Stobaeus, Volume II

Name: Stobaeus, Volume II
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.

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Stobaeus, Volume IIBook II Chapter 7 · II.7.5l.1–II.7.5l.2

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Facing Pages · Branch 117 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.5l.1–II.7.5l.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 230

Ἀγαθὰ καθ’ ἑαυτὰ καὶ πρός τι

II.7.5l.1

Ἔτι δὲ τῶν ἀγαθῶν τὰ μὲν εἶναι καθ’ ἑαυτά, τὰ δὲ πρός τί πως ἔχειν. Καθ’ ἑαυτὰ μὲν ἐπιστήμην, δικαιοπραγίαν καὶ τὰ ὅμοια· πρός τι δὲ τιμήν, εὔνοιαν, φιλίαν, ⟨συμφωνίαν⟩.

Ἐπιστήμη καὶ κατάληψις

II.7.5l.2

Εἶναι δὲ τὴν ἐπιστήμην κατάληψιν ἀσφαλῆ καὶ ἀμετάπτωτον ὑπὸ λόγου· ἑτέρως δὲ ἐπιστήμην σύστημα ἐκ καταλήψεων τοιούτων, οἷον ἡ τῶν κατὰ μέρος, λογικὴ ἐν τῷ σπουδαίῳ ὑπάρχουσα· ἄλλως δὲ σύστημα ἐξ ἐπιστημῶν τεχνικῶν ἐξ αὑτοῦ ἔχον τὸ βέβαιον, ὡς ἔχουσιν αἱ ἀρεταί· ἄλλως δὲ ἕξιν φαντασιῶν δεκτικὴν ἀμετάπτωτον ὑπὸ λόγου, ἥν τινά φασιν ἐν τόνῳ καὶ δυνάμει κεῖσθαι.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 231

Goods in Themselves and Goods in Relation

II.7.5l.1

Again, of goods, some are in themselves, while others stand in a certain relation to something. Knowledge, just action, and the like are goods in themselves; honor, goodwill, friendship, and ⟨concord⟩ are goods in relation to something.²⁷⁶

Knowledge and Apprehension

II.7.5l.2

Knowledge is a secure apprehension, unalterable by argument. In another sense, knowledge is a system of such apprehensions, as is logic, one of the particular branches, existing in the virtuous person.²⁷⁷ In another sense, it is a system of technical forms of knowledge that has its certainty from itself, as the virtues do. In another, it is a state receptive of impressions and unalterable by argument, which they say consists in tension and power.²⁷⁸

276.This division concerns whether a good is described in itself or in relation to something; it differs from the preceding question of why a good is chosen. “Concord,” συμφωνία, is supplied by Wachsmuth in view of its definition on the following printed page. The bracketed term is retained here.

277.Κατάληψις is apprehension, and λόγος here is argument. The compressed example names logic as a particular branch existing in the virtuous person. The repeated “in another sense” distinguishes definitions; it does not require them to be successive stages of learning. Compare Diogenes Laertius VII.47 for the apprehension and receptive-state formulations.

278.The system’s certainty is described by the reflexive ἐξ αὑτοῦ, “from itself.” Wachsmuth prints ἐπιστημῶν, “forms of knowledge,” although he questions that word in his apparatus; the English retains it. The final definition brings the receptive state into the account of tension and power, recalling the soul’s tension at II.7.5b4.

About This Reading Edition

The complete surviving text of Stobaeus’s second book, through II.46.22, in Ancient Greek and English, with an introduction and 1,541 explanatory notes. All forty-six chapter headings remain, including the notices for chapters whose texts are missing.

Historical Text and Translation

Greek: Curt Wachsmuth, Ioannis Stobaei Anthologii libri duo priores, volumen II (Berlin: Weidmann, 1884), printed p. 1 and pp. 3–264. The supplied edition preserves consequential editorial signs, reconstructed joins, qualified attributions, and missing-text notices. English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes: Diotimos Editions, 2026.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

Stobaeus’s ancient Greek work and Wachsmuth’s 1884 edition are in the public domain. The supplied English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes are published with the site owner’s authorization.