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Title: Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers (Loeb Classical Library #184) by R.D. Hicks, Laertius Diogenes ISBN: 0-674-99203-2 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: June, 1938 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: "There are some who say..."
Comment: This opening line from Diogenes Laertius (as translated
by Robert Drew Hicks) neatly sums up the approach of
Diogenes in compiling this amazing amount of material
about the ancient philosophers. Some of the material
is valuable, some is stuff...but even the "stuff" is
pretty interesting coming from such an "ancient"
compilier (one dating for Diogenes is (ca. A.D. 225-
250).
According to Herbert S. Long in his "Introduction"
to Vol. 1 (there are 2 volumes in the complete set of
the Loeb Classical Library Diogenes published by Harvard
Univ. Press -- Vol. 1: ISBN 0-674-99203-2 and Vol. 2:
ISBN 0-674-99204-0) -- Diogenes ranges from being a
source of valuable information about the lives of the
ancient philosophers to a source of highly readable,
even entertaining, but sometimes unreliable thought
bites.
A few things Long has to say are: "His account of Plato,
one of his longest, clearly shows how superficial and
unreliable he was [sigh...]." "The tone of his work as
a whole suits better a man of the world who happened to
be interested in philosophers, but more as men and writers
than as philosophers in a technical sense." Which means
that Diogenes can appeal to the general reader who is
interested in anecdotes and fascinating out-of-the-way
puns and "gossip" about the philosophers (as compiled
from tomes of secondary and tertiary sources)-- as well
as to the scholar interested in seeing the effect of
a compiler/synthesizer as a source of information.
According to Long, again, "Diogenes has acquired an
importance out of all proportion to his merits because
the loss of many primary sources and of the earlier
secondary compilations has accidentally left him the
chief continuous source for the history of Greek
philosophy."
Volume I of the 2-volume set includes Books I through
V, containing a "Prologue" and going from the beginning
with Thales in Book I to Aristotle at the beginning of
Book V. Volume II begins with Book VI and goes through
Book X, with Antisthenes at the beginning of Book VI
and ending with the entire Book X devoted to Epicurus.
Diogenes starts out his work by taking to task those
who claim that philosophy arose among the barbarians,
who rest their claims with the Persians and their Magi,
the Babylonians and Assyrians with their Chaldaeans,
the Indians with their Gymnosophists, and the Celts
and Gauls with their Druids.
But Diogenes assertively states: "These authors forget
that the achievements which they attribute to the
barbarians belong to the Greeks, with whom not merely
philosophy but the human race itself began." [!!!]
One example of his interesting material concerns
the ancient figure of "Linus": "Linus again was (so
it is said) the son of Hermes and the Muse Urania. He
composed a poem describing the creation of the world,
the courses of the sun and moon, and the growth of
animals and plants. * * * Linus died in Euboea, slain
by the arrow of Apollo, and this is his epitaph:
Here Theban Linus, whom Urania bore,/ The fair-
crowned Muse, sleeps on a foreign shore."
Very provocative...certainly worth deeper
investigation...so, why not plunk down your dollars and
have a go at Diogenes!
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent resource for the study of Epicurus
Comment: Volume 2 of this edition of Diogenes Laertius' work is invaluable to students of Epicureanism who want to access Epicurus' thoughts in the original Greek. Diogenes Laertius has faithfully copied three of his letters and a collection of maxims: the sum Athenian philospher's intact works. Hicks' translation provides an excellent gloss of the Greek, but not a very good crib because he resolves Epicurus' compact and tortured Greek into smoother English. This is a first-rate edition from the excellent Loeb collection. A great companion to the Loeb edition of Lucretius!
Rating: 5
Summary: The first history of philosophy by schools of thought
Comment: Diogenes Lartius' Lives of the Philosophers is a flawed work by an unsinspired thinker and poetaster. His work is, however, indispensable to the student of ancient western thought and writing, as his quotations of many earlier philosophers, poets, and miscellaneous writers, whose works have perished, have left a large body of fragments for the historian to collect and analyze. The organization of Diogenes' work into successions of philosophers and schools of thought provided the foundation for the subsequent organization of the history of ancient philosophy. Interspersed throughout his fascinating book, full of legends and tidbits about the lives of individual philosophers, Diogenes Laertius has preserved entire bibliographies, reports of raging philosophical controversies, as well as poetry (including his own very mediocre compositions). This work is a must-read for the serious student of ancient western thought.
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Title: Xenophon: Memorabilia, Oeconomicus, Symposium, Apologia (Loeb Classical Library, No 168) by Xenophon, E. C. Marchant, O. J. Todd ISBN: 0674991869 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: June, 1923 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
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Title: Epictetus Discourse Books 1 and 2 (Loeb Classical Library, No 131) by Epictetus ISBN: 0674991451 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: June, 1925 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
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Title: Epictetus: Discourses, Books 3 and 4 (Loeb Classical Library, No 218) by Epictetus ISBN: 0674992407 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: June, 1928 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
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Title: The Cynics: The Cynic Movement in Antiquity and Its Legacy by R. Bracht Branham, Marie Odile Goulet-Caze ISBN: 0520216458 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: June, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Aristotle: The Nicomachean Ethics (No 73) by H. Rackham, Aristotle ISBN: 0674990811 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: June, 1982 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
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