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XENOCRATES
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XENOCRATES , of See also:Chalcedon, See also:Greek philosopher, scholarch or See also:rector of the See also:Academy from 339 to 314 B.C., was See also:born in 396. Removing to See also:Athens in See also:early youth, he became the See also:pupil of the Socratic See also:Aeschines, but presently joined himself to See also:Plato, whom he attended to See also:Sicily in 361. Upon his See also:master's See also:death
(347 B.C.), in See also:company with See also:Aristotle he paid a visit to See also:Hermias at Atarneus. In 339, Aristotle being then in See also:Macedonia, Xenocrates succeeded See also:Speusippus in the See also:presidency of the school, defeating his competitors See also:Menedemus and Heracleides by a few votes. On three occasions he was member of an Athenian See also:legation, once to See also: He is said to have invented, or at least to have emphasized, the tripartition of See also:philosophy under the heads of physic, See also:dialectic and ethic. In his See also:ontology Xenocrates built upon Plato's See also:foundations: that is to say, with Plato he postulated ideas or See also:numbers to be the causes of nature's organic products, and derived these ideas or numbers from unity (which is active) and See also:plurality (which is passive). But he put upon this fundamental See also:dogma a new See also:interpretation. According to Plato, existence is mind pluralized: mind as a unity, i.e. universal mind, apprehends its own plurality as eternal, immutable, intelligible ideas; and mind as a plurality, i.e. particular mind, perceives its own plurality as transitory, mutable, sensible things. The See also:idea, inasmuch as it is a See also:law of universal mind, which in particular minds produces aggregates of sensations called things, is a " See also:determinant" (r pas 4xov), and as such is styled " quantity " (aochv ) and perhaps " number " (apif)u6s) ; but the ideal numbers are distinct from arithmetical numbers. Xenocrates, however, failing, as it would seem, to grasp the See also:idealism which was the meta-See also:physical See also:foundation of Plato's theory of natural kinds, took for his principles arithmetical unity and plurality, and accordingly identified ideal numbers with arithmetical numbers. In thus reverting to the crudities of certain Pythagoreans, he laid himself open to the criticisms of Aristotle, who, in his See also:Metaphysics, recognizing amongst contemporary Platonists three See also:principal See also:groups—(1) those who, like Plato, distinguished mathematical and ideal numbers; (2) those who, like Xenocrates, identified them; and (3) those who, like Speusippus, postulated mathematical numbers only—has much to say against the Xenocratean interpretation of the theory, and in particular points out that, if the ideas are numbers made up of arithmetical See also:units, they not only cease to be principles, but also become subject to arithmetical operations. Xenocrates's theory of inorganic nature was substantially identical with the theory of the elements which is propounded in the See also:Timaeus, 53 C seq. Nevertheless, holding that every See also:dimension has a principle of its own, he rejected the derivation of the elemental solids—See also:pyramid, See also:octahedron, See also:icosahedron and See also:cube—from triangular surfaces, and in so far approximated to atomism. Moreover, to the tetrad of See also:simple elements —viz. See also:fire, See also:air, See also:water, See also:earth—he added the aigae,t ot'eLa, See also:ether. His cosmology, which is See also:drawn almost entirely from the Timaeus, and, as he intimated, is not to be regarded as a See also:cosmogony, should be studied in connexion with his See also:psychology. Soul is a self-moving number, derived from the two fundamental principles, unity (EV) and plurality (has a6puoros), whence it obtains its See also:powers of See also:rest and See also:motion. It is incorporeal, and may exist apart from See also:body. The irrational soul, as well as the rational soul, is immortal. The universe, the heavenly bodies, See also:man, animals, and presumably See also:plants, are each of them endowed with a soul, which is more or less perfect according to the position which it occupies in the descending See also:scale of creation. With this Platonic philosopheme Xenocrates combines the current See also:theology, identifying the universe and the heavenly bodies with the greater gods, and reserving a See also:place between them and mortals for the lesser divinities. If the extant authorities are to be trusted, Xenocrates recognized three grades of See also:cognition, each appropriated to a region of its own—viz. knowledge, See also:opinion and sensation, having for their respective See also:objects supra-celestials or ideas, celestials or stars, and infra-celestials or things. Even here the mythological tendency displays itself—vo,tra, bollasrli and aikB+ir& being severally committed to See also:Atropos, Lachesis and Clotho. Of Xenocrates'slogic we know only that with Plato he distinguished el) sae' abrb and r6 ,rpos rejecting the Aristotelian See also:list of ten categories as a superfluity, Valuing philosophy chiefly for its influence upon conduct, Xenocrates bestowed especial See also:attention upon ethics. The See also:catalogue of his See also:works shows that he had written largely upon this subject; but the indications of doctrine which have survived are scanty, and may be summed up in a few sentences. Things are goods, ills or neutrals, Goods are of three sorts—See also:mental, bodily, See also:external; but of all goods virtue is incomparably the greatest. Happiness consists in the See also:possession of virtue, and consequently is See also:independent of See also:personal and extraneous advantages. The virtuous man is pure, not in See also:act only, but also in See also:heart. To the attainment of virtue the best help is philosophy; for the philosopher does of his own See also:accord what others do under the compulsion of law. Speculative See also:wisdom and See also:practical wisdom are to be distinguished. Meagre as these statements are, they 'suffice to show that in ethics, as elsewhere, Xenocrates worked upon Platonic lines. Xenocrates was not in any sense a See also:great thinker. His meta-physic was a See also:travesty rather than a See also:reproduction of that of his master. His ethic had little which was distinctive. But his austere life and commanding See also:personality made him an effective teacher, and his influence, kept alive by his pupils Polemon and See also:Crates, ceased only when See also:Arcesilaus, the founder of the so-called Second Academy, gave a new direction to the studies of the school. See D. See also:Van de Wynpersse, De Xenocrate Chalcedonio (See also:Leiden, 1822) ; C. A. See also:Brandis, Gesch. d. griechisch-romischen Philosophie (See also:Berlin, 1853), ii. 2, 1; E. See also:Zeller, Philosophie d. Griechen (See also:Leipzig, 1875), ii. 1; F. W. A. Mullach, Fragnienta Philosophorum Graecorum (See also:Paris, 1881), iii. (H. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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