Diogenes of Apollonia

Diogenes of Apollonia (

Diogenes, like Anaximenes, believed air to be the one source of all being, and all other substances to be derived from it by condensation and rarefaction. This he modified by the theories of his contemporary Anaxagoras, and asserted that air, the primal force, was intelligent:

And it seems to me that that which possessed thought is what people call air, and that by this everyone both is governed and has power over everything. For it is this which seems to me to be god and to have reached everything and to arrange everything and to be in everything. And there is not a single thing which does not share in it.^[c]

The nature of the universe is air, limitless and eternal, from which, as it condenses and rarefies and changes its properties, the other forms come into being.^[d] Among his other doctrines, he is said to have believed that there was an infinite number of worlds, and infinite void; that air, densified and rarefied, produced the different worlds; that nothing was produced from nothing, or was reduced to nothing; that the Earth was round, supported in the middle, and had received its shape from the whirling round of the warm vapours, and its concretion and hardening from cold.^[e]

Physiology

The longest surviving fragment of Diogenes is that which is inserted by

None of Diogenes' work has survived in a complete form. The majority of the surviving fragments of Diogenes work come from Simplicius, a late antique philosopher from the Neoplatonic Academy who wrote a commentary on Aristotle's Physics where he quotes several long excerpts from Diogenes' work.^[5] Based on the account given by Simplicius, it is unclear to modern scholars whether Diogenes wrote four separate works, "On Nature", "On the Nature of Man" "Meteorology", and "Against the Sophist", or only one work On Nature which included portions that touched on each of the other three topics.^[6]

Legacy

Modern scholars generally agree that some views of Diogenes are transferred to Aristophanes' depiction of Socrates in The Clouds.^[g][5] as well as in a fragment of Philemon.

Diogenite meteorites are named for Diogenes of Apollonia, who was the first to suggest an outer space origin for meteorites:

With the visible stars revolve stones which are invisible, and for that reason nameless. They often fall on the ground and are extinguished, like the stone star that came down on fire at Aegospotami.^[h]

Modern Reception

Based on an initial evaluation by

1. ^ (DK 64A3)
2. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, ix. 57 (DK 64A1)
3. ^ Simplicius, Commentary on the Physics, 152 (DK 64B5)
4. ^ Simplicius, Commentary on the Physics, 25.1-9 (DK 64A5)
5. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, ix. 57 (DK 64A1)
6. ^ Aristotle History of Animals, 511-12 (DK 64B6)
7. ^ Aristophanes. The Clouds, 264 (DK 64C2)
8. ^ Aetius, ii. 13. 9

Citations

1. ^ Kirk, Raven & Schofield 1983, p. 434.
2. ^ ^{a b} Curd 2011, p. 138.
3. ^ Dockstader, Introduction.
4. ^ Barnes 2002, p. 48.
5. ^ ^{a b} Diels & Kranz 1957.
6. ^ Dockstader.
7. ^ Laks 2008b, p. 353.
8. ^ Betegh 2004, p. 308.

References

Ancient Testimony

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Fragments of Diogenes of Apollonia

In the

Diels-Kranz numbering for testimony and fragments of Pre-Socratic philosophy

, Diogenes of Apollonia is catalogued as number 64. The most recent edition of this catalogue is

• Diels, Hermann; Kranz, Walther (1957). Plamböck, Gert (ed.). Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (in Ancient Greek and German). Rowohlt.
  ISBN 5875607416
  ..

Biography

• A1.  
  Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2:9. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew
  (Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.
• A2.  
  Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2:6. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew
  (Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.
• A3. Stephanus of Byzantium. "Apollonia". Ethnica.

Writings

• A4. Simplicius of Cilicia. Commentary on Aristotle's Physics. 151.20.

Doctrines

• A5. Simplicius of Cilicia. Commentary on Aristotle's Physics. 25.1.

Fragments

• B1.  
  Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2:9. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew
  (Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.
• B2. Simplicius of Cilicia. Commentary on Aristotle's Physics. 151.28.
• B3. Simplicius of Cilicia. Commentary on Aristotle's Physics. 152.10.
• B4. Simplicius of Cilicia. Commentary on Aristotle's Physics. 151.15.
• B5. Simplicius of Cilicia. Commentary on Aristotle's Physics. 151.21.
• B6. Aristotle. On the History of Animals . 510b – via Wikisource.
• B7. Simplicius of Cilicia. Commentary on Aristotle's Physics. 153.19.
• B8. Simplicius of Cilicia. Commentary on Aristotle's Physics. 153.20.
• B9. Galen. Commentary on Book VI of Hippocrates' Epidemics.
• B10. Aelius Herodianus. On peculiar style. I.7-8.

Influence

• C1. Aristophanes. The Clouds. 225-236.
• C2. Hippocrates. On Airs, Waters, and Places. ...Aristophanes. The Clouds. 264.
• C3. Pseudo-Hippocrates. On Fleshes.
• C3a. Hippocrates. On the Sacred Disease.
• C3b. Hippocrates. On the Sacred Disease.
• C4. Philemon. Fragment 91.

Translations of the Fragments

• Laks, André, ed. (2008a). Diogène d'Apollonie: edition, traduction et commentaire des fragments et témoignages. International Pre-platonic Studies. Vol. 6. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag.
• Curd, Patricia (15 March 2011). A Presocratics Reader: Selected Fragments and Testimonia. Hackett Publishing. pp. 138–143.
  ISBN 978-1-60384-598-4
  .

Modern Scholarship

• Barnes, Jonathan (2002). "Diogenes of Apollonia". Early Greek Philosophy. Penguin.
  ISBN 978-0-14-044815-3
  .
• Betegh, Gábor (2004). "Diogenes of Apollonia and Archelaus of Athens". The Derveni papyrus : cosmology, theology, and interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 306–324.
  ISBN 9780511584435
  .
• Dockstader, Jason. "Diogenes of Apollonia". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• Kirk, G. S.; Raven, J. E.; Schofield, M. (1983). The Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection of Texts. Cambridge University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-521-27455-5
  .
• Laks, André (2008b). "Speculating about Diogenes of Apollonia". In Curd, Patricia; Graham, Daniel W. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy. Oxford University Press, USA. pp. 353–363.
  ISBN 978-0-19-514687-5
  .

Further reading

Wikisource has original works by or about:
Diogenes of Apollonia

• Curd, Patricia (2004). Legacy of Parmenides. Parmenides Publishing.
  ISBN 978-1-930972-42-1
  .
• André Laks (1999). "Soul, sensation, and thought". In Long, A. A. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 250–270.
  ISBN 978-0-521-44667-9
  .
• André Laks. Diogène d'Apollonie. La dernière cosmologie présocratique. Lille: Presses Universitaires de Lille 1983. Edition, translation and commentary.
• Warren, James (2014). "Epilogue". Presocratics. Routledge. pp. 177–179.
  ISBN 978-1-317-49337-2
  .