Basilides (Greek:Βασιλείδης; 2nd century BC), was aStoic philosopher who denied the existence of incorporeal entities.
Nothing is known about the life of Basilides. From a table of contents in one of the medieval manuscripts, we know that he was listed in the missing part of Book VII ofDiogenes Laërtius'Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. His position in the table of contents indicates that he lived around the time ofAntipater of Tarsus in the 2nd century BC.
He is known principally from a passage inSextus Empiricus, who notes that "Basilides and his followers thought no incorporeal [entity] exists."[1] The specific context is the Stoic'stheory of language. The Stoics held that any meaningful utterance will involve three items: the sounds uttered; the thing which is referred to or described by the utterance; and an incorporeal item, thelekton, that which is conveyed in the language.[2] Basilides denied the existence of thelekta.
Another (probably Stoic)philosopher calledBasilides of Scythopolis (2nd century AD), is listed in theChronicle ofJerome, as being as a teacher ofMarcus Aurelius.[3]
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