The ‘Successions of Philosophers’. The Origins, Functions, and Development of a Hellenistic Historiographical Genre KU Leuven
Handbooks of Western philosophy commonly start with a chapter on Thales of Miletus and go on with Thales’ pupil Anaximander, Anaximander’s pupil Anaximenes, and so on. The history of Greek philosophy is thus commonly considered as an unbroken chain of master-pupil relationships. Even when it comes to modern philosophy, we tend to think in terms of ‘successions’. What is less well known, however, is that this mentality has its roots in a ...