Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.49 — Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.49
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
“The Stoics agree to put in the forefront the doctrine of presentation and sensation, inasmuch as the standard by which the truth of things is tested is generically a presentation, and again the theory of assent and that of apprehension and thought, which precedes all the rest, cannot be stated apart from presentation. For presentation comes first; then thought, which is capable of expressing itself, puts into the form of a proposition that which the subject receives from a presentation.”
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.49 (on the Stoics), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.49
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 notesA quoted summary placing presentation, or impression, and sensation first in Stoic logic, because truth is tested through impressions and because assent, apprehension and thought all depend on them. Thought then puts into a statement what an impression delivers. Technical theory.
Older wording
- “presentation”
- — a mental impression
- “assent”
- — agreement or acceptance of an impression as true
- “apprehension”
- — a firm grasp of something real
Themes and situations
- Judgements and impressions
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