Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PART I INTRODUCTION
- 1 Sources
- 2 Chronology
- 3 Organization and structure of the philosophical schools
- PART II LOGIC AND LANGUAGE
- PART III EPISTEMOLOGY
- PART IV PHYSICS AND METAPHYSICS
- PART V ETHICS AND POLITICS
- Synopsis of principal events
- Editions of sources and fragments
- List of abbreviations
- Bibliography
- Index locorum
- General Index
- References
2 - Chronology
from PART I - INTRODUCTION
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- PART I INTRODUCTION
- 1 Sources
- 2 Chronology
- 3 Organization and structure of the philosophical schools
- PART II LOGIC AND LANGUAGE
- PART III EPISTEMOLOGY
- PART IV PHYSICS AND METAPHYSICS
- PART V ETHICS AND POLITICS
- Synopsis of principal events
- Editions of sources and fragments
- List of abbreviations
- Bibliography
- Index locorum
- General Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
During the years immediately following the deaths of Plato (348/7 BC) and Aristotle (322/1 BC) Athenian philosophical life was dominated by four large schools: the Academy, the Peripatos, the Stoa and the Garden (Kēpos) of Epicurus. Alongside these were the Pyrrhonian sceptics, named after their founder Pyrrho of Elis, and certain representatives of the so-called minor Socratic schools – in particular the Cyrenaics, the Dialecticians and the Cynics.
The reconstruction of the chronology of the members of all these schools up to about 100 BC presents a series of difficulties, which often make dating proposals necessarily vague or at least subject to possible changes as studies develop. In the following pages I do not intend simply to reproduce the lists of scholarchs who succeeded each other as heads of individual schools, but rather to give a concise bird's-eye sketch of the principal events in the lives of the more important personalities in correlation with the more secure dates in the chronology.
The Academy
On Plato's death (348/7) he was succeeded as head of the Academy by his nephew Speusippus, who held the post until 339/8 (Lysimachides' archonship), when Xenocrates of Chalcedon was chosen by the younger members of the Academy as his successor. The third scholarch was Polemo of Athens, chosen in 314/3, the year of Xenocrates' death. Young, rich and dissolute, Polemo was converted to philosophy after listening to a lecture by Xenocrates on temperance (sōphrosunē). His chronology should be examined alongside those of Crantor of Soli in Cilicia and of Crates of Athens, both important members of the Academy, connected with Polemo by their school ties and by friendship.
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- Information
- The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy , pp. 31 - 54Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999
References
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