Diogenes of Apollonia | |
|---|---|
| Born | 5th century BCE |
| Died | 5th century BCE |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | Pre-Socratic philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| Main interests | Nature,Medicine |
| Notable ideas | Air is thearche |
Diogenes of Apollonia (/daɪˈɒdʒɪniːz/dy-OJ-in-eez;Ancient Greek:Διογένης ὁ Ἀπολλωνιάτης,romanized: Diogénēs ho Apollōniátēs;fl. 5th century BC) was anancient Greek philosopher, and was a native of theMilesian colonyApollonia inThrace. He lived for some time inAthens. He believedair to be the one source of all being from which all other substances were derived, and, as a primal force, to be both divine and intelligent. He also wrote a description of the organization of blood vessels in the human body. His ideas were parodied by the dramatistAristophanes, and may have influenced theOrphic philosophical commentary preserved in theDerveni papyrus. His philosophical work has not survived in a complete form, and his doctrines are known chiefly from lengthy quotations of his work bySimplicius, as well as a few summaries in the works ofAristotle,Theophrastus, andAetius.
Diogenes was a native of theMilesian colonyApollonia Pontica inThrace, present-daySozopol on theBlack Sea.[1][note 1] His father's name was Apollothemis. Nothing is known of the events in his life, except that he lived for some time in Athens.Diogenes Laërtius states that his unpopularity, or "intense jealousy", put his life in danger in Athens,[b] but there may be confusion withAnaxagoras who is mentioned in the same passage. Like all thephysiologoi (natural philosophers), he wrote in theIonic dialect.
Diogenes is characterized byTheophrastus as the last of the "physiologoi" or natural philosophers.[3] As amaterial monist, he synthesized the work of earlier monists such asAnaximenes andHeraclitus with the pluralism ofAnaxagoras andEmpedocles and argued that air was a divine cosmic ordering principle that he also equated with intelligence.[4] He does not appear to have been influenced by theAtomists.[3]
Diogenes, likeAnaximenes, believedair to be the one source of all being, and all other substances to be derived from it by condensation and rarefaction. This he modified by the theories of his contemporaryAnaxagoras, and asserted that air, the primal force, was intelligent:
And it seems to me that that which possessed thought is what people call air, and that by this everyone both is governed and has power over everything. For it is this which seems to me to be god and to have reached everything and to arrange everything and to be in everything. And there is not a single thing which does not share in it.[c]
The nature of theuniverse is air, limitless and eternal, from which, as it condenses and rarefies and changes its properties, the other forms come into being.[d] Among his other doctrines, he is said to have believed that there was an infinite number of worlds, and infinite void; that air, densified and rarefied, produced the different worlds; that nothing was produced from nothing, or was reduced to nothing; that the Earth was round, supported in the middle, and had received its shape from the whirling round of the warm vapours, and its concretion and hardening from cold.[e]
The longest surviving fragment of Diogenes is that which is inserted byAristotle in the third book of hisHistory of Animals.[f] It contains a description of the distribution of theblood vessels in the human body. It is notable chiefly because "here we can read at first hand what in the case of the otherPresocratics we learn only indirectly: an attempt to describe in scientific detail the structure and organization of the physical world."[5]
None of Diogenes' work has survived in a complete form. The majority of the surviving fragments of Diogenes work come fromSimplicius, alate antique philosopher from theNeoplatonic Academy who wrote a commentary on Aristotle'sPhysics, where he quotes several long excerpts from Diogenes' work.[6] Based on the account given by Simplicius, it is unclear to modern scholars whether Diogenes wrote four separate works, "On Nature", "On the Nature of Man", "Meteorology", and "Against the Sophist", or only one workOn Nature, which included portions that touched on each of the other three topics.[7]
Modern scholars generally agree that some views of Diogenes are transferred toAristophanes' depiction ofSocrates inThe Clouds.[g][6] as well as in a fragment ofPhilemon.
Based on an initial evaluation byHermann Diels, Diogenes was not studied frequently in modern scholarships up until the past few decades.[8] However, with the discovery of theDerveni papyrus, anOrphic philosophical poem which has many parallels to the philosophy of both Diogenes andAnaxagoras, many scholars have analyzed Diogenes' work to better understand the links betweenAncient Greek religion and philosophy.[9]
Diogenite meteorites are named for Diogenes of Apollonia, who was the first to suggest an outer space origin for meteorites:
With the visible stars revolve stones which are invisible, and for that reason nameless. They often fall on the ground and are extinguished, like the stone star that came down on fire atAegospotami.[h]
In theDiels-Kranz numbering for testimony and fragments ofPre-Socratic philosophy, Diogenes of Apollonia is catalogued as number64. The most recent edition of this catalogue is
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Laërtius, Diogenes."Others: Diogenes of Apollonia" .Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2:9. Translated byHicks, Robert Drew (Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library. Laërtius, Diogenes."The Cynics: Diogenes" .Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2:6. Translated byHicks, Robert Drew (Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library. Laërtius, Diogenes."Others: Diogenes of Apollonia" .Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2:9. Translated byHicks, Robert Drew (Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library. Works by or aboutDiogenes of Apollonia atWikisource