Euclid from Megara

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Panel painting by Joos van Wassenhove , around 1474, Urbino

Euclid of Megara ( ancient Greek Εὐκλείδης ὁ Μεγαρεύς Eukleídēs ho Megareús , Latinized Euclides Megareus ; * probably around 450 BC in Megara ; † probably between 369 and 367 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher .

Euclid's writings are lost. All that has been preserved is a quote from one of his writings and a few testimony (ancient reports on life and teaching). The central theme of his philosophy is likely to have been the question of the good , and sparse information on topics of logic has also been preserved .

Euclid was a student of the philosopher Socrates . Ancient as well as modern historians of philosophy see him as the founder of a philosophical movement whose representatives are called the megarists .

Life

The dates of Euclid's life are uncertain. The approximate date of birth 450 BC. One inferred from a report by Aulus Gellius , the historicity of which is questionable; the date of death from a dialogue by Plato , where Euclid spoke of a 369 BC in the introductory conversation. The event that took place in BC is reported - although the conversation is fictional - as well as the failure to mention Euclid in a list of important personalities of spiritual life in 366 BC. Chr.

According to Aulus Gellius, Euclid went to Athens every evening for a while in order to be able to take part in the conversations of his teacher Socrates. Around the year 432 BC Because of a trade ban (Megaric Psephisma), residents of the city of Megara were not allowed to enter Athens, which is why Euclid went to Athens in women's clothes and a headscarf and only returned to Megara, 45 km away, in the morning. The historicity of this story, like that of similar stories about the disciples of Socrates, is in doubt today.

Otherwise almost nothing is known about the life of Euclid. He is said to be one of the friends present at the death of Socrates, and after Socrates' death some of his students are said to have gone to Euclid in Megara for a while. In Plato's dialogue Phaedo he is mentioned as one of the listeners of the conversation described.

Works

The writings of Euclid are lost. Only the names of six dialogues are known ( Lamprias , Aeschines , Phoinix , Kriton , Alkibiades and Erotikos ) as well as testimony and a fragment, which, however, cannot be assigned to any of the six dialogues.

Teaching

The good

Judging from the few ancient evidence, it can be assumed that at the center of Euclid's philosophy - as with his teacher Socrates - was the question of the good. The most important passage can be found in Diogenes Laertios :

“[Euclid] was of the opinion that good is one thing, but is called by many names; sometimes it is called insight, sometimes God, sometimes reason, and so on. But he canceled the opposite of the good by denying that it existed. "

- Diogenes Laertios : On the life and teachings of famous philosophers 2,106

Further passages in Diogenes Laertios and Cicero confirm that Euclid was probably of the opinion that one thing is good .

Logic and eristics

Regarding questions of dialectics (today, for example, the discipline of logic ), only a short report by Diogenes Laertios has come down to us. The first sentence of this report ("Evidence attacked [Euclid] not in its premises, but in its final sentence") can be interpreted in such a way that Euclid did not attack the assertions, assumptions or premises ( latammata ) on which opposing arguments were based, but the result or the final sentence ( epiphorá ) of these arguments. In the rest of the passage, Diogenes Laertios reports that Euclid rejected the Socratic analogy procedure. One argument should not make use of comparison.

Euclid and the Megarics are referred to as Eristicians in ancient sources . Eristics is a kind of negative dialectic that does not base its argument on positive evidence, but rather restricts itself to refuting opposing arguments.

Lore

The most important ancient source is Diogenes Laertios. Further testimonies come from Plato, Cicero, Aulus Gellius, Johannes Stobaios as well as from collections of concise wisdoms. A book catalog with remains of an inscription shows that Euclid's Dialogue Aeschines around 100 BC. Was still accessible in Athens.

reception

Modern scholars are divided about the influence of the Eleatic philosophers on Euclid. Based on Euclid's view that the good is one , he was already regarded by Cicero as the successor of the Eleates Xenophanes , Parmenides and Zeno of Elea . Modern historians of philosophy initially adopted this view ( e.g. Karl Praechter in 1926 ) until Kurt von Fritz checked all the evidence on Euclid in 1931. He came to the conclusion that the assumption that Euclid was in the tradition of the Eleatics was a construction of ancient doxographs based on the special importance attached to the One by both the Eleates and Euclid. According to von Fritz, Euclid is more in the tradition of Socrates.

Cicero also points out that there are similarities between Euclid's and Plato's philosophy.

Until the early modern period, the elements and other works of Euclid were often attributed to Euclid of Megara or the two were confused, which was only finally clarified by Christophorus Clavius (and other authors such as Henry Savile in England ).

iconography

On a Megarian coin of around 200 there is a depiction that may be Euclid, as the depicted wears a veil and earrings. The coin is now in the British Museum .

Source collections

  • Klaus Döring : The mega-riders. Annotated collection of testimony (= studies on ancient philosophy 2). Grüner, Amsterdam 1971, ISBN 90-6032-003-4 .
  • Gabriele Giannantoni (Ed.): Socratis et Socraticorum Reliquiae. Volume 1, Bibliopolis, Naples 1990, Section II-A ( online ).
  • Robert Muller: Les mégariques. Fragments and témoignages. Vrin, Paris 1985, pp. 19-28.

literature

Remarks

  1. Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 7,10,1-7,10,4.
  2. Plato, Theaetetus 142a-143b.
  3. Diodor , Diodori Siculi Bibliotheca historica 15,76,4.
  4. ^ Klaus Döring: Eukleides from Megara . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 208–212, here: pp. 208–209.
  5. a b Klaus Döring: Eukleides from Megara . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 208–212, here: p. 209.
  6. ^ Plato, Apology 59c.
  7. Diogenes Laertios reports this in reference to the Plato student Hermodor in: About the life and teachings of the philosophers 2.106.
  8. ^ Plato, Phaedo 59c.
  9. ^ Klaus Döring: Eukleides from Megara . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 208–212, here: pp. 209–210.
  10. a b c Translation after Klaus Döring: Eukleides from Megara . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 208–212, here: p. 210.
  11. ^ Diogenes Laertios, On the Life and Teachings of the Philosophers 7,161.
  12. ^ A b Cicero, Lucullus sive Academicorum priorum liber 2 129.
  13. Diogenes Laertios, On the Lives and Teachings of the Philosophers 2,107.
  14. Quoted from Klaus Döring: Eukleides from Megara . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 208–212, here: p. 211.
  15. ^ Klaus Döring: Eukleides from Megara . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 208–212, here: pp. 211–212.
  16. Diogenes Laertios, On the Lives and Teachings of the Philosophers 2,107. Diogenes refers here to Timon of Phleius .
  17. ^ Klaus Döring: Eukleides from Megara . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 208–212, here: p. 212.
  18. a b Klaus Döring: Eukleides from Megara . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 208–212, here: p. 208.
  19. ^ Klaus Döring: Eukleides from Megara . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 208–212, here: pp. 210–211.
  20. ^ Karl Praechter: The philosophy of antiquity . In: Friedrich Ueberweg (Ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy , Volume 1, 12th edition, ES Mittler, Berlin 1926
  21. ^ Kurt von Fritz: Megariker . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Altertumswwissenschaft , Supplementvol 5, 1931, Sp. 707-724.
  22. ^ Thomas Heath The thirteen books of Euclid's Elements , Cambridge University Press 1908, Volume 1, p. 105.