Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.62 — Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.62
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Partition in logic is (according to Crinis) classification or distribution of a genus under heads: for instance, Of goods some are mental, others bodily. Verbal ambiguity arises when a word properly, rightfully, and in accordance with fixed usage denotes two or more different things, so that at one and the same time we may take it in several distinct senses: e.g. in Greek, where by the same verbal expression may be meant in the one case that “A house has three times” fallen, in the other that “a dancing-girl” has fallen. Posidonius defines Dialectic as the science dealing with truth, falsehood, and that which is neither true nor false; whereas Chrysippus takes its subject to be signs and things signified. Such then is the gist of what the Stoics say in their theory of language.
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.62 (on the Stoics), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.62
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 notesDefines the sorting of a class into parts, gives a Greek example of a phrase with two meanings, and records two views of dialectic: the science of truth and falsehood, or of signs and the things they signify. Technical language theory.
Older wording
- “Partition”
- — sorting a class into its parts
- “Verbal ambiguity”
- — a word or phrase that can mean two things
- “Dialectic”
- — the art of reasoning through question and answer
Themes and situations
- Judgements and impressions
- Speech and silence
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