Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.148 — Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.148
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
The substance of God is declared by Zeno to be the whole world and the heaven, as well as by Chrysippus in his first book Of the Gods, and by Posidonius in his first book with the same title. Again, Antipater in the seventh book of his work On the Cosmos says that the substance of God is akin to air, while Boëthus in his work On Nature speaks of the sphere of the fixed stars as the substance of God. Now the term Nature is used by them to mean sometimes that which holds the world together, sometimes that which causes terrestrial things to spring up. Nature is defined as a force moving of itself, producing and preserving in being its offspring in accordance with seminal principles within definite periods, and effecting results homogeneous with their sources.
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.148 (on the Stoics), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.148
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book VII, tr. R. D. Hicks (Loeb, 1925). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesStoics disagreed on what God's substance is: the whole world and heaven, something air-like, or the sphere of the fixed stars. Nature is described as a self-moving force that produces and preserves its offspring according to inner seed-principles, yielding results like its sources.
Older wording
- “seminal principles”
- — creative principles holding the seeds of future growth
- “homogeneous”
- — of the same kind
Themes and situations
- Nature and the cosmos
Quote cards
The opening line of this passage as an image, with its citation — for sharing or keeping.