Chapter 7.
CHRYSIPPUS (c. 282-206 B.C.)
[
179]
Chrysippus, the son of
Apollonius, came either from Soli or from Tarsus, as Alexander
relates in his
Successions. He was a pupil of
Cleanthes. Before this he used to practise as a long-distance runner
;
but afterwards he came to hear Zeno, or, as
Diocles and most people say, Cleanthes ; and then, while Cleanthes
was still living, withdrew from his school and attained exceptional
eminence as a philosopher. He had good natural parts and showed the
greatest acuteness in every branch of the subject ; so much so that
he differed on most points from Zeno, and from Cleanthes as well, to
whom he often used to say that all he wanted was to be told what the
doctrines were ; he would find out the proofs for himself.
Nevertheless, whenever he had contended against Cleanthes, he would
afterwards feel remorse, so that he constantly came out with the
lines
1 :
Blest in all else am I, save only where
I touch Cleanthes
: there I am ill-fortuned.
[
180]
So renowned was he for dialectic
that most people thought, if the gods took to dialectic, they would
adopt no other system than that of Chrysippus. He had abundance of
matter, but in style he was not successful. In industry he surpassed
every one, as the list of his writings shows ; for there are more
than 705 of them. He increased their number by arguing repeatedly on
the same subject, setting down anything that occurred to him, making
many corrections and citing numerous authorities. So much so that in
one of his treatises he copied out nearly the whole of Euripides'
Medea, and some one who had taken up the
volume, being asked what he was reading, replied, "The
Medea of Chrysippus."
[
181]
Apollodorus of Athens
in his
Collection of Doctrines, wishing to show
that what Epicurus wrote with force and originality unaided by
quotations was far greater in amount than the books of Chrysippus,
says, to
quote his exact words, "If one were to
strip the books of Chrysippus of all extraneous quotations, his
pages would be left bare." So much for Apollodorus. Of Chrysippus
the old woman who sat beside him used to say, according to Diocles,
that he wrote 500 lines a day. Hecato says that he came to the study
of philosophy, because the property which he had inherited from
his father had been confiscated to the king's treasury.
[
182]
In
person he was insignificant, as is shown by the statue in the
Ceramicus, which is almost hidden by an equestrian statue hard by ;
and this is why Carneades called him Crypsippus or Horse-hidden.
Once when somebody reproached him for not going with the multitude
to hear Ariston, he rejoined, "If I had followed the multitude, I
should not have studied philosophy." When some dialectician got up
and attacked Cleanthes, proposing sophistical fallacies to him,
Chrysippus called to him, "Cease to distract your elder from matters
of importance ; propound such quibbles to us juniors." Again, when
somebody who had a question to ask was steadily conversing with him
in private, and then upon seeing a crowd approaching began to be
more contentious, he said :
Ah! brother mine, thine eye is
growing wild :
To madness fast thou'rt changing, sane but
now.
2
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183]
At
wine-parties he used to behave quietly, though he was unsteady on
his legs ; which caused the woman-slave to say, "As for Chrysippus,
only his legs get tipsy." His opinion of himself was so high that
when some one inquired, "To whom shall I entrust my son ?" he
replied, "To me : for, if I had dreamt of there being anyone better
than
myself, I should myself be studying with
him." Hence, it is said, the application to him of the line
3 :
He alone has
understanding ; the others flit shadow-like around ;
and
But for Chrysippus, there had been no
Porch.
At last, however,--so we are told by Sotion in
his eighth book,--he joined Arcesilaus and Lacydes and studied
philosophy under them in the Academy.
[
184]
And this explains his arguing
at one time against, and at another in support of, ordinary
experience, and his use of the method of the Academy when treating
of magnitudes and numbers.
On one occasion, as Hermippus
relates, when he had his school in the Odeum, he was invited by his
pupils to a sacrificial feast. There after he had taken a draught of
sweet wine unmixed with water, he was seized with dizziness and
departed this life five days afterwards, having reached the age of
seventy-three years, in the 143rd Olympiad.
4 This is the date given by Apollodorus in his
Chronology. I have toyed with the subject in the
following verses
5 :
Chrysippus turned giddy after gulping down a
draught of Bacchus ; he spared not the Porch nor his country nor his
own life, but fared straight to the house of Hades.
[
185]
Another
account is that his death was caused by a violent fit of laughter ;
for after an ass had eaten up his figs, he cried out to the old
woman, "Now give the ass a drink of pure wine to wash down the
figs." And thereupon he laughed so heartily that he died.
He appears to have been a very arrogant man.
6At any rate, of all his many writings he
dedicated none to any of the kings. And he was satisfied with one
old woman's judgement, says Demetrius in his work called
Men of the Same Name. When Ptolemy wrote to
Cleanthes requesting him to come himself or else to send some one to
his court, Sphaerus undertook the journey, while Chrysippus declined
to go. On the other hand, he sent for his sister's sons, Aristocreon
and Philocrates, and educated them. Demetrius above mentioned is
also our authority for the statement that Chrysippus was the first
who ventured to hold a lecture-class in the open air in the
Lyceum.
[
186]
There was another Chrysippus, a native of Cnidus, a
physician,
7 to whom Erasistratus says that he was under great
obligation. And another besides, a son
8 of the former, court-physician to Ptolemy,
who on a false charge was dragged about and castigated with the
lash. And yet another was a pupil of Erasistratus, and another the
author of a work on
Agriculture.
To
return to the philosopher. He used to propound arguments such as
the following : "He who divulges the mysteries to the uninitiated is
guilty of impiety. Now the hierophant certainly does reveal the
mysteries to the uninitiated,
ergo he is guilty
of impiety."
9 Or again : "What is not in the city is not in the house
either : now there is no well in the city,
ergo
there is none in the house either." Yet another : "There is a
certain head, and that head you have not. Now this being so, there
is a head which you have not, therefore you are without a head."
[
187]
Again : "If anyone is in Megara, he is not in Athens : now there is
a man in Megara,
therefore there is not a man
in Athens." Again : "If you say something, it passes through your
lips : now you say wagon, consequently a wagon passes through your
lips." And further : "If you never lost something, you have it still
; but you never lost horns,
ergo you have
horns." Others attribute this to Eubulides.
There are people
who run Chrysippus down as having written much in a tone that is
gross and indecent. For in his work
On the ancient
Natural Philosophers at line 600 or thereabouts he interprets
the story of Hera and Zeus coarsely, with details which no one would
soil his lips by repeating.
[
188]
Indeed, his interpretation of the story
is condemned as most indecent. He may be commending physical doctrine ; but the language used is more appropriate to street-walkers
than to deities ; and it is moreover not even mentioned by
bibliographers, who wrote on the titles of books. What Chrysippus
makes of it is not to be found in Polemo nor Hypsicrates, no, nor
even in Antigonus. It is his own invention. Again, in his
Republic he permits marriage with mothers and
daughters and sons. He says the same in his work
On
Things for their own Sake not Desirable, right at the outset.
In the third book of his treatise
On Justice,
at about line 1000, he permits eating of the corpses of the dead.
And in the second book of his
On the Means of
Livelihood, where he professes to be considering
a priori how the wise man is to get his living,
occur the words :
[
189]
"And yet what reason is there that he should
provide a living ? For if it be to support life, life itself is
after all a thing indifferent. If it be for pleasure, pleasure too
is a thing indifferent. While if it be for virtue, virtue in itself
is sufficient
to constitute happiness. The
modes of getting a livelihood are also ludicrous, as
e.g. maintenance by a king ; for he will have to be
humoured : or by friends ; for friendship will then be purchasable
for money : or living by wisdom ; for so wisdom will become
mercenary." These are the objections urged against him.
As
the reputation of his writings stands so high, I have decided to
make a separate catalogue of them, arranged according to the class
of subject treated. And they are as follows :
I. Logic.
Logical Theses.
The Philosopher's Inquiries.
Dialectical Definitions addressed to Metrodorus, six books.
On the Terms used in Dialectic, addressed to Zeno, one book.
[
190]
Art of Dialectic, addressed to Aristagoras, one book.
Probable Hypothetical Judgements, addressed to Dioscurides, four
books.
II. Logic dealing with the subject matter.
First series :
Of Judgements, one book.
Of
Judgements which are not Simple, one book.
Of the Complex
Judgement, addressed to Athenades, two books.
Of Negative
Judgements, addressed to Aristagoras, three books.
Of
Affirmative Judgements, addressed to Athenodorus, one book.
Of Judgements expressed by means of Privation,
addressed to Thearus, one book.
Of Indefinite Judgements,
addressed to Dion, three books.
On the Variety of Indefinite
Judgements, four books.
On Temporal Judgements, two
books.
On Judgements in the Perfect Tense, two books.
Second series :
Of a True Disjunctive Judgement, addressed
to Gorgippides, one book.
Of a True Hypothetical Judgement,
addressed to Gorgippides, four books.
[
191]
Choosing from
Alternatives, addressed to Gorgippides, one book.
A
Contribution to the Subject of Consequents, one book.
On the
Argument which employs three Terms, also addressed to Gorgippides,
one book.
On Judgements of Possibility, addressed to Clitus,
four books.
A Reply to the Work of Philo on Meanings, one
book.
On the Question what are False Judgements, one
book.
Third series :
Of Imperatives, two books.
Of Asking Questions, two books.
Of Inquiry, four
books.
Epitome of Interrogation and Inquiry, one book.
Epitome of Reply, one book.
Of Investigation, two
books.
Of Answering Questions, four books.
Fourth
series :
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Of Predicates, addressed to Metrodorus, ten
books.
Of Nominatives and Oblique Cases,
addressed to Phylarchus, one book.
Of Hypothetical
Syllogisms, addressed to Apollonides, one book.
A Work,
addressed to Pasylus, on Predicates, four books.
Fifth series
:
Of the Five Cases, one book.
Of Enunciations
classified according to subject matter, one book.
Of
Modification of Significance, addressed to Stesagoras, two
books.
Of Proper Nouns, two books.
III. Logic, as
concerned with words or phrases and the sentence.
First
series :
Of Singular and Plural Expressions, six books.
On Single Words, addressed to Sosigenes and Alexander, five
books.
Of Anomalous Words or Phrases, addressed to Dion, four
books.
Of the Sorites Argument as applied to Uttered Words,
three books.
On Solecisms, one book.
On Solecistic
Sentences, addressed to Dionysius, one book.
Sentences
violating Ordinary Usage, one book.
Diction, addressed to
Dionysius, one book.
Second series :
Of the Elements
of Speech and on Words Spoken, five books.
Of the Arrangement
of Words Spoken, four books.
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193]
Of the Arrangement
and Elements of Sentences, addressed to Philip, three books.
Of the Elements of Speech, addressed to Nicias, one book.
Of the Relative Term, one book.
Third series :
Against Those who reject Division, two books.
On Ambiguous
Forms of Speech, addressed to Apollas, four books.
On
Figurative Ambiguities, one book.
Of Ambiguity in the Moods
of the Hypothetical Syllogism, two books.
A Reply to the Work
of Panthoides on Ambiguities, two books.
Introduction to the
Study of Ambiguities, five books.
Epitome of the Work on
Ambiguities, addressed to Epicrates, one book.
Materials
collected for the Introduction to the Study of Ambiguities, two
books.
IV. Logic as concerned with syllogisms and moods.
First series :
Handbook of Arguments and Moods, addressed
to Dioscurides, five books.
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194]
Of Syllogisms, three books.
Of the Construction of Moods, addressed to Stesagoras, two
books.
Comparison of the Judgements expressed in the Moods,
one book.
Of Reciprocal and Hypothetical Syllogisms, one
book.
To Agathon, or Of the Problems that remain, one
book.
On the Question what Premisses are capable of
demonstrating a given Conclusion with the Aid of one or more
Subsidiary Premisses, one book.
Of Inferences,
addressed to Aristagoras, one book.
How the same Syllogism
may be drawn up in several Moods, one book.
Reply to the
Objections brought against drawing out the same Argument
syllogistically and without a Syllogism, two books.
Reply to
the Objections against the Analyses of Syllogisms, three books.
Reply to Philo's Work on Moods, addressed to Timostratus, one
book.
Collected Logical Writings, addressed to Timocrates and
Philomathes : a Criticism of their Works on Moods and Syllogisms,
one book.
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195]
Second series :
On Conclusive Arguments,
addressed to Zeno, one book.
On the Primary Indemonstrable
Syllogisms, addressed to Zeno, one book.
On the Analysis of
Syllogisms, one book.
Of Redundant Arguments, addressed to
Pasylus, two books.
Of the Rules for Syllogisms, one
book.
Of Introductory or Elementary Syllogisms, addressed to
Zeno, one book.
Of the Introductory Moods, addressed to Zeno,
three books.
Of the Syllogisms under False Figures, five
books.
Syllogistic Arguments by Resolution in Indemonstrable Arguments, one book.
Inquiries into the Moods :
addressed to Zeno and Philomathes, one book. (This appears to be
spurious.)
Third series :
On Variable
Arguments, addressed to Athenades, one book. (This also is
spurious.)
[
196]
Variable Arguments concerning the Mean, three
books. (Spurious.)
A Reply to Ameinias' "Disjunctive
Syllogisms," one book.
Fourth series :
On Hypotheses,
addressed to Meleager, three books.
Hypothetical Syllogisms
upon the Laws, again addressed to Meleager, one book.
Hypothetical Syllogisms to serve as Introduction, two books.
Hypothetical Syllogisms consisting of Theorems, two books.
Solutions of the Hypothetical Arguments of Hedylus, two
books.
Solutions of the Hypothetical Arguments of Alexander, three books. (Spurious.)
On Explanatory Symbols,
addressed to Laodamas, one book.
Fifth series :
Introduction to the Mentiens
10 Argument, addressed to Aristocreon, one
book.
Arguments of the Mentiens Type, to serve as
Introduction, one book.
Of the Mentiens Argument, addressed
to Aristocreon, six books.
Sixth series :
Reply to
those who hold that Propositions may be at once False and True, one
book.
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197]
To those who solve the Mentiens by dissecting it,
addressed to Aristocreon, two books.
Proofs
showing that Indefinite Arguments ought not to be dissected, one
book.
Reply to Objections urged against those who condemn the
Dissection of Indefinite Arguments, addressed to Pasylus, three
books.
Solution in the Style of the Ancients, addressed to
Dioscurides, one book.
On the Solution of the Mentiens,
addressed to Aristocreon, three books.
Solutions of the
Hypothetical Arguments of Hedylus, addressed to Aristocreon and
Apollas, one book.
Seventh series :
To those who
maintain that the Premisses of the Mentiens are false, one book.
Of the Sceptic who denies, addressed to Aristocreon, two
books.
Negative Arguments, to serve as Logical Exercises, one
book.
Of the Argument from Small Increments, addressed to
Stesagoras, two books.
Of the Arguments affecting Ordinary
Suppositions and on those who are Inactive or Silent, addressed to
Onetor, two books.
Of the Fallacy of "the Veiled Person,"
addressed to Aristobulus, two books.
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On the Puzzle of "the
Man who escapes Detection," addressed to Athenades, one book.
Eighth series :
Of the "Nobody" Puzzle, addressed to
Menecrates, eight books.
Of the Arguments derived from the
Indeterminate and the Determined, addressed to Pasylus, two
books.
Of the "Nobody" Argument, addressed to
Epicrates, one book.
Ninth series :
Of Sophisms,
addressed to Heraclides and Pollis, two books.
Of Dialectical
Puzzles, addressed to Dioscurides, five books.
Reply to the
Method of Arcesilaus, dedicated to Sphaerus, one book.
Tenth
series :
Attack upon Common Sense, addressed to Metrodorus,
six books.
Defence of Common Sense, addressed to Gorgippides,
seven books.
V. Under Logic.
Thirty-nine
investigations outside the range of the four above-mentioned main
divisions dealing with isolated logical investigations not included
in separate wholes of the subjects enumerated. The total of the
logical writings is three hundred and eleven.
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1. Ethics
dealing with the classification of ethical conceptions.
First
series :
Outline of Ethical Theory, addressed to Theoporos,
one book.
Ethical Theses, one book.
Probable Premisses
for Ethical Doctrines, addressed to Philomathes, three books.
Definitions of the Good or Virtuous, addressed to Metrodorus, two
books.
Definitions of the Bad or Vicious, addressed to
Metrodorus, two books.
Definitions of the
Morally Intermediate, addressed to Metrodorus, two books.
Definitions of the Generic Notions [in Ethics], addressed to
Metrodorus, seven books.
Definitions concerned with other
Branches of Science, addressed to Metrodorus, two books.
Second series :
Of Similes, addressed to Aristocles, three
books.
Of Definitions, addressed to Metrodorus, seven
books.
Third series :
Of the Objections wrongly urged
against the Definitions, addressed to Laodamas, seven books.
[
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Probabilities in Support of the Definitions, addressed to
Dioscurides, two books.
Of Species and Genera, addressed to
Gorgippides, two books.
Of Classifications, one book.
Of Contraries, addressed to Dionysius, two books.
Probable
Arguments relative to the Classifications, Genera and Species, and
the Treatment of Contraries, one book.
Fourth series :
Of Etymological Matters, addressed to Diocles, seven books.
Points of Etymology, addressed to Diocles, four books.
Fifth series :
Of Proverbs, addressed to Zenodotus, two
books.
Of Poems, addressed to Philomathes, one book.
On the Right Way of reading Poetry, two books.
A Reply to
Critics, addressed to Diodorus, one book.
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2.
Ethics dealing with the common view and the sciences and virtues
thence arising.
First series :
Against the Touching up
of Paintings, addressed to Timonax, one book.
How it is we
name each Thing and form a Conception of it, one book.
Of
Conceptions, addressed to Laodamas, two books.
Of Opinion or
Assumption, addressed to Pythonax, three books.
Proofs that
the Wise Man will not hold Opinions,
11 one book.
Of Apprehension, of
Knowledge and of Ignorance,
12 four books.
Of Reason, two
books.
Of the Use of Reason, addressed to Leptines.
Second series :
That the Ancients rightly admitted
Dialectic as well as Demonstration, addressed to Zeno, two
books.
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Of Dialectic, addressed to Aristocreon, four
books.
Of the Objections urged against the Dialecticians,
three books.
Of Rhetoric, addressed to Dioscurides, four
books.
Third series :
Of formed State, or Habit, of
Mind, addressed to Cleon, three books.
Of Art and the
Inartistic, addressed to Aristocreon, four books.
Of the
Difference between the Virtues, addressed to Diodorus, four
books.
Of the Characters of the several
Virtues, one book.
Of Virtues, addressed to Pollis, two
books.
3. Ethics, dealing with things good and evil.
First series :
Of the Good or Morally Beautiful and
Pleasure, addressed to Aristocreon, ten books.
Proofs that
Pleasure is not the End-in-chief of Action, four books.
Proofs that Pleasure is not a Good, four books.
Of the
Arguments commonly used on Behalf of [Pleasure].