Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.41 — Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.41
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Diogenes of Ptolemaïs, it is true, begins with Ethics; but Apollodorus puts Ethics second, while Panaetius and Posidonius begin with Physics, as stated by Phanias, the pupil of Posidonius, in the first book of his Lectures of Posidonius. Cleanthes makes not three, but six parts, Dialectic, Rhetoric, Ethics, Politics, Physics, Theology. But others say that these are divisions not of philosophic exposition, but of philosophy itself: so, for instance, Zeno of Tarsus. Some divide the logical part of the system into the two sciences of rhetoric and dialectic; while some would add that which deals with definitions and another part concerning canons or criteria: some, however, dispense with the part about definitions.
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.41 (on the Stoics), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.41
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 notesDifferent Stoics disagreed about which part of philosophy to teach first and how many parts there are, with one counting six. Some sub-divisions of logic are also listed. Scholastic detail about how to organise the subject.
Older wording
- “Dialectic”
- — the art of reasoning through question and answer
- “canons”
- — standards for testing what is true
- “criteria”
- — tests used to judge whether something is true
Themes and situations
- Learning and progress
Quote cards
The opening line of this passage as an image, with its citation — for sharing or keeping.