Critolaus

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Critolaus (

Stoics
.

Life

He was born in Phaselis, a Greek colony in Lycia, c. 200 BC, and studied philosophy at Athens under Aristo of Ceos, and became one of the leaders of the Peripatetic school by his eminence as an orator, a scholar and a moralist. There has been considerable discussion as to whether he was the immediate successor of Aristo, but the evidence is confused.[2]

The great reputation which Critolaus enjoyed at Athens, as a philosopher, an orator, and a statesman, induced the Athenians to send him to

Latin: scita et teretia). We have no further information respecting the life of Critolaus. He lived upwards of eighty-two years, but died c. 118 BC. By the time Licinius Crassus arrived at Athens c. 111 BC, he found Critolaus' pupil Diodorus of Tyre at the head of the Peripatetic school.[4]

Philosophy

Critolaus seems to have paid particular attention to

Latin: tantum propendere illam bonorum animi lancem).[2]

Further, he defended against the

Stoics the Peripatetic doctrine of the eternity of the world and the indestructibility of the human race. There is no observed change in the natural order of things; humankind recreates itself in the same manner according to the capacity given by Nature, and the various ills to which it is heir, though fatal to individuals, do not avail to modify the whole. Just as it is absurd to suppose that humans are merely earth-born, so the possibility of their ultimate destruction is inconceivable. The world, as the manifestation of eternal order, must itself be immortal.[2]

A Critolaus is mentioned by Plutarch[9] as the author of a work on Epirus, and of another entitled Phenomena; and Aulus Gellius[10] also speaks of an historical writer of this name. Whether the historian is the same as the Peripatetic philosopher, cannot be determined. A grammarian Critolaus is mentioned in the Etymologicum Magnum.

Notes

  1. ^ Dorandi 1999, p. 50.
  2. ^ a b c Chisholm 1911.
  3. ^ Plutarch, Cato Maj. 22; Aulus Gellius, vii. 14; Macrobius Saturnalia i. 5 ; Cicero, de Orat. ii. 37, 38.
  4. ^ Lucian, Macrobii 20; Cicero, De Oratore, i. 11.
  5. ^ Quintillian, ii. 15. § 23, 17. § 15; Sextus Empiricus, adv. Mathem. ii. 12; Cicero, De Finibus, v. 5.
  6. Tusculanae Quaestiones v. 17; Clement of Alexandria, Stromata
    , ii.
  7. ^ cf. Cicero, De Finibus, v. 5 "C. imitari antiquos voluit".
  8. ^ Aulus Gellius, ix. 5. 6.
  9. ^ Plutarch, Parall. min. cc. 6, 9.
  10. ^ Aulus Gellius, xi. 9.

References

  • Dorandi, Tiziano (1999). "Chapter 2: Chronology". In Algra, Keimpe; et al. (eds.). The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 50. .
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainChisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Critolaus". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 470.