Aristo of Chios Quotes on Knowledge
Aristo of Chios (3rd century BCE), a pupil of Zeno of Citium and the principal early Stoic dissident from the school's developing systematic doctrine, is preserved chiefly through the doxographic reports in Diogenes Laertius, Sextus Empiricus, and Cicero. The framework restricts genuine philosophy to ethics alone, dismissing the elaboration of logic and physics as occupations unworthy of the philosopher, and defends the more austere position that everything other than virtue and vice is strictly indifferent — against the developing Stoic doctrine of "preferred indifferents" that Chrysippus would subsequently systematize as the school's official view. Aristo's positions supply one of the principal early disputes within the Stoic tradition.
Quotes
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Attributed to Aristo of Chios:
“The wise man requires no physics; what should be done in any situation is the only true science.”
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Attributed to Aristo of Chios:
“The argumentative philosopher is a runner who never leaves the starting line.”
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Attributed to Aristo of Chios:
“Logic without ethics is a sword in a child's hand.”
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“Ἀρίστων ὁ Χῖος ὁ Φάλανθος, ἐπικαλούμενος Σειρήν, τέλος ἔφησεν εἶναι τὸ ἀδιαφόρως ἔχοντα ζῆν πρὸς τὰ μεταξὺ ἀρετῆς καὶ κακίας μηδ᾿ ἡντινοῦν ἐν αὐτοῖς παραλλαγὴν ἀπολείποντα, ἀλλ᾿ ἐπίσης ἐπὶ πάντων ἔχοντα· εἶναι γὰρ ὅμοιον τὸν σοφὸν τῷ ἀγαθῷ ὑποκριτῇ, ὃς ἄν τε Θερσίτου ἄν τε Ἀγαμέμνονος πρόσωπον ἀναλάβῃ, ἑκάτερον ὑποκρινεῖται προσηκόντως.”
Aristo the Bald, a native of Chios and nicknamed the Siren, said that the chief good was to live in perfect indifference to all those things that are of an intermediate character between virtue and vice ; making not the slightest difference between them, but regarding them all on a footing of equality. For that the wise man resembles a good actor; who, whether he is filling the part of Agamemnon o -
“Aristo the Bald, a native of Chios and nicknamed the Siren, said that the chief good was to live in perfect indifference to all those things that are of an intermediate character between virtue and vice ; making not the slightest difference between them, but regarding them all on a footing of equality. For that the wise man resembles a good actor; who, whether he is filling the part of Agamemnon or Thersites , will perform them both equally well. Diogenes Laërtius , vii. 160”
Ἀρίστων ὁ Χῖος ὁ Φάλανθος, ἐπικαλούμενος Σειρήν, τέλος ἔφησεν εἶναι τὸ ἀδιαφόρως ἔχοντα ζῆν πρὸς τὰ μεταξὺ ἀρετῆς καὶ κακίας μηδ᾿ ἡντινοῦν ἐν αὐτοῖς παραλλαγὴν ἀπολείποντα, ἀλλ᾿ ἐπίσης ἐπὶ πάντων ἔχοντα· εἶναι γὰρ ὅμοιον τὸν σοφὸν τῷ ἀγαθῷ ὑποκριτῇ, ὃς ἄν τε Θερσίτου ἄν τε Ἀγαμέμνονος πρόσωπον ἀναλάβῃ, ἑκάτερον ὑποκρινεῖται προσηκόντως. -
“Stoicorum veterum fragmenta , fragment 359”
Virtue is the health of the soul .