Philosopher, Mathematician, Biologist, Scholar (407 BC – 339 BC)
Speusippus was Plato‘s nephew, who succeeded him as headmaster of the Academy. A Platonic philosopher with strong inclination to Pythagoreanism, Speusippus was primarily involved with philosophic arithmology as well as zoology and botany. As all of his works have been lost, it is difficult to draw an understanding of Speusippus’ philosophic thought and his work is known to us through the works of other philosophers.
Speusippus was the son of Plato’s sister Potone. He was educated from a young age by Plato himself who, in spite of seeing flaws in his character, chose him as his successor to his Academy in 348 BC. Speusippus was at his core a Platonic philosopher. He taught that one must possess a collective understanding of the whole in order to gain knowledge on a certain subject and that the general ontologic knowledge of the universe is a prerequisite to understanding reality. He believed in the immortality of man’s soul, that itself had three parts, the epithymitikon (instincts and desires), the thymoides (emotions) and the logistikon (reason) and that man must live in accordance to nature (κατά φύσιν ζῆν) in order to achieve eudaemony. In turn, eudaemony, the true form of happiness is mediated through the practice of the four virtues: sophrosyne, valour, prudence and justice. These theses are elaborated in his book Homoia (Same Things), which does not survive today albeit only in the works of Athenaeus. In the same book he devises a classification of animals and includes detailed descriptions of different animal species.
The theory of “scientific sense” and “scientific logos” were postulated by Speusippus, according to which the senses, if guided by the scientific method can give us a false perception of reality as they hide the essence of the sensible objects. On the contrary, the noetic or intellectual objects or beings can only be perceived by the scientific logos. This second method is what can give man a clear perception of the reality of the intellectual beings.
Speusippus continued Plato’s research on mathematics, focusing more on the philosophic and metaphysical nature of numbers similarly to the Pythagoreans, a field called philosophic arithmolgy. This sparked great controversy from Aristotle and his disciples as evident from Aristotle‘s texts. Furthermore, Speusippus was involved with the study of geometry, in particular on triangles and pyramids. His innovations on the field, however, are lost.
Speusippus died in 339 BC and his seat as headmaster of the Academy was passed to Xenocrates. He suffered from rheumatism during his older years, which nonetheless did not restrain him from practicing his academic duties. When Diogenes the Cynic once saw Speusippus being carried on a litter due to his inability to walk, he deplored him saying that it is not worth living in such a condition. Speusippus replied saying “Man, Diogenes, does not live by his legs but by his mind”.
Bibliography:
- Pleures, Konstantinos. 2014. Greek Philosophers. Hilektron Publications. Athens. pp. 119-120
- Georgoulis, K.D. Speusippus. Helios New Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Ioannis Passas, Athens, 1946.
- Γεωργακόπουλος, Κωνσταντίνος. 1995. Ἀρχαῖοι Ἕλληνες Θετικοὶ Ἐπιστήμονες. Ἐκδόσεις Γεωργιάδης. Β’ Ἔκδοσις. Ἀθῆναι.
