Xenocrates (zĭnŏk`rətēz), 396–314 B.C., Greek philosopher, b. Chalcedon, successor of Speusippus as head of the Academy Academy, school founded by Plato near Athens c.387 B.C. It took its name from the garden (named for the hero Academus) in which it was located. Plato's followers met there for nine centuries until, along with other pagan schools, it was closed by Emperor Justinian in
..... Click the link for more information. . He was a disciple of Plato, whom he accompanied to Sicily in 361 B.C. His ascetic life and noble character greatly influenced his pupils. He was the first to divide philosophy into dialectic (or logic), physics, and ethics, the latter two being his principal themes. He held that mathematical objects and the Platonic Ideas are both substances, and both identical, causing Aristotle to say of him that he "made ideal and mathematical number the same." His Platonic ethics taught that virtue produces happiness, although external goods can contribute. Only fragments of his work survive.

Xenocrates

(died 314 BC, Athens) Greek philosopher. A pupil of Plato, he succeeded Speusippus (d. 339/338 BC) as head of Plato's Academy. His writings are lost except for fragments, but his doctrines, as reported by Aristotle, appear to resemble those of Plato. He divided all of reality into three realms: the sensibles, or objects of sensation; the intelligibles, or objects of true knowledge, such as Plato's forms (see form); and the bodies of the heavens, which mediate between the sensibles and the intelligibles and are therefore objects of “opinion.” A second threefold division separated gods, men, and “demons.” He maintained that the origin of philosophy lies in mankind's desire to be happy, happiness being defined as the acquisition of the perfection that is peculiar and proper to mankind (see eudaemonism).

Xenocrates

temperate philosopher, noted for contempt of wealth. [Gk. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 1169]

See : Asceticism