#DIOGENES ALLEN SIN ARCHIVE#

I think atomists and Epicureans would have appreciated the modern concept of multiverse.įurthermore, there is an unlimited number of worlds, some of them like ours, others unlike. But then in Lives there is also a frequent mention of unlimited number of worlds, some of which are similar to ours and some different. Of course, none of them got everything right, and for every correct explanation there always existed competing incorrect theories, but nevertheless, I think it's amazing and even inspiring that sometime somewhere in ancient Greece somebody could suggest that a sound is transmitted through the air like a wave, similar to how waves are created in water when you throw a stone into it.īy the way, unlike flat-earthers, none of the ancient Greek philosophers went out of their way to disprove the Earth being a sphere.Īncient Greek atomists explained the natural phenomena quite through the concept of atoms as indivisible and indestructible building blocks of the universe, coining the word atom along the way. For example, Anacharsis the Scythian arrived to Athens in search of philosophical wisdom, greatly impressed the locals, and eventually departed to his homeland where he was killed by his own brother for his Greek ways (what a plot for a novel!) Epimenides slept 57 years Perimander was a full-time tyrant and so on and so forth.Īnother aspect that fascinated me is how many of their explanations of natural phenomena are correct from the point of view of modern science. And what a motley crowd it was! Some of whom I've never heard before proved to be fascinating characters.

I was impressed by the shear size of the philosophical crowd populating the pages of Lives - about 80 philosophers, some of whom get many pages and some just few lines. My thoughts might have wandered away here and there amidst the lists of similarly named personalities or philosophical treaties, but not for long. Besides, the reader's manner is quite monotonous and anything but engaging. I rather dreaded diving into Lives - the audiobook version of this new English translation is 28 hours, so even with the help of an audio it seemed a rather daunting undertaking.

#DIOGENES ALLEN SIN ARCHIVE#

Image credit: By Internet Archive Book Images. It's all very well to listen to Diogenes Laertius being quoted in modern lectures on ancient Greek philosophy, but nothing is like getting a taste of the original (although in translation): this giant hodgepodge concocted in the 3rd century AD is a cornucopia of curious, bewildering, intriguing, scandalous anecdotes from the life of Greek philosophers, mixed with their aphorisms, reports of their philosophical views, copies of their actual correspondence (rarely genuine), lists of their works, lists of other famous personalities with similar names ('there have been X men named Y', where 2<=X<=20 ), and, last but not least, generously sprinkled with epigrams (or rather epitaphs) of questionable poetical merit, usually composed by Diogenes Laertius himself.

Diogenes allen sin