Aristocles of Messene

Aristocles of Messene ( Greek Ἀριστοκλῆς Aristoklḗs ) was an ancient Peripatetic philosopher . He lived in the early Roman Empire , apparently in the 1st century BC. BC, perhaps as early as the early 1st century AD.

Life

Nothing more is known about the life of Aristocles. He came from Messene in Sicily (Messana, today Messina ), not from the then far more famous city of Messene in the Peloponnese . There are some indications that he was in Alexandria .

In older research, he was wrongly mistaken for the teacher of the famous peripatetic Alexander of Aphrodisias . It was mistakenly believed that the philosopher Aristotle (from Mytilene) , whom Alexander mentions as his teacher, was actually Aristocles and that the name "Aristotle" was a typo. This assumption led to a late dating of the life of Aristocles (second half of the 2nd century). In recent research ( Paul Moraux , Maria Lorenza Chiesara), however, it is assumed that he lived around the turn of the millennium. This is supported by linguistic evidence and the fact that he is based on the activity of the philosopher Ainesidemos , which dates back to the first half of the 1st century BC. Falls, referring to words that suggest that it was not very long ago.

Works and teaching

The main work of Aristocles was a critical presentation of the teachings of all schools of philosophy in ten books with the title "About Philosophy" ( Περὶ φιλοσοφίας ; Peri philosophías ). It is lost; However, eight extensive excerpts have been preserved, which the church writer Eusebius of Caesarea handed down in his work Praeparatio evangelica (14-15).

Asklepios von Tralleis and Johannes Philoponos give in their commentaries on the "Introduction to Arithmetic" by Nicomachus of Gerasa five meanings of the word "wise", which were set out in the book "On Philosophy". Aristocles linked the five uses of the word with a doctrine of five cultural levels of humanity. According to this doctrine, the human race was largely destroyed by natural disasters (epidemics and especially great floods such as that of the time of Deucalion ). The survivors were forced to invent inventions such as agriculture because of the lack of food. Such thinking was then considered "wisdom". In the second phase of development, they devised arts that no longer only served survival, but also aesthetic purposes, such as architecture. Such inventions were then considered a sign of wisdom. In the third epoch, people turned to political affairs and introduced laws and rules that served to organize coexistence in cities. Such was the activity of the Seven Wise Men who discovered political proficiency. The fourth epoch brought people an understanding of bodies (natural things) and the nature that makes them; this was called contemplation of nature. Those who deal with it are called wise men in the field of natural things ( natural philosophy ). At the fifth stage of culture there was a turn to the divine, transcendent and completely immutable beings; the knowledge of this area was called wisdom in the highest sense. In research, the hypothesis is considered that this philosophy of history presented by Aristocles with its concept of gradual progress can be traced back at least in part to a lost work of the young Aristotle ; Aristotle's dialogue “On Philosophy” and his “Protreptikos” are considered. It is to be expected that Aristocles changed and expanded a scheme of Aristotle.

Aristocles turns out to be a faithful follower of the teachings of Aristotle, for which he wants to promote. In addition, he opposes gossipy slander of Aristotle and tries to prove them senseless. He polemicizes against other philosophical directions, the teachings of which he cleverly tries to refute using Aristotelian arguments. However , he shows great respect for Plato . Because of the reproduction of foreign teachings, his work is a valuable source of the history of philosophy, especially for the Pyrrhonic skepticism , with which he deals intensively. Information about the views of the early Pyrrhonian skeptics ( Pyrrhon von Elis , Timon von Phleius ), but also about the late Pyrrhonism ( Ainesidemos ) is to be owed to his representation. However, his descriptions of foreign positions are sometimes impaired by his polemical attitude or by a lack of specialist knowledge.

He criticizes the tenets of the skeptics and also tries to show that it is impossible to live consistently according to their principles; By renouncing judgments and the resulting abolition of moral concepts, respect for the law is destroyed and the door is opened to crime. A life according to skeptical principles is contrary to nature; it is impossible for people to be speechless. Aristocles formulates polemically, prefers to use rhetorical questions and does not mention important counter-arguments of the skeptics; It is unclear whether he did not exactly know the opposing position or whether he deliberately concealed counter arguments. His engagement with the views of the Epicureans , about which he was apparently better informed, is on a much higher level . On the one hand, he turns against sensualism and subjectivism and, on the other hand, against the opposite position, according to which only a knowledge of reason that is not dependent on perception deserves trust ( Eleates and, according to Aristocles' understanding, Megarics ). He reproduces the epistemology of the Cyrenaics in a polemically distorted form.

In the Suda , a Byzantine encyclopedia, in addition to the main work, four other writings by Aristocles are mentioned that have not been preserved: "Whether Homer or Plato is more important", "Rhetorical techniques", "About Sarapis " and an "Ethics".

output

• Maria Lorenza Chiesara: Aristocles of Messene. Testimonia and Fragments . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001, ISBN 0-19-924154-6 (critical edition with English translation and commentary)

literature

• Simone Follet: Aristoclès de Messine . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 1, CNRS, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-222-04042-6 , pp. 382-384
• Inna Kupreeva: Aristocles of Messene. In: Christoph Riedweg et al. (Hrsg.): Philosophy of the imperial era and late antiquity (= outline of the history of philosophy . The philosophy of antiquity. Volume 5/1). Schwabe, Basel 2018, ISBN 978-3-7965-3698-4 , pp. 351–376, 440 f.
• Paul Moraux: Aristotelianism among the Greeks from Andronikos to Alexander of Aphrodisias . Volume 2, de Gruyter, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-11-009919-5 , pp. 83-207
• Hans B. Gottschalk: Aristocles [1]. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 1, Metzler, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-476-01471-1 , Sp. 1110.
• James Warren: Aristocles' Refutation of Pyrrhonism . In: Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society NS 46, 2000, pp. 140-164

Remarks

1. ↑ Chiesara (2001) pp. XIX – XX.
2. ↑ Moraux (1984) pp. 83-89; Chiesara (2001) pp. XVI-XIX.
3. ↑ Moraux (1984) pp. 92-123; Chiesara (2001) pp. 55-60.
4. ↑ Klaus Döring: The Socratic student Aristipp and the Kyrenaiker , Mainz and Stuttgart 1988, p. 11f., 21-27.