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CRITOLAUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 471 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CRITOLAUS , See also:

Greek philosopher, was See also:born at Phaselis in the 2nd See also:century B.C. He lived to the See also:age of eighty-two and died probably before III B.C. He studied See also:philosophy under See also:Aristo of See also:Ceos and became one of the leaders of the Peripatetic school by his See also:eminence as an orator, a See also:scholar and a moralist. There has been considerable discussion as to whether he was the immediate successor of Aristo, but the See also:evidence is confused and unprofitable. In See also:general he was a loyal adherent to the Peripatetic See also:succession (cf. See also:Cicero, De fin. v. 5 " C. imitari antiquos voluit"), though in some respects he went beyond his predecessors. For example, he held that See also:pleasure is an evil (See also:Gellius, Noctes Atticae, ix. 5. 6), and definitely maintained that the soul consists of See also:aether. The end of existence was to him the general perfection of the natural See also:life, including the goods of the soul and the See also:body, and also See also:external goods. Cicero says in the Tusculans that the goods of the soul entirely outweighed for him the other goods (" tantum propendere illam bonorum animi lancem ").

Further, he defended against the See also:

Stoics the Peripatetic See also:doctrine of the eternity of the See also:world and the indestructibility of the human See also:race. There is no observed See also:change in the natural See also:order of things; mankind re-creates itself in the same manner according to the capacity given by Nature, and the various ills to which it is See also:heir, though fatal to individuals, do not avail to modify the whole. Just as it is absurd to suppose that See also:man is merely See also:earth-born, so the possibility of his ultimate destruction is inconceivable. The world, as the manifestation of eternal order, must itself be immortal. The life of Critolaus is not recorded. One incident alone is preserved. From Cicero (Acad. ii. 45) it appears that he was sent with See also:Carneades and See also:Diogenes to See also:Rome in 156—155 B.C. to protest against the See also:fine of 500 talents imposed on See also:Athens in See also:punishment for the See also:sack of See also:Oropus. The three ambassadors lectured on philosophy in Rome with so much success that See also:Cato was alarmed and had them dismissed the See also:city. Gellius describes his arguments as scita et teretia. Consult the See also:article See also:PERIPATETICS, and histories of See also:ancient philo• sophy, e.g. See also:Zeller.

End of Article: CRITOLAUS

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