στο Ζήνωνα και ότι τέτοιου είδους "κοινά στωικά" δόγματα πρέπεί μόνο πιθανά, ή μερικά, να ανιχνευτούν σ΄αυτόν. Zeno of Citium and Stoic Cosmology: some notes and two case studies KEIMPE ALGRA 1 Zeno of Citium, as indeed the early Stoics in general, conceived of philosophy as consisting of three interrelated parts: logic, physics and ethics.1 But although Zeno’s foundational work covered all three areas, he appears to have had his preferences.
    [Show full text]
  • A History of Cynicism
    A HISTORY OF CYNICISM Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com A HISTORY OF CYNICISM From Diogenes to the 6th Century A.D. by DONALD R. DUDLEY F,llow of St. John's College, Cambrid1e Htmy Fellow at Yale University firl mll METHUEN & CO. LTD. LONDON 36 Essex Street, Strand, W.C.2 Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com First published in 1937 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com PREFACE THE research of which this book is the outcome was mainly carried out at St. John's College, Cambridge, Yale University, and Edinburgh University. In the help so generously given to my work I have been no less fortunate than in the scenes in which it was pursued. I am much indebted for criticism and advice to Professor M. Rostovtseff and Professor E. R. Goodonough of Yale, to Professor A. E. Taylor of Edinburgh, to Professor F. M. Cornford of Cambridge, to Professor J. L. Stocks of Liverpool, and to Dr. W. H. Semple of Reading. I should also like to thank the electors of the Henry Fund for enabling me to visit the United States, and the College Council of St. John's for electing me to a Research Fellowship. Finally, to• the unfailing interest, advice and encouragement of Mr. M. P. Charlesworth of St. John's I owe an especial debt which I can hardly hope to repay. These acknowledgements do not exhaust the list of my obligations ; but I hope that other kindnesses have been acknowledged either in the text or privately.
    [Show full text]
  • Meditations the Philosophy Classic
    MEDITATIONS THE PHILOSOPHY CLASSIC MEDITATIONS THE PHILOSOPHY CLASSIC THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER MARCUS AURELIUS WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY DONALD ROBERTSON MEDITATIONS Also available in the same series: Beyond Good and Evil: The Philosophy Classic by Friedrich Nietzsche (ISBN: 978-0-857-08848-2) On the Origin of Species: The Science Classic by Charles Darwin (ISBN: 978-0-857-08847-5) Tao Te Ching: The Ancient Classic by Lao Tzu (ISBN: 978-0-857-08311-1) The Art of War: The Ancient Classic by Sun Tzu (ISBN: 978-0-857-08009-7) The Game of Life and How to Play It: The Self-Help Classic by Florence Scovel Shinn (ISBN: 978-0-857-08840-6) The Interpretation of Dreams: The Psychology Classic by Sigmund Freud (ISBN: 978-0-857-08844-4) The Prince: The Original Classic by Niccolo Machiavelli (ISBN: 978-0-857-08078-3) The Prophet: The Spirituality Classic by Kahlil Gibran (ISBN: 978-0-857-08855-0) The Republic: The Influential Classic by Plato (ISBN: 978-0-857-08313-5) The Science of Getting Rich: The Original Classic by Wallace Wattles (ISBN: 978-0-857-08008-0) The Wealth of Nations: The Economics Classic by Adam Smith (ISBN: 978-0-857-08077-6) Think and Grow Rich: The Original Classic by Napoleon Hill (ISBN: 978-1-906-46559-9) MEDITATIONS The Philosophy Classic MARCUS AURELIUS With an Introduction by DONALD ROBERTSON This edition first published 2020 Introduction copyright © Donald Robertson, 2020 The material for Meditations is based on The Thoughts of the Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus, translated by George Long, published by Bell & Daldy, London 1862, and is now in the public domain.
    [Show full text]
  • Euripides” Johanna Hanink
    The Life of the Author in the Letters of “Euripides” Johanna Hanink N 1694, Joshua Barnes, the eccentric British scholar (and poet) of Greek who the next year would become Regius Professor at the University of Cambridge, published his I 1 long-awaited Euripidis quae extant omnia. This was an enormous edition of Euripides’ works which contained every scrap of Euripidean material—dramatic, fragmentary, and biographical —that Barnes had managed to unearth.2 In the course of pre- paring the volume, Barnes had got wind that Richard Bentley believed that the epistles attributed by many ancient manu- scripts to Euripides were spurious; he therefore wrote to Bentley asking him to elucidate the grounds of his doubt. On 22 February 1693, Bentley returned a letter to Barnes in which he firmly declared that, with regard to the ancient epistles, “tis not Euripides himself that here discourseth, but a puny sophist that acts him.” Bentley did, however, recognize that convincing others of this would be a difficult task: “as for arguments to prove [the letters] spurious, perhaps there are none that will convince any person that doth not discover it by himself.”3 1 On the printing of the book and its early distribution see D. McKitterick, A History of Cambridge University Press I Printing and the Book Trade in Cambridge, 1534–1698 (Cambridge 1992) 380–392; on Joshua Barnes see K. L. Haugen, ODNB 3 (2004) 998–1001. 2 C. Collard, Tragedy, Euripides and Euripideans (Bristol 2007) 199–204, re- hearses a number of criticisms of Barnes’ methods, especially concerning his presentation of Euripidean fragments (for which he often gave no source, and which occasionally consisted of lines from the extant plays).
    [Show full text]
  • Epicurus and the Epicureans on Socrates and the Socratics
    chapter 8 Epicurus and the Epicureans on Socrates and the Socratics F. Javier Campos-Daroca 1 Socrates vs. Epicurus: Ancients and Moderns According to an ancient genre of philosophical historiography, Epicurus and Socrates belonged to distinct traditions or “successions” (diadochai) of philosophers. Diogenes Laertius schematizes this arrangement in the following way: Socrates is placed in the middle of the Ionian tradition, which starts with Thales and Anaximander and subsequently branches out into different schools of thought. The “Italian succession” initiated by Pherecydes and Pythagoras comes to an end with Epicurus.1 Modern views, on the other hand, stress the contrast between Socrates and Epicurus as one between two opposing “ideal types” of philosopher, especially in their ways of teaching and claims about the good life.2 Both ancients and moderns appear to agree on the convenience of keeping Socrates and Epicurus apart, this difference being considered a fundamental lineament of ancient philosophy. As for the ancients, however, we know that other arrangements of philosophical traditions, ones that allowed certain connections between Epicureanism and Socratism, circulated in Hellenistic times.3 Modern outlooks on the issue are also becoming more nuanced. 1 DL 1.13 (Dorandi 2013). An overview of ancient genres of philosophical history can be seen in Mansfeld 1999, 16–25. On Diogenes’ scheme of successions and other late antique versions of it, see Kienle 1961, 3–39. 2 According to Riley 1980, 56, “there was a fundamental difference of opinion concerning the role of the philosopher and his behavior towards his students.” In Riley’s view, “Epicurean criticism was concerned mainly with philosophical style,” not with doctrines (which would explain why Plato was not as heavily attacked as Socrates).
    [Show full text]
  • Thales of Miletus Sources and Interpretations Miletli Thales Kaynaklar Ve Yorumlar
    Thales of Miletus Sources and Interpretations Miletli Thales Kaynaklar ve Yorumlar David Pierce October , Matematics Department Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Istanbul http://mat.msgsu.edu.tr/~dpierce/ Preface Here are notes of what I have been able to find or figure out about Thales of Miletus. They may be useful for anybody interested in Thales. They are not an essay, though they may lead to one. I focus mainly on the ancient sources that we have, and on the mathematics of Thales. I began this work in preparation to give one of several - minute talks at the Thales Meeting (Thales Buluşması) at the ruins of Miletus, now Milet, September , . The talks were in Turkish; the audience were from the general popu- lation. I chose for my title “Thales as the originator of the concept of proof” (Kanıt kavramının öncüsü olarak Thales). An English draft is in an appendix. The Thales Meeting was arranged by the Tourism Research Society (Turizm Araştırmaları Derneği, TURAD) and the office of the mayor of Didim. Part of Aydın province, the district of Didim encompasses the ancient cities of Priene and Miletus, along with the temple of Didyma. The temple was linked to Miletus, and Herodotus refers to it under the name of the family of priests, the Branchidae. I first visited Priene, Didyma, and Miletus in , when teaching at the Nesin Mathematics Village in Şirince, Selçuk, İzmir. The district of Selçuk contains also the ruins of Eph- esus, home town of Heraclitus. In , I drafted my Miletus talk in the Math Village. Since then, I have edited and added to these notes.
    [Show full text]
  • Meet the Philosophers of Ancient Greece
    Meet the Philosophers of Ancient Greece Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Ancient Greek Philosophy but didn’t Know Who to Ask Edited by Patricia F. O’Grady MEET THE PHILOSOPHERS OF ANCIENT GREECE Dedicated to the memory of Panagiotis, a humble man, who found pleasure when reading about the philosophers of Ancient Greece Meet the Philosophers of Ancient Greece Everything you always wanted to know about Ancient Greek philosophy but didn’t know who to ask Edited by PATRICIA F. O’GRADY Flinders University of South Australia © Patricia F. O’Grady 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Patricia F. O’Grady has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identi.ed as the editor of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Wey Court East Suite 420 Union Road 101 Cherry Street Farnham Burlington Surrey, GU9 7PT VT 05401-4405 England USA Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Meet the philosophers of ancient Greece: everything you always wanted to know about ancient Greek philosophy but didn’t know who to ask 1. Philosophy, Ancient 2. Philosophers – Greece 3. Greece – Intellectual life – To 146 B.C. I. O’Grady, Patricia F. 180 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Meet the philosophers of ancient Greece: everything you always wanted to know about ancient Greek philosophy but didn’t know who to ask / Patricia F.
    [Show full text]
  • The Megarians’: a City and Its Philosophical School*
    Chapter 11 MATTHIAS HAAKE – Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster [email protected] für Norbert Ehrhardt zum 26. März 2018 Megara and ‘the Megarians’: a City and its Philosophical School* When Plato left Athens after the death of Socrates, he first went, along with other members of Socrates’ former entourage, to Megara. More or less nothing is known about his stay there, yet it is possible to ascertain the motives for his decision to leave his native city and relocate to a place where, in the words of the Cynic Diogenes, the inhabitants 1 “feast as if to die tomorrow, and build as if they were never to die at all” . Aside from the * I would like to thank Hans Beck for the opportunity to contribute to this volume. The origins of this article relate back to a paper on “Philosophy and the Mediterranean Wide Web. Connecting Elites and Connections in the Upper-Classes of the Graeco-Roman World”, delivered at McGill in April 2017. I am grateful to Hans Beck and his team for the invitation and the splendid time I had during my stay at McGill University. Thanks are also due to Tiziano Dorandi (Paris), Benjamin Gray (London), Peter Liddel (Manchester), Katharina Martin (Düsseldorf), and Matthew Simonton (Tempe, AZ) who offered advice and input. Anna-Sophie Aletsee (Münster) also discussed the topic with me. I am indebted to all for their generous help. Translations are generally from the Loeb Classical Library, with occasional adjustments. 1 SSR² II Diogenes Sinopeus (= V B) fr. 285 (p. 341) apud Tert. Apol. 39.14: Megarenses obsonant quasi crastina die morituri, aedificant uero quasi numquam morituri.
    [Show full text]
  • Heraclitus on Pythagoras
    Leonid Zhmud Heraclitus on Pythagoras By the time of Heraclitus, criticism of one’s predecessors and contemporaries had long been an established literary tradition. It had been successfully prac­ ticed since Hesiod by many poets and prose writers.1 No one, however, practiced criticism in the form of persistent and methodical attacks on both previous and current intellectual traditions as effectively as Heraclitus. Indeed, his biting criti­ cism was a part of his philosophical method and, on an even deeper level, of his self­appraisal and self­understanding, since he alone pretended to know the correct way to understand the underlying reality, unattainable even for the wisest men of Greece. Of all the celebrities figuring in Heraclitus’ fragments only Bias, one of the Seven Sages, is mentioned approvingly (DK 22 B 39), while another Sage, Thales, is the only one mentioned neutrally, as an astronomer (DK 22 B 38). All the others named by Heraclitus, which is to say the three most famous poets, Homer, Hesiod and Archilochus, the philosophical poet Xenophanes, Pythago­ ras, widely known for his manifold wisdom, and finally, the historian and geog­ rapher Hecataeus – are given their share of opprobrium.2 Despite all the intensity of Heraclitus’ attacks on these famous individuals, one cannot say that there was much personal in them. He was not engaged in ordi­ nary polemics with his contemporaries, as for example Xenophanes, Simonides or Pindar were.3 Xenophanes and Hecataeus, who were alive when his book was written, appear only once in his fragments, and even then only in the company of two more famous people, Hesiod and Pythagoras (DK 22 B 40).
    [Show full text]
  • MINEOLA BIBLE INSTITUTE and SEMINARY Philosophy II Radically
    MINEOLA BIBLE INSTITUTE AND SEMINARY Page | 1 Philosophy II Radically, Biblical, Apostolic, Christianity Bishop D.R. Vestal, PhD Larry L Yates, ThD, DMin “Excellence in Apostolic Education since 1991” 1 Copyright © 2019 Mineola Bible Institute Page | 2 All Rights Reserved This lesson material may not be used in any manner for reproduction in any language or use without the written permission of Mineola Bible Institute. 2 Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 7 Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) ........................................................................................... 8 Philip II of Macedonia (382-336 B.C.) ....................................................................................... 12 Page | 3 “Olympias the mother of Alexander was an evil woman. .......................................... 13 Philip II (of Macedonia) (382-336 BC) .............................................................................. 13 Aristotle (384-322 BC) ............................................................................................................... 15 Works .................................................................................................................................... 16 Methods ............................................................................................................................... 17 Doctrines ............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • DL Socrates Handout
    ISSS Virtual Socrates Colloquium 2021 Afterlives of an Eminent Philosopher: Socrates in Diogenes Laertius Stephen White, University of Texas at Austin, 9 June 2021 I. Socrates in the Lives: philosophy’s genealogy and a founder’s legacy 1. Plan of the Lives B1. Origins: Thales, sages, Pherecydes Ionic branch from Thales in Books 2-7 B2. Anaximander, Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, Archelaus B2. Socrates: Socratics Xenophon, Aeschines Aristippus: Cyrenaics; Phaedo (Eretriacs); Euclides: Megarics Crito (4 sons), Simon, Glaucon, Simmias, Cebes B3. Plato: Academics & Peripatetics B4. Academics B5. Aristotle: Peripatetics B6. Antisthenes: Cynics B7. Zeno: Stoics Italic branch from Pherecydes in Books 8-10 B8. Pythagoras: Pythagoreans B9. Heraclitus; Eleatics, Atomists, Protagoras … Pyrrho: Pyrrhonists B10. Epicurus: Epicureans 2. Preview of Lives organized by teacher-student succession: Lives 1.13-15 φιλοσοφίας δὲ δύο γεγόνασιν ἀρχαί, (B2) ἥ τε ἀπὸ Ἀναξιµάνδρου καὶ (B8) ἡ ἀπὸ Πυθαγόρου· τοῦ µὲν Θαλοῦ διακηκοότος, Πυθαγόρου δὲ Φερεκύδης καθηγήσατο. καὶ ἐκαλεῖτο ἡ µὲν Ἰωνική, ὅτι Θαλῆς Ἴων ὤν, Μιλήσιος γάρ, καθηγήσατο Ἀναξιµάνδρου· ἡ δὲ Ἰταλικὴ ἀπὸ Πυθαγόρου, ὅτι τὰ πλεῖστα κατὰ τὴν Ἰταλίαν ἐφιλοσόφησε. [14] καταλήγει δὲ ἡ µὲν εἰς (B4) Κλειτόµαχον καὶ (B7) Χρύσιππον καὶ (B5) Θεόφραστον ἡ Ἰωνική· ἡ δὲ Ἰταλικὴ εἰς (B10) Ἐπίκουρον. (B2) Θαλοῦ µὲν γὰρ Ἀναξίµανδρος, οὗ Ἀναξιµένης, οὗ Ἀναξαγόρας, οὗ Ἀρχέλαος, οὗ Σωκράτης ὁ τὴν ἠθικὴν εἰσαγαγών· οὗ οἵ τε ἄλλοι Σωκρατικοὶ καὶ (B3) Πλάτων ὁ τὴν ἀρχαίαν Ἀκαδηµίαν συστησάµενος· (B4) οὗ Σπεύσιππος καὶ Ξενοκράτης, οὗ Πολέµων, οὗ Κράντωρ καὶ Κράτης, οὗ Ἀρκεσίλαος ὁ τὴν µέσην Ἀκαδηµίαν εἰσηγησάµενος· οὗ Λακύδης ὁ τὴν νέαν Ἀκαδηµίαν φιλοσοφήσας· οὗ Καρνεάδης, οὗ Κλειτόµαχος. καὶ ὧδε µὲν εἰς Κλειτόµαχον.
    [Show full text]
  • Early Greek Ethics
    Comp. by: SatchitananthaSivam Stage : Proof ChapterID: 0004760437 Date:25/2/20 Time:13:07:47 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0004760437.3D Dictionary : NOAD_USDictionary 3 OUP UNCORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FIRST PROOF, 25/2/2020, SPi Early Greek Ethics Edited by DAVID CONAN WOLFSDORF 1 Comp. by: SatchitananthaSivam Stage : Proof ChapterID: 0004760437 Date:25/2/20 Time:13:07:47 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0004760437.3D Dictionary : NOAD_USDictionary 5 OUP UNCORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FIRST PROOF, 25/2/2020, SPi Table of Contents Abbreviations ix Chapter Abstracts and Contributor Information xiii Introduction xxvii David Conan Wolfsdorf PART I INDIVIDUALS AND TEXTS 1. The Pythagorean Acusmata 3 Johan C. Thom 2. Xenophanes on the Ethics and Epistemology of Arrogance 19 Shaul Tor 3. On the Ethical Dimension of Heraclitus’ Thought 37 Mark A. Johnstone 4. Ethics and Natural Philosophy in Empedocles 54 John Palmer 5. The Ethical Life of a Fragment: Three Readings of Protagoras’ Man Measure Statement 74 Tazuko A. van Berkel 6. The Logos of Ethics in Gorgias’ Palamedes, On What is Not, and Helen 110 Kurt Lampe 7. Responsibility Rationalized: Action and Pollution in Antiphon’s Tetralogies 132 Joel E. Mann 8. Ethical and Political Thought in Antiphon’s Truth and Concord 149 Mauro Bonazzi 9. The Ethical Philosophy of the Historical Socrates 169 David Conan Wolfsdorf 10. Prodicus on the Choice of Heracles, Language, and Religion 195 Richard Bett 11. The Ethical Maxims of Democritus of Abdera 211 Monte Ransome Johnson 12. The Sophrosynē of Critias: Aristocratic Ethics after the Thirty Tyrants 243 Alex Gottesman Comp. by: SatchitananthaSivam Stage : Proof ChapterID: 0004760437 Date:25/2/20 Time:13:07:48 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0004760437.3D Dictionary : NOAD_USDictionary 6 OUP UNCORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FIRST PROOF, 25/2/2020, SPi vi 13.
    [Show full text]