Hippon

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Hippon ( Greek  Ἵππων Híppōn , Latinized Hippo , also Hippon of Samos and Hippon of Rhegion ; * in the first half of the 5th century BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher .

Life

Leonid Zhmud places the birth of Hippon in the time around 480/470 BC. BC, although his reasoning is based on a dating of a comedy performance in Athens, which is not unanimously accepted in research. What is certain is that the philosopher in the first half of the 5th century BC. Was born in BC. Aristoxenos describes the Greek island of Samos as the home of Hippon . The credibility of this statement is doubtful, however, as several other sources report that it was from one of the Greek cities in southern Italy: The Aristotle student Menon calls it Croton , Censorinus states Metapontus , Sextus Empiricus and Hippolytus of Rome let Hippon come from Rhegion . The different information can be attributed to frequent changes of the adopted home. Since Hippon was mocked in the comedy in Athens, he must have been a well-known figure there; maybe he lived temporarily in Athens.

Aristoxenus counted Hippon to the Pythagoreans , a philosophical school, which in the 5th century BC. BC developed a strong activity in southern Italy. In the Pythagorean list of the late ancient Neo-Platonist Iamblichus , based on information from Aristoxenus , Hippon is named among the Pythagoreans from Samos. He was a natural philosopher and seems to have mainly dealt with natural research. Apparently he was primarily interested in biological and medical issues.

An alleged tomb inscription by Hippon, consisting of two verses, is now considered to be false.

Works and teaching

Hippon wrote at least two writings on natural philosophy that are lost today; not even their titles are known. With regard to the original principle, the archḗ , he took a view similar to that of the pre-Socratic Thales . Thales made water the primal principle, Hippon "the moisture par excellence" ( haplōs to hygrón ). In justifying his opinion, Hippon proceeded differently than Thales: his considerations were not meteorological, but biological; Apparently it was not about the primal principle of all being, but specifically about the primal principle of life. He pointed out that the food and seeds of all living things are damp, that warmth comes from damp and lives through damp, and that dying is accompanied by dehydration. Hippon also attributed a damp consistency to the soul. He thought it was material and ephemeral. Against its identification with the blood, he objected that the seminal fluid, which is the carrier of the soul, is bloodless. It is unclear whether this criticism was aimed specifically at a teaching by Empedocles or at an opinion widespread among doctors.

Hippon saw the condition of sensations in the moisture ( hygrótēs ) of the body. He also emphasized the decisive role of moisture in life in his theory of diseases. He viewed health as a normal state of moisture and illness as the result of a disturbance in that state caused by an excess of cold or heat. He also explained the aging process in this way; in old age the humidity decreases and the dehydration leads to a dulling of the senses. In old age one increasingly loses sensations as a result of dehydration.

Hippon was of the opinion that the drinking water also came from the sea, because it was obtained from wells that were above sea level; only if the source of fresh water were deeper than the sea could it have a different origin.

According to Hippon's doctrine of procreation , the semen comes from the spinal cord. In support of this, he stated that this could be shown by slaughtering a bull after mating; then he lacks the mark because it has been used up. The child's bones arise from the father's seed, while the flesh is due to the contribution of the mother's side - the female “food”. The sex of the child depends on the relationship between these two factors and the quality of the semen; male offspring emerged from thick sperm. The embryo feeds itself through its mouth, not - as an alternative theory suggested - through its entire body.

In botany, Hippon took the view that any wild plant could be cultivated. Whether a plant blooms, whether it bears fruit and whether it sheds its leaves depends on the location and the surrounding air.

Hippon was considered an atheist . He probably had this reputation because he was portrayed as "impious" in the comedy. It cannot be decided whether this tradition is reliable.

reception

The poet Kratinos , a contemporary of Hippon, mocked the philosopher in his comedy Panóptai ("The Seers of All "). Apparently, in this piece, which has not been preserved, he was targeting an aspect of Hippon's theory of nature that seemed absurd.

Aristotle assessed Hippon very unfavorably; he characterized him as primitive and said that one could not count him among the important early philosophers "because of the poverty of his thinking". Aristotle's pupil Theophrast went into detail on Hippon's medical and embryological teachings.

Source collections

literature

Remarks

  1. ^ Leonid Zhmud: Hippon (DK 38) . In: Hellmut Flashar et al. (Ed.): Early Greek Philosophy (= Outline of the History of Philosophy. The Philosophy of Antiquity , Volume 1), Half Volume 1, Basel 2013, pp. 418–420, here: 418.
  2. ^ The message is in Censorinus, De die natali 5.
  3. ^ Censorinus, De die natali 5.
  4. ^ Leonid Zhmud: Hippon (DK 38) . In: Hellmut Flashar et al. (Ed.): Early Greek Philosophy (= Outline of the History of Philosophy. The Philosophy of Antiquity , Volume 1), Half Volume 1, Basel 2013, pp. 418–420, here: 418.
  5. ^ Iamblichos, De vita Pythagorica 267.
  6. ^ Hermann Diels, Walther Kranz (Ed.): The Fragments of the Pre-Socratics , Volume 1, 6th Edition, Berlin 1951, pp. 388f.
  7. ↑ Hippon, fragment DK 38 A 11.
  8. ↑ These arguments ascribed to Thales probably come from Hippon; see Geoffrey S. Kirk , John E. Raven, Malcolm Schofield (eds.): Die vorsokratischen Philosophen , Stuttgart 2001, p. 99 note 10 and p. 100 note 11; Leonid Zhmud: Hippon (DK 38) . In: Hellmut Flashar et al. (Ed.): Early Greek Philosophy (= Outline of the History of Philosophy. The Philosophy of Antiquity , Volume 1), Half Volume 1, Basel 2013, pp. 418–420, here: 418f.
  9. ↑ Aristotle, De anima 405b. See Renato Laurenti: Gli epigoni della Scuola Milesia: Ippone e Diogene d'Apollonia . In: Sophia , Jg. 39, 1971, pp. 67–89, here: 68, 73. Laurenti rejects any reference to Empedocles; Leonid Zhmud has a different opinion: Hippon (DK 38) . In: Hellmut Flashar et al. (Ed.): Early Greek Philosophy (= Outline of the History of Philosophy. The Philosophy of Antiquity , Volume 1), Half Volume 1, Basel 2013, pp. 418–420, here: 418f.
  10. ↑ On Hippon's theory of moisture see Daniela Manetti: Hippo Crotoniates. 1T . In: Corpus dei papiri filosofici greci e latini (CPF) , Part 1, Vol. 1 **, Firenze 1992, pp. 455-461.
  11. ↑ Hippon, fragment DK 38 B1.
  12. ↑ For the concept and history of the doctrines of generation, see Britta-Juliane Kruse: Generation theory. In: Werner E. Gerabek et al. (Ed.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte , Berlin / New York 2005, pp. 1526–1528.
  13. ^ Hippon, fragment DK 38 A 12.
  14. ↑ Hippon, fragment DK 38 A 13-14.
  15. ^ Hippon, fragment DK 38 A 14.
  16. ^ Hippon, fragment DK 38 A 17.
  17. ↑ Hippon, fragment DK 38 A 19.
  18. ↑ Hippon, fragments DK 38 A 4, DK 38 A 6, DK 38 A 8.
  19. ↑ See on atheism Michel Narcy: Hippon de Samos . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 3, Paris 2000, pp. 799–801, here: 800.
  20. ↑ Fragment DK 38 A 2, ed. by Hermann Diels, Walther Kranz: The fragments of the pre-Socratics , Volume 1, 6th edition, Berlin 1951, p. 385.
  21. ↑ Aristotle, De anima 405b1-2.
  22. ↑ Aristotle, Metaphysics 984a3-5.
personal data
SURNAME Hippon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hippo, Hippon of Samos
BRIEF DESCRIPTION pre-Socratic philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 5th century BC BC or 4th century BC Chr.