Hermann Alexander Diels | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 18 May 1848 |
| Died | 4 June 1922(1922-06-04) (aged 74) |
| Alma mater | University of Bonn |
| Known for | Diels–Kranz numbering |
| Children | Ludwig Diels, Paul Diels, Otto Diels |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Classics |
| Institutions | University of Berlin |
| Thesis | “De Galeni historia philosophia” (1870) |
| Doctoral advisor | Hermann Usener |
| Doctoral students | Felix Jacoby |
| Other notable students | |
Hermann Alexander Diels (German:[diːls]; 18 May 1848 – 4 June 1922) was a Germanclassical scholar, who was influential in the area of earlyGreek philosophy and is known for his standard workDie Fragmente der Vorsokratiker. Diels helped to import the termPresocratic into classical scholarship and developed theDiels–Kranz numbering system forancient Greek Pre-Socratic texts.[1]
Hermann Alexander Diels was born to Ludwig A Diels, a railroad stationmaster, and Anna D. Diels inWiesbaden-Biebrich, Hesse on May 18, 1848, and attended aGymnasium in Wiesbaden (1858-67) before pursuing studies in higher education.
He was educated at the universities ofBonn andBerlin but did not have enough money to complete ahabilitation. As a result, Diles became a teacher at a Gymnasium inFlensburg, theGelehrtenschule des Johanneums inHamburg and the Konigstadtische Realschule inBerlin. In 1882, Diels joined the faculty of the Humboldt University of Berlin and in 1886 becameprofessor ordinarius of classical philology at the same institution. During this time, Diels was a close colleague ofEduard Zeller.
Diels became a member of theBerlin Academy in 1881, theBritish Academy in 1907, a foreign honorary member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1907,[2] and a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1909.[3] He was the co-founder ofArchiv für Geschichte der Philosophie in 1888 and editedCommentaria in Aristotelem Graeca at thePrussian Academy of Sciences from 1877 to 1909.[4]
He is now known for a collection of quotations from and reports aboutPresocratic philosophers.[a] This work, entitledDie Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (The Fragments of the Pre-Socratics), is still widely used by scholars. It was first published in 1903, was later revised and expanded three times by Diels, and was subsequently revised in a fifth edition (1934–7) byWalther Kranz and again in a sixth edition (1952). It consists of three volumes that present, for each of the Presocratics, both quotations from their (now mostly lost) works transmitted by later writers, and secondary-source material known astestimonia.[b][5]
Based on Diels' enumeration of the fragments, thetestimonia in the Diels collection are known as the "A-fragments", while the quotations from the Presocratics are known as the "B-fragments". Diels's method of labeling the fragments has become the standard way of referring to the works of the Presocratics.
For example, what is thought to be the introductory section ofParmenides' poem on the "Ways of Truth and Opinion" was quoted bySextus Empiricus andSimplicius; in Diels–Kranz this is labeled as fragment 28B1 — i.e., chapter 28, section B, fragment 1. The "28" stands for Parmenides (to whom Diels–Kranz devote chapter 28 in the numeration of the current edition), the "B" indicates that it is a quotation, and the "1" means that it is the first quotation in Diels' ordering of quotations of Parmenides. On the other hand, the beginning ofPlato's account (in hisParmenides 127ff.) of an alleged visit of Parmenides andZeno to Athens is labeled by Diels as fragment 29A11. "29" stands for Zeno (the next Presocratic after Parmenides in Diels' collection), since this particular passage in Plato has more directly to do with Zeno than Parmenides; the "A" indicates that it is a "testimonium", a story about the philosopher(s) in question, not a quotation; and the "11" means that it is the 11th testimonium about Zeno in Diels. The ordering of Presocratics in Diels is roughly chronological (fromOrpheus to the author of thedissoi logoi); the numbering of the fragments themselves, within each chapter, is determined generally by the alphabetic order of the names of the sources. The usual way of citing fragments in Diels' edition is to append "Diels–Kranz" or the letters "DK" to the fragment-number; so, for example "28B1 Diels–Kranz" or "28B1 DK" (discussed above).
Often, a commentator will refer to a fragment in Diels–Kranz in a more abbreviated form. For example, one may refer to 28B1 as simply "Parmenides, fragment 1".
In spite of the respect paid to Diels' monumental work, there is ongoing controversy among scholars over the details of his arrangement of the fragments. For example, some fragments categorized by Diels as quotations are thought by some scholars to be in reality only paraphrases or explanations of the Presocratic work in question. Also, Diels–Kranz does not of course include fragments discovered since its publication, such as fragments from the Strasbourg papyrus (published in 1998), which preserves for us pieces ofEmpedocles' poetry never before known in modern times. (What we have in the Strasbourg Papyrus seems to be a continuation of the part of Empedocles'On Nature which is 31B17 DK.)
An English translation or paraphrase of each of the B-fragments in Diels–Kranz may be found inKathleen Freeman'sAncilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers (Oxford, 1948; Harvard U. Press, 1957), though it is based on thefifth edition of Diels–Kranz, whose numbering of fragments is somewhat different from later editions.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
