Lycophron (Sophist)

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Lycophron ( ancient Greek Λυκόφρων Lykóphrōn ) was an ancient Greek philosopher and sophist . He lived in the first half of the fourth century BC. At least temporarily he stayed in Syracuse .

Lycophron's writings are lost. Only short passages on Lycophron's views on the function of laws, on the use of the word "is" in statements, on the definition of knowledge and his view that innate nobility is something irrelevant have survived.

Life

Little is known about Lycophron's life. Aristotle seems to imply that he was a student of the famous sophist Gorgias . From a passage in Plato it is also concluded that like other philosophers at the court of Dionysius II he frequented Syracuse.

Teaching

Function of laws

According to Lycophron, the law ( nómos ) is not a means of making citizens into just people. Rather, its function is to be a mutual legal guarantee, to guarantee citizens mutual rights. Aristotle, who passed this view on to Lycophron, brings Lycophron close to the view that the law is a social contract ( synthḗkē ).

Omitting the copula "is"

According to Aristotle, Lycophron pleaded for the copula “is” ( estí ) to be omitted from statements . This passage has been interpreted in such a way that Lycophron is of the opinion that the subject of the statement would change from a unity to a plurality by assigning a non-identical predicate. According to Themistocles , Lycophron demanded that the expression be used only for statements about existence, such as "Socrates is". Instead of statements like “Socrates is pale” one should say “Socrates pale”.

Definition of knowledge

Since a statement has been handed down from Aristotle, in which Lycophron defines knowledge as a connection ( synousian ) of knowledge ( epistasthai ) and soul ( psyches ), it was concluded that Lycophron was preoccupied with the definition of knowledge. This is also because Gorgias tried to differentiate concepts from one another in his lost work Dictionary of Terms.

Birth nobility

In one fragment, Lycophrons view has been preserved that nobility by birth is something completely irrelevant and that in reality there is no difference between noble and non-noble born.

Lore

The main source for Lycophron's views are several brief references in various writings of Aristotle . More can be found, for example, in Plato, Johannes Stobaios , Themistios and Damascius .

reception

In his rhetoric , Aristotle names Lycophron, Gorgias and Alkidamas as representatives of a pompous and colloquial style.

Karl Popper , who uses Lycophron against Plato and Aristotle as representatives of his own liberal views, on the one hand denies the immorality of the concerns of the weaker. On the other hand, he sees the strength of Lycophron's formulation in the fact that it does not derive the social contract historically, since such derivations regularly fail. For Popper, Lycophron's political theory is "the most fitting expression of the humanitarian and equality movement of the Periclean Age."

literature

Overview representations

Investigations

  • Richard G. Mulgan: Lycophron and Greek Theories of Social Contract . In: Journal of the History of Ideas , Volume 40, Number 1, 1979, pp. 121-128

Web links

Remarks

  1. Aristoteles, Rhetorik 1405b34-1406a8 = Hermann Diels, Walther Kranz (ed.): Fragments of the pre-Socratic 83A3 and Aristotle, Sophistic Refutations 174b30-174b33 = Hermann Diels, Walther Kranz (ed.): Fragments of the pre-Socratic 83A6.
  2. Plato, Second letter 314d.
  3. George B. Kerferd, Hellmut Flashar: Lykophron . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 52–53, here: p. 52.
  4. Aristoteles, Politik 1280b10-1280b12 = Hermann Diels, Walther Kranz (Ed.): Fragments of the pre-Socratics 83A3.
  5. Aristoteles, Physik 185b27-185b28 = Hermann Diels, Walther Kranz (Ed.): Fragments of the pre-Socratics 83A2.
  6. Themistocles, Paraphrase on the Physics of Aristotle 1,2,114.
  7. George B. Kerferd, Hellmut Flashar: Lykophron . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 52–53, here: p. 53.
  8. Aristoteles, Metaphysik 1045b9-1045b11 = Hermann Diels, Walther Kranz (ed.): Fragments of the pre-Socratic 83A1.
  9. George B. Kerferd, Hellmut Flashar: Lykophron . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 52–53, here: pp. 52–53.
  10. Johannes Stobaios , Florilegium IV, 29.710 = Hermann Diels, Walther Kranz (Ed.): Fragments of the pre-Socratics 83A4.
  11. Aristotle, Rhetoric 1405b-1406a.
  12. ^ Karl Popper: The Open Society , Munich 1980, Volume 1, p. 163.