Straton of Lampsakos

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fantasy depiction of Straton in Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle

Straton von Lampsakos ( Greek Στράτων Strátōn ; * around 340 BC ; † around 268 BC ) was an ancient Greek philosopher .

Life

After the death of his predecessor Theophrastus, Straton headed the Athens Lyceum ( Peripatos ) founded by Aristotle from 288/287 and was educator of the later King Ptolemy II Philadelphon in Alexandria . In contrast to most contemporary philosophers, for whom ethics was the focus of interest, he was primarily concerned with physical questions, which earned him the nickname "the physicist". More than 40 writings by him have come down to us, but only a few fragments or reports have survived. Among his students was u. a. Aristarchus of Samos .

plant

Straton endeavored to improve and expand the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus on various subjects. Straton made his most significant contributions to the theory of motion and the question of the fundamental physical structure of the world. In this way he recognized that falling bodies accelerate while Aristotle had assumed that the movement was not accelerated; Straton was thus already approaching the laws of Free Fall recognized by Galileo and Newton , without being able to assert himself with his views against the authority of the master Aristotle. Straton introduced - presumably under the influence of Epicurus - the particle theory of matter into the natural philosophy of the Peripatetic and advocated a particle theory of light. Straton also taught that all bodies contain a different amount of emptiness ( vacuum ) depending on the substance , from which the respective weight differences result . As a demonstration of the existence of the vacuum - which he defended against Aristotle - he carried out experiments.

He is also said to have represented an atheistic natural philosophy that understood nature as a mechanism in which transcendent influences such as deities played no role. Therefore, he rejected philosophical guidelines for science and metaphysical and theological explanations of natural phenomena. Methodologically, he represented a strict empiricism , i.e. observation, experiment and simplicity of theory, which only relates to the “how” of natural processes and not to a “why” hidden behind things. Straton thus anticipates central properties of the modern understanding of science. The naturalists of the 17th and 18th centuries, who advocated a science liberated from metaphysics, were therefore called "stratons".

literature

personal data
SURNAME Straton of Lampsakos
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek philosopher and naturalist
DATE OF BIRTH around 340 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH around 268 BC Chr.