Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography/Volume 3/Stilpo

Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography/Volume 3 (1876)

Excerpted from The Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography, Volume 3, 1876 ed., page 1068. (Ferrier's contributions to the Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography were for for the edition published 1857-1863. That this is the subsequent edition of 1876 is evidenced in its mentioning later dates—including that of Ferrier's death in 1864.)

2390390Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography/Volume 3 — STILPO1876James Frederick Ferrier

STILPO, was an influential philosopher of the Megaric school, the founder of which was Euclid, a disciple of Socrates and friend and contemporary of Plato. He was a native of Megara, and lived during the time of Alexander the Great, 350-323 b.c. After Alexander's death he is said to have spent some time in the newly-founded city of Alexandria, to which he had been invited by its ruler, Ptolemy Soter. This, however, is uncertain. His life was passed principally, if not entirely, in his native town, where he was highly respected, and to which crowds of disciples were attracted by the fame of his instructions. The Megaric sect (called also eristic from its love of disputation) was a prolongation of the Eleatic, modified by Socratic influences. It was famous for those logical puzzles which sometimes present real difficulties, but are for the most part mere quibbles, or a play upon words. Such are "the heap," "the bald-head," and others—(Does a grain of corn make a heap? No; Do two grains? No; Three? No; and so on until the answer is—Yes, now there is a heap: on which the absurdity emerges that one grain makes the difference between a heap and no heap of corn). To these exercitations Stilpo's principal contribution seems to have been the statement, that "no one thing can be predicated of another, because no two things are the same;" from whence it follows that the only true propositions are those in which the predicate is identical with the subject. Thus we may say "man is man," but not "man is good," inasmuch as good is different from man; and, therefore, to say "man is good," is equivalent to saying "man is not man," which is a contradiction. But as none of the writings of Stilpo have come down to us, we are scarcely in a position either to understand or to criticise his doctrine. In morals Stilpo inculcated apathy, or an insensibility to the evils of life, as the chief good of the soul. He was the instructor of Zeno, the founder of the stoical philosophy.—J. F. F.