Metrodorus of Stratonicea

Metrodorus of Stratonikeia (Greek Μητρόδωρος Metrodorus; * probably 170-165 BC; † after 110 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher in the Hellenistic period. He was a member of the Platonic Academy in Athens.

Life

From which of the cities named Stratonikeia it originated is unknown. He first belonged to the school of the Epicureans. His teachers there were the Scholarch ( headmaster ) Apollodorus, nicknamed Kepotyrannos and probably Diogenes of Tarsus. Due to a disagreement with Apollodorus he left school. He joined the Platonic Academy, which at that time in the phase of " Younger ( skeptical ) Academy " and was led by the famous skeptic Carneades. Apparently Metrodorus long student of Carneades. He is the only known Epicureans of ancient times, the ever switched over to a rival school.

Apollodorus of Athens mentioned him as one of the philosophers who did not teach in Athens. He seems to have thus opened his own school after his training in the Academy. One remark of Cicero is apparent that Metrodorus around 110 BC still taught; then lose track of him.

According to the Philodemus Metrodorus was a significant figure because of his lifestyle and his powers of persuasion, but not marked by kindness. Philodemus mentions two of his students who also were named Metrodorus; of a native of Cyzicus, the other - if the text of the papyrus fragment is properly completed - from Pitane.

Teaching

Since no writings of Metrodorus have been preserved, are to his teaching before only the scanty information that can be found in the few it be mentioned sources.

Metrodorus expressed his belief that he was among the many pupils of Carneades the only one who had his doctrine properly understood. Since Carneades had left no writings, his students had to rely on their memory and their records from his lessons. An additional difficulty arose from the nature of this skepticism, the Carneades represented.

The core thesis of the academic skepticism says there was no one managed to get a secured, provable knowledge of any question of philosophy. This follows from the fact that any " dogmatic ", refuted with a truth claim related philosophical doctrine, or at least as mere unsubstantiated opinion could be exposed. Therefore, you have to abstain as a philosopher principle of " consent " ( synkatáthesis ) to impressions and conclusions that seem obtrusive. All factual allegations are to refrain in philosophy. Only in real life, where you constantly have to make decisions and it needs a criterion, it is imperative to have a more plausible assumption to hold than another and to behave accordingly. But this pragmatic attitude should not be tempted by the opinion that one can prove the correctness of the assumption philosophically sound and have gained an auditable access to an objective truth.

Carneades took into account the obvious objection that the skepticism all draw in doubt but themselves as consistent skeptic he also considered his own thinking skeptical. Therefore, he used the commitment to a particular view on bypass. In his critical discussion of other doctrines, he examined only the views of other philosophers and left open the question, as he himself thought about the problems discussed. This meant that his pupil Kleitomachos, the self Scholarch was later complained that he had never been able to figure out what held his teacher is right.

Under these circumstances it was inevitable that the pupils of Carneades had arrived at different views about the proper understanding of his philosophy. A radical direction, whose main representative was Kleitomachos emphasized, although one could assume pragmatic, something is more plausible than anything else, but were all such opinions philosophically equally inconsequential. A philosopher should make no opinion of their own. Never could it be said philosophically, an assumption was correct and that it had therefore recognized a situation objectively correct. The "Capture" ( katálēpsis ) was a central concept in the theory of knowledge of the Stoa, a rival with the Platonic Academy School, who claimed the right of acquiring facts enables reliable knowledge.

The position of Metrodorus was opposite to that of Kleitomachos. He said that Carneades had - rightly - taught, not everything is undetectable, but there are statements with which one must " agree " within the meaning of the assertion of their objective correctness. What Metrodorus thought was detected and how he founded the, is unknown. The only certainty is that his views represented a softening of skepticism and was inconsistent with the position of Kleitomachos. This contrast may have been a reason that Metrodorus left the Academy and taught outside of Athens.

Philo of Larissa, a student of Kleitomachos and his successor as Scholarch, turned away from the radical skepticism and came to a moderate position. How Metrodorus he said that there were detectable issues. The ancient scientist Charles Brittain concluded from this agreement between the two philosophers, there have been within the Academy a " philonisch / metrodorische " direction. A staunch opponent of the hypothesis of a philonisch / metrodorischen school of thought is John Glucker. David Sedley assumes that Metrodorus after the death of Kleitomachos was the definitive authority on the interpretation of the philosophy of Carneades and that he temporarily strongly influenced Philo.

Reception

Even in late antiquity was known of Metrodorus. The church father Augustine wrote, Metrodorus have tried to attribute the Academy to a commitment to the authentic teachings of Plato. According to tradition, Metrodorus expressly acknowledged as the first, that the skepticism was only one weapon in the fight against the Stoics and not the real position of the Academy. Augustine was wrong when the academic skepticism had served from the beginning only for the purpose of antistoischen polemics and was not meant honestly. The actual teaching of the Academy had always remained in the era of skepticism the Platonic ontology that they had only temporarily hidden in order to combat the Stoa effectively.