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Full Idea
He said that dialectical arguments were like spiderswebs: although they seem to indicate craftsmanlike skill, they are useless.
Gist of Idea
Like spiderswebs, dialectical arguments are clever but useless
Source
report of Ariston (fragments/reports [c.250 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 07.161
Book Ref
'The Stoics Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B/Gerson,L.P. [Hackett 2008], p.4
A Reaction
Useful for the spider, but useless to Ariston.
| 20768 | Like spiderswebs, dialectical arguments are clever but useless [Ariston, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 3049 | The chief good is indifference to what lies midway between virtue and vice [Ariston, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 3549 | Ariston says rules are useless for the virtuous and the non-virtuous [Ariston, by Annas] |