Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.82 — Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.82
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
There are also certain insoluble arguments: the Veiled Men, the Concealed, Sorites, Horned Folk, the Nobodies. The Veiled is as follows: . . . “It cannot be that if two is few, three is not so likewise, nor that if two or three are few, four is not so; and so on up to ten. But two is few, therefore so also is ten.” . . . The Nobody argument is an argument whose major premiss consists of an indefinite and a definite clause, followed by a minor premiss and conclusion; for example, “If anyone is here, he is not in Rhodes; but there is some one here, therefore there is not anyone in Rhodes.” . . .
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.82 (on the Stoics), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.82
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 notesNames a set of puzzling arguments the Stoics found hard to resolve, such as the sorites, which builds from few to many by small steps, and the Nobody argument. Some of the text is elided with dots. Logic puzzles with no practical advice.
Older wording
- “insoluble”
- — impossible to resolve or solve
- “Sorites”
- — a chain argument built from many small steps, like the heap paradox
- “Veiled Men”
- — a famous puzzle argument about whether you know a veiled person
Themes and situations
- Judgements and impressions
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