Euclid of Megara | |
|---|---|
 Euclid of Megara | |
| Born | c. 435 BCE |
| Died | c. 365 BCE (aged c. 70 – 71) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | Ancient philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Megarian school |
| Main interests | Logic,Ethics |
| Notable ideas | TheEristic method |
Euclid of Megara (/ˈjuːklɪd/;Ancient Greek:ΕὐκλείδηςEucleides; c. 435 – c. 365 BC)[a] was aGreekSocraticphilosopher who founded theMegarian school ofphilosophy. He was a pupil ofSocrates in the late 5th century BC, and was present at his death. He held the supreme good to be one, eternal and unchangeable, and denied the existence of anything contrary to the good. Editors andtranslators in theMiddle Ages often confused him withEuclid of Alexandria when discussing the latter'sElements.
Euclid was born inMegara.[1][b] InAthens he became a follower ofSocrates: so eager was he to hear the teaching and discourse of Socrates, that when, for a time, Athens had a ban on any citizen of Megara entering the city, Euclid would sneak into Athens after nightfall disguised as a woman, to hear him speak.[2] He is represented in the preface ofPlato'sTheaetetus as being responsible for writing down the conversation between Socrates and the youngTheaetetus many years earlier. Socrates is also supposed to have reproved Euclid for his fondness foreristic disputes.[3] He was present at Socrates' death (399 BCE),[4] after which Euclid returned to Megara, where he offered refuge to Plato and other frightened pupils of Socrates.[5]
In Megara, Euclid founded a school of philosophy which became known as theMegarian school, and which flourished for about a century. Euclid's pupils were said to have beenIchthyas,[6] the second leader of the Megarian school;Eubulides of Miletus;[7]Clinomachus;[8] andThrasymachus of Corinth.[9] Thrasymachus was a teacher ofStilpo, who was the teacher ofZeno of Citium, the founder of theStoic school.
Euclid himself wrote six dialogues—theLamprias, theAeschines, thePhoenix, theCrito, theAlcibiades, and theAmatory dialogue—but none survive. According to its prologue, the ostensibly Platonic dialogueTheaetetus was originally a Euclidean work. The main extant source on his views is the brief summary byDiogenes Laërtius.[10] Euclid's philosophy was a synthesis ofEleatic and Socratic ideas. Socrates claimed that the greatest knowledge was understanding the good. The Eleatics claimed the greatest knowledge is the one universal being of the world. Mixing these two ideas, Euclid claimed that good is the knowledge of this being. Therefore, this good is the only thing that exists and has many names but is really just one thing. He identified the Eleatic idea of "The One" with the Socratic "Form of the Good", which he called "Reason", "God", "Mind", "Wisdom", etc.[11] This was the true essence of being, and was eternal and unchangeable.[12] The idea of a universal good also allowed Euclid to dismiss all that is not good because he claimed that good covered all things on Earth with its many names. Euclid adopted the Socratic idea that knowledge is virtue and that the only way to understand the never-changing world is through the study of philosophy. Euclid taught that virtues themselves, however, were simply the knowledge of the one good, or being. As he said, "The Good is One, but we can call it by several names, sometimes as wisdom, sometimes as God, sometimes as Reason",[13] and he declared, "the opposite of Good does not exist."[13]
Euclid was also interested in concepts and dilemmas oflogic. Euclid and his Megarian followers useddialogue and theeristic method to defend their ideas. The eristic method allowed them to prove their ideas by disproving those of the one they were arguing with and therefore indirectly proving one's own point (seereductio ad absurdum). When attacking a demonstration, it was not the premises assumed but the conclusions that he attacked,[14] which presumably means that he tried to refute his opponents by drawing absurd consequences from their conclusions.[15] He also rejected argument from analogy.[14] His doctrinal heirs, theStoic logicians, inaugurated the most important school of logic in antiquity other thanAristotle'speripatetics.
Footnotes
Citations
Laërtius, Diogenes,"Socrates, with predecessors and followers: Euclides" ,Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, vol. 1:2, translated byHicks, Robert Drew (Two volume ed.), Loeb Classical Library, § 106–113 Laërtius, Diogenes,"Plato" ,Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, vol. 1:3, translated byHicks, Robert Drew (Two volume ed.), Loeb Classical Library, § 6{{citation}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
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