Epicurean Mockery of Opposing Philosophers and Schools

I did something similar to the m Epicurus' nicknames for others in Diogenes Laertius a couple years ago:

Post

RE: Epicurus' Favorite Insults

Okay, done! That was fun! I didn't do Plato since @Joshua did a good job above.

Enjoy!

Nausiphanes:

‘The mollusk,’ πλεύμονά (pleumona "lung-fish, jellyfish"> related etymologically to English "pleurisy")

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?do…ry%3Dpleu%2Fmwn

Hicks note: Cf. Sext. Emp. Adv. math. i. 3 νῦν πλεύμον α καλῶν τὸν Ναυσιφ άνην ὡς ἀναίσθ ητον; Plato, Phil. 21 c ζῆν δὲ οὐκ ἀνθρώπο υ βίον ἀλλά τινος…

Don

May 28, 2022 at 7:55 AM

I really enjoyed chewing on these ancient slurs.

I appreciate that there seems to be a universal preconception for "Hater" or "Haters".

In particular, I like thinking that Plato is not just "golden", but "gilded", as in, "cheap" and "superficial", like modern currency, or that his dialogues are just gold leaf painted over bad philosophy.

Good find on Sannídōros! I missed that etymology completely.

I am bumping this old thread because in tonight's Zoom meeting we started going through this list as part of reviewing Bryan's Usener material. I personally had not focused on the fact that there is a list in both Diogenes Laertius and in Plutarch, and that to get full picture there are several sources that have to be brought together. Bryan's work here is valuable because beyond the colorful nature of the descriptions we get insight into the particular aspects of other philosophies that he found to be worth criticizing.

Due to the importance of this material I am adapting Bryan's work (which will remain the gold standard for accuracy into a reformatted table here:

I also think Plato was the „Golden“ because he values people in categories of gold, silver and bronze/iron

Gold: Elites, King/ Philosopher

Silver: Warriors

Bronze/Iron: Worker, farmers

And oh, of course Plato was in the golden category 😅

I think „the Golden“ is a play on this arrogant and inhumane assessment / valuation of people which is done in every totalitarian state. Popper saw Platos Politeia as core of every totalitarian state.