Lives of the Eminent Philosophers Audiobook By Diogenes Laertius, Pamela Mensch - translator, James Miller - editor cover art

Lives of the Eminent Philosophers

Preview
Try for $0.00
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

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

About this listen

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
Ancient Europe Greece Greek & Roman Philosophers Philosophy Professionals & Academics Ancient History Ancient Greece Renaissance Greek Mythology
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_T1_webcro805_stickypopup
All stars
Most relevant  
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.

Great to have book

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

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!

For the first time Diogenes reader

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

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

I hate the voice of that person reading

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

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.

I got so much in love with these philosophers.

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

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.

Could be worse ....

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

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.

A let down but still decent

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

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.

Terrible narrator

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

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.

Terrible narration.

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