Zenon of Sidon

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Zeno of Sidon (Ζήνων ο Σιδώνιος; * approx. 150 BC in Sidon ; † approx. 70 BC in Athens ) was a Greek philosopher , mathematician and logician .

Life

Zeno is counted among the most important late epicureans . He was a student of Apollodor Kepotyrannos in the Epicurean school, the Kepos (garden) near Athens , whose director ( scholarch ) he succeeded Apollodorus from 100 to 75 BC. Was. During his stay in Athens, Cicero heard him there in 78/79 BC. He was a student and admirer of Carneades of Cyrene , from which one can conclude that he was alive, since Carneades in 129 BC. BC died.

Zeno is said to have left extensive writings on a wide variety of topics, but hardly anything has survived. These included works on logic, epistemology, the difference between the sexes including various diseases, problems of Epicurean ethics, grammar, history, geography, literary criticism, rhetoric, poetry and natural history. We only know more about his contributions to mathematics and logic. After Cicero and Diogenes Laertius , he was distinguished by clarity of speech.

Zenon's works and opinions are better known through the writings of his pupil Philodemos of Gadara , which were found as part of a philosophical library in the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum (papyrus no. 1065). These are concepts about the formation of hypotheses and induction conclusions , in which Zenon played a decisive role. In a dialogue with a Stoic , Zeno defends the Epicurean view that all knowledge comes from experience. He also mentions transitions in the conclusions due to similarity, in which Kurt von Fritz sees an anticipation of the induction theory of John Stuart Mill .

While Epicurus criticized mathematics, but showed little understanding of mathematical questions, Zeno was also a knowledgeable critic of the axiom system of the elements Euclid and its consistency, as can be seen in the Euclidean commentary of Proclus . He attacked the first sentence (Proposition 1) of the elements about the construction of equilateral triangles with the argument that the proof is only valid if two straight lines cannot have more than one point in common, which Euclid did not formulate as an axiom. He also criticized the fourth postulate in Book 1 of the Elements (equality of right angles), as it presupposes the construction of a right angle, which only occurs later in Book 1, Proposition 11. Proclus and Sextus Empiricus also mention criticism of Euclid by an unnamed Epicurean, who is probably also Zeno, including that there is no axiom in Euclid that ensures the infinite divisibility of curves, which is followed by discussions if this assumption is not made but allows the smallest units of curves. With a less mathematical argument (reminiscent of a similar argument by Arthur Schopenhauer ), the congruence maps used by Euclid are also criticized, only material bodies can be moved in space. In the 1960s, Evert Marie Bruins said that in this criticism he had found indications of a non-Euclidean geometry in Zenon. Kurt von Fritz rejects this: There is no indication that Zenon wanted to develop the criticism he formulated, which he put forward in the context of the criticism of the Epicureans of mathematics, into a non-Euclidean geometry. Poseidonios responded to Zenon's criticism with an entire book.

swell

  • Theodor Gomperz: Herkulanische Studien I, Leipzig 1865, pp. 24–26 (only excerpts from the papyrus finds)
  • Phillip Howard DeLacy , Estelle A. DeLacy (Eds.): Philodemus: On the method of inference (= Philological Monographs of the American Philological Association , No. 10). Philadelphia 1941

literature

  • Anna Angeli: Zénon de Sidon. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 7, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2018, ISBN 978-2-271-09024-9 , pp. 400-415
  • Michael Erler : Zenon from Sidon. In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy . The philosophy of antiquity , Vol. 4/1: The Hellenistic Philosophy , Schwabe, Basel 1994, ISBN 3-7965-0930-4 , pp. 268-272
  • Kurt von Fritz: Zenon of Sidon . In: Charles Coulston Gillispie (Ed.): Dictionary of Scientific Biography . tape 14 : Addison Emery Verrill - Johann Zwelfer . Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1976, p. 612-613 .
  • Kurt von Fritz: Zenon von Sidon, in Pauly-Wissowa , X, A, pp. 122-138
  • Ludger Adam: The truth and hypothesis problem with Democritus, Epicurus and Zeno, the Epicurean , dissertation, Göttingen 1947
  • Gregory Vlastos: Zeno of Sidon as a Critic of Euclid , in: The Classical Tradition: Literary and Historical Studies in Honor of Harry Caplan , New York 1966, pp. 148–159.
  • Evert Bruins: La géométrie non-euclidéenne dans la antiquité , Publ. Université de Paris, Paris 1968

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Little Pauly , Article Zenon of Sidon.
  2. ↑ The Little Pauly, Article Zenon of Sidon
  3. ↑ Kurt von Fritz, Article Zenon von Sidon, Dictionary of Scientific Biography, from 1972
  4. ↑ Anthony A. Long , David Sedley : The Hellenistic Philosophers. Stuttgart / Weimar 2006, p. 111.
  5. ↑ Kurt von Fritz: Zenon. In: Dict. Sci. Biogr. And Kurt von Fritz Die έπαγωγή with Aristoteles , session reports of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , Phil-Hist. Class, 1964, No. 3.
  6. ^ Contents of Book 1 of the Elements, D. Joyce
  7. ^ Evert Marie Bruins: La géométrie non-euclidéenne dans l'antiquité , Paris 1968.
personal data
SURNAME Zenon of Sidon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek philosopher, mathematician and logician
DATE OF BIRTH around 150 BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH Sidon
DATE OF DEATH around 70 BC Chr.
Place of death Athens