Dionysius of Chalcedon

Dionysius of Chalcedon (fl. 320 BC^[1]) was a Greek philosopher and dialectician connected with the Megarian school. He was a native of Chalcedon on the coast of Bithynia.^[2] Dionysius was the person who first used the name Dialecticians to describe a splinter group within the Megarian school "because they put their arguments into the form of question and answer".^[3] One area of activity for the dialecticians was the framing of definitions,^[4] and Aristotle criticises a definition of life by Dionysius in his Topics:^[5]

This is, moreover, what happens to Dionysius' definition of "life" when stated as "a movement of a creature sustained by nutriment, congenitally present with it"

Dionysius is also reported to have taught Theodorus the Atheist.^[6]

Notes

1. Dorandi 1999, p. 47.
2. Laërtius 1925, § 106; Strabo, xii. 4. 9
3. Laërtius 1925, § 106.
4. Craig 1998.
5. Aristotle, Topics vi. 10
6. Laërtius 1925, § 98.

References

• Dorandi, Tiziano (1999). "Chapter 2: Chronology". In Algra, Keimpe; et al. The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 47. ISBN 9780521250283.
• Craig, Edward (1998). "Dialectical School". Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ISBN 978-0415073103.
•  Laërtius, Diogenes (1925). "Socrates, with predecessors and followers: Anaximander". Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 1:2. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew (Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library. § 98, 106.