The Lives and Opinions of Eminent PhilosophersDiogenes Laertius
Philosophy
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
Diogenes Laertius
Philosophers, Ancient -- Biography; Philosophy, Ancient
XXXIII. The Stoics divide reason according to philosophy, into three
parts; and say that one part relates to natural philosophy, one to
ethics, and one to logic. And Zeno, the Cittiæan, was the first who made
this division, in his treatise on Reason; and he was followed in it by
Chrysippus, in the first book of his treatise on Reason, and in the first
book of his treatise on Natural Philosophy; and also by Apollodorus; and
by Syllus, in the first book of his Introduction to the Doctrines of the
Stoics; and by Eudromus, in his Ethical Elements; and by Diogenes, the
Babylonian; and Posidonius. Now these divisions are called _topics_ by
Apollodorus, _species_ by Chrysippus and Eudromus, and _genera_ by all
the rest. And they compare philosophy to an animal, likening logic to the
bones and sinews, natural philosophy to the fleshy parts, and ethical
philosophy to the soul. Again, they compare it to an egg; calling logic
the shell, and ethics the white, and natural philosophy the yolk. Also to
a fertile field; in which logic is the fence which goes round it, ethics
are the fruit, and natural philosophy the soil, or the fruit-trees.
Again, they compare it to a city fortified by walls, and regulated by
reason; and then, as some of them say, no one part is preferred to
another, but they are all combined and united inseparably; and so they
treat of them all in combination. But others class logic first, natural
philosophy second, and ethics third; as Zeno does in his treatise on
Reason, and in this he is followed by Chrysippus, and Archedemus, and
Eudromus.
For Diogenes of Ptolemais begins with ethics; but Apollodorus places
ethics second; and Panætius and Posidonius begin with natural philosophy,
as Phanias, the friend of Posidonius asserts, in the first book of his
treatise on the School of Posidonius.
But Cleanthes says, that there are six divisions of reason according
to philosophy: dialectics, rhetoric, ethics, politics, physics, and
theology; but others assert that these are not divisions of reason,
but of philosophy itself; and this is the opinion advanced by Zeno, of
Tarsus, among others.
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