He was most notable for logic innovations, including his master argument formulated in response to Aristotle's discussion of future contingents.
He lived in the court of Alexandria in the reign of Ptolemy I Soter, who is said to have given him the surname of Cronus ("old fogey"[2]) on account of his inability to solve at once some dialectic problem proposed by Stilpo, when the two philosophers were dining with the king.
Diodorus is said to have taken that disgrace so much to heart that after his return from the meal, and writing a treatise on the problem, he died in despair.
[5] This effectively became his surname, and descended even to his five daughters, Menexene, Argia, Theognis, Artemesia, and Pantaclea, who were likewise distinguished as dialecticians.
[2][7] He was most notable for logic innovations, including his master argument formulated in response to Aristotle's discussion of future contingents.
[3] Aulus Gellius claims that he also rejected the view that words are ambiguous, any uncertainty in understanding was always due to speakers expressing themselves obscurely.
Diodorus observing this contradiction employed the probative force of the first two for the demonstration of this proposition: That nothing is possible which is not true and never will be.
[20] During the 1960s and 1970s the philosopher Richard Clyde Taylor also coauthored several articles under the nom de plume of Diodorus Cronus which included: "Time, Truth and Ability" (Analysis, 1965) and "The Necessity of Everything That One Does" (The Southern Journal of Philosophy,1971).