From the book
Stobaeus, Volume II
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordBroad learning names acquaintance with many subjects or discourses. The quantity learned does not itself establish understanding, virtue or a beneficial educational result.
- In StobaeusSerenus places two sharply contrasting sayings together: Heraclitus denies that much learning instills understanding, while Anaxarchus assigns it both benefit and harm.
- In this editionUse a neutral headword while retaining the critical force of much learning in context. Do not turn reported judgments into one agreed educational doctrine.
- A place to readChapter 31 · Excerpt 116 Read the paired reports without making Anaxarchus merely repeat Heraclitus: one denies an automatic result, while the other states opposed possible effects.
- English renderings
- much learning; extensive learning; broad learning
Meaning
Polymatheia is extensive learning: acquaintance with many things, studies or discourses. The noun does not decide whether that breadth has become sound understanding or improved the learner’s character.
Use in the book
The report from Serenus contrasts two sayings. Heraclitus denies that much learning instills understanding; Anaxarchus says it can greatly benefit but also greatly harm. The point is not that every learned subject is worthless. The Pythagorean saying likewise distinguishes being educated from amassing learned discourses and locates it instead in release from passions, though its local construction is compressed. These witnesses make quantity an inadequate test of formation. Musonius’s preference for clear proofs rather than many supplies a related educational concern without using the same noun.
The short report juxtaposes two evaluations rather than resolving them. Heraclitus’s saying denies a consequence: accumulating learning does not implant understanding. Anaxarchus’s saying instead stresses the scale of its opposed effects, describing great benefit and great harm. The repeated subject makes the difference in emphasis visible. Neither sentence gives a list of acceptable studies or an explanation of when the favorable result occurs. The reader should therefore retain the contrast without reconstructing a shared curriculum or assuming that every extensive education is condemned.
Places to read
- Chapter 31 · Excerpt 1162Different reported evaluations separate extensive learning from understanding and assured benefit.
- Chapter 31 · Excerpt 962Being educated is contrasted with amassing learned discourses.
- Chapter 31 · Excerpt 125 · Passage 82The pupil is directed to seek clarity rather than numerous proofs.
Translation in this edition
“Much learning” preserves the pointed contrast; “broad learning” suits a neutral heading. “Erudition” can suggest a settled achievement that these sayings put in question.
πολυμάθειαν
Attested. Chapter 31 · Excerpt 116; Wachsmuth II, printed p. 229.
Ἡράκλειτος μὲν ἔλεγε πολυμάθειαν νοῦν μὴ ἐμποιεῖν
Attested. Chapter 31 · Excerpt 116; Wachsmuth II, printed p. 229.
Ἀνάξαρχος δὲ πολυμάθειαν κάρτα μὲν ὠφελεῖν, κάρτα δὲ βλάπτειν.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume II, printed pp. 218, 229, 243–244. The lemma follows the attested family despite the local spelling πολυμαθείας. The sayings are transmitted reports, and neither the identity of Serenus nor a fuller work context is invented.