Bryson of Achaea

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Bryson of Achaea, (or Bryson the Achaean) was an ancient Greek philosopher who lived c. 330 BCE.

Very little information is known about him. He was said to have been a pupil of Stilpo[1] and Clinomachus[2] which would mean that he belonged to the Megarian school of philosophy. He was said to have taught Crates the Cynic,[3][4] Pyrrho the Skeptic,[1][2] and Theodorus the Atheist.[5]

Aristotle attacks a Bryson in his Rhetoric[6] for holding the position that there is no such thing as obscene language. Most scholars identify this Bryson with Bryson of Heraclea, the sophist who was a contemporary of Socrates, but it is conceivable that Aristotle meant Bryson of Achaea.[7]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Diogenes Laërtius, ix. 61
  2. ^ a b Suda, Pyrrhon
  3. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 85
  4. ^ Suda, Krates
  5. ^ Suda, Theodoros
  6. ^ Aristotle, Rhetoric, 3.2, 1405b6-16
  7. ^ Ineke Sluiter, Ralph Mark Rosen, (2004), Free Speech in Classical Antiquity, page 119. BRILL.