Democritus and Heraclitus in Lucian’s Market
Keywords:
Lucian, Democritus, Heraclitus, philosophy of life, auctionAbstract
In this somewhat satirical text, I deal with the “auction” of philosophies of life set up by Lucian of Samosata in the dialog Vitarum auctio, and more specifically the unsuccessful attempt to sell a pair formed by a Democritian and a Heraclitean, seeking to understand the role of these two philosophies and the philosophers behind them both in the economy of the dialog (and this literally, because part of the analysis does involve economic issues), and more generally from the perspective of the usefulness that Democritus and Heraclitus – and especially the former – have for Lucian in his critique not exactly of Philosophy, but of a certain selfish use of Philosophy by a not insignificant portion of its alleged followers.
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