Metrodorus of Chios
Metrodoros of Chios ( Greek Μητρόδωρος Mētródōros , also Metras ) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the atomistic school. He came from Chios , lived in the 5th / 4th century. Century BC And is said to have been a student of Democritus or of the Democritus student Nessas (Nessos) of Chios.
Only fragments of his extensive work have survived. Because of the beginning of his work Peri physeos ( About nature ), which we received thanks to Cicero , “nobody among us knows anything, not even that, whether we know or not”, he is occasionally described as a pioneer of Pyrrhonic skepticism . His physics is strongly based on Democritus: He claimed that the cosmos as a whole was immobile, only accepted atoms and emptiness as the basic units of matter and postulated an infinite number of atoms in an infinitely wide space in an infinite number of worlds. He also worked as a historian and meteorologist. He deviated from Democritus especially in his meteorological writings; so he contradicted the view that the stars are optical illusions that arise from the reflection of the sun's rays in the clouds.
Editions
- Hermann Diels , Walther Kranz : The fragments of the pre-Socratics , Weidmann, Zurich 1996, Volume 2 (reprint of the Berlin 1952 edition), ISBN 3-296-12202-8 , pp. 231-234.
literature
- Martin Flashar : Metrodoros. A philosopher portrait in the Archaeological Collection of the University of Freiburg (= writings of the Archaeological Collection Freiburg , vol. 3). Biering & Brinkmann, Munich 1999
- Richard Goulet: Métrodore de Chios. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques . Volume 4, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-271-06386-8 , pp. 506-508
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Metrodorus of Chios |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Metras |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Greek pre-Socratics |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 5th century BC Chr. |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chios , Greece |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th century BC Chr. |