Sources & influences
Diogenes Laertius
Biographer of the philosophers
c. 3rd century AD
No likeness exists. Nothing is known of his appearance, or of his life.
Almost nothing is known about him, including when precisely he lived or where. What he left is Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, ten books of biography, doctrine, gossip and improbable death scenes, assembled from sources that have otherwise vanished.
Book seven is on the Stoics, and it is the single most important surviving account of Zeno, Cleanthes and Chrysippus, none of whose own writing survives. He is credulous, he repeats obvious inventions, and he rarely distinguishes evidence from anecdote. He is also, for the first two centuries of Stoicism, very nearly all we have.
What he taught
What reaches you from the past has been selected, often carelessly. Knowing who is telling you is part of knowing what is true.
Works
- Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
Who it is for
Anyone who wants to understand how thin the evidence for early Stoicism really is.
Where to start reading
Stoicism (Ancient Philosophies)Stoicism (Ancient Philosophies)
The serious scholarly introduction. Sellars is a philosopher specializing in the ancient Stoics. This is the book to read after the practical introductions if you want to understand the school's full architecture (logic, physics, ethics) and its place in ancient thought. Concise, dense, definitive.
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