Talk:Theophrastus

Comments

What is a Talk page?--Micahbode 13:33, 8 February 2006 (UTC)Micah

It is where we address concerns about the articles, where we talk about the article. Lincher 00:59, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

May I suggest that this article could be listed under a Psychology project, history, particularly if the section on The Characters is expanded. ProfWhit (talk) 02:04, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

Theophrastus and Judaism

Hello, I've read somewhere (but don't remember where and when) that Theophrastus was the first Greek philosopher who took any notice of Judaism and the Jewish Scriptures as they stood at the time. I wonder if this is true, and if his observations have survived? -- 85.182.121.209 15:00, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

So far I've only found this one reference on the subject. "Changing Aristotle's Mind", by Hilary Putnam and Martha Nussbaum, says that Theophrastus called the Jews an "especially philosophical" people. The essay is published in Hilary Putnam's, Words and Life, ed. James Conant, (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1994) p51. Theophrastus lived of course in the wake of Alexander the Great's empire which had conquered much of the Middle East. Teetotaler 15 February, 2012 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.57.126.132 (talk) 02:30, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 17:01, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

New material

I have fleshed out the article with pictures of plants and minerals plus some more discussion of his work on minerals. Much more could be done however, to describe the work of this pioneer. Peterlewis (talk) 12:38, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Citations and deleted sentences

I went through the page putting in some inline citations for the five public domain sources which were primarily used to write it. In doing so I trimmed out three uncited sentences. The first in the Life section said "According to some sources, Theophrastus' father was named Messapus, and was married to a woman named Argiope and was the father of Cercyon-but, this is not certain" - I've no idea what the source is supposed to be for that information. The second line in the Physics section said "Theophrastus released the first recorded message in a bottle in order to show that the Mediterranean Sea was formed by the inflowing Atlantic Ocean" - I don't know what primary source this is meant to be from. Finally in regards to his supposed vegetarianism, I cut "In this he was strongly opposed to Aristotle's argument that non-human animals ranked far below humans in the Great Chain of Being, and that they had no interests of their own" - it sounded a bit dubious to me that he was strongly opposed to Aristotle in anything. Singinglemon (talk) 21:14, 28 September 2009 (UTC)

Is this any use - or worth mentioning [1] Granitethighs 11:38, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

Animals have reason?

I'm very skeptical. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.11.75.129 (talk) 01:23, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

Ownership

Aristotle did not own the Lyceum or anything in it. He rented the premises probably from the state, as it had traditionally been public land. The assembly met there before it moved to the Pnyx. The HQ of the polemarch was there. Troops trained and assembled there. Moreover, Aristotle did not manage the school. He instituted a unique system of student government, and the students managed the school. Thus he did not bequeathe anything to Theophrastus, whose real name was not even Theophrastus. The only thing his will gives to Theophrastus is care of his concubine and two children as well as his property if his adopted brother, the chief executor, should die. That property did not include the school, which was not his to give. He probably did designate Theophrastus as his successor. During the administration of Theophrastus things went badly wrong with Aristotle's ideal of the school. One supposes Theophrastus either did not understand it or did not agree with it, or perhaps he felt it was in the best interest of the school to do what he did. Somehow the physical plant, grounds, and library came into the personal possession of the scholarch. DL mentions the intervention of a friend, Demetrius of Phalerum, a big man in government. The scholars interpret the sudden acquisition of a garden for Theophrastus as well as the grounds and books as a change of law, giving these assets to the scholarch. During that century the Athenian assembly meddled a lot in the schools, which had to fight to prevent becoming part of the political spoil system. Thus Theophrastus, who acquired ownership of everything, could leave the books to Neleus and leave detailed instructions as to just what changes to make to the grounds and buildings, and give away pieces of the school to his friends. The irony is that the exoterica, the works intended for publication, did not survive, but the esoterica, the school volumes, did just because they were hidden in a cave of Mount Ida, until purchased by a book collector. These esoterica were the basis of the corpus Aristotelicum, the only surviving works attributed to Aristotle, save for an MSS purchased in Egypt by Budge and a few leaves of Oxyrhynchus papyri. So, I suppose this article needs to be rewritten. It isn't up to you to decide what story is credible. No one cares what you personally think. Follow the scholarship. By the way the recent rediscovery of the Lyceum (for so it was originally called) and turning the site into a park might be of interest.Branigan 03:41, 5 September 2014 (UTC)

Irrelevant images

I have removed the following which are merely pictures of single word mentions: File:Oman Dhofar Frankincense.jpg, File:Cinnamomum verum - Köhler–s Medizinal-Pflanzen-182.jpg, File:5 Emeralds from Colombia.JPG. The words frankincense, cinnamon and emerald are linked if anyone wishes, and they do not illustrate anything about the subject, Theophrastus. Chemical Engineer (talk) 20:35, 17 July 2023 (UTC)