Xenocrates
Sign in to saveXenocrates (; ; c. 396/5314/3 BC) of Chalcedon was a Greek philosopher, mathematician, and leader (scholarch) of the Platonic Academy from 339/8 to 314/3 BC. His teachings followed those of Plato, which he attempted to define more closely, often with mathematical elements. He distinguished three forms of being: the sensible, the intelligible, and a third compounded of the two, to which correspond respectively, sense, intellect and opinion. He considered unity and duality to be gods which rule the universe, and the soul a self-moving number. God pervades all things, and there are daemonical pow
AI overview
Xenocrates was a Greek philosopher who led Plato's Academy and developed Plato's ideas further, particularly by incorporating mathematical concepts into his theories about reality, knowledge, and the nature of the soul and divine forces. His work mattered because he helped shape how Platonic philosophy was understood and taught during a crucial period in ancient Greek intellectual history.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Born
- ca. 396 B.C.
- Died
- ca. 314 B.C.
- Works
- 2
Top works
- Frammenti
- Xenocrates De morte
via Open Library + Wikidata
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 3,381
- Total plays
- 8,968
<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Xenocrates">Read more on Last.fm</a>
Recent publications · Crossref
1 total works indexed
- De piscinis et piscium qui in eis aluntur naturis libri quinque
· 1559 · cited 4x
via Crossref · CC0
Key facts
Works in European collections
1 object attributed to Xenocrates, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana
Article
11 sectionsContents
- Life
- Writings
- Philosophy
- Epistemology
- Metaphysics
- Ethics
- Mathematics
- See also
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
Xenocrates (; ; c. 396/5314/3 BC) of Chalcedon was a Greek philosopher, mathematician, and leader (scholarch) of the Platonic Academy from 339/8 to 314/3 BC. His teachings followed those of Plato, which he attempted to define more closely, often with mathematical elements. He distinguished three forms of being: the sensible, the intelligible, and a third compounded of the two, to which correspond respectively, sense, intellect and opinion. He considered unity and duality to be gods which rule the universe, and the soul a self-moving number. God pervades all things, and there are daemonical powers, intermediate between the divine and the mortal, which consist in conditions of the soul. He held that mathematical objects and the Platonic Ideas are identical, unlike Plato who distinguished them. In ethics, he taught that virtue produces happiness, but external goods can minister to it and enable it to effect its purpose.
==Life== Xenocrates was a native of Chalcedon. By the most probable calculation he was born 396/5 BC, and died 314/3 BC at the age of 82. His father was named Agathon () or Agathanor ().