Diogenes of Apollonia ( ; ; 5th century BC) was an

ancient Greek philosopher Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC. Philosophy was used to make sense of the world using reason. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, epistemology, mathematics, political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics ...

, and was a native of the Milesian colony Apollonia in

Thrace Thrace (, ; ; ; ) is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe roughly corresponding to the province of Thrace in the Roman Empire. Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Se ...

. He lived for some time in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

. He believed

air An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

to be the one source of all being from which all other substances were derived, and, as a primal force, to be both divine and intelligent. He also wrote a description of the organization of blood vessels in the human body. His ideas were parodied by the dramatist

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving play ...

, and may have influenced the

Orphic Orphism is the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices originating in the ancient Greek and Hellenistic world, associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheus, who descended into the Greek underworld and returned ...

philosophical commentary preserved in the

Derveni papyrus The Derveni papyrus is an Ancient Greek papyrus roll that was discovered in 1962 at the archaeological site of Derveni, near Thessaloniki, in Central Macedonia. A philosophical treatise, the text is an allegorical commentary on an Orphic poem, a ...

. His philosophical work has not survived in a complete form, and his doctrines are known chiefly from lengthy quotations of his work by Simplicius, as well as a few summaries in the works of

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

Theophrastus Theophrastus (; ; c. 371 – c. 287 BC) was an ancient Greek Philosophy, philosopher and Natural history, naturalist. A native of Eresos in Lesbos, he was Aristotle's close colleague and successor as head of the Lyceum (classical), Lyceum, the ...

, and Aetius.

Life

Diogenes was a native of the Milesian colony Apollonia Pontica in

, present-day

Sozopol Sozopol ( ; ) List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, is an ancient seaside town located 35 km south of Burgas on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. One of the major seaside resorts in the country, it is known for the ''Apollonia'' art and film ...

on the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

. His father's name was Apollothemis. Nothing is known of the events in his life, except that he lived some time in Athens.

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 ...

states that "great jealousy nearly put his life in danger in Athens," but there may be confusion with

Anaxagoras Anaxagoras (; , ''Anaxagóras'', 'lord of the assembly'; ) was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. Born in Clazomenae at a time when Asia Minor was under the control of the Persian Empire, Anaxagoras came to Athens. In later life he was charged ...

who is mentioned in the same passage. Like all the '' physiologoi'' (natural philosophers), he wrote in the Ionic dialect.

Philosophy

Diogenes is characterized by

as the last of the "physiologoi" or natural philosophers. As a material monist, he synthesized the work of earlier monists such as Anaximenes and

Heraclitus Heraclitus (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Empire. He exerts a wide influence on Western philosophy, ...

with the pluralism of

and

Empedocles Empedocles (; ; , 444–443 BC) was a Ancient Greece, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a native citizen of Akragas, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is known best for originating the Cosmogony, cosmogonic theory of the four cla ...

and argued that air was a divine cosmic ordering principle that he also equated with intelligence. He does not appear to have been influenced by the

Atomists Atomism () is a natural philosophy proposing that the physical universe is composed of fundamental indivisible components known as atoms. References to the concept of atomism and its atoms appeared in both ancient Greek and ancient Indian philo ...

Air

Diogenes, like Anaximenes, believed

to be the one source of all being, and all other substances to be derived from it by condensation and rarefaction. This he modified by the theories of his contemporary

, and asserted that air, the primal force, was intelligent:

And it seems to me that that which possessed thought is what people call air, and that by this everyone both is governed and has power over everything. For it is this which seems to me to be god and to have reached everything and to arrange everything and to be in everything. And there is not a single thing which does not share in it.

The nature of the

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...

is air, limitless and eternal, from which, as it condenses and rarefies and changes its properties, the other forms come into being. Among his other doctrines, he is said to have believed that there was an infinite number of worlds, and infinite void; that air, densified and rarefied, produced the different worlds; that nothing was produced from nothing, or was reduced to nothing; that the Earth was round, supported in the middle, and had received its shape from the whirling round of the warm vapours, and its concretion and hardening from cold.

Physiology

The longest surviving fragment of Diogenes is that which is inserted by

in the third book of his ''

History of Animals ''History of Animals'' (, ''Ton peri ta zoia historion'', "Inquiries on Animals"; , "History of Animals") is one of the major texts on biology by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. It was written in sometime between the mid-fourth centur ...

''. It contains a description of the distribution of the

blood vessels Blood vessels are the tubular structures of a circulatory system that transport blood throughout many animals’ bodies. Blood vessels transport blood cells, nutrients, and oxygen to most of the tissues of a body. They also take waste an ...

in the human body. It is notable chiefly because "here we can read at first hand what in the case of the other Presocratics we learn only indirectly: an attempt to describe in scientific detail the structure and organization of the physical world."

Works

None of Diogenes' work has survived in a complete form. The majority of the surviving fragments of Diogenes work come from Simplicius, a

late antique Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodization has since been wide ...

philosopher from the Neoplatonic Academy who wrote a commentary on Aristotle's ''

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

'' where he quotes several long excerpts from Diogenes' work. Based on the account given by Simplicius, it is unclear to modern scholars whether Diogenes wrote four separate works, "On Nature", "On the Nature of Man" "Meteorology", and "Against the Sophist", or only one work ''On Nature'' which included portions that touched on each of the other three topics.

Legacy

Modern scholars generally agree that some views of Diogenes are transferred to

' depiction of

Socrates Socrates (; ; – 399 BC) was a Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and as among the first moral philosophers of the Ethics, ethical tradition ...

in ''

The Clouds ''The Clouds'' (, ''Nephelai'') is a Greek comedy play written by the playwright Aristophanes. A lampooning of intellectual fashions in classical Athens, it was originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423BC and was not as well received as th ...

.'' as well as in a fragment of Philemon. Diogenite meteorites are named for Diogenes of Apollonia, who was the first to suggest an outer space origin for meteorites:

With the visible stars revolve stones which are invisible, and for that reason nameless. They often fall on the ground and are extinguished, like the stone star that came down on fire at Aegospotami.

Modern Reception

Based on an initial evaluation by

Hermann Diels Hermann Alexander Diels (; 18 May 1848 – 4 June 1922) was a German Classics, classical scholar, who was influential in the area of early Greek philosophy and is known for his standard work ''Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker''. Diels helped to im ...

, Diogenes was not studied frequently in modern scholarships up until the past few decades. However, with the discovery of the

, an

philosophical poem which has many parallels to the philosophy of both Diogenes and

, many scholars have analyzed Diogenes' work to better understand the links between

Ancient Greek religion Religious practices in ancient Greece encompassed a collection of beliefs, rituals, and Greek mythology, mythology, in the form of both popular public religion and Cult (religious practice), cult practices. The application of the modern concept ...

and philosophy.

Notes

Footnotes

Citations

References

Ancient Testimony

In the Diels-Kranz numbering for testimony and fragments of

Pre-Socratic philosophy Pre-Socratic philosophy, also known as early Greek philosophy, is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates. Pre-Socratic philosophers were mostly interested in cosmology, the beginning and the substance of the universe, but the inquiries of the ...

, Diogenes of Apollonia is catalogued as number 64. The most recent edition of this catalogue is *.

Biography

*A1. *A2. *A3.

Writings

*A4.

Doctrines

*A5.

Fragments

*B1. *B2. *B3. *B4. *B5. *B6. *B7. *B8. *B9. *B10.

Influence

*C1. *C2. ... *C3. *C3a. *C3b. *C4.

Translations of the Fragments

* *

Modern Scholarship

* * * * *