Menedemus of Pyrrha

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Menedemos of Pyrrha ( Greek  Μενέδημος ; * around 390 BC; † after 338 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher ( Platonist ).

Menedemos came from the city of Pyrrha on the island of Lesbos . He lived in Athens , where he took lessons in Plato's philosophy school, the Platonic Academy . According to Plutarch's statements , Menedemus was sent by Plato to his hometown of Pyrrha, where he was supposed to act as a constitution-maker. Menedemus later returned to Athens and resumed his activity in the academy. Apparently he was one of the academy's most respected members. When Speusippus , Plato's successor as headmaster ( Scholarch ), died in 339/338 and the office of Scholarchen had to be filled by election, Menedemus ran against Xenocrates and Herakleides Ponticus . Xenocrates was elected with a narrow majority, whereupon Herakleides and Menedemus left the academy. After leaving the academy, Menedemos founded his own philosophy school. He is said to have turned down an invitation from Alexander the Great ; the credibility of this message, handed down by Plutarch, is judged skeptically in research.

Nothing is known about the teaching of Menedemos. All that is known is that he used Plato's method of Dihairesis to define the term, because the contemporary comedian Epikrates , who mocked Dihairesis, mentioned him in this context.

The Neo-Platonist Porphyrios quoted an otherwise unknown work by Menedemus in which Socrates was mentioned.

Source edition

  • François Lasserre (ed.): De Léodamas de Thasos à Philippe d'Oponte. Témoignages and fragments . Bibliopolis, Napoli 1987, ISBN 88-7088-136-9 , pp. 91–96 (Greek and Latin texts), 305–309 (French translation), 523–529 (commentary)

literature

  • Tiziano Dorandi: Ménédème de Pyrrha . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 4, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-271-06386-8 , p. 454
  • Kai Trampedach : Plato, the Academy and contemporary politics . Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-515-06453-2 , pp. 47-49

Remarks

  1. ↑ Plutarch, Adversus Colotem 32. For the controversial dating, see Kai Trampedach: Platon, the Academy and contemporary politics , Stuttgart 1994, pp. 47–49; François Lasserre (ed.): De Léodamas de Thasos à Philippe d'Oponte. Témoignages et fragments , Napoli 1987, p. 525.
  2. ↑ Konrad Gaiser (Ed.): Philodems Academica , Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1988, pp. 193, 465-469; François Lasserre (ed.): De Léodamas de Thasos à Philippe d'Oponte. Témoignages et fragments , Napoli 1987, pp. 94 f., 308, 525 f.
  3. ^ Kai Trampedach: Plato, the Academy and the Contemporary Politics , Stuttgart 1994, p. 48. François Lasserre (ed.): De Léodamas de Thasos à Philippe d'Oponte is of a different opinion . Témoignages et fragments , Napoli 1987, p. 526 f.
  4. ^ Epikrates, fragment 10, edited in: Rudolf Kassel , Colin Austin: Poetae comici Graeci (PCG) , Vol. 5, Berlin 1986, pp. 161–163. Cf. Heinz-Günther Nesselrath : Die Attische Mittlere Komödie , Berlin 1990, p. 277.
  5. ↑ The passage is edited and translated by François Lasserre (ed.): De Léodamas de Thasos à Philippe d'Oponte. Témoignages et fragments , Napoli 1987, p. 95 f. and 308 f .; Commentary on this, pp. 527-529.
personal data
SURNAME Menedemus of Pyrrha
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient Greek philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH around 390 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 338 BC Chr.