biography
pronunciation:
[zenokratees]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (c.395–314 BC)
|
| biography:
| Greek philosopher and scientist, born in Chalcedon on the Bosphorus. He was a pupil of Plato, and in 339BC succeeded Speusippus as head of the Academy which Plato had founded. He wrote prolifically on natural science, astronomy, and philosophy, but only fragments of this output survive. He generally systematized and continued the Platonic tradition, but seems to have had a particular devotion to threefold categories, perhaps reflecting a Pythagorean influence: philosophy is subdivided into logic, ethics, and physics; reality is divided into the objects of sensation, belief, and knowledge; he distinguished gods, men, and demons; and he also probably originated the classical distinction between mind, body, and soul. |
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