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[English Version] . Pythagoreer (P.) sind im weiteren Sinne alle, die von Pythagoras geprägt waren, darunter dann freilich auch Empedokles. Im engeren Sinne gelten als P. nur diejenigen Anhänger des Pythagoras, die zu seiner Schule gehörten oder damit wenigstens assoziiert waren; denn für die Vollmitgliedschaft wurde eine längere Probezeit und eine einschneidende Änderung des Lebensstils verlangt. Die Schule, ein aristokratisch geprägter Geheimbund, übte in den ersten Jahrzehnten nach ihrer Grün…

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[English Version] (ca.570 v.Chr. Samos – ca.480 v.Chr.), nach längeren Lehr- und Wanderjahren ca.530 Übersiedlung nach Kroton in Unteritalien, entfaltete als charismatischer Lehrer dort großen Einfluß. Geschrieben hat er nichts. Aber 100 Jahre später begann man in der Nachfolge Platos, sein großes Ansehen zu stilisieren, mit der Folge, daß P. von seiner Wirkungsgesch. kaum zu u…

[English Version] (ca.371 Eresos [Lesbos] – 286 v.Chr.), Philosoph, Schüler des Aristoteles, dem er nach Platos To…

[English Version] von Athen (zw. 430 und 425 – nach 355 v. Chr.), Historiker und Sokratiker, nach 410 mit Sokrates bekannt, ab 401 Teilnahme an verschiedenen Feldzügen, bes. an spartanischen, deshalb 394 verbannt. Sein lit. Werk umfaßt hist., päd.-ethische und technische sowie sokratische Schriften, war in der Antike sehr beliebt und ist vollständig erhalten. In den hist. Schriften führt X. u.a. …

[German Version] Because Heraclitus of Ephesus did not found a school, anyone who was in any way dependent upon him in philosophical matters could be regarded as a Heraclitean (cf. D.L. IX 6). In particular the circle around Kratylos, to which also Plato was attracted at times after 399 …

[German Version] of Akragas in Sicily (probably born c. 491, died c. 430 bce), a multifaceted Greek philosopher concerned to heal and set things right as an itinerant orator, physician, priest and magician. To some extent, his biography was embellished (the account of his leap into Etna). Empedocles wrote On Nature (2 books) and Purifications. Apart from fragments, two major passages from his first work have been directly transmitted; having only been found recently, they complete our knowledge of Em…

[German Version] (c. 570 bce, Samos – c. 480 bce). After many years as an itinerant teacher, Pythagoras migrated to Croton in southern Italy, where he exercised great influence as a charismatic teacher. He left no written works, but a century later (as was the case with Plato) people began to capitalize on his great reputation, with the result that it is hardly possible to separate Pythagoras from his effective history; this Pythagorean tradition is hagiogra…

[German Version] (between 430 and 425 bce, Athens – after 355), historian and admirer of Socrates. Xenophon came to know Socrates after 410; after 401 he accompanied various military expeditions, especially Spartan, and was therefore banished. His literary oeuvre comprises historical, ethical, technical, and Socratic works; it was very popular in antiquity and has survived intact. In…

[German Version] (c. 130 – c. 68 bce) was a Platonist and a pupil of Philo of Larissa, with whom he broke in the year 87 at the latest. In 79/78, Cicero heard him lecture in Athens; occasionally he traveled with Lucullus. The sources mention four of his works. It is unclear why he…

[German Version] Hellenistic Philosophy, designation for the philosophy of the period stretching from Alexander the Great's death (323 bce) to the death of Cleopatra (30 bce). In spite of this blanket definition, it is taken to apply not to all philosophies of this period but rather to Epicureanism, Stoicism, and the ubiquitous skeptic tradition (Skepticism). The first direction of philosophy is representedin particular by Epicurus; the most prominent representatives of the Stoics were Zeno of Citium and Chrysippus of Soli; the skeptic tradition was preeminently elaborated or redefined by Arcesilaus, Carneades, and Aenesidemus. Philosophers of Imperial Rome who were dedicated to one of the Hellenistic philosophies (Pyrrhonism or Stoicism), such as for instance Sextus Empiricus, Seneca or Epictetus, are already considered post-Hellenistic. The homogeneity of the Hellenistic philosophies is greater than the definition might suggest. First, during the period of Hellenism, philosophy was for the most part still cultivated in Athens (I), but only seldom any longer in the company of the many other intellectuals and flourishing scholars who in the main had emigrated to Alexandria. As a result, philosophy was for the first time treated as a type of special discipline. Second, unlike in earlier times, it also assumed a well-defined function and acquired a system character. In the forms of Epicureanism and Stoicism, it strove to attain an understanding of the basic structures of the world and of humanity's place in it in order to gain a perspective on life and to indicate a path to felicity. The philosophers of the skeptic tradition expressly engaged in a rigorous scrutiny of these outlines with a view to assessing their validity. Thus, third, the three main directions of Hellenistic philosophy cultivated an intensive mutual dialogue, sometimes also in a polemical manner, and developed within a close reciprocal relationship. They also met with consid…

[German Version] (c. 570 bce, Colophon – c. 475 bce), philosopher and poet. Around 545 Xenophanes emigrated to the West, where he lived as an itinerant rhapsodist. Many surviving quotations come from his Silloi (“Satires”). He attacked the cult of victorious athletes as well as Homer and Hesiod, especially for their portraits of the gods, criticized anthropomorphisms (V), and rejected divination. Conversely he demanded honors for wise individuals like himself, recommended civilized behavior and edification as guidelines for writers, and framed new theories – in particular a philosophical theology that has often been used to link him with the Eleatic school, although he probably knew nothing of Parmenides. Xenophanes proposed a philosophical concept of God based on the criterion of what is “proper”: “a single God, greatest among gods and humans, in no way like mortals in body or mind.” God sees, understands, and hears as a complete single entity, stands constantly unmoved in the same place, and effortlessly governs all with his mind (DK, frgm. 21 B23–26). In the area of epistemology, Xenophanes pointed out the uncertainty of human knowledge, which we can improve only incrementally in a questing approach to truth (DK, frgm. 21 B34–35, 38, 18). In his cosmology, he based important conclusions on f…

[German Version] (c. 371 bce, Eresos, Lesbos – 286 bce, Athens), philosopher, student of Aristotle, whom he followed on his journeys after Plato’s death (347) and succeeded as head of the Peripatetic school in 322. Theophrastus was a renowned teacher and is reported to have had 2,000 students. Given that the catalogue of his works contains 225 titles, covering many fields, he clearly had enormous influence. In the 17th century, his work on moral characters inspired the literary genre of the character study. Although his contributions in many areas of philosophy and science are known (including logic, physics, and metaphysics), we know very little about him as a person, since most of his writings have been lost. In a division of labor with Aristotle, he founded the study of botany. Regarding God, he believed that God’s activity is the best and therefore God has no interest in the sublunary world; Epicurus adopted this notion of the nature of Go…

[German Version] In the broad sense, all who were influenced by Pythagoras were Pythagoreans, which would include even Empedocles. In the narrow sense, the term covers only the disciples of Pythagoras who belonged to his school or at least were associated with it, since full membership required a lengthy probationary period and a drastic change in lifestyle. In the first decades after the school was founded as ¶ an aristocratic secret society, it exercised substantial political influence – initially in Croton, but after c. 500 bce also in Metapontum and other towns in southern I…

[English Version] I. Philosophiegeschichtlich V. bez. alle griech. Denker bis ca.400 v.Chr., die etwas zu dem beigetragen haben, was hernach Philosophie genannt wurde, v.a. Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras und seine Schule, Xenophanes von Kolophon, Heraklit, Parmenides, Zenon, Melissos, Empedokles, Anaxagoras, die Atomisten (Atomismus: I.) und weitere Naturphilosophen (Naturphilosophie), aber auch die Sophisten (Sophistik). Der Ausdruck kam Ende des 18.Jh. auf und gewann durch die Philos…

[German Version] I. Historiography of Philosophy The Pre-Socratics include all Greek thinkers prior to c. 400 bce who contributed something to what was later called philosophy, above all Thales, Anaximan­der, Anaximenes, Pythagoras and his school, Xenophanes of Colophon, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zenon, Melissus, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, the atomists (Atomism: I) and other natural philosophers (Natural philosophy), and the Sophistic school. The term first appeared in the late 18th century and occupied an important place in the 19th-century histories of ¶ philosophy. It firs…

[English Version] (ca.45 n.Chr. Chaironeia – vor 125 n.Chr.) I. Philosophie Beim Studium in Athen wurde P. von Ammonios für den Platonismus gewonnen. Später unterhielt er in seiner Heimatstadt eine philos. Schule, in der man v.a. Plato las, sich aber auch mit anderen philos. Richtungen auseinandersetzte, zumal mit den Stoikern (Stoizismus) und Epikureern (Epikureismus). P. hatte gute Kontakte zu einigen namhaften Philosophen seiner Zeit und pflegte wie viele andere die Philos. als Kunst einer auf Glück/Glückseligkeit (: II) bedachten Lebensführung. In der Antike schrieb…

[German Version] I. Philosophy While studying in Athens, Plutarch was converted to Platonism by Ammonius. Later he maintained a philosophical school in his home town, where the students read Plato but were exposed to other philosophical schools as well, especially the Stoics and Epicureans (Epicureanism). Plutarch had good contacts with some renowned contemporary philosophers; like many others, he cultivated philosophy as the art of living a life focused on happiness (II). In antiquity more than 260 works were ascribed to him. A good half of them were devoted to philosophical topics (on religion see II below); of these 78 have survived (including a few that are spurious) and have been collected under the title Moralia. In conjunction with what other knowledge we have of his work, they underline his ve…

[German Version] I. Terminology – II.#x2002;Ancient Near East and Old Testament – III.#x2002;Greco-Roman Antiquity – IV. Judaism – V. Christianity – VI. History of Modern Science I. Terminology Cosmology is a specific culture's orientation in space and time as conceived in words, images, and rituals. The orientation combines signs that can be perceived with signs that are set. Only in the complementarity of the construed other does the “natural” phenomenon acquire the meaning of a significant marker. Thus, conventional determinations make of the daily migrating site on the horizon at which the sun rises the four right angles of the …