Who is Diogenes Laertes? What is his biography, and how long ago did this person live? What works survived after his death? The answers to all these questions can be found in this article.
Biography of Diogenes Laertes
Unfortunately, first of all, it should be said that today Diogenes Laertes remains a mysterious person. His biography does not contain a single reliable fact.
Based on the opinions of scientists, we can conclude that this philosopher-biographer was born in the Cilician city of Laerta. Diogenes Laertes was born (the photo of his bust is presented first) presumably at the end of the second century AD and lived until the third century AD.
And scientists, in turn, were able to draw such a conclusion, based on the fact that the philosopher in one of his writings mentions the name of Sextus Empiricus, who was his contemporary.
As for the name of Diogenes, there is also no reliable information as to whether this name is real, or a pseudonym, a nickname.
Works of Diogenes
This philosopher is also called the historian of philosophy. His hand belongs to a treatise, which consists of 10 books and describes the life and workmany ancient Greek thinkers.
It is also worth noting that in this treatise 84 philosophers are mentioned in total, about a thousand statements of more than 250 different authors are quoted.
The same treatise, authored by Diogenes Laertes, has several different names, more precisely, different sources convey it differently. As a rule, the main ones are: History of Philosophy, Lives and Opinions of Famous Philosophers, and Lives of the Sophists.
Composition of a treatise on philosophers
- A book about Thales, Solo, Biant and other philosophers from the four "seven" who lived in the 7-6 centuries BC.
- The second book describes the adherents of the Ionian school. Separate sections are devoted to Socrates and many of his followers. Euclid and Aristippus are also mentioned in this book.
- The third book contains the life and deeds of Plato. His writings are described.
- A book about Polemon, Carneades and other philosophers who were students of Plato's academy.
- This book describes the life and work of Aristotle and his students Theophastus, Heraclides and Demetrius.
- The sixth book conveys the postulates of the teachings of the Cynic school, provides information about its founder Antisthenes and his students - Diogenes of Sinop, Crates with his wife Hipparchia, Metrocles, Onesicrite and others.
- This book was dedicated by Diogenes Laertes to the Stoic philosophical school. Names such as Chrysippus, Ariston of Chios, Zeno of China and others are mentioned here.
- The eighth book is entirely devoted to the life and teachings of Pythagoras withmentioning the names of Empedocles, Eudoxus, Philolaus and other Pythagoreans.
- This book describes the Eleatic school of philosophy and its representatives - Heraclitus of Ephesus, Xenophanes, Parmenides, as well as the followers of the materialistic theory of philosophy - Democritus, Leucippe. The book also mentions the names of the sophist Protagoras and the skeptics Piron and Timon.
- The last book of the treatise is dedicated to the philosopher Epicurus.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is worth saying: despite the fact that Diogenes Laertes was a biographer, there are practically no facts about his life and work. Conclusions about the character and temperament can only be drawn from his surviving legacy and rare mentions of scientists.
And judging by the works, Diogenes Laertes was a very wise, observant and cheerful person. The quotes that belong to him are known and are a source of wisdom, and the works are filled with humor, legends and interesting biographical facts of famous philosophers of those times:
- Diogenes begged for alms from the sculpture, and when asked why he was doing it, the answer was: “To accustom himself to failure.”
- "There are many people, but there are very few people in the world"
- "Where to wash those who washed here?" a philosopher once asked, speaking of one untidy bathhouse.
- in one of the books the following quote is given: “Euripides gave Socrates the work of Heraclitus and asked his opinion; he replied: “What I understood is fine; what I didn’t understand, probably, too.”
- "The slanderer is the most fierce of wild animals, and the flatterer is the mostdangerous of tame animals"
It's also important to say that Diogenes Laertes is not the philosopher the legend associates with the barrel. Diogenes of Sinop arranged for himself a dwelling in a barrel and behaved extremely shockingly. But Diogenes Laertes, at least judging by the archives, was not seen in this.
