| Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (English) (XML Header) [word count] [lemma count] [Diog. Laert.]. | ||
| <<Diog. Laert. 7.1.158 | Diog. Laert. 7.2.164 (Greek) | >>Diog. Laert. 7.5.169 |
After meeting Polemo, says Diocles of Magnesia, while Zeno was suffering from a protracted illness, he recanted his views. The Stoic doctrine to which he attached most importance was the wise man's refusal to hold mere opinions. And against this doctrine Persaeus was contending when he induced one of a pair of twins to deposit a certain sum with Ariston and afterwards got the other to reclaim it. Ariston being thus reduced to perplexity was refuted. He was at variance with Arcesilaus ; and one day when he saw an abortion in the shape of a bull with a uterus, he said, "Alas, here Arcesilaus has had given into his hand an argument against the evidence of the senses."
7.2.163When some Academic alleged that he had no certainty of anything, Ariston said, "Do you not even see your neighbour sitting by you ?" and when the other answered "No," he rejoined,
Who can have blinded you ? who robbed you of luminous eyesight ?
The books attributed to him are as follows :
Exhortations, two books.
Of Zeno's Doctrines.
Dialogues.
Lectures, six books.
Dissertations on Philosophy, seven books.
Dissertations on Love.
Commonplaces on Vainglory.
Notebooks, twenty-five volumes.
Memorabilia, three books.
Anecdotes, eleven books.
Against the Rhetoricians.
An Answer to the Counter-pleas of Alexinus.
Against the Dialecticians, three books.
Letters to Cleanthes, four books.
Panaetius and Sosicrates consider the Letters to be alone genuine ; all the other works named they attribute to Ariston the Peripatetic.
7.2.164The story goes that being bald he had a sunstroke and so came to his end. I have composed a trifling poem upon him in limping iambics as follows note:
Wherefore, Ariston, when old and bald did you let the sun roast your forehead ? Thus seeking warmth more than was reasonable, you lit unwillingly upon the chill reality of Death.
There was also another Ariston, a native of Iulis note ; a third, a musician of Athens ; a fourth, a tragic poet ; a fifth, of Halae, author of treatises on rhetoric ; a sixth, a Peripatetic philosopher of Alexandria.
Herillus of Carthage declared the end of action to be Knowledge, that is, so to live always as to make the scientific life the standard in all things and not to be misled by ignorance. Knowledge he defined as a habit of mind, not to be upset by argument, in the acceptance of presentations. Sometimes he used to say there was no single end of action, but it shifted according to varying circumstances and objects, as the same bronze might become a statue either of Alexander or of Socrates. He made a distinction between end-in-chief and subordinate end : even the unwise may aim at the latter, but only the wise seek the true end of life. Everything that lies between virtue and vice he pronounced indifferent. His writings, though they do not occupy much space, are full of vigour and contain some controversial passages in reply to Zeno.
7.3.166He is said to have had many admirers when a boy ; and as Zeno wished to drive them away, he compelled Herillus to have his head shaved, which disgusted them.
His books are the following : Of Training.
Of the Passions.
Concerning Opinion or Belief.
The Legislator.
The Obstetrician.
The Challenger.
The Teacher.
The Reviser.
The Controller.
Hermes.
Medea.
Dialogues.
Ethical Themes.
Dionysius, the Renegade, note declared that pleasure was the end of action ; this under the trying circumstance of an attack of ophthalmia. For so violent was his suffering that he could not bring himself to call pain a thing indifferent.
He was the son of Theophantus and a native of Heraclea. At first, as Diocles relates, he was a pupil of his fellow-townsman, Heraclides, next of Alexinus and Menedemus, and lastly of Zeno.
7.4.167At the outset of his career he was fond of literature and tried his hand at all kinds of poetry ; afterwards he took Aratus note for his model, whom he strove to imitate. When he fell away from Zeno, he went over to the Cyrenaics, and used to frequent houses of ill fame and indulge in all other excesses without disguise. After living till he was nearly eighty years of age, he committed suicide by starving himself.
The following works are attributed to him :
Of Apathy, two books
On Training, two books.
Of Pleasure, four books.
Of Wealth, Popularity and Revenge
How to live amongst Men.
Of Prosperity.
Of Ancient Kings.
Of those who are Praised.
Of the Customs of Barbarians.
These three, then, are the heterodox Stoics. The legitimate successor to Zeno, however, was Cleanthes : of whom we have now to speak.
| Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (English) (XML Header) [word count] [lemma count] [Diog. Laert.]. | ||
| <<Diog. Laert. 7.1.158 | Diog. Laert. 7.2.164 (Greek) | >>Diog. Laert. 7.5.169 |
