Teles from Megara

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Teles of Megara ( ancient Greek Τέλης Télēs ) was a Greek ancient philosopher who lived in the 3rd century BC. Lived. He is counted among the cynics .

Teles is known from only one single source, a work by John Stobaius , in which seven passages from the writings of Teles have come down to us. Virtually nothing is known about Teles' life and philosophy.

Life

In one of the quotations from Teles' writings there is an allusion to a political event that took place between 242 and probably 240 BC. Has taken place. This is the only clue to determine Teles' lifetime. Another passage suggests that Teles may have been from Megara , or at least lived there for a while.

Teaching

On Teles' teaching, there are passages in the text of Johannes Stobaios , in which Stobaios reproduces seven excerpts from an otherwise unknown Theodoros. These seven fragments (written as slide disks ) have been named after their subject.

  1. About appearance and being ( Περὶ τοῦ δοϰεῖν ϰαὶ τοῦ εἶναι ). Being is to be preferred to appearance. For example, trying to seem brave but not really being so could have dire consequences.
  2. About self-sufficiency ( Περὶ αὐταρκείας ). In order to be happy, people have to accept things as they are in every situation.
  3. About banishment ( Περὶ φυγῆς ). Banishment does not take anything that is really significant away from people. One can live virtuously anywhere.
  4. About wealth and poverty ( Σύγκρασις πενίας καὶ πλούτου ). Wealth does not make you happy. So there are many unhappy empires; conversely, there are happy people who live in poverty.
  5. That pleasure is not the goal in life ( Περὶ τοῦ μὴ εῖναι τέλος ἡδονὴν ). Displeasure occurs in a person's life. So you can't always feel pleasure. Therefore one could not declare pleasure as a goal in life.
  6. About living conditions ( Περὶ περιστάσεων ). This fragment covers the same subject as the fragment On Self-sufficiency .
  7. About freedom from affect ( Περὶ ἀπαθείας ). Just as it is pointless and pointless to fall into despair because of the death of a friend, for example, so it is generally better to free oneself from feelings (affects).

Text editions and translations

  • Pedro Pablo Fuentes González (Ed.): Les diatribes de Télès (= Histoire des doctrines de l'Antiquité classique. Volume 23). Vrin, Paris 1998, ISBN 978-2-7116-1350-2 (authoritative edition with French translation and extensive commentary)
  • Georg Luck (ed.): The wisdom of dogs. Texts of the ancient Cynics in German translation with explanations (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 484). Kröner, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-520-48401-3 , pp. 256-286.

literature

Overview representations in manuals

Overall presentations and investigations

Remarks

  1. ^ Klaus Döring: Teles from Megara . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 312-313, here: p. 312.
  2. ↑ See on this Theodoros the detailed description by Pedro Pablo Fuentes González: Théodore. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 6, Paris 2016, pp. 914–924.
personal data
SURNAME Teles from Megara
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Teles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient Greek philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC BC or 3rd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 3rd century BC BC or 2nd century BC Chr.