Doxography

Doxography (Greek: δόξα – "an opinion", "a point of view" + γράφειν – "to write", "to describe") is a term used especially for the works of classical historians, describing the points of view of past philosophers and scientists. The term was coined by the German classical scholar Hermann Alexander Diels.

Jain Doxography[]

Haribhadra (8th century CE) was one of the leading proponents of anekāntavāda. He was the first classical author to write a doxography, a compendium of a variety of intellectual views. This attempted to contextualise Jain thoughts within the broad framework. It interacted with the many possible intellectual orientations available to Indian thinkers around the 8th century.^[1]

Classic Greek philosophy[]

A great many philosophical works have been lost; our limited knowledge of such lost works comes chiefly through the doxographical works of later philosophers, commentators, and biographers. Philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle also act as doxographers, as their comments on the ideas of their predecessors indirectly tell us what their predecessors' beliefs were. Plato's Defense of Socrates, for example, tells us much of what we know about the natural philosophy of Anaxagoras.

Islamic doxography[]

Islamic doxography is an aggregate of theosophical works (like by Abu Mansur Al Maturidi) concerning the aberrations in Islamic sects and streams.

Persian doxography[]

The persian Dabestan-e Mazaheb discusses numerous philosophies including several in Persia and India. Its author appears to belong to the a Persian Sipásíán tradition differs somewhat from orthodox Zoroastrianism. Its authorship is disputed. Some scholars have suggested that Kay-Khosrow Esfandiyar, the son of Azar Kayvan may have written it.

References[]

External links[]

Look up doxography in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Mansfeld, Jaap. "Doxography of Ancient Philosophy". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

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