Boethus of Sidon (Stoic)
Encyclopedia
Boethus was a Stoic
philosopher from Sidon
, and a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon.
He is said to have denied, contrary to the standard Stoic view, that the cosmos
is an animate being, and he suggested that it was not the whole world which was divine, but only the ether or sphere of the fixed stars. He argued that the world was eternal, in particular, he rejected the Stoic conflagration (ekpyrosis
) because god or the World-Soul would be inactive during it, whereas it exercises Divine Providence
in the actual world.
Among his works was one On Nature, and one On Fate. He wrote a commentary on the works of Aratus
in at least four volumes.
STOIC
STOIC was a variant of Forth.It started out at the MIT and Harvard Biomedical Engineering Centre in Boston, and was written in the mid 1970s by Jonathan Sachs...
philosopher from Sidon
Sidon
Sidon or Saïda is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate of Lebanon, on the Mediterranean coast, about 40 km north of Tyre and 40 km south of the capital Beirut. In Genesis, Sidon is the son of Canaan the grandson of Noah...
, and a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon.
He is said to have denied, contrary to the standard Stoic view, that the cosmos
Cosmos
In the general sense, a cosmos is an orderly or harmonious system. It originates from the Greek term κόσμος , meaning "order" or "ornament" and is antithetical to the concept of chaos. Today, the word is generally used as a synonym of the word Universe . The word cosmos originates from the same root...
is an animate being, and he suggested that it was not the whole world which was divine, but only the ether or sphere of the fixed stars. He argued that the world was eternal, in particular, he rejected the Stoic conflagration (ekpyrosis
Ekpyrôsis
Ekpyrosis is a Stoic belief in the periodic destruction of the cosmos by a great conflagration every Great Year. The cosmos is then recreated only to be destroyed again at the end of the new cycle....
) because god or the World-Soul would be inactive during it, whereas it exercises Divine Providence
Divine Providence
In Christian theology, divine providence, or simply providence, is God's activity in the world. " Providence" is also used as a title of God exercising His providence, and then the word are usually capitalized...
in the actual world.
Among his works was one On Nature, and one On Fate. He wrote a commentary on the works of Aratus
Aratus
Aratus was a Greek didactic poet. He is best known today for being quoted in the New Testament. His major extant work is his hexameter poem Phaenomena , the first half of which is a verse setting of a lost work of the same name by Eudoxus of Cnidus. It describes the constellations and other...
in at least four volumes.