Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.39 — Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.39
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Philosophic doctrine, say the Stoics, falls into three parts: one physical, another ethical, and the third logical. Zeno of Citium was the first to make this division in his Exposition of Doctrine, and Chrysippus too did so in the first book of his Exposition of Doctrine and the first book of his Physics; and so too Apollodorus and Syllus in the first part of their Introductions to Stoic Doctrine, as also Eudromus in his Elementary Treatise on Ethics, Diogenes the Babylonian, and Posidonius. These parts are called by Apollodorus “Heads of Commonplace”; by Chrysippus and Eudromus specific divisions; by others generic divisions.
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.39 (on the Stoics), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.39
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 notesPhilosophy divides into three parts, physics, ethics and logic, a split credited to Zeno, followed by a list of later Stoic authors who used it and the different names they gave the parts. Classification of subject matter, not guidance.
Themes and situations
- Learning and progress
- Nature and the cosmos
Quote cards
The opening line of this passage as an image, with its citation — for sharing or keeping.