Phaedo of Elis

Phaedo of Elis ( ancient Greek Φαίδων Phaidon, Latinized Phaedon Elidensis; * around 417 BC in Elis; † in the 4th century BC) was a Greek philosopher of antiquity. He is sometimes attributed to Elish - Eretrian school.

Around 400 BC came Phaidon to Athens and became a pupil for a short time of Socrates. His writings are lost; receive only two brief extracts as well as some testimonies (ancient reports on the life and teachings ).

Tradition

The oldest source to Phaedo Plato's dialogue Phaedo named after him. More jobs can be found in Diogenes Laertius in the Suda and other ancient authors. Two fragments from Phaedo writings can be found in Seneca and Theon of Alexandria.

Life

The survival data Phaedo are unknown. A place in Plato suggests, however, that he BC still under 20 years old was 399. According to Diogenes Laertius, he came from a noble family and is named after the conquest of Elis been (probably BC by Sparta 402-400 ) sold as a brothel slave to Athens. There he is said to have made ​​the acquaintance of Socrates ', who had to buy him off by a third party. Whether this story is all true, is called into question. According to Plato, Phaedo was under Socrates ' friends, the 399 BC accompanied him during his last hours.

As a student or later successor Phaedo otherwise noted little-known people in addition Moschos and Menedemus of Eretria, namely Anchipylos, Pleistanos, Asclepiades of Phlius and Ktesibios of Chalkis. Whether and to what extent one can speak of a substantiated by Phaidon School, is treated in the article Elish - Eretrian school.

Teaching

Diogenes Laertius mentions two tracks of dialogues Phaedo, Zopyrus and Simon. Maybe he wrote more dialogues, it is called Diogenes Laertius three more, although they were already back in their authenticity disputed, the Suda again not mentioned by Diogenes Laertius three.

Housed in a preserved short excerpt from the dialogue Zopyrus a philosophically worthless, heartbreaking story of a Persian prince and his relationship is told to him a faithful lion. The name derives probably was a doctor named Zopyrus, which is probably made ​​in the dialogue Socrates and tried to read from the physiognomic characteristics of his character. The name derives from the dialogue Simon was possibly a mentioned by other ancient authors Schuster Simon.

Seneca quotes Phaidon, who probably thought here men like Socrates, as follows: " Certain small animals bite without having to feel it; so weak is their strength and so it belies its danger away. Only a tumor indicates the bite, and even in the tumor no wound is visible. The same happens to you talking to wise men: You do not notice how or when it benefits you; but that it has benefited you, the notice du "

Plato's dialogue Phaedo is given hardly any fitting on the doctrine Phaedo. Also reported by Athenaeus that Phaidon have explained, neither said anything about the there Reported to have heard of it.

Source collections

• Gabriele Gianna Toni ( ed.): Socratis et Socraticorum Reliquiae, Volume 1, Bibliopolis, Naples, 1990, ISBN 88-7088-215-2, pp. 487-494 ( critical edition without translation; online)