The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~190,000 words · 926 passages
Cite this work
- APADiogenes Laertius. (n.d.). The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/diogenes-laertius/the-lives-and-opinions-of-eminent-philosophers
- MLADiogenes Laertius. The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/diogenes-laertius/the-lives-and-opinions-of-eminent-philosophers.
- ChicagoDiogenes Laertius. The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/diogenes-laertius/the-lives-and-opinions-of-eminent-philosophers.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
The lives, doctrines and sayings of the Greek philosophers, from Thales to Epicurus, with wills, letters and lists of works.
Context and history
Diogenes Laertius was writing around the third century and was no philosopher: he was a compiler, and not a very critical one. He mixes verifiable fact with joke and rumour without signalling it. He is nevertheless irreplaceable, for an uncomfortable reason: for many ancient philosophers he is the ONLY source that has reached us. Epicurus's three letters and the Principal Doctrines survive only because he copied them here. He must therefore be read knowing that he often cannot be checked against anything.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
IX. Now these were they who were accounted wise men. Thales, Solon, Periander, Cleobulus, Chilo, Bias, Pittacus. To these men add Anacharsis the Scythian, Myson the Chenean, Pherecydes the Syrian, and Epimenides the Cretan; and some add, Pisistratus, the tyrant: These then are they who were called the wise men. X. But of Philosophy there arose two schools. One derived from Anaximander, the other from Pythagoras. Now, Thales had been the preceptor of Anaximander, and Pherecydes of Pythagoras. And the one school was called the Ionian, because Thales, being an Ionian (for he was a native of Miletus), had been the tutor of Anaximander;—but the other was called the Italian from Pythagoras, because he spent the chief part of his life in Italy. And the Ionic school ends with Clitomachus, and Chrysippus, and Theophrastus; and the Italian one with Epicurus; for Anaximander succeeded Thales, and he was succeeded again by Anaximenes, and he by Anaxagoras, and he by Archelaus, who was the master of Socrates, who was the originator of moral philosophy. And he was the master of the sect of the Socratic philosophers, and of Plato, who was the founder of the old Academy; and Plato’s pupils were Speusippus and Xenocrates; and Polemo was the pupil of Xenocrates, and Crantor and Crates of Polemo. Crates again was the master of Arcesilaus, the founder of the Middle Academy, and his pupil was Lacydes, who gave the new Academy its distinctive principles. His pupil was Carneades, and he in his turn was the master of Clitomachus. And this school ends in this way with Clitomachus and Chrysippus. Antisthenes was the pupil of Socrates, and the master of Diogenes the Cynic; and the pupil of Diogenes was Crates the Theban; Zeno the Cittiæan was his; Cleanthes was his; Chrysippus was his.…