Dionysius of Chalcedon ( Greek: Διονύσιος; fl. 320 BC) [1] was a Greek philosopher and dialectician connected with the Megarian school. He was a native of Chalcedon on the coast of Bithynia. [2] Dionysius was the person who first used the name Dialecticians to describe a splinter group within the Megarian school "because they put their arguments into the form of question and answer". [3] One area of activity for the dialecticians was the framing of definitions, [4] and Aristotle criticises a definition of life by Dionysius in his Topics: [5]
This is, moreover, what happens to Dionysius' definition of "life" when stated as "a movement of a creature sustained by nutriment, congenitally present with it"
Dionysius is also reported to have taught Theodorus the Atheist. [6]