The Life of Diogenes of Apollonia
I. Diogenes was a native of Apollonia, and the son of Apollothemis, a natural philosopher of high reputation; and he was, as Antisthenes reports, a pupil of Anaximenes. He was also a contemporary of Anaxagoras, and Demetrius Phalereus says, in his Defence of Socrates, that he was very unpopular at Athens, and even in some danger of his life.
I. Diogenes was from Apollonia and was the son of Apollothemis, a highly respected natural philosopher. According to Antisthenes, Diogenes was a pupil of Anaximenes. He lived at the same time as Anaxagoras. In his Defence of Socrates, Demetrius Phalereus says that Diogenes was very unpopular in Athens. His life was even in some danger there.
II. The following were his principal doctrines; that the air was an element; that the worlds were infinite, and that the vacuum also was infinite; that the air, as it was condensed, and as it was rarified, was the productive cause of the worlds; that nothing can be produced out of nothing; and that nothing can be destroyed so as to become nothing; that the earth is round, firmly planted in the middle of the universe, having acquired its situation from the circumvolutions of the hot principle around it, and its consistency from the cold.
II. His main doctrines were these: Air is an element. The worlds are infinite, and the void is also infinite. Air produces the worlds as it becomes denser or thinner. Nothing can be made from nothing. Nothing can be destroyed so completely that it becomes nothing. The earth is round and firmly fixed at the center of the universe. It came to be there through the revolutions of the hot principle around it, and gained its solid form from the cold.
Lucretius expresses this as follows:
The first words of his treatise are:—
His treatise begins with these words:
“It appears to me that he who begins any treatise ought to lay down principles about which there can be no dispute, and that his exposition of them ought to be simple and dignified.”
“I think anyone who begins a treatise should state principles that cannot be disputed. The explanation of those principles should be simple and dignified.”