Preview

Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.

Lives of the Eminent Philosophers

By: Diogenes Laertius, Pamela Mensch - translator, James Miller - editor
Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $30.09

Buy for $30.09

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Everyone wants to live a meaningful life. Long before our own day of self-help books offering 12-step programs and other guides to attain happiness, the philosophers of ancient Greece explored the riddle of what makes a life worth living, producing a wide variety of ideas and examples to follow.

This rich tradition was recast by Diogenes Laertius into an anthology, a miscellany of maxims and anecdotes, that generations of Western readers have consulted for edification as well as entertainment ever since Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, first compiled in the AD third century, came to prominence in Renaissance Italy. To this day, it remains a crucial source for much of what we know about the origins and practice of philosophy in ancient Greece, covering a longer period of time and a larger number of figures - from Pythagoras and Socrates to Aristotle and Epicurus - than any other ancient source.

©2018 Oxford University Press (P)2018 Tantor
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Lives of the Eminent Philosophers

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    23
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    18
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    5
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    22
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great to have book

Have the full set of books by Diogenes Laertius,but nice to have this on Audible. When I finish my study of the Pre Socratics I go to sleep listening to this.Listen to it over and over.Very happy .


I listen to this.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

For the first time Diogenes reader

If this is your introduction to this topic I would discourage you from listening this particular narrator. She misses or misunderstands some crucial dictions/ways of speaking. Sometimes she uses a sarcastic tone, for example when saying “such was the life…”,; or “so much for…”, when it is not intended to be sarcastic. Those phrases are meant to be downbeats. Paragraph closing or transitionary rhetorical devices that were very common at the time but are now arcane and unused in both speech and writing. A first time reader should opt for an online lecture or venture into the text themselves. Happy reading Classicists!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I hate the voice of that person reading

Why u guys use those voice put clear voice English is my second language and even in Spanish you guys have weird voice to

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I got so much in love with these philosophers.

The spirit of this books talks to my soul. The narrator gives life to every story, I laugh, I wonder, I meditate, and I enjoy every minute. The anecdotes are so inspiring; the way of life each philosopher led is so interesting and so vivid that I feel as if those virtuous eminences are here in this very moment talking to me. I enjoy every syory from Thales to the great and wonderful Epicurus.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Could be worse ....

Diogenes Laertius' lives is flawed but beggars can't be choosers... The essays are a very nice addition...
The narrator is a really bad fit !!! Poor performance.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A let down but still decent

Diogenes discusses the personal lives of many philosophers with some ancedotes with little to no discussion of their ideas. Consequently the book is a let down and more biography than philosophy. However the essays by various modern scholars after the book make up for it slightly.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Terrible narrator

I can't even listen to this, the narrator doesn't fit the mood at all. I got audible just for this book, and I can't listen to it for more than 2 minutes just because of the narrator.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Terrible narration.

The narrator sounded absolutely nothing like what I would expect any of the philosophers described in this work to sound like. This one flaw has turned a classic work to ruins.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful