Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.159 — Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.159
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Chrysippus in the second book of his Physics declares it to be in substance identical with vital breath or spirit. This, he thinks, can be seen from the seeds cast into the earth, which, if kept till they are old, do not germinate, plainly because their fertility has evaporated. Sphaerus and his followers also maintain that semen derives its origin from the whole of the body; at all events every part of the body can be reproduced from it. That of the female is according to them sterile, being, as Sphaerus says, without tension, scanty, and watery. By ruling part of the soul is meant that which is most truly soul proper, in which arise presentations and impulses and from which issues rational speech. And it has its seat in the heart.
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.159 (on the Stoics), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.159
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book VII, tr. R. D. Hicks (Loeb, 1925). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesSemen is described as essentially vital breath, and one author dismisses female semen as sterile, a dated and demeaning biological claim. The ruling part of the soul, the seat of impressions, impulses and reasoned speech, is placed in the heart.
Older wording
- “presentations”
- — impressions, what appears to the mind
- “ruling part of the soul”
- — the reasoning, governing centre of the mind
- “impulses”
- — urges that move us to act
Themes and situations
- Nature and the cosmos
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