Xenocrates

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Xenocrates
Xenocrates
Born	396/5 BC Chalcedon (now Kadıköy, Istanbul, Turkey)
Died	314/3 BC Athens
Era	Ancient philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Platonism
Main interests	Logic, Physics, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Mathematics, Ethics
Notable ideas	Developed the philosophy of Plato

Xenocrates (/zəˈnɒkrəˌtiːz/; Greek: Ξενοκράτης; c. 396/5 – 314/3 BC^[1]) of Chalcedon was a Greek philosopher, mathematician, and leader (scholarch) of the Platonic Academy from 339/8 to 314/3 BC. His teachings followed those of Plato, which he attempted to define more closely, often with mathematical elements. He distinguished three forms of being: the sensible, the intelligible, and a third compounded of the two, to which correspond respectively, sense, intellect and opinion. He considered unity and duality to be gods which rule the universe, and the soul a self-moving number. God pervades all things, and there are daemonical powers, intermediate between the divine and the mortal, which consist in conditions of the soul. He held that mathematical objects and the Platonic Ideas are identical, unlike Plato who distinguished them. In ethics, he taught that virtue produces happiness, but external goods can minister to it and enable it to effect its purpose.