Polemon (scholarch)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Polemon (Template:Lang-grc-gre, gen.: Πολέμωνος; d. 270/269 BC) of Athens was an eminent Platonist philosopher and Plato's third successor as scholarch (i.e., head of the Academy) from 314/313 to 270/269 BC. A pupil of Xenocrates, he believed that philosophy should be practiced rather than just studied, and he placed the highest good in living according to nature.
According to Diogenes Laërtius, Polemon wrote several treatises, of which none were extant when the Suda was compiled. There is, however, a quotation made by Clement of Alexandria, either from Polemon or from another philosopher of the same name, "in Concerning the Life in Accordance with Nature" (ἐν τοῖς περὶ τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν βίου), and another passage, upon happiness, which agrees precisely with the statement of Cicero, that Polemon placed the summum bonum (highest good) in living according to the laws of nature.
