Aeschines of Sphettus

Aeschines of Sphettos ( ancient Greek Αἰσχίνης Aeschines, Latinized Aeschines; * probably between 430 BC and 420 BC in Sphettos; † after 357/356 BC) was a Greek ancient philosopher and a pupil of Socrates.

Life

Aeschines ' life data are only approximately known. His family came from the Athenian demos Sphettos, the father was Lysanias. According to Plato, Aeschines was 399 BC among the friends of Socrates, who spent his last hours before his death with him and may have been at that time still a fairly young man. After Socrates ' death, he probably went to Megara. As before it, Socrates students Plato and Aristippus of Cyrene Aeschines has at least once for a while stopped at the court of the tyrant Dionysius II in Syracuse, was also sold as the 357/356 BC from there.

Already when he was a student of Socrates, Aeschines to have been poor (according to Diogenes Laertius ' and Seneca ). Fragments of a Against the Socratic Aeschines, for debt -titled speech of Lysias are obtained in which Aeschines is denounced as a debt maker. He did not pay back its debt and borrow some money with justifications such as the one that he wanted to make a living as a manufacturer of perfume. Various sources report that Aeschines ' Moving to the court at Syracuse had its basis in a lack of money. The lucrative access to the court gave him either Plato or - more likely - a friend of him Aristpp of Cyrene ( Aeschines ' relationship to Plato is described as distancing ). Diogenes Laertius reports that Aeschines has earned the writing of legal speeches and the holding of lectures money.

Possible pupils Aeschines ' were Aristotle with the nickname " the myth " and ( before this said to have been lured away by Plato ) called Xenocrates.

Works

Various ancient writers have attributed to Aeschines total of seven dialogues, four letters and a court speech. Were written later Certainly three of the letters ( the Socratic Aristpp of Cyrene, Xenophon and Phaedo of Elis ). About the fourth letter ( to Dionysios II ), as well as on the court speech ( a speech in defense of the father of the commander Phaiax ) nothing is known as Diogenes Laertius that they mentioned.

Of the seven dialogues, only fragments survive. Whether they actually originate from Aeschines, was controversial in antiquity, but in general they were considered genuine. To one by Aeschines ' incurred and to be found in many ancient legend reports are comfortable with the assertion that the seven dialogues in truth of Socrates himself come and of Socrates ' were handed woman after the death of Aeschines.

• From the dialogues Axiochos, Callias, Rhinon and Telauges hardly anything definite is known.
• In Miltiades dialogue it went - so much we know - about the nature of a good education and the question of who can convey such. As interlocutors occur Socrates, the politician Hagnon, the poet Euripides and not known to Miltiades (the son of a likewise unknown Stesagoras ).
• Aspasia dialogue Socrates is to recommend to the rich Callias a teacher for his son, who could turn it into a capable citizen and politician. Socrates proposes the famous Aspasia, and explains this in the following. First, he gives Thargelia of Miletus and the Persian Rhodogyne as examples that women can be significant politicians and thus experts in this field. Then he proves the capabilities of Aspasia - whose pupil he also had been Socrates, - out, which had made by teaching and love Pericles and Lysicles to excellent politicians. Finally he tells of a conversation between Aspasia, Xenophon and his wife. Aspasia is said to have both made ​​it clear that they are looking for the most excellent each partner. In order to be for each other, they need only after the most excellent man and most excellent woman aspire to be. Love, the lesson of this section, a commitment to excellence ( arete ) can produce.
• The Alcibiades dialogue is a conversation of Socrates with the fledgling later statesman Alcibiades. Alcibiades feels superior to his contemporaries and also the great politicians of the past. During the conversation Socrates brings him to the conclusion, however, that large benefits are not so dependent on innate talents, but of skills that you have yourself to acquire over time. Alcibiades is dismayed, bursts into tears, puts his head on Socrates ' knees and said that he differs in nothing from the least of his fellow citizens. So he asks Socrates to help to excellence ( arete ) him. Towards the end sums up Socrates, that he could not help therefore Alcibiades, because he was in possession of a special art ( techne ) or a specific knowledge, but due to divine intervention and his love.

Source collections and translations

• Gabriele Gianna Toni ( ed.): Socratis et Socraticorum Reliquiae, Volume 2, Bibliopolis, Naples, 1990, Section VI -A ( online)
• Johann Georg Schulthess: Aeschines of Socratikers philosophical discussions, Orell, Gessner, little feet, Zurich 1779 (online)
• Aeschines the Socratic: Conversations and Cebes the Theban paintings, translated by Karl Pfaff, 2nd edition, Metzler, Stuttgart 1883