Herillus or Erillus of Chalcedon

Chalcedon

Chalcedon , sometimes transliterated as Chalkedon) was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor, almost directly opposite Byzantium, south of Scutari . It is now a district of the city of Istanbul named Kadıköy...

 (or Carthage

Carthage

Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...

), was a Stoic

STOIC

STOIC was a variant of Forth.It started out at the MIT and Harvard Biomedical Engineering Centre in Boston, and was written in the mid 1970s by Jonathan Sachs...

 philosopher and a pupil of Zeno of Citium

Zeno of Citium

Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher from Citium . Zeno was the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, which he taught in Athens from about 300 BC. Based on the moral ideas of the Cynics, Stoicism laid great emphasis on goodness and peace of mind gained from living a life of virtue in...

.

He differed significantly from Zeno's teachings and held that knowledge

Knowledge

Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...

 (ἑπιστήμη) was the goal (τέλος) of life

Life

Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased , or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate...

:

Herillus said that the chief good was knowledge; that is to say, always conducting one's self in such a way as to refer everything to the principle of living according to knowledge, and not being misled by ignorance.

He said that there was also a second subordinate goal (ὑποτελής, hypoteles). This subordinate goal was related to the Stoic term oikeiôsis (οἰκείωσις): the primary impulse of living creatures. He stated that even people who were not wise aimed at the subordinate goal, but only wise people aimed at the principal goal.

Herillus was accused by Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

 of suggesting that there were two separate goals in life:

For we shall have to adopt two different plans of conduct in life: for he makes out that there are two chief goods unconnected with each other; but if they were real goods, they ought to be united; but at present they are separated, so that they never can be united.

Herillus also regarded the practicalities of everyday life, although necessary, as having no ethical value, because it did not contribute to the supreme good, and for this reason Cicero frequently associates him with the rather different philosophy of Aristo of Chios.

Writings

Herillus is said to have written the following works:

• Περὶ ἀσϰήσεως - On Training
• Περὶ παθῶν - On the Passions
• Περὶ ὐπολήψεως - On Judgment
• Νομοθέτης - The Lawmaker
• Μαιευτιϰός - Maieutics
• Άντιφέρων - The Adversary
• Διδάσϰαλος - The Teacher
• Διασϰευάζων - The Preparer
• Εὐθύνων - The Corrector
• Ἑρμῆς - Hermes
• Μήδεια - Medea
• Θέσεων ἠθιϰῶν - Ethical theses
• Some dialogues