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.
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.
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.
He 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 Diodes 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).
Bibliography
- Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers ISBN 0-674-99204-0
- 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
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
