Diogenes Laertius and Philosophical Lives (original) (raw)
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Classica - Revista Brasileira de Estudos Clássicos
Bios Philosophos. Philosophy in Ancient Greek Biography (Brepols, 2016), organized by Mauro Bonazzi and Stefan Schorn, delivers a both deep and wide tour through the philosophical aspects of Greek biographical production. On one hand, it does not concentrate only in the later periods of Greek philosophy, when biographical production abounded, but goes all the way back to the fourth century BCE, when biographical texts were fragmentary and mingled with other styles. On the other, it tries to unveil the philosophical motives in the works of authors who tend to be disregarded as historians, biographers, hagiographers or even as mere fans of the most prominent figures of their own schools. In our review, we will attempt to give a brief account of the ten articles that make up this volume, which, in turn, will hopefully provide an overview of the different connections between the biographies and biographers and their philosophical motives. Thomas Bénatouïl's Pythagore chez Dicéarque: anectodes biographiques et critique de la philosophie contemplative (p. 11-36) proposes an inversion of the traditional interpretation regarding the testimony of Dicaearchus of Messana about the life of Pythagoras. Since antiquity, Dicaearchus' reports tend to be seen as positive, because they present a Pythagoras devoid of mysticism and apparently more interested in practical matters. Bénatouïl shows, instead, that there are several evidences pointing in the opposite direction: the way Pythagoras uses of charm and persuasion in his dealings with the citizens of Croton, obtaining their admiration by means of elaborate discourses meticulously prepared to reach each type of audience (elders, women, young people, and even children and barbarians), and the fact that Pythagoras introduced a theory of soul contrary to that of Dicaearchus'. These tenets would actually be very different from Dicaearchus own idea of a practical life, making Pythagoras a perfect counterexample. Bénatouïl explores the motivations that underlie Dicaearchus' testimony, who was a close follower of Aristotle and heir
Augustine in Context, ed. Tarmo Toom, 2018
This essay provides an overview of the forms, functions, and development of the bios in Late Antiquity. It is included in the volume "Augustine In Context" (ed. Tarmo Toom) which is part of the CUP series "Literature in Context." Written for a non-specialist audience, the essay outlines a brief history of biography in the Greek and Latin literary traditions, and gives an overview of pagan and Christian Lives composed in Late Antiquity. The purpose is to build a context in which to understand the impact of biographical literature on the age of Augustine. The essay emphasizes that Late Antique authors, both Christian and pagan, read and imitated classical-era biographies, and suggests that the proliferation of biography in Late Antiquity can be best understood by considering the development of biographical literature within the context of philosophical competition in the Hellenistic period. Finally, the essay outlines several functions that biographical literature played in shaping individual and corporate identities.
Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers
2009
This edition presents a radically improved text of Diogenes Laertius' Lives of Eminent Philosophers. The text is accompanied by a full critical apparatus on three levels. A lengthy introduction lists all the manuscripts of the Lives and discusses its transmission in late antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. There is also an index of personal names, a bibliography and notes covering several features of the text and its interpretation. Professor Dorandi has used the Nachlaß of Peter Von der Mühll, for the first time in its entirety, to verify and consolidate material that he had previously gathered. This is by far the most detailed and elaborate edition which Diogenes' Lives – a unique work which has had a profound influence on European literature and philosophy – has ever received.
Mnemosyne: A Journal of Classical Studies, 2022
Greek works 'On Ways of Life' have been seen to consist in either collections of biographies or proper philosophical treatises. Recently, a unitary reading of this literary phenomenon has been advanced, but some fundamental evidence has escaped attention. This evidence, along with what remains of Epicurus and Chrysippus' 'Peri biōn', suggests that in antiquity this label actually encompassed two essentially different genres: a mostly biographical one, which was cultivated by fourth/third-century bc Peripatetic philosophers and imperial writers, and a moral-philosophical one, which was first developed by Epicurus and Chrysippus and then cultivated by Academic and Peripatetic thinkers in the Hellenistic period and in later centuries.
Behind the 'Lives of Philosophers:' Reading Diogenes Laertius in the Western Middle Ages
2017
The classical learning of medieval readers, especially those fortunate to have access to a good library, could be formidable. But in the Middle Ages knowledge was also a commodity, and there was powerful temptation to satisfy intellectual hunger with compressed, simplified digests and easy fare. One text, De vita et moribus philosophorum , long attributed to Walter Burley, seems to have achieved particular success in satisfying that hunger for an easy version of ancient lore. Its roots reach back to Diogenes Laertius' Greek Lives of the Philosophers . This essay explores the roads of transmission that led to the making of De vita et moribus philosophorum , which fed a popular fascination with ancient philosophy and the lives of ancient philosophers. Through what channels did the 'history' of ancient philosophy find a readership beyond the scholarly academy, and how can we explain the appeal of such classical knowledge?
The Philosophical Life: Biography and the Crafting of Intellectual Identity in Late Antiquity
2013
From the CUA catalog: Ancient biographies were more than accounts of the deeds of past heroes and guides for moral living. They were also arenas for debating pressing philosophical questions and establishing intellectual credentials, as Arthur P. Urbano argues in this study of biographies composed in Late Antiquity. With its origins in the competing philosophical schools of Hellenistic Greece, the genre of the "philosophical life" provided verbal portraits of paradigmatic figures - usually rulers and philosophers - that epitomized diverse approaches to knowledge, piety, and the virtuous life. An eruption of biographical literature in Late Antiquity attests to a similar, but more intense, struggle to influence the future directions of religion, education, politics, and morality in the Roman Empire as leaders of Neoplatonism and Christianity engaged one another through historical figures. In a close analysis of the texts and the circumstances surrounding their composition, he argues that the production of biographies was a standard competitive practice among Greek educated intellectuals. Christian thinkers who wrote biographies, for the most part bishops, simultaneously drew upon the literary and philosophical education they shared with their rivals and challenged it. Proposing alternate histories and new paradigms of philosophy, including ascetics and women, they came to terms with the past and aimed to shape a new Christian future. Urbano traces the transformation of the late Roman empire through the lens of biographies which debated such issues as proper worship, access to God, politics, ethnicity, gender, and philosophic pedigree. He covers the writings of several Christian and Neoplatonist authors between the 3rd and 5th centuries to demonstrate how biographical literature played a significant role in the transformation of Rome into a Christian empire. "A significant contribution to the history of Late Antiquity, specifically, the history of philosophy and the history of religion... unique for using biography as the lens through which to view an age of religious and cultural transformation."—Elizabeth DePalma Digeser, professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara"
Philosophy Study, 2021
This paper presents the keys and reasons for Diogenes Laërtius' alleged scepticism, based on an analysis of the general design of his work The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. I believe that it would be manifestly erroneous to seek confirmation of this scepticism solely in Book IX without taking into account the overall structure of the work. A convincing explanation is also provided of one of the most enigmatic and most studied phrases in this work. What did Diogenes mean when he said that Apollonides of Nicaea was ὁ παρ' ἡμῶν ("one of us")?