Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.163 — Diogenes Laërtius on Ariston
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.163
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on Ariston
When 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.
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.163 (on Ariston), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.163
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 notesAriston mocks a sceptic who claims to be certain of nothing by asking whether he can see his neighbour. The rest is a list of books attributed to Ariston and a note that only the Letters are considered genuine.
Older wording
- “Academic”
- — a follower of the sceptical school at Plato's Academy
- “Peripatetic”
- — a follower of Aristotle
Themes and situations
- Learning and progress
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