# Diogenes of Apollonia — The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers character guide

> Diogenes of Apollonia in The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0089-diogenes-of-apollonia

## Snapshot

A Pre-Socratic who made air the soul of the cosmos, and who balanced philosophical speculation with the practical duties of a civic admiral.

## Who they are

Diogenes of Apollonia held that air is the primary substance and the source of life, mind, and motion, a monistic vision that made the whole universe breathe as one. Unlike many of his peers, he was deeply engaged in political life, serving as admiral of his city and earning admiration for private virtue as much as public office. His insistence that the universe is infinite, unchanging, and one stands in sharp contrast to the atomists' plurality of particles, making him a useful counterweight in the early chapters where rival cosmologies jostle for the reader's attention.

## In the story

### [Diogenes of Apollonia](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/chapters/diogenes-of-apollonia)

Native of Apollonia, son of Apollothemis, natural philosopher and pupil of Anaximenes, contemporary of Anaxagoras, unpopular at Athens.

## Links

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