Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.40 — Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.40
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Philosophy, they say, is like an animal, Logic corresponding to the bones and sinews, Ethics to the fleshy parts, Physics to the soul. Another simile they use is that of an egg: the shell is Logic, next comes the white, Ethics, and the yolk in the centre is Physics. Or, again, they liken Philosophy to a fertile field: Logic being the encircling fence, Ethics the crop, Physics the soil or the trees. Or, again, to a city strongly walled and governed by reason. No single part, some Stoics declare, is independent of any other part, but all blend together. Nor was it usual to teach them separately. Others, however, start their course with Logic, go on to Physics, and finish with Ethics; and among those who so do are Zeno in his treatise On Exposition, Chrysippus, Archedemus and Eudromus.
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.40 (on the Stoics), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.40
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 is compared to an animal, an egg, a fertile field and a walled city, with logic as the protective frame, ethics as the living substance and physics as the soul or soil. The parts are meant to work together, and schools disagree on the order in which to teach them.
Older wording
- “sinews”
- — tendons
- “Physics”
- — the study of nature and the cosmos
Themes and situations
- Learning and progress
- Nature and the cosmos
- Virtue and character
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