Theophrastus

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Theophrastus

Statue of Theophrastus, Orto botanico di Palermo
Full name Theophrastus
Born c. 371 BC
Eressos
Died c. 287 BC
Athens

Era Ancient philosophy
Region Western Philosophy
School Peripatetic school
Main interests Botany, Ethics, Grammar, History, Logic, Metaphysics, Natural History, Physics
Notable ideas Developed the philosophy of Aristotle

Theophrastus (Greek: Θεόφραστος; c. 371 – c. 287 BC[1]), a Greek native of Eressos in Lesbos, was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He came to Athens at a young age, and initially studied in Plato's school. After Plato's death he attached himself to Aristotle. Aristotle bequeathed to Theophrastus his writings, and designated him as his successor at the Lyceum. Theophrastus presided over the Peripatetic school for thirty-five years, during which time, the school flourished greatly. After his death, the Athenians honoured him with a public funeral. His successor as head of the school was Strato of Lampsacus.

The interests of Theophrastus were wide-ranging, extending from biology and physics to ethics and metaphysics. His two surviving botanical works, Enquiry into Plants and On the Causes of Plants, were an important influence on medieval science. There are also surviving works On Moral Characters, On Sensation, On Stones, and fragments on Physics and Metaphysics all written in Greek. In philosophy, he studied grammar and language, and continued Aristotle's work on logic. He also regarded space as the mere arrangement and position of bodies, time as an accident of motion, and motion as a necessary consequence of all activity. In ethics, he regarded happiness as depending on external influences as well as on virtue, and famously said that "life is ruled by fortune, not wisdom."

Life

Most of the biographical information we have of Theophrastus was provided by Diogenes Laërtius' Lives of the Philosophers, written four hundred years after Theophrastus' time, though "there is no intrinsic improbability in most of what Diogenes records."[2] He was a native of Eressos in Lesbos.[3] His given name was Tyrtamus (Greek: Τύρταμος), but he later became known by the nickname "Theophrastus", given to him, it is said, by Aristotle to indicate the grace of his conversation (ancient Greek: Θεός = God and φραστος = to phrase i.e divine expression).[4]

After receiving his first introduction to philosophy in Lesbos from one Leucippus or Alcippus, he proceeded to Athens, and became a member of the Platonist circle.[5] After Plato's death he attached himself to Aristotle, and in all probability accompanied him to Stagira. The intimate friendship of Theophrastus with Callisthenes,[6] the fellow-pupil of Alexander the Great, the mention made in his will of an estate belonging to him at Stagira,[7] and the repeated notices of the town and its museum in the nine books of his Enquiry into plants and his six books of Causes of Plants point to this conclusion.[8]

Aristotle in his will made him guardian of his children, including Nicomachus with whom he was close.[9] Aristotle likewise bequeathed to him his library and the originals of his works,[10] and designated him as his successor at the Lyceum on his own removal to Chalcis.[11] Eudemus of Rhodes also had some claims to this position, and Aristoxenus is said to have resented Aristotle's choice.[8]

Theophrastus presided over the Peripatetic school for thirty-five years,[12] and died at the age of eighty-five according to Diogenes.[13] He is said to have remarked "we die just when we are beginning to live".[14]

Under his guidance the school flourished greatly— there were at one period more than 2000 students, Diogenes affirms,[15] and at his death, according to the terms of his will preserved by Diogenes, he bequeathed to it his garden with house and colonnades as a permanent seat of instruction. The comic poet Menander was among his pupils.[15] His popularity was shown in the regard paid to him by Philip, Cassander and Ptolemy, and by the complete failure of a charge of impiety brought against him.[16] He was honoured with a public funeral, and "the whole population of Athens, honouring him greatly, followed him to the grave."[17] He was succeeded as head of the Lyceum by Strato of Lampsacus.

Writings

From the lists of Diogenes Laërtius, giving 227 titles, it appears that the activity of Theophrastus extended over the whole field of contemporary knowledge.[8] His writing probably differed little from Aristotle's treatment of the same themes, though supplementary in details. Like Aristotle, most of his writings are lost works.[8]

Thus Theophrastus, like Aristotle, had composed a first and second Analytic.[18] He had also written books on Topics;[19] on the refutation of fallacies;[20] as well as books on the Principles of Natural Philosophy (Physica Auscultatio), on Heaven, and on Meteorological Phenomena.[21] The work of Theophrastus On Affirmation and Denial seems to have corresponded to that of Aristotle's On Judgment.

In addition, he wrote on the Warm and the Cold,[6] on Water, Fire,[22] the Sea,[22] on Coagulation and Melting, on various phenomena of organic and spiritual life,[22] and on the Soul and Sensuous Perception.[23] Likewise we find mention of monographs of Theophrastus on the early Greek philosophers Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Archelaus,[24] Diogenes of Apollonia, Democritus,[25] which were made use of by Simplicius; and also on Xenocrates,[26] against the Academics,[27] and a sketch of the political doctrine of Plato.[25] That he studied general history, as we see from the quotations in Plutarch's lives of Lycurgus, Solon, Aristides, Pericles, Nicias, Alcibiades, Lysander, Agesilaus, and Demosthenes, which were probably borrowed from the work on Lives.[18] But his main efforts were to continue the labours of Aristotle in Natural History. This is testified not only by a number of treatises on individual subjects of zoology, of which, besides the titles, only fragments remain, but also by his books on Stones, his Enquiry into Plants, and On the Causes of Plants, which have come down to us entire. In politics, also, he seems to have trodden in the footsteps of Aristotle. Besides his books on the State, we find quoted various treatises on Education,[28] on Royalty,[29] on the Best State, on Political Morals, and particularly his works on the Laws, one of which, containing a recapitulation of the laws of various barbarian as well as Greek states,[6] was intended to be a companion to Aristotle's outline of Politics, and must have been similar to it.[30] He also wrote on oratory and poetry.[31] Theophrastus, without doubt, departed further from Aristotle in his ethical writings,[32] as also in his metaphysical investigations respecting motion, the soul, and God.[33]

Besides these writings, Theophrastus was the author of several collections of problems, out of which some things at least have passed into the Problems which have come down to us under the name of Aristotle,[34] and commentaries,[35] partly dialogues,[36] to which probably belonged the Erotikos,[37] Megacles,[26] Callisthenes,[38] and Megarikos,[6] and letters,[39] partly books on mathematical sciences and their history.[40]

Many of his works which we do have, exist only in fragmentary form. "The style of these works, as of the botanical books, suggests that, as in the case of Aristotle, what we possess consists of notes for lectures or notes taken of lectures," his translator Arthur Hort remarks.[2] "There is no literary charm; the sentences are mostly compressed and highly elliptical, to the point sometimes of obscurity."[2] The text of these fragments and extracts is often so corrupt that there is a certain plausibility to the well-known story that the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus were allowed to languish in the cellar of Neleus of Scepsis and his descendents.[41]

On Plants