Stilpon

Stilpon ( ancient Greek Στίλπων Stílpōn , Latinized Stilpo ; * no later than the middle of the 4th century BC in Megara ; † after 280 BC) was a Greek philosopher of antiquity . Within the history of philosophy he is counted among the megarics .

Stilpon's writings are lost. Only a fragment from one of his dialogues and several testimony (ancient reports on life and teaching) have survived.

Lore

The main source on Stilpon is the detailed report in Diogenes Laertios ; further information can be found in a surviving fragment of a dialogue by Stilpon and in Johannes Stobaios , Cicero , Seneca , Plutarch , Athenaios and others.

Life

Stilpon's life dates are unknown. Around 315 Menedemos of Eretria studied with him in Megara, in 308/06 Stilpon seems to have been a well-known personality in the city. After 280 he stayed in Alexandria at the court of Ptolemy I , and was in Athens at least once . He is said to have grown very old, was married and had a daughter. Stilpon is said to have been politically active, successfully fought against his penchant for women and wine, and had dealings with hetaerae . His character is expressly praised in ancient sources, so he is said to have been simple, unaffected, quick-witted and funny.

His teachers probably included successors of Euclid of Megara , including a certain Thrasymachus of Corinth and a certain Pasikles of Thebes, brother of Krates of Thebes (misinformation is likely that he was a pupil of Euclid of Megara and Diogenes of Sinope ). Among the numerous students of the well-respected nationwide Stilpon were Menedemos of Eretria, Zeno of Kition , Timon of Phleius , the historian Kleitarchos and the Cynic Krates of Thebes, who may have been a competitor rather than a student.

Works

Stilpon's writings have been lost; we only know the names of nine dialogues about Diogenes Laertios ( Metrokles , Moschos , Aristippus or Callias , Ptolemaios , Chairekrates , Anaximenes , Epigenes , To my daughter , Aristotle ), although To my daughter may not be was a dialogue. Only the content of one of the dialogues is known in fragments, as a papyrus from the 2nd or 3rd century contains a fragment that is attributed to Stilpon's Metrokles . In addition to the eponymous Cynic Metrokles and a young rhetor named Alkimos, Stilpon himself appears there as a conversation partner. Metrokles is skeptical of Stilpon's plan to include the young Alcimos among his students and asks whether Alcimos knows what is good and what is bad. The papyrus breaks off when Alcimos begins to list some bad things.

Teaching

dialectic

In ancient times, Stilpon was best known for his mastery of the art of disputation and dialectics (which today corresponds roughly to the scientific discipline of logic ). Little is known today about Stilpon's work in this area. Plutarch has passed on Stilpon's view that one “cannot say one thing about another” (éteron etérou mḕ katēgoreísthai) . So one could neither say “this person is good” nor “this person is a general”, but only “man is human” and “general is general”. According to Diogenes Laertios, Stilpon has abolished the general terms (eídē) . Anyone who uses the general term “human” speaks of nobody and thus of nothing. If you use the general term for a certain person (for example, “Socrates is a person”) he identifies the certain person with the general term. You also identify all specific people if you identify them all with the general term.

ethics

John Stobaios has a report by the Cynic Teles of Megara on Stilpon's ethical views. Stilpon advocated self-sufficiency and urged not to be dominated by affects. Exile is not a problem, as it does not take away anything important and a self-sufficient person is not dependent on friends. Similar positions were also represented by other philosophical currents ( Cynics , Epicureans , Stoics , Pyrrhones ) of this time.

According to an anecdote handed down by Seneca, Stilpon said to Demetrios Poliorketes when he had conquered Megara: “Everything I own I carry with me” (Latin “ Omnia mea mecum porto ”). According to the story, Demetrios had asked him that - unlike the other refugees from the looted city - he took nothing with him. This anecdote is intended to illustrate the simplicity of the Stilpon, the rejection of material goods, but also and especially his ideal of inner freedom. However, Cicero attributed the saying to Priene's bias .

religion

Stiplon seems to have distanced himself ironically from contemporary popular religion.

Portrait

No portrait of Stilpoon with an inscription has come down to us. Karl Schefold believed a bronze head found on the island of Antikythera , in which one of the Cynical philosophers was occasionally seen, for a representation of Stilpon's. In the second edition of his book, however, he considered the head to be a possible portrait of Bion of Borysthenes and a marble statue from Delphi to be a portrait of Stilpon.

reception

In 1774, Christoph Martin Wieland published the dialog Stilpon in the Teutscher Merkur or about the choice of a senior guild master of Megara .

Source collections

Klaus Döring : The mega-riders. Annotated Collection of Testimonies , Grüner, Amsterdam 1971, (Studies on Ancient Philosophy 2), ISBN 90-6032-003-4
Gabriele Giannantoni (Ed.): Socratis et Socraticorum Reliquiae , Vol. 1, Bibliopolis, Naples 1990, Section II-O ( online )
Robert Muller: Les mégariques. Fragments et témoignages , Vrin, Paris 1985

literature

Klaus Döring : Stilpon . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy . The philosophy of antiquity . Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, ISBN 3-7965-1036-1 , pp. 230-236.
Robert Muller, Richard Goulet: Stilpon de Mégare. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 6, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2016, ISBN 978-2-271-08989-2 , pp. 599-601

Remarks

^ ^A ^b Klaus Döring: Stilpon . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity . Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 230-236, here: p. 230.
↑ The biographical section is based on Klaus Döring: Stilpon . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity . Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 230-236, here: pp. 230-231.
↑ Diogenes Laertios, On the Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 2.105 and 2.126.
↑ Diogenes Laertios, On the Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 2,115-2,116.
↑ Diogenes Laertios, On the Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 2,111-112.
↑ Diogenes Laertios, On the Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 2,120.
↑ Diogenes Laertios, On the Life and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 2,114; Plutarch, De tranquillitate animi 467f-468a.
↑ Diogenes Laertios, On the Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 2,114.
^ Cicero, De fato 10.
↑ Athenaios, Deipnosophistai 13,584a and 596e.
↑ Diogenes Laertios, On the Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 2,119.
^ Klaus Döring: Stilpon . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity . Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 230-236, here: p. 231.
↑ Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 3655; Printed by Gabriele Giannantoni (ed.): Socratis et Socraticorum Reliquiae. Collegit, disposuit, apparatibus notisque instruxit G. Giannantoni , Volume 4, Bibliopolis, Naples 1990, p. 99.
^ Klaus Döring: Stilpon . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity . Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 230-236, here: pp. 231-232.
^ Klaus Döring: Stilpon . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity . Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 230-236, here: pp. 232-234.
↑ Plutarch, Adversus colotem 1119c-1119d and 1120a-1120b.
↑ Diogenes Laertios, On the Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 2,119.
↑ Johannes Stobaios, Florilegium 3,40,8.
^ Klaus Döring: Stilpon . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity . Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 230–236, here: p. 234.
^ Diogenes Laertios, On the life and teachings of famous philosophers 2,116-117; Plutarch, De profectibus in virtute 83c; Athenaios, Deipnosophistai 10,422d.
↑ Karl Schefold: The portraits of the ancient poets, speakers and thinkers , Schwabe, Basel 1943, p. 89.
^ Karl Schefold: The portraits of ancient poets, speakers and thinkers , 2nd edition, Schwabe, Basel 1997, pp. 258 and 557.
↑ Christoph Martin Wieland: Stilpon or about the choice of a senior guild master of Megara . In: Fritz Martini, Hans Werner Seiffert (ed.): Works , Volume 2, Hanser, Munich 1966, pp. 762–785.

personal data
SURNAME	Stilpon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Stílpōn
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	ancient Greek philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH	4th century BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH	Megara
DATE OF DEATH	after 280 BC Chr.

[GGPh230-1] A ^b Klaus Döring: Stilpon . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity . Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 230-236, here: p. 230.

[2] The biographical section is based on Klaus Döring: Stilpon . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity . Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 230-236, here: pp. 230-231.

[3] Diogenes Laertios, On the Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 2.105 and 2.126.

[4] Diogenes Laertios, On the Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 2,115-2,116.

[5] Diogenes Laertios, On the Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 2,111-112.

[6] Diogenes Laertios, On the Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 2,120.

[7] Diogenes Laertios, On the Life and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 2,114; Plutarch, De tranquillitate animi 467f-468a.

[8] Diogenes Laertios, On the Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 2,114.

[9] Cicero, De fato 10.

[10] Athenaios, Deipnosophistai 13,584a and 596e.

[11] Diogenes Laertios, On the Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 2,119.

[12] Klaus Döring: Stilpon . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity . Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 230-236, here: p. 231.

[13] Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 3655; Printed by Gabriele Giannantoni (ed.): Socratis et Socraticorum Reliquiae. Collegit, disposuit, apparatibus notisque instruxit G. Giannantoni , Volume 4, Bibliopolis, Naples 1990, p. 99.

[14] Klaus Döring: Stilpon . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity . Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 230-236, here: pp. 231-232.

[15] Klaus Döring: Stilpon . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity . Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 230-236, here: pp. 232-234.

[16] Plutarch, Adversus colotem 1119c-1119d and 1120a-1120b.

[17] Diogenes Laertios, On the Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 2,119.

[18] Johannes Stobaios, Florilegium 3,40,8.

[19] Klaus Döring: Stilpon . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity . Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 230–236, here: p. 234.

[20] Diogenes Laertios, On the life and teachings of famous philosophers 2,116-117; Plutarch, De profectibus in virtute 83c; Athenaios, Deipnosophistai 10,422d.

[21] Karl Schefold: The portraits of the ancient poets, speakers and thinkers , Schwabe, Basel 1943, p. 89.

[22] Karl Schefold: The portraits of ancient poets, speakers and thinkers , 2nd edition, Schwabe, Basel 1997, pp. 258 and 557.

[23] Christoph Martin Wieland: Stilpon or about the choice of a senior guild master of Megara . In: Fritz Martini, Hans Werner Seiffert (ed.): Works , Volume 2, Hanser, Munich 1966, pp. 762–785.