Last updated
Born396/5 BC
Died314/3 BC
Era Ancient philosophy
Region Western philosophy
School Platonism
Main interests
Logic, Physics, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Mathematics, Ethics
Notable ideas
Developed the philosophy of Plato

Xenocrates ( /zəˈnɒkrəˌtz/ ; Greek : Ξενοκράτης; c. 396/5 314/3 BC [1] ) of Chalcedon was a Greek philosopher, mathematician, and leader (scholarch) of the Platonic Academy from 339/8 to 314/3 BC. His teachings followed those of Plato, which he attempted to define more closely, often with mathematical elements. He was also an avid student of the council of the thirty-three.[ clarification needed ] He distinguished three forms of being: the sensible, the intelligible, and a third compounded of the two, to which correspond respectively, sense, intellect and opinion. He considered unity and duality to be gods which rule the universe, and the soul a self-moving number. God pervades all things, and there are daemonical powers, intermediate between the divine and the mortal, which consist in conditions of the soul. He held that mathematical objects and the Platonic Ideas are identical, unlike Plato who distinguished them. In ethics, he taught that virtue produces happiness, but external goods can minister to it and enable it to effect its purpose.



Xenocrates was a native of Chalcedon. [2] By the most probable calculation [3] he was born 396/5 BC, and died 314/3 BC at the age of 82. His father was named Agathon (Ancient Greek : Ἀγάθωνος) or Agathanor (Ancient Greek : Ἀγαθάνορος). [4]

Moving to Athens in early youth, he became the pupil of Aeschines Socraticus, [5] but subsequently joined himself to Plato, [6] whom he accompanied to Sicily in 361. [7] Upon his master's death, he paid a visit with Aristotle to Hermias of Atarneus. [8] In 339/8 BC, Xenocrates succeeded Speusippus in the presidency of the school, [9] defeating his competitors Menedemus of Pyrrha and Heraclides Ponticus by a few votes. [10] On three occasions he was member of an Athenian legation, once to Philip, twice to Antipater. [11]

Xenocrates resented the Macedonian influence then dominant at Athens. Soon after the death of Demosthenes (c. 322 BC), he declined the citizenship offered to him at the insistence of Phocion [10] as a reward for his services in negotiating peace with Antipater after Athens' unsuccessful rebellion. The settlement was reached "at the price of a constitutional change: thousands of poor Athenians were disenfranchised," and Xenocrates said "that he did not want to become a citizen within a constitution he had struggled to prevent". [12] Being unable to pay the tax levied upon resident aliens, he is said to have been saved only by the courage of the orator Lycurgus, [13] or even to have been bought by Demetrius Phalereus, and then emancipated. [14] In 314/3, he died from hitting his head, after tripping over a bronze pot in his house. [14]


Wanting in quickness of apprehension and natural grace [15] he compensated by persevering and thorough-going industry, [16] pure benevolence, [17] purity of morals, [18] unselfishness, [19] and a moral earnestness, which compelled esteem and trust even from the Athenians of his own age. [20]


When Alexander the Great sent him 30 talents of gold, he sent it back, saying that a king, not a philosopher, needs money. [4]


With a comprehensive work on Dialectic (τῆς περὶ τὸ διαλέγεσθαι πραγματείας βιϐλία ιδ΄) there were also separate treatises On Knowledge , On Knowledgibility (περὶ ἐπιστήμης α΄, περὶ ἐπιστημοσύνης α΄), On Divisions (διαιρέσεις η΄), On Genera and Species (περὶ γενῶν καὶ εἰδῶν α΄), On Ideas (περὶ ἰδεῶν), On the Opposite (περὶ τοῦ ἐναντίου), and others, to which probably the work On Mediate Thought (τῶν περὶ τὴν διάνοιαν η΄) [21] also belonged. Two works by Xenocrates on Physics are mentioned (περὶ φύσεως ϛ΄ - φυσικῆς ἀκροάσεως ϛ΄), [22] as are also books On the Gods (περὶ Θεῶν β΄), [23] On the Existent (περὶ τοῦ ὄντος), [24] On the One (περὶ τοῦ ἑνός), On the Indefinite (περὶ τοῦ ἀορίστου), [25] On the Soul (περὶ ψυχῆς), [26] On the Emotions (περὶ τῶν παθῶν α΄) [24] On Memory (περὶ μνήμης), etc. In like manner, with the more general Ethical treatises On Happiness (περὶ εὐδαιμονίας β΄), [24] and On Virtue (περὶ ἀρετῆς) [24] there were connected separate books on individual Virtues, on the Voluntary, etc. [24] His four books on Royalty he had addressed to Alexander (στοιχεῖα πρὸς Ἀλέξανδρον περὶ βασιλείας δ΄). [27] Besides these he had written treatises On the State (περὶ πολιτείας α΄; πολιτικός α΄), [28] On the Power of Law (περὶ δυνάμεως νόμου α΄), [24] etc., as well as upon Geometry, Arithmetic, and Astrology. [29] Besides philosophical treatises, he wrote poetry (epē) and paraenesis. [25]












  3. those who, like Speusippus, postulated mathematical numbers only





Xenocrates, depicted as a medieval scholar in the Nuremberg Chronicle Xenocrates Nuremberg Chronicle.jpg
Xenocrates, depicted as a medieval scholar in the Nuremberg Chronicle





See also


  1. Dorandi 1999, p. 48.
  3. Laërtius 1925 , § 14; comp. Censorinus, c. 15
  4. 1 2 Suda Encyclopedia, xi,42
  5. Athenaeus, ix
  6. Laërtius 1925, § 6.
  7. Laërtius 1925, § 6, etc..
  8. Strabo, xii.
  9. Laërtius 1925, § 14, comp. 3..
  10. 1 2 Jackson 1911.
  11. Laërtius 1925, § 8, 9.
  12. Habicht 1988 , p. 14 citing Plutarch 1902 , Phoc § 29.6 and Whitehead 1981 , pp. 238–241.
  14. 1 2 Laërtius 1925, § 14.
  15. Laërtius 1925 , § 6; Plutarch, Conj. Praec.
  16. Laërtius 1925 , § 6, 11; comp. Plutarch, de recta Rat.
  17. Laërtius 1925 , § 10; Aelian, Varis Historia, xiii. 3
  18. Laërtius 1925 , § 7; Plutarch, Comp. Cimon. c. Lucullo, c. 1; Cicero, de Officiis, i. 30; Valerius Maximus, ii. 10
  19. Laërtius 1925 , § 8, etc.; Cicero, Tusculanae Quaestiones, v. 32
  20. Laërtius 1925 , § 7; Cicero, ad Atticus, i. 15; Plutarch, de Adulat. et Amic. discr.
  21. Laërtius 1925 , § 13, 12; comp. Cicero, Academica, iv. 46
  22. Laërtius 1925, § 11, 13.
  23. Laërtius 1925 , § 13; comp. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, i. 13
  24. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Laërtius 1925, § 12.
  25. 1 2 Laërtius 1925, § 11.
  26. Laërtius 1925, § 13.
  27. comp. Plut. adv. Colot.
  28. Laërtius 1925, § 12, 13.
  29. 1 2 Laërtius 1925, § 13, 14.
  30. Sextus Empiricus, adv. Math. vii. 16
  31. Sextus Empiricus, Hypotyp. i. 2; comp. Cicero, Academica, i. 4; Laërtius 1925 , § 11, 16
  32. Sextus Empiricus, adv. Math. vii. 147, etc.
  33. Simplicius, in Arist. Categ. iii. f. 6, b
  34. Plutarch, de Animae procreat. e Tim.
  35. Aristotle, de Caelo, i. 10, 32, Metaph. xiv. 4
  37. Stobaeus, Ecl. Phys. i. 62
  38. Plutarch, Plat. Quaest. ix. 1; Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, v. 604
  40. Stobaeus, Ecl. Phys.
  42. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, i. 13
  43. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, v. 590
  44. Plutarch, de Fac. in orbe lunae
  45. Nemesius, De Natura Hominis
  46. Aristotle, Metaph. vii.2.1028
  47. Theophrastus, Met. c. 3
  49. Plato Timaeus
  50. Simplicius, in Arist. de Caelo
  51. Aristotle, de Anima, i. 4, extr.
  52. Sextus Empiricus, adv. Math. xi. 4
  53. Cicero, de Legibus, i. 13
  54. Cicero, de Finibus, iv. 18, etc.
  55. Cicero, de Legibus, i. 21
  56. Cicero, Tusculanae Quaestiones, v. 10, 18.
  57. Cicero, Tusculanae Quaestiones, v. 10, 18., comp. Academica, i. 6
  58. Aristotle, Topica, ii. 6, vii. 1, ib. Alex.
  61. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata; Cicero, Academica, ii. 44, 45
  62. Aristotle, Topica, vi. 3
  63. Aelian, Varia Historia, xiv. 42
  64. Plutarch, de Audit.
  65. Plutarch, Quaest. Conviv.
  66. Simplicius, in Arist. Phys.

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