Vikentios Damodos

Vikentios Damodos ( Greek Βικέντιος Δαμοδός , also Vincentius Damodus and Vincenzo Damodo (n) , Vincent Damodo ; * 1700 Chavriata today to Lixouri ; † 1752 ibid) was a lawyer and physicist who became known as a Greek philosopher of the Enlightenment .

biography

Vikentios grew up as the son of the aristocratic Frankiskos Damodon (Francesco Da Modon) and the pastor's daughter Filandria. From 1713 he studied at the Seminarium Flagianum in Venice. Instead of going to a Catholic monastery, he did his doctorate in law at the University of Padua until 1721. He then settled there as a lawyer, but moved back to Chavriata in 1723 and founded a theological and philosophical school there. This accepted very few students and had strict admission restrictions. After just a few years, it acquired the reputation of being a center of the Greek Enlightenment. Despite his sympathies for Descartes , he remained true to the Aristotelian philosophy.

Important impulses, especially in the field of ethics and physics , came from his school, although many of his own works remained unpublished. Damodos was not interested in maintaining the Greek language and so the language of instruction at his school was simple Greek with Italian vocabulary.

Works

A total of over 140 different Damodos manuscripts are known. He was mainly concerned with the work of Aristotle and that of Cartesius . The language used in these is unusual; it is simple Greek enriched with many Italianisms, which apparently had the purpose of reaching a large readership.

• Epitomos Logiki kat 'Aristotelin (Επίτομος Λογική κατ' Αριστοτέλην), Venice 1759
• Techni Ritoriki (Τέχνη Ρητορική), Venice 1759 ("The artistry of rhetoric")
• Praxis kata syndomian is tas ritorikas erminias (Πράξις κατά συντομίαν εις τας ρητορικάς ερμηνείας), plague 1815
• Syndamation tis Metafysikis (Συνταγμάτιον τῆς Μεταφυσικῆς, "A compilation of metaphysics")
• Synopsis tis Ithikis Filosofias (Σύνοψις της Ηθικής Φιλοσοφίας, "Synopsis of Ethical Philosophy"), unpublished until 1940

literature

• Constantine T. Dimaras : A History of Modern Greek Literature . State University of New York Press, Albany (New York), 1972 ( online ), Ss. 117-120.