Clinomachus (; 4th-century BC), was a
Megarian philosopher from
Thurii
Thurii (; ; ), called also by some Latin writers Thūrium (compare , in Ptolemy), and later in Roman times also Cōpia and Cōpiae, was an ancient Greek city situated on the Gulf of Taranto, near or on the site of the great renowned city of Syb ...
,
Magna Graecia
Magna Graecia refers to the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy, encompassing the modern Regions of Italy, Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. These regions were Greek colonisation, extensively settled by G ...
. He is said by
Diogenes Laërtius
Diogenes Laërtius ( ; , ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Little is definitively known about his life, but his surviving book ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek ph ...
to have been the first who composed treatises on the fundamental principles of
dialectics
Dialectic (; ), also known as the dialectical method, refers originally to dialogue between people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to arrive at the truth through reasoned argument. Dialectic resembles debate, but the ...
, and is described as the founder of the Dialectical school. According to the
Suda
The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; ; ) is a large 10th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine encyclopedia of the History of the Mediterranean region, ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas () or Souidas (). It is an ...
, he was the disciple of
Euclid of Megara
Euclid of Megara (; ; c. 435 – c. 365 BC) was a Greek Socratic philosopher who founded the Megarian school of philosophy. He was a pupil of Socrates in the late 5th century BC, and was present at his death. He held the supreme good to be o ...
, and he taught
Bryson, the teacher of
Pyrrho
Pyrrho of Elis (; ; ) was a Greek philosopher of Classical antiquity, credited as being the first Greek skeptic philosopher and founder of Pyrrhonism.
Life
Pyrrho of Elis is estimated to have lived from around 365/360 until 275/270 BCE. Py ...
.
[Suda, ''Pyrrhon''] He thus lived towards the earlier half of the 4th century BC.
Notes
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{{AncientGreece-philosopher-stub
4th-century BC Greek philosophers
Classical Greek philosophers
Megarian philosophers
Philosophers of Magna Graecia