The Lives and Opinions of Eminent PhilosophersDiogenes Laertius
Philosophy
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
Diogenes Laertius
Philosophers, Ancient -- Biography; Philosophy, Ancient
IV. There are several books extant by him, which are exceedingly good
and admirable. They are in the form of dialogue; some being Ethical
dialogues; three on the subject of Justice; one on Temperance; five on
Piety; one on Manly Courage; one, and a second which is distinct from it,
on Virtue; one on Happiness; one on Supremacy; one on Laws and questions
connected with them; one on Names; one called Covenants; one called The
Unwilling Lover; and the Clinias.
Of the physical dialogues, one is on the Mind; one on the Soul; one on
the Soul, and Nature and Appearances; one addressed to Democritus; one
on the Heavenly Bodies; one on the State of Things in the Shades below;
two on Lives; one on the Causes of Diseases; one on the Good; one on the
doctrines of Zeno; one on the Doctrines of Metron.
Of his grammatical dialogues, there are two on the Age of Homer and
Hesiod; two on Archilochus and Homer.
There are some on Music too; three on Euripides and Sophocles, and two
on Music. There are also two volumes, Solutions of Questions concerning
Homer; one on Speculations; one, the Three Tragedians; one volume of
Characters; one dialogue on Poetry and the Poets; one on Conjecture; one
on Foresight; four, being Explanations of Heraclitus; one, Explanations
with reference to Democritus; two books of Solutions of Disputed
Points; one, the Axiom; one on Species; one book of Solutions; one of
Suppositions; one addressed to Dionysius.
Of rhetorical works, there is the dialogue on the being an Orator, or the
Protagoras.
Of historical dialogues, there are some on the Pythagoreans, and on
Inventions. Of these, some he has drawn up after the manner of Comic
writers; as, for instance, the one about Pleasure, and that about
Temperance. And some in the style of the Tragedians, as, for instance,
the dialogues on the State of Things in the Shades below; and one on
Piety, and that on Supremacy. And his style is a conversational and
moderate one, suited to the characters of philosophers and men occupied
in the military or political affairs conversing together. Some of his
works also are on Geometry, and on Dialectics; and in all of them he
displays a very varied and elevated style; and he has great powers of
persuasion.
V. He appears to have delivered his country when it was under the yoke of
tyrants, by slaying the monarch, as Demetrius of Magnesia tells us, in
his treatise on People of the Same Name.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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