« Vie pratique », histoire de la sagesse et polémique philosophique chez Dicéarque
Résumé
This paper studies the interplay between the history of mankind, philosophical
polemics and ethical debates about the best life in the fourth century BC
through an inquiry into the positions of Dicaearchus of Messana, a pupil of Aristotle,
and his disagreement about the best life with Theophrastus. Against recent
interpretations, the paper establishes the various stages in Dicaearchus’ history
of wisdom, its downward path and its criteria to define “philosophy”. This leads
to a better understanding of Dicaearchus’ assessments of the Golden Age, the
Seven Sages and Socrates and, above all, of his notion of the “practical life” as
not restricted to politics and as opposed to contemporary scolastic conceptions of
philosophy probably put forward by Plato and best exemplified by Theophrastus
in Dicaearchus’ eyes.