Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Stobaeus, Volume II
Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.
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Facing Pages · Branch 28 of 516
Book II Chapter 2 · II.2.6.1–II.2.6.2
Ancient Greek
p. 52Ἐκ τῆς Ἰαμβλίχου ἐπιστολῆς πρὸς Σώπατρον περὶ διαλεκτικῆς
Πάντες ἄνθρωποι χρῶνται τῷ διαλέγεσθαι, ἔμφυτον ἐκ νέων ἔχοντες τήνδε τὴν δύναμιν καὶ μέχρι τινός, οἱ μὲν μᾶλλον οἱ δὲ ἧττον αὐτῆς μετέχοντες. Τὸ δὴ τῶν θεῶν δῶρον οὐδένα τρόπον δεῖ προΐεσθαι· ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν μελέταις καὶ ἐμπειρίαις καὶ τέχναις αὐτὸ κρατύνειν ἄξιον. Ὅρα γὰρ ὅτι καὶ παρ’ ὅλον τὸν βίον διατελεῖ χρησιμώτατον ὂν διαφερόντως, ἐν μὲν ταῖς ἐντεύξεσι προσομιλοῦν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις κατὰ τὰς κοινὰς ἐννοίας καὶ δόξας· ἐν δὲ ταῖς εὑρέσεσι τῶν τεχνῶν τὰς πρώτας ἀρχὰς αὐτῶν ἀνευρίσκον· λογιζόμενον δὲ πρὸ τῶν ἔργων, ὅπως αὐτὰ χρὴ πράττειν· προγυμνασίᾳ δὲ καὶ πρὸς τὰς κατὰ φιλοσοφίαν ἐπιστήμας θαυμασίας οἵας μεθόδους παρεχόμενον.
Ἰαμβλίχου πρὸς Σώπατρον · συνέχεια
Εἰ δὲ δεῖ καὶ τὰ πρὸ τούτων ἐννοεῖν, οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδὲν μόριον φιλοσοφίας ἄνευ τοῦ κατὰ διαλεκτικὴν λόγου παραγιγνόμενον· ἀλλὰ καὶ εἴ τι φυσικὸν δόγμα ἀνευρίσκομεν, λογικῶς αὐτὸ βεβαιούμεθα, καὶ ὅσα περὶ θεῶν σκεπτόμεθα, λόγος διαλεκτικός ἐστιν ὁ συγκατασκευάζων· ὅλως δὲ οὐδὲν οὔτε εἰπεῖν οὔτε ἀκοῦσαι δυνατὸν ἀπαλλαγέντας τῆς μεθόδου ταύτης· καὶ γὰρ αὐτὸ τὸ μὴ διδάσκειν διαλεκτικὴν διαλεκτικῶς ἐπιχειροῦντας δεῖ καταμανθάνειν.
Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 2
p. 53From Iamblichus’s Letter to Sopater on Dialectic · 1
All human beings engage in discussion. They possess this capacity innately from youth and share in it to some degree, some more, some less. We must in no way surrender this gift of the gods; rather, it deserves to be strengthened through practice, experience, and systematic skill.65 Observe how exceptionally useful it remains throughout life: in our encounters, it converses with people on the basis of common conceptions and opinions; in the discovery of the arts, it finds their first principles; before actions, it reasons about how they should be performed; and through preliminary training it supplies wonderfully effective methods for the philosophical sciences.
Iamblichus to Sopater · 2
If we should also consider what is prior to these uses, no part of philosophy comes into being without dialectical reasoning. Even if we discover some doctrine about nature, we establish it by reasoning; and whatever we investigate concerning the gods, dialectical argument helps to establish it. In general, we can neither say nor hear anything once we dispense with this method. Even the claim that dialectic is not to be taught must itself be learned by arguing dialectically.66
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume II · Book II Chapter 2 · II.2.6.1–II.2.6.2
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.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.