Archelaus (philosopher)

Archelaus (Greek: Ἀρχέλαος Archélaos, also Archelaus of Athens) was an ancient Greek philosopher. He lived in the 5th century BC.

Archelaus was probably born in Athens. He was a student of Anaxagoras and, according to Diogenes Laertios, a teacher of Socrates and Euripides. Although some scholars suspect that this was only an attempt to connect the pre-Socratic Ionian school with Socrates, others consider Diogenes' statement to be credible. Archelaus' own works have not survived, so that his teachings can only be inferred from information in Diogenes Laertios, Simplicius, Plutarch and Hippolytus of Rome.

In his cosmology he drew on the Ionian school. He speculated on the existence of a basic matter identical with air and mixed with spirit, thus bypassing the matter-spirit dualism of Anaxagoras. From this spirit-filled "air" emerged, through solidification and dilution, warm and cold, water and fire. One aspect always passive, the other active. Archelaus saw the earth and the heavenly bodies as made of dirt and dust, the product of fire and water. From this, he said, man also arose, initially in his lower form. Morality and artistic dispositions distinguish man from the animal. He explained language by the movement of the air; in this he seems to have adopted the views of Anaxagoras.

Archelaus also claimed that the earth was flat, but that it had to be depressed towards the centre, otherwise the sun would rise and set everywhere at the same time. The sun was the largest of the stars.

Archelaus probably also developed ethics. For him, what is just and what is harmful do not exist by nature, but are products of convention. Knowledge of the prevailing rules (different in time and culture) and influencing them to one's own advantage is at the heart of sophist philosophy.

Literature

• Richard Goulet: Archélaos le Physicien. In: Richard Goulet (Hrsg.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques, Band 1, CNRS, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-222-04042-6, S. 333–334; Nachtrag im Band Supplément, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-271-06175-X, S. 78 f.
• Georg Rechenauer: Archelaos aus Athen. In: Hellmut Flashar u. a. (Hrsg.): Frühgriechische Philosophie (= Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie. Die Philosophie der Antike, Band 1), Halbband 2, Schwabe, Basel 2013, ISBN 978-3-7965-2598-8, S. 797–810